Does MS chase away developers/studios?

Remedy made games for them for a long time. After their latest game Quantum Break bombed both critically and commercially they ended their partnership with MS and announced they have a new partner.

Insomniac Games seemed to be getting cozy with MS at the start of this gen by announcing Sunset Overdrive exclusively for Xbone. Well after Sunset Overdrive was a commercial failure lo and behold they came back to Sony and successfully rebooted the Ratchet and Clank franchise and are now working on a PS4 exclusive Spiderman game. Their reasoning for making Sunset Overdrive an Xbox exclusive in the first place was because they wanted to keep ownership of the IP but I guess they realized it doesn't matter if they own it or not if it doesn't sell enough it doesn't matter.

Bungie was in the driver's seat of MS's biggest IP Halo and after so many years of not being allowed to create another new IP they finally reached an agreement to sell MS the Halo IP in exchange of becoming an independent studio. That speaks volumes that they were willing to give up one of the biggest IP in the industry just to break free of MS.

Epic/Cliffy B is another example. They were responsible for creating the Gears franchise which was MS's 2nd biggest exclusive IP but instead of continuing it more than 1 gen Epic decided to cut ties and sell the IP to MS.

I'm guessing Platinum Games will be next after Scalebound underperforms.

Why do you think all these developers keep trying to get away with MS for? Could it have anything to do with a lack of creative freedom? Or how they treat and shut down other studios like Ensemble and Lionhead? Even a lack of marketing budget? Because I don't remember any advertising at all for Sunset Overdrive. It can't be a coincidence that MS has such a small first party and have lost most of their third party partnerships.

I dont think its Microsofts fault the games arnt appealing. Check the track record of the studios, youll notice a pattern. Lack of appeal is my guess. As for Bungie and Epic, im guessing they just wanted money like Minecraft studio did.

Also, Ratchet and Clank reboot only $29.99, help a brother out!

How come uncharted 4 has less twitch viewers than halo 5?

Every company you listed mentioned nothing but good things about MS. If you really think that Remedy started that partnership right after Quantum Break, you're delusional. MS did everything for Remedy and it was Remedys fault Quantum Break underperformed. I still liked the game, but it lacked that wow feature. Alan Wake was amazing. Insomniac supported SO with DLC all the way up until the end of last year. Also their was discussion of making a sequel. Cliff B is a douche and he just left because he wanted to make games beyond Gears. He even said he had friends at MS. Bungie was given freedom to make new IPs and failed miserably, look at Destiny.

There are many developers Microsoft could have acquired to compete in exclusives with Sony but they had to pick the flop artists like Crystal Dynamics and Remedy resulting in a cheap Uncharted 4 clone and a The Order 1886 clone...

Because people are playing it rather than watching it.

I don't think talent is an issue when talking about studios like Remedy, Insomniac, Epic/Cliffy B or Bungie. All have proven at some point they can make critical and commercial hits. They all ended their partnerships or left MS for various reasons. Bioware was another studio that left MS for EA. It has been a never ending pattern over the years.

Maybe the people in charge of Xbox just suck at knowing good concepts for games to greenlight? And when they rarely do create something successful (Halo) they refuse to give the studio a break to work on something else. It would be like if Sony forced ND to create Uncharted games forever and never let them make something like TLOU.

@NathanDrakeSwag: Money will do that to you. I never thought the Minecraft guy would sell his IP, he did. Microsoft is just good at buying IPs.

@NathanDrakeSwag: but according to you twitch is the authority on what is relevant. So you're saying uncharted is less relevant than halo? I agree

Basically. They know how to buy games but not create them. Just look at the new IP Mojang released as a MS studio called Cobalt. It was a complete commercial failure. You would think the next IP from the makers of Minecraft would be able to sell something just on curiosity alone but MS stealth released it. They just wanted to own the rights to Minecraft and Mojang just happened to be part of the deal.

