Microsoft rumored to be buying...... [2020-04, 2020-07, 2020-11]

[ChuckeRearmed]

I really doubt they would have taken a full exclusive deal, they are getting a lot of shit from their PlayStation fans on Twitter about it,

So what? Devs get a lot of shit from the fans of various consoles all the time. It won't create a huge backlash because Ark is not that big brand anyway and Xbox + PC is a big community in the end.

If the cartoon is exclusive why couldn't they just use their own streaming service? They have film and series

What service? Streaming requires infrastructure which is not cheap. Or do you mean Microsoft?

 

[liams]

So what? Devs get a lot of shit from the fans of various consoles all the time. It won't create a huge backlash because Ark is not that big brand anyway and Xbox + PC is a big community in the end.

You are underestimating how big ark is, it sold 16 million copies on PC and console, with 10 million installs of the mobile version. (below) its kind of a sleeper hit in the same way Roblox is, I wouldn't know Roblox was big unless I knew about the impending ipo at a valuation of ~$8B. Apparently, Roblox is worth more than the entirety of Zenimax, I know which one I would rather have.

Besides, it wouldn't make sense to give full exclusivity to a single platform for Ark 2 if they intended to make Ark 3 multiplatform, it just sours your base on PlayStation.


https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...stainable-revenue-without-skins-or-loot-boxes

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

You are underestimating how big ark is, it sold 16 million copies on PC and console, with 10 million installs of the mobile version. (below) its kind of a sleeper hit in the same way Roblox is, I wouldn't know Roblox was big unless I knew about the impending ipo at a valuation of ~$8B. Apparently, Roblox is worth more than the entirety of Zenimax, I know which one I would rather have.

Besides, it wouldn't make sense to give full exclusivity to a single platform for Ark 2 if they intended to make Ark 3 multiplatform, it just sours your base on PlayStation.


https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...stainable-revenue-without-skins-or-loot-boxes

Why everybody assume that MS is aiming for a sole platform Xbox? I always see that and always confused why people think that way - It is not 2007 or whatever anymore. MS is not just Xbox. It is PC, Xbox and mobile - and on Xbox and PC its fanbase is bigger than on PS.
I am not sure but probably on Xbox Ark is just as big as on PS despite being outsold 3:1 on consoles.

 

[PSman1700]

It is not 2007 or whatever anymore.

For two corporations, it still is. Things are changing to the better though, ever so slowly.

 

[liams]

Why everybody assume that MS is aiming for a sole platform Xbox? I always see that and always confused why people think that way - It is not 2007 or whatever anymore. MS is not just Xbox. It is PC, Xbox and mobile - and on Xbox and PS its fanbase is bigger than on PS.
I am not sure but probably on Xbox Ark is just as big as on PS despite being outsold 3:1 on consoles.

Oh, I'm not misunderstanding, I was just referring to it as Microsoft does, if your playing on pc/on your phone/ on a console its all playing on xbox to them, and they refer to it as such.

Your right about Ark being proportionally bigger on xbox console vs PlayStation, there was a period of exclusivity when it was released. iirc the wildcard devs said that they struggle with the multiple platforms, so maybe all of this is just refocusing on the 'GDK platform', so they can produce a less buggy game with the same staffing levels.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Oh, I'm not misunderstanding, I was just referring to it as Microsoft does, if your playing on pc/on your phone/ on a console its all playing on xbox to them, and they refer to it as such.

Then when talking about Xbox we should encompass PC, XCloud and Xbox and that nowhere near giving full exclusivity to a single platform.
But the same metric we can say that them ignoring Switch it is just as bad.

 

[liams]

Then when talking about Xbox we should encompass PC, XCloud and Xbox and that nowhere near giving full exclusivity to a single platform.
But the same metric we can say that them ignoring Switch it is just as bad.

My interpretation was that Xbox was the overarching singular platform, with different access points, with PC, console and streaming

I would disagree that ignoring the switch is just as bad, and by bad I want to clarify that I mean to future games sales performance (Ark 3 +), not by some moral quantification of the situation.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

I would disagree that ignoring the switch is just as bad, and by bad I want to clarify that I mean to future games sales performance (Ark 3 +), not by some moral quantification of the situation.

