OnlySP: What is games journalism? Is it supposed to tell you every little detail about an upcoming game? Are we supposed to check out games and provide you in-depth previews of what we played? Are we supposed to provide you with stories about the people and the games within the industry? Everyone seems to have a different answer about what games journalism is supposed to be, and this makes our jobs incredibly difficult.
Ubisoft recently shared more details about Assassin's Creed Shadows protagonists, confirming that both of them will romantically attract and be attracted to different types of people.
Feudal Japan DEI LGBTQ+ Samurai, sounds very accurate for the time period. Surely a decision made only with historical accuracy in mind.
You have no idea what you are talking about, bet you didn’t know nobunaga was bi-sexual. Or ran maru his is often depicted as androgynous was a “beautiful boy”.
So yeah, feudal Japan had tons of lgbtq and kawaii enough… A BLACK SAMURAI! All without the need of offending a Caucasian because the world is diverse.
This story has cracked me up so much! Bravo Ubisoft, bravo! 🤣. So last week everyone was upset that in the long-awaited first Assassin’s Creed: Japan game the protagonist is black. But NOW he is also LGBTQ+ ! It’s like the Ubisoft creative team sat around a table and said “How can we best impress our Kotaku/IGN/Polygon friends and antagonise gamers? Let’s make it woke x 100!’ And then they all silent clapped!
Just you wait until the Star Wars: Outlaws details come out, there better not be anybody complaining about Kay Vess’ dating preferences and the gay droid armies.
Lexreborn2 is right
Go read up on Japan's feudal era homosexuality and bisexuality was a very common thing in that time.
I just have to laugh because the same people complaining about this are the same ones crying about wanting "historical accuracy". When it's clear most of the whiners don't even know history themselves.
Facts don't care about downvotes, btw. You either claim to understand historical accuracy or you just admit you don't like the stuff people did throughout history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
Japan had no Christian stupidity about sexuality.
That's where your nonsensical puritanical view comes from: the Abraham's faiths.
It's feudal Japan, they don't believe in your religion's made up nonsense.
I mean, if you're going to embrace a particular viewpoint, you should at least be aware of where it comes from. Most of the world doesn't care about your ideals.
In those days, they certainly didn't care about your religion.
Get over yourself.
All of you guys missed the point, I even said I'm very sure they did it ONLY because they wanted to be historically accurate. Stop defending this, we all know why they did it and who they want to pander, it's not out newfound respect for history.
@RpgSama
Nobody is defending anything.
People are just pointing out the fact that after they just cried about the game not being historically accurate, when they SHOW they're accurate, they cry about it because they don't like certain parts of history
Not to mention you contradicted yourself RPGSama. You just pointed out you said they "ONLY because they wanted to be historically accurate". Then turn around and accuse them of pandering and/or having an agenda. Those two things are opposing statements
Dumbest decision ever.. always online was a pass for me but now not even for free I’ll try it..
It's made by Ubisoft Montreal.
Obviously we'll be allowed to bang anything that moves.
People actually telling you that Japan had sexual deviancy which is correct however what's hilarious is that they will act as if it holds the same moral value that the LGBT community holds today, oh the things men used to say about themselves when they are attracted to other men, it's not empowering in the least bit
You are completely lost on Japanese history. Japan was one of the most liberal places in the world, and in many ways still is. You can slice and dice it from your western hubris and whatever point of view, but the reality is that history tells great stories about freedom of choice and people not being judgemental on this island. Also one of the reasons I want to raise my family here, no need to have those whatever Western woke bullshit here, because everyone just respects each other without using all that nonsense.
Oh yeah!!!! What about being inclusive???
I'm sorry
..please replace the word inclusive with stupid.
I thought you crybabies wanted "historical accuracy." Now that your going to get it, you're going to cry more.
It's past the point of retarded, everyone seems forced to do this bullshit now in games. 😑
Hell no. A good game or film is secondary now to the agenda and the 'message'.
It's not enough to be simply entertained these days, there has to be an overarching real world narrative. I mean look at Dr Who as a recent example. Disney have completely destroyed it all in the name of 'diversity'.
It's the only thing that explains the incel crap. They can't simply be angry virgins who don't get any, so then a lack of a sex life i.e. a dad of three or something, is also a good additional explanation. They're either lonely and don't get any or too busy to get any. There's a horrible news for sexual control with incels, and they're angry because they simply aren't the right people to achieve that control. They're weaker animals.
dude’s too busy commenting on other people’s sex life to actually stay on topic.
