The Annual E3 Microsoft press conference thread, 2018 edition

[chris1515]

As nice as giving complete creative freedom sounds, you run the risk of multiple studios wanting to do something similar and your first party studios lacking diversity. I think Sony were dumb for allowing two first party studios to work on realistic driving games (Gran Turismo and DriveClub) simultaneously and encouraging two exclusive single-player post-apolocyptic narrative not-quite-zombie survival games (The Last of Us Part II and Days Gone. You may please the fans of those genres but you're also missing an opportunity to do something different for fans who are not into those genres.

Using Sony again as an example of how not to do it, lack of oversight also leads to absurdly (and surely loss-leading) glacial development times like Gran Turismo and The Last Guardian.

Just don't do this, Microsoft.

The problem of Gran Turismo and The Last Guardian are not the freedom gives by Sony. The reason Fumito Ueda left Sony was because Alan Becker wanted to give less freedom to Japan Studios. The problem of GT et TLG is to be japanese game. FF 15 had troubled development too.

The studio with the most freedom is Naughty Dog but theyt know what they are doing. Naughty Dog has no producer...

 

[Deleted member 11852]

There is freedom, then there is freedom. Bungie walked away because they wanted to do something other than Halo and The Coalition, formerly Black Tusk Studios, had their new IP cancelled and were put on Gears duty where they remain. Most of the original RARE team left Microsoft while they were tasked with making casual and Kinect games.

Exactly how much freedom any studio gets, regardless of their taskmaster, is debatable. Naughty Dog said they "sold" the concept of The Last of Us to Sony who were okey with it but given the popularity of the genre, it was probably an easier sell than if they wanted to do a MMORPG about a yellow robot call Mikey who wants to own all the seashells. Guerrilla Games concept of Horizon Zero Dawn must have been a very hard sell from a team who had been knocking out average run-of-the-mill (but pretty) shooters because even having played HZD, and really really like it, it sounds bloody stupid.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I don't get the feeling that he listened to the internet and that is what determined his course of actions once he was put in charge of the Xbox division.

I didn't say it was. (Edit - I see in context to what I responded to, it sounds like I was, suggesting it was the internet chatter that formed his decision). My remark was at how some were dismissing internet feedback about a lack of exclusives on XB1 as just being fanboy nonsense and a vocal, irrelevant minority, but it was actually meaningful feedback.

There's been a wide narrative that XB1 has no exclusives and this is a problem cited from gamers, the market. Some have said it's not a problem, this is an irrelevant vocal minority, MS has all the 3rd party games which are what really matter, and MS don't need to worry. But Phil saw a different situation in which this feedback was a genuine problem and did something about it.

The take home isn't that MS is/was being led by internet chatter, but that the decisions made by earlier MS to pare back their exclusives and first party studios was the wrong one, at least according to current management (and the other console companies). And the internet chatter about a lack of exclusives was a problem as far as the market and brand identity is concerned and did need a solution. the internet gives unprecedented market feedback and it's important to be able to filter that into valid and noise for best decision making.

The acquisition of Ninja Theory is probably the best move MS could have made on acquisitions. They are and will be creating content that's just like Sony's first party single player AAA stuff, so that fills a valuable niche and with incredible talent. Full creative freedom is exactly what they need and shows deserved trust in the studio.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

The acquisition of Ninja Theory is probably the best move MS could have made on acquisitions. They are and will be creating content that's just like Sony's first party single player AAA stuff, so that fills a valuable niche and with incredible talent.

And importantly, they turn out good quality games fast.

 

[Recop]

Apart from Forza 4, i wasn't really impressed by the conference : little gameplay and mostly third party games.

But this conference is much better than the previous one.

Also, MS announced some really good news about their first party studios. They bought Playground which is one of the best developper in the industry in my opinion.

 

[chris1515]

Apart from Forza 4, i wasn't really impressed by the conference : little gameplay and mostly third party games.

