Xbox Game Studios Stupidity Hate Thread Game Pass Edition

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PS2 architecture was just as weird as PS3.
It wasn't a conspiracy to make porting more of a hassle than it was worth, it was the result of hardware development moving in multiple different directions and PC architecture being was less universal.
For its first three consoles Sony attempted to use in house hardware development that used novel tech.
https://arstechnica.com/features/2000/04/ps2vspc/
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Absolutely amazing information 20 years after I first came across it on the internet.

Sony would’ve never switched their tech if it wasn’t for the ps3 disaster.

Sony was a massive threat to pc gaming, PCs even. Kutaragi was so certain about their dominance that at one point he started going on about microwaves powered by teh cell being connected to each other. The whole point of Xbox was to kill off that jap dream, Xbox was a trojan horse if you will.
 
Incecticyder said:
The PS2 was the cheapest DVD player of its time AND played games. It was worth porting games into it for that reason.
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PS3 was also the cheapest Blu Ray player. But there honestly was little reason to go from DVD to BluRay, and at the turn of the decade online streaming took off

People who bought HD DVD accessories for their Xbox have my sympathies though :story:
 
Hermiöne Granger said:
and Microsoft ended up nearly killing off the Xbox instead with their TVTVTVSPORTSPORT talk about trojan horse yourself outta the business :lol:
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Nearly?

Übertroon said:
PS3 was also the cheapest Blu Ray player. But there honestly was little reason to go from DVD to BluRay, and at the turn of the decade online streaming took off

People who bought HD DVD accessories for their Xbox have my sympathies though :story:
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Yeah, DVD was at a much better time. BluRay is good for games but that's it. DVDs were good for everything when the PS2 came out.
 
Incecticyder said:
I get that but here is the thing: MS never had a real plan for consoles. Nintendo always try to release fun games, Sony tries to make a console that can play as many games as possible (except for the PS3) but what is the MS plan? With Xbox it was PC games on consoles, with 360 it was flooding the market with cheap machines, with the Xbone it was resting on their laurels and with the Series it is to be the Game Pass console. No unified identity in its strategy. Just throwing stuff at the wall.
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Sony and Microsoft have the same plan - as many games as possible, with specific exclusives that tip the scale to people going into their "walled garden" - console sellers.

It was something they both -used- to excel at, with Microsoft's Gears of War and Halo being "xbox games" and Sony's Bloodborne, Final Fantasy, and Persona being "playstation games". The main issue is that eventually 3rd party developers realized that exclusivity only benefitted the console and not them - so they largely abandoned the practice.

They both bought up a bunch of studios to "force" them to first-party develop, to middling success for a lot of varied reasons. I think you'll see Sony and Microsoft trying to crack the whip on the studios in order to try and get a "console seller" for the next console generation.

Focken Kiwi said:
They fucked it up the moment it was revealed the Xbox One required you to connect online to use. More specifically, I think it was every 24 hours to authenticate your purchases and use your device. This led to to this absolutely legendary PS4 advertisement:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=kWSIFh8ICaA
Now look where we are. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are all fumbling the ball.
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Sony has now secretly snuck in that your PS5 has to check in every 30 days to access your digital content, even for your "primary console" - for purchases made From March 2026 moving forward. This apparently has always existed on the console was likely 0'ed out to avoid drama when the console generation was a bit more up in the air.

1777423233551.png

Quite literally having learned nothing from Microsoft apparently, it's poetry it rhymes.
 
Tanner Glass said:
Sony and Microsoft have the same plan - as many games as possible, with specific exclusives that tip the scale to people going into their "walled garden" - console sellers.

It was something they both -used- to excel at, with Microsoft's Gears of War and Halo being "xbox games" and Sony's Bloodborne, Final Fantasy, and Persona being "playstation games". The main issue is that eventually 3rd party developers realized that exclusivity only benefitted the console and not them - so they largely abandoned the practice.

They both bought up a bunch of studios to "force" them to first-party develop, to middling success for a lot of varied reasons. I think you'll see Sony and Microsoft trying to crack the whip on the studios in order to try and get a "console seller" for the next console generation.
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Well, yeah. All of them have the plan of releasing games. That is what the console makers are supposed to do. What I am saying is that they had no concrete identity on how they would release games. Nintendo strives to release fun and interesting games. Sony tries to make a platform that can play whatever others can come up with. What is MS' plan? They change it with every console and that means that their direction changes as well with no knowledge getting passed on. That is a problem. Their plan is "change of plan/identity".