That or he’s angry but didn’t have half the brain needed to refute back so he went for the classic ad hominem fallacy.
Notachance
It's a fact that remains true. The only way it can't be true is if humans were not greedy and heavily reliant on procreation.
Your username is fitting.
dude, let’s be real, you’re on a video game news site going into the comments section and taking time out of your life to go to war with people you think don’t f*ck. You sound as much of a virgin as any incel does.
Let’s be real, bub you’re just as pathetic as the rest of them. Anyone who would look at this who doesn’t waste their time on a video game news site or video games in general probably thinks the only thing you f*ck is your crusty ass pillow.
C’mon, man. Anyone who f*cks doesn’t immediately go into a comment section claiming others have no sex life. It’s just one of those things if you are getting your d*ck wet. It just comes off like you’re projecting in hopes to god nobody figures out you can’t get any, so you try to flex, even though you’re completely full of sh*t.
I mean, that’s the only thing that makes sense to me 😅.
I'm engaged without children - I'm doing just fine.
This is just nerd sites now. Users are just so angry and for basically the same reasons. Most people go through phases with this type of stuff but it's scary seeing the same attitudes being regurgitated over and over again. From what I've seen it's a strange mix of sexual frustration, lack of proper financing and the need to have 100% control over both so that they aren't taken away from the users.
@fartcushion
Look, man, people are allowed to have opinions and show frustration with stuff. It has no bearing on them not getting sex or not making money.
I have no idea how people commenting on being tired of hearing about SJW sh*t being shown in the spotlight like some carnival sideshow where publishers are wanting some pat on the back for means they’re financially unstable and don’t have a sexual relationship.
What, are you on the spectrum? Like how do you come to that conclusion and make multiple responses to the discourse with “virgin alert” or “you need to have sex?” That right there is kind of sus to me.
I don’t know in what world you lived in where this hasn’t been a nerd site, but people are allowed to comment their thoughts on things and still have relationships. You’re just as much of a nerd as everyone in here.
You have to understand they’re incapable of writing a good story so this is the best they could come up with
Well, after last weeks crying about historical accuracy. Now Ubi days, " Oh, okay, historical accuracy: here you go."
Now you're saying you don't want the accuracy? Can you guys just make up your minds?
It's a genuine click-bait snippet to rile up people like you to push traffic.
@JunonZanon Can't say about Japanese society today. But just like most other ancient cultures, the men (especially upper-class men) would engage in activities that were frowned upon or prohibited in society. Women would not do such things as they were expected to give birth and raise the children. Of course secret relationships would probably happen between women. There are parts of the world today that have this patriarchal system where women hardly ever leave the home but the men are out living their lives and some drink alcohol when it's illegal and have sex with other men when it's forbidden.
Gotta get them brownie points. Now don't get me wrong homosexuality was alive and kicking in Japan during those days, and I've seen anime that have shown exactly that and been fine with it. I'm just questioning why this has to be announced before hand?
They were probably hoping to get all the whiners and complainers out of the way now in hopes that they'll tire themselves out by time the game releases. I doubt that'll work but that's the only thing I can think of
So complainers can complain now and not when they buy the game and are surprised that it's historically accurate. Essentially, they're saying if you don't like that stuff, don't buy it. Of course, most ignorantly claim it's not historically accurate instead of just admitting they don't like that stuff.
It's more fun to catch em by surprise imo, but I guess it also doesn't give em a reason to review bomb if they know in advance. Not that they won't talk about through and well after release.
That's fine, I won't buy it, and regardless of the supposed high number of pre orders, I suspect many others won't buy it either.
In the Viking Assassin's Creed you could also have different relationship with men or women. So I don't know why this is so different in this Assassin's Creed. Lots of different types of RPG's let you choose differeent relationships. They don't force you. You can tell anyone that makes a pass at you to go kick rocks. People overreacting here
***In the Viking Assassin's Creed you could also have different relationship with men or women. So I don't know why this is so different in this Assassin's Creed.***
It's the anti-woke and anti-DEI movement that is fostered on Twitter and the like. Any element of an LGBTQ or racial diversity related element is seen as problematic and an attempt to rewrite history, censor, yadda yadda yadda.
