He's got a blatant advertisement of the ps3 in his sig while spamming the 360 forums. You think he cares if his statement is correct?

Rare and Lionshead will probably be fully independent by the end of next year, I'm guessing Ensemble got shut down because no one was willing to buy the studio without the IP rights to Age of Empires. The new Microsoft strategy will probably include farming out established franchises to 3rd party developers.

All in all it's probably allowing MS to buy the kinds of games they want rather than shifting development crews from projects such as Perfect Dark to Viva Pinata and buying exclusivity/timed exclusivity is probably cheaper than actually developing the game.

^^ Hardly, M$ is stepping up their in-house capabilities and projects, so timed exclusives might have a place, but new IP is on the way. Seems that Esemble was closed because they started costing too much to operate

I am confused by MS's minimalization of its first party developers. Sony has done exactly the opposite, and heartily beefed up its first party.

Since software development is generally far more lucrative than hardware development, I am honestly completely baffled by MS's decision from a monetary standpoint.

Like Fable II and Banjo?  And if you want to include 3rd parties, which you have in your own list, Splinter Cell and Alan Wake?  Microsoft announces games early just like every other company (except Nintendo, and even that only started recently), the latest examples being Halo 3 Recon and Ninja Blade.

The only titles that weren't announced "that far in advance" were Gears 2 and a couple of casual titles at E3 like You're in the Movies.  Similarly, Sony only announced Resistance 2 this past February, then MotorStorm 2 and Siren: Blood Curse in March.

Nobody ever thought that Microsoft had a weak 2008 line up, with games like Fable, Banjo, and Ninja Gaiden a lock for this year (as well as strong rumors of Gears 2).  Some just thought that Sony had a BETTER line up, based on the folly assumption that games like Killzone 2, inFamous, White Knight Chronicles, and even GT5 and FFXIII would make it out this year, in addition to titles like MGS4, LBP, and (at the time rumored) Resistance 2.  Delays put a stop to all of that.

Similar to the Resistance 2/Gears 2 announcements, Sony is very likely to announced R&CF2 and Uncharted 2 at the beginning of next year for the '09 holiday season.  Insomniac and Naughty Dog are reliable developers that work like clockwork, so it wouldn't be surprising at all.  Hell, I'd say these games are more likely to make it out next year than God of War III.

MS certainly won't have a weak line up next year, with Alan Wake, Halo Wars, Halo 3 Recon, and Star Ocean 4 already in the pipeline, and the probable announcement of Mass Effect 2 (their last game from BioWare), and maybe something small from Rare (another Viva Pinata game, perhaps).  It's after that that I'm worried about, because they just don't have the man power to create a sufficient amount of games for the console.  Mass Effect 2 will be BioWare's last 360 timed exclusive (if it's even timed), Halo Wars is Ensemble's last title, Turn 10 is now juggling two franchises, Lionhead takes forever to make games so we probably won't see anything from them for another 3+ years, etc.  After that it's left to timed exclusivity deals.  Hell, Star ocean 4 is probably one of these deals.  There's a reason it hasn't gone multiplat like FFXIII yet.

The changes that have happened over the past year won't have an immediately apparent impact on the situation. 

This first party exclusive stuff argument comes up often. To say that one company has better exclusives is null because all that matters in the end is who sells the most software, and at the moment that's Microsoft as far as HD consoles go. Far be it for them not to announce like 5 new games that no one expected for 2009.

Well, the thing is neither company is doing particularly well compared to Nintendo.  So what you should ask is, "What is Nintendo doing?"

Interestingly, now that I think about it, Nintendo shed most of its second party developers last generation.  It recently added...uh...Monolithsoft to the stable, but in contrast it dumped Rare, Silicon Knights, Left Field, and one or two others from the N64 era.

It's all about business, and sometimes a studio isn't good for business.  I hated seeing Nintendo let Rare go, but after all the floundering Rare did since then, I think it was a good business decision. Silicon Knights has also proven to be a good decision.

I do wish I could play BK Nuts and Bolts on the Wii, though. :)

Nice Read Mr. Music.

Rare is working on two projects which are not VP related. Lionhead in two others, with Project Dmitri to be unvealed in 2009. Bungie is working on 3 new IPs and we know if the games have big multiplayer elements like Halo, they would prefer to utilise the infrastructure they have built with Xbox Live. MGS is working on 2-3 other Halo games not announced yet and who knows what else they are cooking internally. We know Gears 3 will come. Turn 10 are working on 2 projects. MS has built relationships with all the top publishers and developers so nothing is stopping new exclusive deals in the pipeline. And nothing is stopping other smaller indie projects or MS acquiring new talented studios.

In the latest round of hiring top class talent, I dont see how people are worried about the manpower or talent. If anything, MGS is growing rapidly and has come a long way since Xbox days.

Imho, the only people worried about the future of MS 1st/2nd party are the Sony fans here. The 360 owners here know there is hardly anything to worry about.

Lots of speculation in this thread so here's mine...

First lets talk about Ensemble. Some people seem to think its closing is a major hit against the 360. I'm here to ask why? The only game they're working on for 360 is Halo Wars and the new internal super Halo studio with talent taken from Bungie, Ensemble, and others will very likely be the ones working on a sequel if the game is a hit.

As for Microsoft not buying Bizarre Creations, it's a loss but maybe we're not seeing the big picture. Does it make sense for Microsoft to have two studios for racing games? There are a lot of rumors that Turn 10 is indeed working on both the PGR and Forza franchises which seems to make a lot of sense. They can more easily share resources between teams and it could benefit both franchises in the long run.

Also in case anyone in wondering Turn 10 have indeed been hiring/expanding.  Here's a link to prove it: http://forzamotorsport.net/news/announcements/turn_10_hiring.htm

Next about the rumors of either Rare or Lionhead closing. Microsoft executives have stated that neither in in danger of being closed. There has been absolutely no credible information backing any claims to the contrary so unless the people making such claims want to step up and show us proof it's basically FUD nonsense.

As for Bioware never making another exclusive, timed or otherwise, how exactly do the people making such claims know that? If Microsoft can get timed exclusives from Square Enix why not from EA/Bioware? EA and Microsoft have a pretty good relationship and we know that Bioware's studios are set up for PC/360 development.

Anyways PS3 gamers can speculate all they want but I'm sure the vast majority of 360 gamers are very happy with the 360's lineup (both current and future). Also anyone that thinks Microsoft has shown all their cards and 2009 will be the last year of big 360 games (like claims made about 2008 and 2007), well keep dreaming and we'll likely be having the same ridiculous argument next year about 2010 or 2011.