There is Ark on Switch BTW. Always forget LMAO.

Exclusive game sales performance is - though with GamePass it is more complex situation - always limited to their platform performance. So what if the future sales are affected? For some reason it is always a concern when talking about MS, yet whenever SE or other publisher do games for Sony - there is no concerns. I personally think that multiplayer games fare better on Xbox and PC platforms so Playstation performance is not that important and that platform can be skipped anyway - Playstation is famous for single player games rather than multiplayer games anyway.

 

[liams]

There is Ark on Switch BTW. Always forget LMAO.

Exclusive game sales performance is - though with GamePass it is more complex situation - always limited to their platform performance. So what if the future sales are affected? For some reason it is always a concern when talking about MS, yet whenever SE or other publisher do games for Sony - there is no concerns. I personally think that multiplayer games fare better on Xbox and PC platforms so Playstation performance is not that important and that platform can be skipped anyway - Playstation is famous for single player games rather than multiplayer games anyway.

I completely agree that it doesn't matter for Microsoft, I was talking from the perspective of the studio remaining independent, if Microsoft pics them up then yes it doesn't matter, but its not happened yet (or ever), its just that there are a few things pointing to that. If the studio is remaining independent it doesn't make much sense.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

I completely agree that it doesn't matter for Microsoft, I was talking from the perspective of the studio remaining independent, if Microsoft pics them up then yes it doesn't matter, but its not happened yet (or ever), its just that there are a few things pointing to that. If the studio is remaining independent it doesn't make much sense.

The thing is that we don't know what's is going on - so far we know that it is Xbox and PC exclusive (anecdotally, the most concerns on the twitter was about PC rather than PS). I honestly did not expect Ark to get the animated series. Like at all. I did not even think that it was huge. Then again I am out of the loop with all of that, but I like portability and XCloud, so I welcome MS attempt's to bring games to cloud.

Looking at Chinese market, it seems they like F2P games so Ark, Sea of Thieves, Minecraft and others might fare good there.

Personally I would like MS to purchase Valve, bring Windows Store stuff to Steam etc. and it then will be able solidify the market for itself. Bring back Gabe Newell, John Carmack, Peter Molyneux to gaming. Go nuts!

 

[Jay]

What service? Streaming requires infrastructure which is not cheap. Or do you mean Microsoft?

Yes MS, should have been more clear, but the discussion was about MS exclusivity.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Yes MS, should have been more clear, but the discussion was about MS exclusivity.

I wonder if MS will trying introducing some movie streaming features into GamePass. Can be potentially huge, but it is a sizable investment.

However I believe some partnership with Disney+ is better rather than doing it alone. I mean Disney+ has a lot of properties that has relation to games. But then again WD also have some so MS might be interested in purchasing some movie properties. Hm...Guess better wait for the next and see the direction MS is going.

 

[liams]

I wonder if MS will trying introducing some movie streaming features into GamePass. Can be potentially huge, but it is a sizable investment.

However I believe some partnership with Disney+ is better rather than doing it alone. I mean Disney+ has a lot of properties that has relation to games. But then again WD also have some so MS might be interested in purchasing some movie properties. Hm...Guess better wait for the next and see the direction MS is going.

if it was a partnership Disney+ is unquestionably better imo, they have lots of ips with relation to games like you say, but they don't have any pure game IP, its things like star wars. Netflix and Sony seem to be going at game based video content, like the witcher from Netflix, and the upcoming Uncharted movie, I could see Disney wanting some of that type of content. MS has a lot of pure game IP under their umbrella now, and several that would translate well into film, the one that springs to mind is Perfect dark, a James bond esk movie with extra gadgets and a female lead? seems right up Disney's alley.