The biggest problem is that gaming journalists are expanding their platform by reporting on them at all. Journalists are idiots and in their drive to find something to write about only help to spread the things about which they complain.
@heligirl
Well said. And that's the problem for most of the complainers. They're males and are afraid someone might make a pass at them.
Women have to deal with men looking at them and hitting on them and know how to deal with it.
These people are suddenly vulnerable and don't know how to deal with it. It threatens their manhood.
I'm straight, white, and male. I've been hit on by men. It doesn't bother me like it does these insecure little man-children. Why would it?
Honestly I'm just gonna start avoid these posts but I'm grateful that some people are calling out these asshats for dogwhistling.
I just don't have the patience anymore.
It was for men. For women, the other protagonist, it was not. So everyone who is trying to say that feudal Japan was inclusive are full of malarkey. It was only common for the upper-class
I know they’re getting wet to celebrate making a big masculine black dude do some gay shi
I don’t care what a character’s sexuality is if the story and game are good. It’s just that, does anyone honestly think this is genuine, Ubisoft and the other big companies routinely abuse and mistreat their employees but we’re supposed to believe they give a genuine fuck about diversity. I’m 100% in favor of diversity but this is classic virtue signaling.
They did the same thing in Odyssey. I can't remember if Valhalla did, I couldn't be bothered finishing that bloated mess of a game.
Japanese culture was very frisky especially compared to the dogmatic hardline Catholic cultures of the Europeans in the 1600s which regarded homosexuality and multiple sexual partnerships as serious crimes. Interestingly enough they banned homosexuality shortly during the Meiji Restoration because of "western influence". History is full of ironies.
when you run out of ideas and talent , this is what you get. i doubt even lgbt people want to deal with this nonsense in a feudal japan based samurai game
I like how all the bigots are offended by something included in a game where the main quote is "Nothing is true, everything is permitted." I also don't doubt that these same people were playing as Femshep and hooking up with Liara.
As for historical accuracy, do you actually think homosexuality is something new? If so, how do you explain evangelicals constantly saying that the Bible - written over 1,000 years ago- is filled with passages denouncing homosexuality?
Why get upset about the always online and $129 cost when you can whine about a black samurai who may be gay?
Does this sway a single purchase? I don't think there's much reason to talk about it ahead of time. It just comes off as pandering without any context.
Didn't expect anything different, on AC Valhalla a viking lesbian general lead her troops while men where cleaning the houses, we all know historical accuracy is Ubisoft greatest strength.
You do know you choose to play male or female as well as who you are attracted to, right?
The character i mention exists in the game no matter who you decide to have a relation with, specifically you hear that dialogue before the big battle with all the allies from the different counties you've been gathering, and i don't think that character ever existed in the real world tbh, because we would have heard about her a million times at this point if a female lesbian general led her army to battle, she would be a heroine among the LGTB population.
***because we would have heard about her a million times at this point if a female lesbian general led her army to battle***
I mean, living a homosexual life is actually quite new and wasn't common in the old age. Much like how gay Roman Generals didn't advance LGBT rights for men, why would it do as such for women? The focus in those old days weren't on sexuality, but propagation for survival. But people were still partaking of what they wanted.
https://sourcebooks.web.for...
Hell yeah! Why do you think the game is called shadows? Who lurks in the shadows waiting for an opportunity to abduct an underage person?
I love how people think of sexual deviancy in Japan in the past in the same way they look at LGBT community now, it's absurd, it's so different in the same way that Japan have had Boy love and girl love as entertainment genre in manga for ages now but LGBT standards are different, there's a reason why when LGBT people read the old "inclusive" Japanese works they call it bigoted, same thing for the sengoku peroid, they treated it as deviancy and just did it anyway
Surely, there's more to the game than your sexual preferences? What a silly thing to focus on especially as they are usually an optional feature.
Nothing is new under the sun I'm sure back in those times in real life alot of horny shhi was going on 🤣 its funny tho cause I rarely use romance options in games I play, I knew they'd do this cause in valhalla the arc where you do the quest with the guy about the dying father, the son wanted to romance my male eivor I declined🤣🤣
? All BioWare games did it. Baldur's Gate 3 did it. AC Odyssey did it. Not sure what's the issue exactly
This is standard RPG romance mechanics. Not sure why people are making it a big deal??