@NathanDrakeSwag: Cobalt was a failure before Microsoft bought it. It was one of the main reasons Notch sold, dude made 5 games and nobody would give his other 4 a shot. Every time hed promote his new game people would post, Minecraft 2 please!

This goes back ever since the original Xbox

They got Oddworld Inhabitants to develop exclusively on Xbox, Munch's Odyssey and Stranger's Wrath failed commercially and they stopped making games for a long time. They only remakes now, remakes not even on Xbox.

Sega probably had exclusive deals with them as they released many games exclusively on Xbox (Shenmue 2, Panzer Dragoon, Sega GT, JSRF etc.) , look where they are now.

They teamed up with Mistwalker and released Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, both failed miserably because the 360 failed in Japan, Mistwalker makes mobile games now.

Bastion from Supergiant Games was a 360 exclusive but since then it has gone multiplatform and their new games, Transistor and Pyre are not even on the Xbox One.

MS been chasing away developers for a long time.

@me2002: Im still waiting for Sega to make an appealing Sonic game, darn you Microsoft, its all your fault!

I'm saying they left MS and went multiplat/Nintendo/Sony, what does Sonic sucking have anything to do this MS?

@me2002: Cause they were struggling to make appealing games before Microsoft deal. Its the whole reason they had to accept money from Microsoft.

Supermassive Games and Ready at Dawn ran away from Sony.

They were ordered to make a TLOU-inspired Vampire-Lycan game.

huh? I lost you, I thought you were being sarcastic?

but I think Sega makes good games still, Valkyria Chronicles, Yakuza just not many, and not on Xbox.

@me2002: I said nothing about good, im taking appeal, the thing that actual sells your games. Its something Sega struggles with, but are improving. Alien Isolation and Total War series have been great.

And Insomniac went to MS with SO because anything they were trying to create Sony demanded to own the IP. They weren't up for that.

@freedomfreak: Supermassive didn't run away from Sony, they're making 2 PSVR games

@me2002: So, Sony straight up led them to the firing squad. That's worse.

@freedomfreak: yes I'd rather see them do another game similar to Until Dawn or anything NOT VR, but they are in Sony's much bigger plan to push VR

I think TLOU was so popular because it was unique.

That's something a lot of higher ups fail to understand: copying something that was popular because it was unique, results in something that feels very familair and won't be so popular.

No. Look what happened to Bizarre Creations after they left MS...

Also look what is Activision forcing and relegating Bungie to...

MS had such a unique partnership with Bungie that they even allowed them to become an independent company while still effectively being their first party.

@NathanDrakeSwag: I'm starting to think you're a lem in cows clothing, why you ask? well you spend more time talking about MS then you do about Sony. It's time to come out of the closet lem once and for all.

Don't waste your time peoples... look who the topic creator is.

love this, its like attacking him in both directions from one statement

MS has lost some devs....yes. Is it MS....possible.....or the demographic that buys their console.....probable....maybe a combo of both.

@i_p_daily:

Dude spends more time keeping track of what MS is doing than playing games in his Playstation lol. BUT he is a YouTube gamer so what do you expect.

Phil came on board picking up on a train wreck that former xbox corporate execs who didn't know shit about games left in his hands.

Let's be clear here, the former xbox top brass didn't give a **** about games or gamers, they only saw another market they could potentially impose a hard nose monopoly on thinking that with money they could get away with whatever they want. The problem is gaming is more than just money, and only now does MS have someone who in the xbox division who realizes that.

The disrespectful and unfriendly draconian, anti-gamer, anti-consumer attitude of the former top brass of the xbox brand will take time to repair. MS burnt a lot of bridges with their attitude towards gaming and devs before Phil came along and It's going to take time to repair those relationships but I think he's making the right steps so far.

Why would bungie leave microsoft and go to activision if they loved the partnership?

Fact of the matter is activision must have given them a much better contract nobody leaves for no reason.

Same with bioware, EA probably gave them a better deal

Sony gave insomniac a better deal.