I would be really surprised if Microsoft added anything but games to game pass, it just muddies the water too much, there are the ultimate perks ofcourse but they are a separate thing. If a MS and Disney partnership was a thing, with MS getting near-exclusive rights (less marvel, I'm thinking star wars mainly) to games based on Disney IP, Microsoft would have to invest much more heavily. The problem is there are only a few studios like respawn and all of them are under a larger umbrella, you cant build one up in any reasonable amount of time to start pumping out great games. I'm kinda surprised that someone hasn't made a 'Mega Support Studio' somewhere with cheap labour, like the Philippines, or India somewhere like that, to support their studios, maybe the work isn't as good, (because there currently isn't much local game production talent) but with a lot more bodies to throw at a problem you have a lot more time for polishing passes.

Bit random but I would love to see what Ubisoft could do with the star wars IP, an Assassins creed style game, (world-wise, not traversal or anything) using star wars IP that comes out every year/ every other year would do amazing

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

I would be really surprised if Microsoft added anything but games to game pass,

Office 365Maybe even Windows automatic update or something. Call it all Microsoft Pass. Then using Steam Machines idea introduce Microsoft All Access -> PCs with Windows + Office 365 + GamePass subscription for consumers. Would be too expensive though and subscription service threshold - I think - should not be higher than 30-40 euros.

Bit random but I would love to see what Ubisoft could do with the star wars IP, an Assassins creed style game, (world-wise, not traversal or anything) using star wars IP that comes out every year/ every other year would do amazing

Personally I got tired of Ubisoft's games. They are all the same all the time with different cover. I wonder if eventually they reach MMO level of grind on a single player.

I would be really surprised if Microsoft added anything but games to game pass, it just muddies the water too much, there are the ultimate perks ofcourse but they are a separate thing. If a MS and Disney partnership was a thing, with MS getting near-exclusive rights (less marvel, I'm thinking star wars mainly) to games based on Disney IP, Microsoft would have to invest much more heavily. The problem is there are only a few studios like respawn and all of them are under a larger umbrella, you cant build one up in any reasonable amount of time to start pumping out great games.

Yeah, there is also lack of studios - even with all MS' studios they are all already busy. Stlll I do believe that partnership with Disney+ is the best.

I'm kinda surprised that someone hasn't made a 'Mega Support Studio' somewhere with cheap labour, like the Philippines, or India somewhere like that, to support their studios, maybe the work isn't as good, (because there currently isn't much local game production talent) but with a lot more bodies to throw at a problem you have a lot more time for polishing passes.

Yeah, I think the issue is with the not enough game dev talent there - like game programmers, 3d modellers etc.

 

[liams]

Office 365Maybe even Windows automatic update or something. Call it all Microsoft Pass. Then using Steam Machines idea introduce Microsoft All Access -> PCs with Windows + Office 365 + GamePass subscription for consumers. Would be too expensive though and subscription service threshold - I think - should not be higher than 30-40 euros.

There's a reason they renamed Office 365 to Microsoft 365, maybe they are already planning to do that

Personally I got tired of Ubisoft's games. They are all the same all the time with different cover. I wonder if eventually they reach MMO level of grind on a single player.

True

Yeah, there is also lack of studios - even with all MS' studios they are all already busy. Stlll I do believe that partnership with Disney+ is the best.

Agree - Plus they could have it as a comarketing deal, if you get disney plus you get game pass (or at least all the games involving Disney properties), you get gamepass? well you get disney plus too.

Yeah, I think the issue is with the not enough game dev talent there - like game programmers, 3d modellers etc.

[/QUOTE]

Looking at what disney just announced at their investors day, there are 10 star wars series, 10 marvel series, 15 odd pixar/disney shows coming out in the next few years.

Ubisoft makes a massive game every year with assassins creed, I wonder if they would be able to make say 4-5 10-15 hours games in the same period of time, if they used common assets, same engine. that's why I think star wars would work pretty well for that model, you could have distinct worlds, like Endor, Tatooine etc, that are visually distinct, but would share common assets in things like character design, vehicle design, the programming and animation of those things. You could even reuse parts of each game to make a kinda of mashup were it makes sense, maybe in a game you travel to a market on another planet or something, and the market could just be copy pasted from another game without feeling cheap, because its just the world.
They also do things besides Assassins creed obviously, they do immortals, watchdogs, and more besides, so you would maybe get it to say 8-10 10-15 hour games per year, along with some other stuff thrown in. Ubisoft do have 18 thousand employees so that's not going to happen!