They advertise it as if it's a plus. To me, it's one more reason not to buy it. What a joke.
"Let's just hope that such a decision won't result in another round of backlash from some "fans" as we already have plenty of questionable opinions online regarding the game's black character Yasuke."
Did a little digging and there were indeed Black Samurai in Japan. Interestingly enough, only one white Samurai...Tom Cruise. I joke, but it's only recorded to have had one white Samurai.
What I don't like about the article is how he uses the word "fan." If this wasn't set in Feudal Japan then I don't think you get backlash about a Black man playing the protagonist. I mean. Put the shoe on the other foot. Would it of made sense to have a Japanese man as the main character of Assassins Creed Syndicate set in London in 1868?
Romancing characters...Just don't romance your opposite sex if you're not wanting to! Crisis averted lol.
No body hates options more than gamers who hate options that hurt their feelings. I have never understood why some people get so so triggered over optional things in video games. The more options the better
If this is a topic worth announcing in their eyes, it's enough of a "selling point" for me NOT to buy it and this is coming from someone currently replaying Odyssey and romancing everyone and everything I can
What about get me excited with improved stealth mechanics and combat system instead?
Ubisoft says they are focusing on two "core verticals," and that's to return as a leader in the open world genre, and live service games.
Calling Ubisoft a leader in open world gaming at any point in time would be like calling Dollar General a leader in retail.
Well, to be fair, they did pump out good open world games before. It was used as a template so much that people now know what it means when you say it's like an Ubi open world collectahon.
What though? I can't think of one game they had where I liked anything about it. Atleast since the ps3/360 Gen
If they have never been the leader in open world gaming, then explain me this: why does almost every open world game follow the same tired old Ubisoft open world formula?
Follow the Leader.
I don't think they were ever the leader tbh. I've never really cared for any of their open world games. I do wanna try watch dogs 2 because it looks like it's set in San Fran. Looked interesting
Wanting to expand on the whole subscription model and not owning games is fascinating, not.
"The point is not to force users to go down one route or another," he explains. "We offer purchase, we offer subscription, and it's the gamer's preference that is important here. We are seeing some people who buy choosing to subscribe now, but it all works."
£60 (Base Game/Pre-order Bonus) £95 (Base Game/Pre-order Bonus/Seasons Pass/3 Day Early Access)
£115 (Base Game/Pre-order Bonus/Seasons Pass/3 Day Early Access/Ultimate Pack)
But for the Impressive lowballing cost of £15 monthly you get the entire £115 package, which is pretty fascinating, not.
Every company out In the freaking cosmos want recurring revenue, I very much doubt this game will be scoring 8+ on the tally sheet.
One can argue that R6 Siege, For Honor, etc. are proof that their business model work, no?
Yes but can one can argue those at least have quality if you say oh this has quality yes and no. Single player having always online doesn't need always online to have quality. It's a single player game.
It would be a cold day in hell that Ubisoft would risk launching a Watch Dogs 4 on the same day as GTA 6, or any other Rockstar game, this is all a bunch of PR speak they (probably) don't actually believe, like "AAAA".
Rockstar are boring as shit now too. Stop giving them a pass. I don’t know why people still wear rose-coloured glasses when talking about them. RDR2 is the only new game they’ve put out in the past decade because they live off microtransactions from GTA & Read Dead Online. They’re nowhere near as interesting or relevant as a developer and publisher as they were in the PS2 and PS360 eras as far as I’m concerned.
I'd agree, quality wise, and PS2 era was peak R* but without checking the. actual statistics, I'm comfortable believing R* are leaders in open world games in regards to sales, which is the only thing that truly matters to these companies.
@Skuletor Yes, I’m sure GTA6 will sell better than anything Ubisoft puts out. You’ll get no argument from me on that one.
And we’re in full agreement that the PS2 era was peak Rockstar. I loved what they did with Max Payne 3 as well, but that was the end of Rockstar as we knew them up until that point. I hope Dan Houser’s new studio can recapture some of that magic. He was the head writer after all.
Oh god no, we kinda started seeing tiny bit less Ubisoft copy paste games recently, don't want to go back to their time, one less Ubisoft like game is a improvement
They haven’t had any bangers since the ps3 generation imo. Some 8/10s maybe. Ghost recon wildlands was ok. But it was the 2010s where I thought Ubisoft was actually one of the greats. That reputation has dwindled lol
"Return to Leadership" on the same idea with Live Service Games and Open World Games... Yeah sure champ, go ahead.