Yes, they bought studios but what did they direct them towards? Just make games. That isn't enough. When Nintendo bought studios, they got ones that already fit their identity and thus they needed no directing. MS bought studios and didn't know what to do with them. Managing all of these studios is hard and it shows. You shouldn't need to crack the whip. They should know what to do already. By the way, Sony is largely on the same boat only by accident. They put way too much money on the GAAS cart and had no plan for if it fails (which it did).

As for exclusives, that is what first party and second party stuff is for. Produce stuff in-house and you will attract those that would want to get into exclusivity deals with you.
 
Tanner Glass said:
Sony has now secretly snuck in that your PS5 has to check in every 30 days to access your digital content, even for your "primary console" - for purchases made From March 2026 moving forward. This apparently has always existed on the console was likely 0'ed out to avoid drama when the console generation was a bit more up in the air.
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According to this, after 14-16 days (as in, once a refund period is up), then they silently switch your license to a permanent one.

Anyway we will see how this goes in 14-16 days from now.
 
Incecticyder said:
Well, yeah. All of them have the plan of releasing games. That is what the console makers are supposed to do. What I am saying is that they had no concrete identity on how they would release games. Nintendo strives to release fun and interesting games. Sony tries to make a platform that can play whatever others can come up with. What is MS' plan? They change it with every console and that means that their direction changes as well with no knowledge getting passed on. That is a problem. Their plan is "change of plan/identity".

Yes, they bought studios but what did they direct them towards? Just make games. That isn't enough. When Nintendo bought studios, they got ones that already fit their identity and thus they needed no directing. MS bought studios and didn't know what to do with them. Managing all of these studios is hard and it shows. You shouldn't need to crack the whip. They should know what to do already. By the way, Sony is largely on the same boat only by accident. They put way too much money on the GAAS cart and had no plan for if it fails (which it did).

As for exclusives, that is what first party and second party stuff is for. Produce stuff in-house and you will attract those that would want to get into exclusivity deals with you.
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I'm not disagreeing with that - just stating what the plan is (regardless of their ability to execute said plan). The best you can say for Xbox is at least Redfall wasn't a Concord level failure in terms of investiture (or Marathon is shaping up to be) and that Sony seems fairly committed to self-destructing.

Sony isn't on the same boat by accident - they have the exact same unearned arrogance that Xbox has and have done the same ill-advised first party expansion leading to the same disastrous first-party results.

3rd party Exclusivity is gone - 3rd party devs/publishers have figured out that anything they get from exclusivity is less than what they get by going multi-platform, and first parties aren't ever going to try and exclusive a 3rd party at a loss unless it's something spectacular (ex - Bloodborne), and even then it's a big risk if you get it wrong (ex- Concord). For 99% of devs - exclusivity offers nothing and isn't even a thing pursued very often. Expedtion 33 and Baldur's Gate (GOTY 2025 and 2023, respectively) were just floating out there in the ether for a huge period of time, in full view of both exec teams, and went unpoached and unoffered. Xbox's team said BG3 (which would go on to make roughly a billion dollars) would have the same impact as "Let's Sing : ABBA".

The larger point is that 3rd parties aren't interested in exclusives, Sony/Microsoft are interested in exclusives in-so far as studios they own (but not Call of Duty) and while Microsoft more or less shit the bed this generation, Sony/Nintendo aren't far behind and this next generation is a toss up where it could literally be decided by one or two actually good first party games.
 
Tanner Glass said:
I'm not disagreeing with that - just stating what the plan is (regardless of their ability to execute said plan). The best you can say for Xbox is at least Redfall wasn't a Concord level failure in terms of investiture (or Marathon is shaping up to be) and that Sony seems fairly committed to self-destructing.
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Damned by faint praise.

Tanner Glass said:
Sony isn't on the same boat by accident - they have the exact same unearned arrogance that Xbox has and have done the same ill-advised first party expansion leading to the same disastrous first-party results.
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I meant it in the sense that they followed MS' old plan without realizing it. They certainly didn't think that they were going the same route.