So optimistically 1 Ubisoft worth of dev output could get maybe a decently sized game a month. Which actually seems pretty good. It would be much more complicated than making their current games though, many more moving pieces

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

There's a reason they renamed Office 365 to Microsoft 365, maybe they are already planning to do that

Now that I looked at it indeed
Microsoft 365 is Office 365 with Windows 10 (OS) and the Enterprise Mobility Suite (Suite of Security and Management apps).
Did not know that such thing existed - though it doesn't come with OS yet (just with the upgrade of the existing OS)

So optimistically 1 Ubisoft worth of dev output could get maybe a decently sized game a month. Which actually seems pretty good. It would be much more complicated than making their current games though, many more moving pieces

Ubisoft has 18k employees. They are very big.

Looking at what disney just announced at their investors day, there are 10 star wars series, 10 marvel series, 15 odd pixar/disney shows coming out in the next few years.

Personally I heard only about a lot of Star Wars series, but that's insane

 

[fehu]

I'm not familiar with Ark, I know it just like the game with dinosaurs that can't keep 30fps on any platform, but I'm very impressed by the quality and the cast for the animated series.
Is this some mix between riverworld and dino riders, or just a sandbox where you collect craft and kill others?

 

[liams]

I'm not familiar with Ark, I know it just like the game with dinosaurs that can't keep 30fps on any platform, but I'm very impressed by the quality and the cast for the animated series.
Is this some mix between riverworld and dino riders, or just a sandbox where you collect craft and kill others?

I think maybe pubg with dinosaurs is the best comparison I can make, there is a story in the current game but its more of a window dressing to explain the game world.

The story, roughly speaking, is that each Ark (map really) is a space station that was made by the earth in the 22nd century to act as a way for human life to continue as the element based technology (think self-replicating robots consuming everything), was taking over the earth. The game takes place millions of years after the world was finally consumed completely by the element based technology as the Ark ship things begin to malfunction. When they were made the Arks had natural-seeming barriers to keep the humans from straying to the edge of the world where they would see that they were on a space ship, the dinosaurs were that natural barrier. As the Arks started to malfunction whatever was keeping the dinosaurs at the edges of the world stopped working, which is why there are dinosaurs all over.


They have confirmed that Ark 2 is the same sort of game as Ark 1, a survival sandbox, but I think it might have a campaign this time around, there are some interesting concepts they could explore in a more traditional campaign.

 

[liams]

Another possibility, mainly because Phil has mentioned wanting a presence in Poland, is GSC Game World, who are making Stalker 2, exclusively for xbox/pc.

GSC Game World was a 200 dev team in 2009 when they announced stalker 2 the first time before the CEO dissolved the company in 2011 for personal reasons, not related to finances. (I have no idea what reasons) After closing the company a bunch of other game devs started from the employees who worked there, one of them being 4A games who make the Metro series. They started back up again under the same guy in 2014 and released a remake of one of their prior games in 2016. Stalker 2 would have been in early dev when Microsoft started taking gaming seriously again in 2017, so maybe they invested in them then? They are privately held

Plus a while ago now, before Bethesda one of the execs said that they had 16 studios when there were only 15 publically known about. Stalker is basically Russian fallout and is very popular in eastern Europe, Phil said that they see Eastern Europe as a region that could grow for them, what better way to do that than add Russian fallout to your roster that includes American fallout?

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

They have confirmed that Ark 2 is the same sort of game as Ark 1, a survival sandbox, but I think it might have a campaign this time around, there are some interesting concepts they could explore in a more traditional campaign.

Or maybe Vin Fossil Fuel will give quests akin MMO NPCs.