MS acquires rights to Gears of War franchise; Black Tusk Studios to take over series
- Thread starter AlNom
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(((interference)))
Veteran
And Sony will keep churning out Uncharted, God of War, Infamous, Gran Turismo
And Nintendo Mario and Zelda
Video games are a primarily sequel driven industry...even far moreso than movies imo.
You can give Sony kudos for a unique new IP title here and there (maybe Last of Us, Beyond). But I guess Microsoft does have Quantum Break and a few others I dont care about (Project Spark etc) too.
I like Gears and Halo, so I want more. But some new IP's on TOP of that would be cool, sure.
Sony seem a little more diverse with their first party and second party IP investments than MS is.
I mean this gen we had LittleBigPlanet, The Last of Us, Demon Souls, Heavy Rain/Beyond, The Last Guardian and even teams like Insomniac, Sucker Punch and Naughty Dog largely left behind their established PS2 franchises for new and largely successful IP (Uncharted, Infamous, Resistance).
Wheras the big MS teams mostly went from making the same games on Xbox to making the same games on 360 (Halo, Fable, Forza etc). Rare was allowed to branch off for a bit with Viva Pinata and Banjo (both great titles) but then got stuck turning out commercially safe cruft like Kinect Sports.
But the 'tech demo' was originally revealed as a game in progress. It only just got respun as a 'tech demo' with the Gears announcement. So unless the entire BT team have been sat on their hands drawing their salaries and not much else since the original reveal, not very likely, it's only reasonable to assume they were working on their announced project. Which, as MS have alluded to it being shelved, would seem to be the case.
Nobody is saying it's bad for MS or the XB, it just seems like a waste of what was supposed to be a tier 1 development studio, coming out with the brightest and best MS had to offer. So either the original BT project was just not working or MS are simply going for the low hanging fruit with the minimum amount of risk, and are willing to shelve new IP to do so.
Just the numerous statements from Microsoft to that effect since the studio was established back in 2011.
It did have a name. It was something like shanghai heist. Working title obviously! It was brand new IP from the studio that MS put together to make a Halo killer. That it's what BT was created for, not rehashing some tired old franchise.
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Bigus Dickus
Regular
I love that Gears is a tired old franchise.
DuckThor Evil
Legend
More Gears is more good in my book. I'll take it over an unproven new IP, although I like new IPs as well. I hope they keep the same attitude and tight gameplay mechanics and still keep high focus on the single player.
Its interesting since there have been 4 games since 2006. That's a 7 year period.
Uncharted on the other hand hit in 2007. Since then we have had 3 main line titles and 2 for the vita
Resistance is another franchise that came out in 2006 and has had 3 main line games and 2 portable games.
Killzone gave us the first title in 2004 and we got 4 of them now plus two portable titles.
If gears are played out then what about these titles ? hell what about Mario and Zelda lol might have to taken them out back and put them out of their misery
shredenvain
Regular
I really dont understand how Gears is a tired old franchise. How many Final Fantasy games have there been? How many more are comimg? God of war will have been on 3 generations of hardware when it comes to the Ps4. Same with Killzone and I havent heard one mention of it being tired or old. This blows my mind to hear Gears called tired and old when nintendo has been making the same 1st party franchise titles for more than 20 years. This situation is really no different than what happened with bungie and Halo. Also about BT making a new engine. It was mentioned during the interviews the day they aquired gears that it will be made with UE4. BT has expierence with the engine as they used it to make the E3 demo. I for one am looking forward to more Gears. Im also looking forward to whatever it is Epic is working on for the new consoles.
shredenvain
Regular
You beat me to it by a few seconds : )
Some of the criticism might be misplaced but it also has to do with the fact that shooters as a genre for some has worn a bit.
Add to it how poor the last game was and there you go. Generally speaking you see 3 titles in an IP and its time to move on or possibly explore bit part players with interesting stories/personalities that might lend themselves to a game or 2. Same can be said for movies.
Uncharted perhaps could be described by some as a shooter but its deeper than that from a game play perspective. Not to mention that each of the games has delivered - perhaps you could argue the 3rd one was slightly inferior to the second but it was still a great game by any objective measure.
Since you brought up Resistance, I think if you asked people if they want a another one they'd say no. IMO the second one was garbage and afterwards people were talking about the IP much like you hear some talking about Gears now. Regardless to your point Sony hasn't announced anything with Resistance and for good reason. Even Infamous which has only had 2 games BTW is exploring a new character with Second Son.
