What is Microsoft's "Xbox 3" Exclusive Strategy?

Acert93

Artist formerly known as Acert93
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The point of this thread is to take a look at Microsoft's strategy for exclusive software on their next console.

My general impression is (a) MS, which already lags behind Nintendo and Sony in terms of internal teams, has had a trend of closing studios and (b) with the WiiU shipping first and Sony appearing to posture to, at the minimum, co-launch side-by-side the Xbox 3, MS won't be getting "free" exclusives like the 360 had.

(a) MS's studios. Over the years Microsoft has closed (or spun off) a lot of studios. Carbonated Games, Ensemble Studios, Bungie, Aces Studio, Digital Anvil, etc. Microsoft still has a number of internal development teams (343 Industries, Lionhead Studios, Rare, Turn 10, Twisted Pixel Games, BigPark, etc) and a handful of newer studios without any track record but the big picture is that some of their bigger studios are no longer present.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Game_Studios#Software_development_studios

Looking closely at the studios that can produce compelling exclusives you only have a couple that stand out. Turn10's Forza series continues to expand and can be counted on to push the envelop. 343 studios has a tough job of following Bungie but it is fairly safe to assume they will produce quality titles although they run the risk of Halo franchise errosion. Lionhead has struggled and Rare, outside of Kinect Sports, has not had a significant impact this generation (although Banjo, Kameo, and VP were quality titles). Twisted Pixel can probably be counted on for some good XBLA content.

When you peak over the fence at what other console makers are having studios produce in terms of volume and quality it does raise an eyebrow. That doesn't necessarily justify the expense of some 1st party studios, or that trading say Halo for Infamous and LBP would be a good sales move, only to note MS appears to have a much smaller ability to generate new franchises.

(b) Free exclusives. I believe this opportunity is past. Last gen with MS launching in 2005 a studio could look at the 360 and justify targeting it because it was out a year early and, even if a 2006 or early 2007 title, the 360 had a huge install base lead and was easier to get games up and running. It made sense to go exclusive, especially if MS was willing to offer some financing.

That doesn't appear to be true any longer. Most expect Sony to release the PS4 around the time, or even before, the Xbox 3. Sony also appears to be moving toward a less eccentric hardware design, possibly creating a situation where developers could literally have one team make both versions with very few extra people.

The question also arises who would MS partner with?

Bioware was acquired by EA and has moved onto multiplatform development with the Mass Effect series. At $800M I doubt MS could pony up the cash to EA to convince them to do an exclusive as EA needs to get a return on their Bioware investment.

Bizzare Creations, makers of the PGR series, was closed down after poor PGR4 sales.

Silicone Knights never recovered from the Too Human debacle.

Bethesda seems to have fit into the, "We don't have the time for a PS3 version right now" with Oblivion (which later was ported to the PS3) and has gone on to amazing success with Fall Out and Skyrim.

Epic and MS found a good thing in Gears of War. Epic may be willing to continue a relationship where MS essentially pushes a franchise as a 1st party title (major press show and magazine attention) for the exposure ot offers but with Unreal Engines being multiplatform you know Epic will also be keen to make sure their software runs well on all platforms.


Thoughts: Maybe MS is looking at the cost of internal studios and seeing the hit and miss nature of both their own and Sony's studios and banking on it being cheaper--or if not cheaper a safer bet--to snag exclusive windows on up and coming games that catch their eye and chalk up the expense as a safer investment than a lot of internal studios that may, or may not, produce a quality title. The number of studios doesn't indicate MS is shutting down Xbox development (remember that rumor a couple years back?) but it does indicate they must be taking a different approach to generating exclusive content.

How big of a problem do others see this as?

What solutions are viable to MS?
 
Well they just cancelled a game by Obsidian Entertainment for a it. So it looks like they are partnering with indipendent developers and maybe expanding in places like Canada and Europe under Harrison. Too bad there arent many indies capable of delivering AAAA (lulz) left

Remedy, Epic and Crytek look like good bets..

They had huge spending in Japan for 360 and it got them nowhere. I´m not sure they are bankrolling too many JRPGs this time..
 