But this conference is much better than the previous one.

Also, MS announced some really good news about their first party studios. They bought Playground which is one of the best developper in the industry in my opinion.

I disagree gor Gears 5

 

[Deleted member 7537]

I didn't say it was. (Edit - I see in context to what I responded to, it sounds like I was, suggesting it was the internet chatter that formed his decision). My remark was at how some were dismissing internet feedback about a lack of exclusives on XB1 as just being fanboy nonsense and a vocal, irrelevant minority, but it was actually meaningful feedback.

There's been a wide narrative that XB1 has no exclusives and this is a problem cited from gamers, the market. Some have said it's not a problem, this is an irrelevant vocal minority, MS has all the 3rd party games which are what really matter, and MS don't need to worry. But Phil saw a different situation in which this feedback was a genuine problem and did something about it.

The take home isn't that MS is/was being led by internet chatter, but that the decisions made by earlier MS to pare back their exclusives and first party studios was the wrong one, at least according to current management (and the other console companies). And the internet chatter about a lack of exclusives was a problem as far as the market and brand identity is concerned and did need a solution. the internet gives unprecedented market feedback and it's important to be able to filter that into valid and noise for best decision making.

The acquisition of Ninja Theory is probably the best move MS could have made on acquisitions. They are and will be creating content that's just like Sony's first party single player AAA stuff, so that fills a valuable niche and with incredible talent. Full creative freedom is exactly what they need and shows deserved trust in the studio.

As much as i agree with the rest of the post, is yet to be seen is MS first party is able to rival Nintendo's or Sony's. These companies are releasing GOTY almost every year. This is not something you build overnight with 2 or 3 adquisitions.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Indeed, but you have to start somewhere. What MS isn't doing is ignoring first party. Five new studios is huge, and just the beginning in principle. One gets the feeling that MS won't repeat the mistake of the past where they managed to stifle their first parties into mediocrity.

I wonder if this gives us a better next-gen time-line too? Must be at least 2 years away to next gen for MS to have new first-party launch titles. Launching with something like an HZD would do wonders for the platform!

 

[iroboto]

Seasons? In the UK? Rain, Slightly different rain. Rain with leaves. Mild snow. Cold rain.

heh good laughs here.

So I ran a small party to watch no one even flinched here in the audience. We're all in Canada, so we're like of course this is how seasons would work, not a single person questioned it lol.
Then again, we thought it was all of EU, and not just older Britain.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Everything in the Temperate zones gets seasons, although climate variation will differ. I think what's special about the UK is any time of year it can be 13 degrees C and overcast and damp. When that happens in the Summer months, we comment how cold it is, while in the Winter, how mild it is. Oh, and the weathermen can't predict with any accuracy. Saturday, the Met Office forecast 19 degrees at 5pm while the BBC weather forecast 23 degrees.

Is this anything new to driving though? We've had different weather conditions in racegames before. If it's a case of the same tracks with different weather...is that really exciting?

 

[iroboto]

Is this anything new to driving though? We've had different weather conditions in racegames before. If it's a case of the same tracks with different weather...is that really exciting?

theoretically, 4x more content. by reusing the same space and changing the map/courses based on the seasons which normally would be covered by DLC.
It should keep the game feeling fresher cycling through the seasons.

other than that, probably just more polish on the existing formula.
nice engine tech into Fable though ;P

 

[iroboto]

Gears 5 being 60 fps 4K HDR for split screen co-op or solo is quite an upgrade over 4. Looking forward to hearing/seeing more. Glad to see they made Kait the main character here.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Dynamic simulated weather is definitely a plus. Could do with being in many games I imagine as the next step beyond time-of-day.

 

[iroboto]

Dynamic simulated weather is definitely a plus. Could do with being in many games I imagine as the next step beyond time-of-day.