Remedy found a better partner deal than microsoft.

Microsoft needs to do something they are in between a rock and hard place.

@iandizion713: "Money will do that to you. I never thought the Minecraft guy would sell his IP, he did."

For 2.5billion, I would have questioned his sanity if he hadn't... I would be a "sellout" for that kinda cash. 2.5 billion can do a lot of good in this world for people that truely deserve and need it.

"Remedy made games for them for a long time. After their latest game Quantum Break bombed both critically and commercially they ended their partnership with MS and announced they have a new partner."

Is this true?

You really need a hobby.

Might I suggest video games?

Because Uncharted 4 is pretty much a singleplayer game, people want play the game themselves and not see spoilers while Halo5...

then why did it have so many viewers for a few days around launch and now its suddenly dead? why would you want a game thats only good for 8 hours of fun?

Why do you watch movies, why do you read books only once?

Its fear. Its very weird PS4 fanboys talk more about xbox then playstation. I notice this on other forums also. It may need to be looked at medically?

@NathanDrakeSwag: Bioware was never with MS, they were a independent developer until the doctors sold there souls to EA. Have you ever thought just maybe some of the companies had timed contracts, for example maybe insomniac had a one game contract with MS.

i dont. waste of time. also, books and movies dont cost $60

Movies dont last 8-20hrs+, games that focus on story normally not that interesting play again imo while MP games last forever like Diablo 3

Games can give you more entertainment than you get from many movies, depends how you look at it. Take your family to cinema to watch 1 movie can cost more than 1 game.

They kind of force all their studios to make games for bros/douchebags and loud/annoying people (Gears, Sunset Overdrive, Scalebaound etc etc). I guess most creative talents want to run as far away from that as possible. So I think you may have a point TC.

Hahaha, that is very true.

The two games you name dropped absolutely fit their studios previous games in tone. I could see how focus testing effected other games run by Microsoft, but those absolutely are Insomniac and Kamiya in nature.

I think if anything they seem to treat the third party projects with a level of more respect than what they do with first party projects.

Xbox one just wasn't appealing with the userbase being so small so probably a hard time to get support or make profit. With xbox combining with pc it should help fund more games and take risks that might not have been available with just an Xbox one exclusive. Sunset Overdrive is just a casualty of the initial plan. MS just had to restructure it's plan to gain success much like Sony is doing by killing off its dead weight divisions and bolstering it's strengths, which it looks like the gaming division is benefitting big time with PS4, NEO, and PSVR. MS just need to capitalize now with its new plan.

Microsoft it seems damn near FORCES what studios they have left to make Halo/Gears/Forza. The last time MS had it right games wise was X360's early life. That's honestly the last and only time I envied the Xbox library

Dead or Alive

Ninja Gaiden

GRAW

Kameo

PDO

Gears

Halo

etc, etc

So much variety. Now all they're keen to pump out is another Gears or Halo. Forza is kind of a cute harmless franchise.. just sells its few units and disappears for 6 months till the next game. The problem is, MS wants to create bluckbusters ONLY. So when a studio doesn't create one, they let them go and rely on what works only. Unlike Sony, who takes risks for the sake of a varied library. When a Sony game flops, no biggie..they have tons more in the pipeline. When an MS game flops, that might be it for the year!

I'll give MS this.

They tried with SO, but gave up too quickly.

Ratchet and Clank was long in development before any sales of Sunset Overdrive came in. Deals and contracts don't just happen overnight

Most of the most voracious cows around here are former lems that got butthurt at the X1 announce and switched to PS4 this gen. Some of the stuff these guys say and post is just....every PS4 game is a 11/10 every Xbox game is a failed flop.

The other half of them never even play the games they spew hate on relentlessly. Like guys that dont even play racing games make countless posts talking about how bad Forza 6 is. Its actually pretty boring hearing the same broken record over and over.

No just their fans. MS are like '**** you, fan's.