Tanner Glass said:
3rd party Exclusivity is gone - 3rd party devs/publishers have figured out that anything they get from exclusivity is less than what they get by going multi-platform, and first parties aren't ever going to try and exclusive a 3rd party at a loss unless it's something spectacular (ex - Bloodborne), and even then it's a big risk if you get it wrong (ex- Concord). For 99% of devs - exclusivity offers nothing and isn't even a thing pursued very often. Expedtion 33 and Baldur's Gate (GOTY 2025 and 2023, respectively) were just floating out there in the ether for a huge period of time, in full view of both exec teams, and went unpoached and unoffered. Xbox's team said BG3 (which would go on to make roughly a billion dollars) would have the same impact as "Let's Sing : ABBA".

The larger point is that 3rd parties aren't interested in exclusives, Sony/Microsoft are interested in exclusives in-so far as studios they own (but not Call of Duty) and while Microsoft more or less shit the bed this generation, Sony/Nintendo aren't far behind and this next generation is a toss up where it could literally be decided by one or two actually good first party games.
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You can have 3rd party exclusivity if you finance it. Pay for THE CREATION of the game and it will be exclusive. Nintendo did it with Bayonetta 2 & 3.
 
Incecticyder said:
You can have 3rd party exclusivity if you finance it. Pay for THE CREATION of the game and it will be exclusive. Nintendo did it with Bayonetta 2 & 3.
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In theory - sure.

However, after Expedition 33, Baldur's Gate 3, Undertale, Stardew, FNAF, Hollow Knight etc - you can self-finance and not give your IP to Sony/Microsoft and instead keep the tens of millions of dollars your game makes.

Sony/Microsoft are going to push for exclusivity for games they can make a profit from - which is the inverse profit the studio would make by not having gone exclusive at all. There's a reason that a lot of studios that are now owned by First Party studios (Blizzard, Obsidian, Bethesda, etc) don't make great games anymore, because if they make mediocre garbage (FO76, Starfield, Grounded, Outer Worlds, Avowed, etc) they still earn the same money as if they had bothered to make a generation game (like New Vegas or Skyrim) because any large profit just goes to the parent company. Talented Project Leads and Developers don't want to work in a place like this, so they don't.
 
Tanner Glass said:
In theory - sure.

However, after Expedition 33, Baldur's Gate 3, Undertale, Stardew, FNAF, Hollow Knight etc - you can self-finance and not give your IP to Sony/Microsoft and instead keep the tens of millions of dollars your game makes.

Sony/Microsoft are going to push for exclusivity for games they can make a profit from - which is the inverse profit the studio would make by not having gone exclusive at all. There's a reason that a lot of studios that are now owned by First Party studios (Blizzard, Obsidian, Bethesda, etc) don't make great games anymore, because if they make mediocre garbage (FO76, Starfield, Grounded, Outer Worlds, Avowed, etc) they still earn the same money as if they had bothered to make a generation game (like New Vegas or Skyrim) because any large profit just goes to the parent company. Talented Project Leads and Developers don't want to work in a place like this, so they don't.
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Resurrecting old titles that have potential is my idea.
 
Incecticyder said:
Resurrecting old titles that have potential is my idea.
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This just reminds me that MS was about to do that with Phantom Dust and other oddities but then cancelled like everything except Crackdown 3

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Which is a shame because they actually pulled off the random revival on the 360 with Hydro Thunder Hurricane. And then never did it again. Classic Microsoft i spose
 
Green Kitbash said:
This just reminds me that MS was about to do that with Phantom Dust and other oddities but then cancelled like everything except Crackdown 3

...


Which is a shame because they actually pulled off the random revival on the 360 with Hydro Thunder Hurricane. And then never did it again. Classic Microsoft i spose
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They never seem to know what they are doing. Sony did have an idea once. MS never.
 
Computer Guardian said:
A combined 45% downturn would be like being dunked with an ice bucket to any company execpt Multi-Trillion dollar companies like Microsoft, where literally evverything has to be in enough of a downturn to deelevate them from a multi-trillion to multi-billion or even multi-million company
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There's also the AI hype that the market IS STILL RUNNING ON. Fucking worse than the crypto hype I swear.
 
Computer Guardian said:
A combined 45% downturn would be like being dunked with an ice bucket to any company execpt Multi-Trillion dollar companies like Microsoft, where literally evverything has to be in enough of a downturn to deelevate them from a multi-trillion to multi-billion or even multi-million company
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I don't believe any of their divisions reported a gain this quarter. Not one. Not even Azure. AI isn't quite taking off as an endless money printer like they were hoping.
 
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