The usual tactic MS or Sony for that matter is to sign an exclusive deal with a 3rd party often referred to as 2nd party, and if that 3rd party does well, buy them at some point.

The issues usually come after purchase, depending on how heavy handed the publisher is with culture changes, and how fast they are expected to ramp up.

Pretty much nothing kills a developer faster than asking them to hire a lot of people, or telling them that they have to develop in a particular way. EA is particularly poor in this regard.

As to killing developers, at some point if a dveloper is unsuccessful, you have to decide is the value is the developer or the license, and whether the developer is worth the cost.
 
I suspect some brute force strategy with the hardware plus some exceptional feature that will augment the experience. Those alone may increase developer preference and may result to exclusives and/or multiplatform games that are better experienced on the new XBOX. Sony appears conservative end with their losses and liquidity issues I dont think they are in a position to aim as high as MS
 
Buy out exclusives in the beginning and trail it off. Focus on Live and services.

The problem with that is there is less reason to expect big publishers to play ball like that, for the reasons pointed out in the OP, and the number of independent developers has been whittled down significantly since the 360 launched. At least those large enough for big scale next gen development. And studios like Epic or Insomniac with a history of platform exclusives seem to be more interested in broadening their audience than signing on for new exclusives.
 
I suspect some brute force strategy with the hardware plus some exceptional feature that will augment the experience. Those alone may increase developer preference and may result to exclusives and/or multiplatform games that are better experienced on the new XBOX. Sony appears conservative end with their losses and liquidity issues I dont think they are in a position to aim as high as MS
This actually sounds very reasonable and would be a smart way for MS to invest. If Sony has better or comparable hardware then it's not gonna look good for MS at all.
 
I think Live and backwards compatibility will likely go a long way for XB3, actually. Add in Kinect and a source of quality media apps from WP7/8, and they'd be well positioned without needing internal studios.

(500th post!)
 
The problem with that is there is less reason to expect big publishers to play ball like that, for the reasons pointed out in the OP, and the number of independent developers has been whittled down significantly since the 360 launched. At least those large enough for big scale next gen development. And studios like Epic or Insomniac with a history of platform exclusives seem to be more interested in broadening their audience than signing on for new exclusives.

At the beginning of a generation, all bets are off. Not to mention, you can certainly sell well as a 3rd party exclusive. Example: look at Gears and MGS4.

The strategy of holding onto a large portfolio of developers has it's drawbacks also. Increased payroll, management and operational complexities. Not saying they should dump all. Keep some inhouse and sign contracts where it makes sense.

They'll also be wise to note that games associated to their console continue to favor the original console even when it's gone multiplatform. Examples: Mass Effect, Elder Scroll Series, Final Fantasy.
 
They seem to have paired it down to a few "big" franchises. Halo, Gears, Forza, Fable. If you're not counting Kinect of course. They will likely focus on those. It's probably similar to what EA and others do, focus on sequels that you know will sell, even if we dont like to hear that, preferring some nebulous idea of innovation.

I think MS has a pretty good history of being the smartest player in this industry (not that MS is smart, but their competition hasn't been) so I suspect what they are doing will prove out the right strategy.

They haven't abandoned core games, there is a $300 million project they have going to cultivate them.

Overall I think the impact of first party exclusives has lessened greatly, anyway. Halo is not the king of FPS anymore, COD is. Most gamers are probably more excited about the next COD, Battlefield, Assassins Creed, Bioshock, Skyrim, GTA, or many others. Exclusives seem to get relatively overhyped on message boards, but in sales terms they're often not a big impact.

Anyway, I bet you might see a new exclusive franchise from Epic next gen. Samaritan maybe.
 
like Bizzare Creations,they closed at 2007?check one more time

"and a handful of newer studios without any track record but the big picture is that some of their bigger studios are no longer present."
oh come on,at least Microsoft Studios Vancouver is a big studio,and Twisted Pixel will not stick in XBLA

people also think Microsoft will never make a new big ip is funny and wishful,they opened a lot new studios since 2010 is because they want everything,not just kinect or core
 
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Well Bizarre Creations has closed, but it was closed years after it was acquired by Activision.
 