Personally I think if ND brings another Uncharted this year, the game will probably sell well but there will be some fatigue and I don't see it reviewing nearly as well even if at its core its a great game. We're not likely to see ND continue to pump out Uncharted every 2 years, it might get farmed out to another studio but ND will be working on new stuff shortly.
The facts are most IPs have a finite shelf life. Heck look at the latest Tomb Raider, its a really good game but many people are just tired of the series at this point.
The only IPs I'd bet on violating 3 games per IP then move on would be Nintendo first party games. And even then I'm not convinced that long term they can continue to get consumers to buy Mario Kart every few years. There is a reason Disney doesn't do much with Mickey Mouse these days, they work with Pixar and bring new characters doing new things to keep things fresh and use Mickey for brand awareness. We'll be seeing more of that in online entertainment as the industry continues to mature. If not we'll be in for a big crash.
(((interference)))
Veteran
I don't think it's quite the same counting the handheld titles as these exist merely so Sony has some exclusive franchises on its handhelds.
The vast majority of Killzone, Uncharted and Resistance players wouldn't have played the handheld titles either.
Like I certainly wouldn't count Halo Wars or that Halo: Spartan Assault if I was making a case for why Halo is suffering franchise fatigue.
The vast majority of Killzone, Uncharted and Resistance players wouldn't have played the handheld titles either.
Like I certainly wouldn't count Halo Wars or that Halo: Spartan Assault if I was making a case for why Halo is suffering franchise fatigue.
Agreed but that means we can't accuse anyone of anti MS bias....
This is actually an important point. Games are very expensive these days and investors prefer the safety of well established IPs bc they think it lowers risk but there is a point where the consumer nolonger is interested in the IP. And you could have developers going bankrupt if they stick to a known IP for too long.
I think we'll see developers getting smarter with the stories this generation and we'll see more side characters introduced proactively so later if the IP is successful other stories can be told based on these characters. All the stuff we see Hollywood the big networks doing with TV will become more and more prevalent in gaming. That way developers can reduce the risk but not wear out the IP.
Well you wouldn't but plenty do. In fact those side titles ( like Wars) are one of the primary examples I've seen of why people say MS is "milking" Halo!
Even still these are about the same amount of titles in them in the same time frame as gears.
Some of these comparisons are not like for like.
Final Fantasy games arent tied to a single universe, artistic expression, storyline and characters and thus arent genuine sequels. They can freshen things up with each release because of this luxury. There are also no 4 "normal" continuations of Final Fantasy in a single generation. 3 Final Fantasy games based on FF13 though was approaching the limit if not already stretched. Another FF13 sequel would have been be too much and would not have been anticipated with excitement.
Super Mario and Zelda are also not tied to a very specific continuity and are not afraid to use new artistic expressions and gameplay ideas combined with the old. Zelda, and especially Super Mario have their own cult following, there are people that buy them out of nostalgia, there are the Nintendo loyalists, and there are kids who never get tired of such games. The small userbase of Nintendo consoles (with the exception of Wii due to the Wiimote) shows that people are getting tired of them regardless.
Usually trilogies are perceived as more normal for games that are single player centric have a storyline continuity and are followed by a hardcore fanbase. There are some exceptions such as COD and Battlefield but its not the single player campaign that keeps them going. Its the multiplayer competitive play that keeps them coming back like an addiction.
I have seen references to Uncharted and some other games too but the main games people remember are those released on the consoles. The Vita version already felt tired and uninspiring although a good game for a portable.
The problem with Gears is that Judgement's gameplay was more of the same and in terms of storyline there wasnt much juice. All 3 games felt way too similar for their own good. Gears 3 gave the impression that things were wrapped up and Judgement was just another attempt to experiment with the console's untapped potential and get some extra cash. Perhaps if it had a better storyline and better execution people might have felt differently.
Resident Evil feels somewhat the same. It continues to be relatively successful because of its legacy and success of certain installments, but even the people that buy them express their disappointment that the series lost its soul. We continue to buy it in hope that we will get something as good as the old and we cant let go of the storyline which has become more of a joke. It needs a break
Some franchises need to die sooner or take a biger break before they get another sequel than others
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