There was definitely a lot of talk about creating vast worlds and just playing within them, at least Phil has been towing that line for some time now.
Seems like a step in that direction here. Halo 6 also fit the bill there for that. It looks much more open world than previously.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

There was definitely a lot of talk about creating vast worlds and just playing within them, at least Phil has been towing that line for some time now.
Seems like a step in that direction here. Halo 6 also fit the bill there for that. It looks much more open world than previously.

Seems a real differentiator for next-gen. Imagine worlds with the weather quality of HZD's snow but in all weathers. It'd change how things work. Games could also work on epic time-scales, with new gameplay based on picking a season or working within seasonal challenges. How about ice and slippery surfaces in Winter actually affecting things? And dry periods resulting in environments being more combustible.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

Fallout 4 might get me to jump. Never played any in the series. Todd Howard is a very personable & funny guy. He actually got me interested enough to check their briefing.

You've got no reason not to at this point.

This was the biggest announcement to me, and people so far seem to be glossing over it. Getting third party agreements for Game Pass, even if not "launch day" is still pretty huge, IMO, for MS and it's vision of Game Pass. Fallout 4 and The Division going into Game Pass is a pretty big deal.

 

[iroboto]

Seems a real differentiator for next-gen. Imagine worlds with the weather quality of HZD's snow but in all weathers. It'd change how things work. Games could also work on epic time-scales, with new gameplay based on picking a season or working within seasonal challenges. How about ice and slippery surfaces in Winter actually affecting things? And dry periods resulting in environments being more combustible.

Yea that would make for definitely interesting changes. Not just open world but now time spanned. This is probably a good thing lol. Too often I found the time frames to be too condensed to have believable effects on the outcome of the world (as we are sold that your decisions matter).

But with expanding out time spans, your decisions can have effects spanning over years, which is displayed over seasons. Does sound like the type fo gaming people would love to see, myself included.

 

[ultragpu]

Gears 5 being 60 fps 4K HDR for split screen co-op or solo is quite an upgrade over 4. Looking forward to hearing/seeing more. Glad to see they made Kait the main character here.

I'll bet my soul this isn't the case, too often PR people get those things wrong and only later correct themselves to 1080/60 and 4k/30. Unless the visuals suffer massively in the end.

 

[blakjedi]

Tunic, that was a super cute classic Zelda like game.

Regards,
SB

Tunic was my game of the Show. Strong interest in that title. Looks special.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

As nice as giving complete creative freedom sounds, you run the risk of multiple studios wanting to do something similar and your first party studios lacking diversity. I think Sony were dumb for allowing two first party studios to work on realistic driving games (Gran Turismo and DriveClub) simultaneously and encouraging two exclusive single-player post-apolocyptic narrative not-quite-zombie survival games (The Last of Us Part II and Days Gone. You may please the fans of those genres but you're also missing an opportunity to do something different for fans who are not into those genres.

Using Sony again as an example of how not to do it, lack of oversight also leads to absurdly (and surely loss-leading) glacial development times like Gran Turismo and The Last Guardian.

Just don't do this, Microsoft.

Absolutely, hence why I said "mostly" hands off. There has to be some oversight, but the lighter the better as long as things are getting done. I also find it strange that Sony gave Days Gone the green light when they already had TLOU. The only reason I can think of for it to exist is that Sony weren't planning to do a TLOU 2 when Days Gone was presented to them, but that seems strange as well. Or maybe it was that Naughty Dog were originally intending TLOU to be a stand alone game without a sequel, but then decided later they wanted to continue the story?

At that time zombie games were already on the decline WRT gamer interest. And there was already starting to be increasing gamer backlash to zombie themed games.

Too many driving games may have been due to listening to Sony Europe more than the other parts of Sony. While racing certainly remains relatively popular there, it's fallen off quite a bit in the US and to a lesser extent in Japan. Then again MS seem to be in the same boat with regards to now having basically 2 racing games as well, albeit under one broad umbrella. Forza (serious racing) and Forza Horizon (less serious open world racing).

Regards,
SB