I've looked for a link or picture for the last 2 hours and no luck so far. Didn't MS recently set aside $300 million to invest in core IPs? IIRC it sounded like this was an amount dedicated towards 3rd party studios, not internal developers. I know I saw it on GAF, though I'm not sure which thread.

IMO investing heavy into exclusives is more important early on than the later half of the generation. So I expect them to make some kind of push, at least for the early part of next gen.
 
They seem to have paired it down to a few "big" franchises. Halo, Gears, Forza, Fable.

Two shooters (with different fan bases), a racing game and a RPG. Key franchises that don't canibalize each other. It's a pretty lean setup.

And what others have said: Throw money at developers/publishers to land (timed) exclusives for major games. It might look costly, but carries a lot less risk than footing the bill for a studio.

Cheers
 
When you already have games like Call of Duty, Battlefield etc how important is your exclusive Killzone franchise when it is already over-shadowed by bigger multiplatforms and how do you keep up the arms race in terms of advertising and development budgets when multiplatforms can spread their costs over 3-4 platforms whereas you cannot even be sure to get >30% of the market for your own title? The answer is that you don't and you focus your energy where it actually makes sense.

The really cost effective exclusives this generation have been the OS, online services and interfaces so I figure they will focus their attention there as well. Having a really good app store for the console is significantly better than laying claim to the title of having the 4th and 5th best selling shooter franchises for instance, especially if competing consoles don't have access to the same features. This also comes with the added bonus of perhaps also increasing revenue over the longer term whereas games are the revenue equivalent of 'wham, bam, thank you maam' :p

Chances are the exclusives will likely be online stores, apps, interfaces and perhaps even some version of Windows 8 to the point where the Xbox next could run a version of Windows 8 given the similarity between metro on Windows 8 and the pre-existing 360 OS.
 
Found that picture:

ff4db9375ed060cc8323d0fcdf95e89694a26269.png


When you already have games like Call of Duty, Battlefield etc how important is your exclusive Killzone franchise when it is already over-shadowed by bigger multiplatforms and how do you keep up the arms race in terms of advertising and development budgets when multiplatforms can spread their costs over 3-4 platforms whereas you cannot even be sure to get >30% of the market for your own title? The answer is that you don't and you focus your energy where it actually makes sense.

I would say that exclusives are more important early in the generation and become less important during the last years of a generation. By that time, the core demographic will have picked up your console by now and you're likely looking into the more casual/mainstream audience who really don't know about what is exclusive and what isn't since they don't keep up on gaming news.
 
Twisted Pixel can probably be counted on for some good XBLA content.
Actually their latest game - The Gunstringer - was a boxed product and at the same time one of the best non-fitness Kinect titles to date. And before someone adds "it's not that hard to be better than all of the Kinect crap that's out there" - apparently it is since there are very few solid Kinect titles. ;)

@kagemaru: This pic says nothing about *core* IPs (assuming I'm not blind). It's just some IPs. Besides - 300Mil isn't that much if you consider that ~4 obvious games are probably already in this mix and at 35Mil/title that's half of that cash POOF! disappearing like that. ;)

With lots of studios closing and new studios spawning in their place, there's a decent enough pool of proven people who'd be willing to go the 2nd party route (like Playground Games did with Forza World). It's a matter of who's willing to provide better terms: MS, Sony or Nintendo.
 
Actually their latest game - The Gunstringer - was a boxed product and at the same time one of the best non-fitness Kinect titles to date. And before someone adds "it's not that hard to be better than all of the Kinect crap that's out there" - apparently it is since there are very few solid Kinect titles. ;)

@kagemaru: This pic says nothing about *core* IPs (assuming I'm not blind). It's just some IPs. Besides - 300Mil isn't that much if you consider that ~4 obvious games are probably already in this mix and at 35Mil/title that's half of that cash POOF! disappearing like that. ;)

With lots of studios closing and new studios spawning in their place, there's a decent enough pool of proven people who'd be willing to go the 2nd party route (like Playground Games did with Forza World). It's a matter of who's willing to provide better terms: MS, Sony or Nintendo.
it's about core games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Studios_(game_studio)#Software_development_studios

there's a team call Core Games Publishing Team

and 300m is very much,you can make 7xHalo 3 or 25xGears of War
 
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