The first games they made where great, but now everyone have to complete a "to do list" that make them mediocre and formulaic at best. Good luck old man.
Proof that Ubi-junk doesn't want to go back to their old ways. Open world games are dime a dozen and played out, whatever happened to the well crafted linear or chapter-based masterpieces like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, or Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory?
That era of Ubi-junk is long gone now, open world games are all they want to make because they can be monetized easier. Experience points, skill trees, resource hunting, treasure boxes, equipment upgrades, copy paste side quests. All these boring functions lend themselves well to open world games and micro-trash-actions, and less so for linear, or chapter-based games. This is why everything from Ubi-junk these days have to be open world. Not to make games better or more exciting, but in order to profit more off of them. They are rotten to their very core, they don't care about what gamers want, only how much money they can make off the fools that buy their trash.
Thing is they have some great ideas and settings but always manage to make really stupid decisions.
Yep, I miss the times when they were producing games like Skyrim, GTA, RDR, Witcher ... Good days.
Again companies focus on the same old AAA formula of yearly releases because despite the usual complaints of not again the same trash, a boring open world made with reused assets does sell, just like Call of duty sells, EA sports games sell, etc.
If games like Mario+Rabbids or Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown were selling then we would have a different story but they failed despite great reviews.
They still make enjoyable games but that's just bout what they aim for they never really drop some shhi that'll have us in some sort of shock, great graphics, smooth animations/gameplay, quality story like when we saw Ghost Of Tsushima for the first time
People will complain about the LS factor and yet people will buy it regardless, if people weren't buying those types of games than they would stop making them becasue they never sell, unfortunately the consumer trend doesn't match the vocal disdain.
They are making live service game out of single player adventure while costing $140?
Good luck, will avoid anything you do Ubisoft.
There are two reasons why all those Bethesda studios closed, and neither of them have anything to do with Bethesda (directly)...
Game Pass and Activision.
The guy confirming what we've all (well, most of us) been saying since the latest purchase.
Remember the relatively common counter that went something like "I'm sure you arm-chair CEOs know better how to run a company than the biggest company in the world"?
I mean - there's a lot to running a company for sure, but on this topic it's hard to understand how Phil and team didn't see this coming.
Phil and team knew it was coming and planned for it. It's not even a conspiracy, it's simply the business of cutting costs and superfluous studios after a major acquisition. They don't give a damn about Tango Gameworks or other small creative studios that won't recoup their losses. They don't care about investing in this industry. They have no interest in risky and expensive new IP. They are only interested in profiting off ownership of Bethesda IP, Call of Duty and Candy Crush.
I guarantee you that not one single game under their banner will improve or become bigger and better.
Welcome to the Xbox family, what a pathetic joke.
Anyone who continues to support this, enjoy your future, because this is it. Ninja Theory is next, and Perfect Dark after that.
Especially not with the evidence of tons of existing movie streaming subs out there and how they fail to make a profit with over 100m users each quarter.
It's actually really simple. CEO don't have it hard at all...they make decisions that everyone else has to accomplish. It's the actual low level employee leadership that makes things work well.
Besides that it is obvious when you use simple math that something was going to break.
Apparently they're debating if they wanna put the new Cod on Gamepass or not.
Either grow GP with Cod or don't put it on GP and grow the revenue the traditional way while GP will suffer.
The mess that MS puts themselves in.
LOL the cheerleaders for the ABK acquisition were all cheering for CoD to be on GP day 1 and they were adamant that Jim Ryan was scared because of THAT and was fighting for the survival of the PS brand if CoD is taken away or given day 1 on GP. hahaha...now suddenly MS is unsure if they wanna put CoD on GP day 1??
isn't this false marketing? they said ALL (not some) 1st party xbox games will be released on GP day 1 and CoD is now 1st party starting last year! it's right there still on their website.
https://www.xbox.com/en-US/...
lawsuit time??
@badz149
People were being blind fans. Things is if you look at things objectively and logically since inception, gamepass from a business perspective was never going to be good idea unless you had hundreds of millions subscribed, which Microsoft was never going to get in a timely manner.
People kept pointing out the cons and people kept having their hands over their ears. I wonder how guys like Orchard and Septic who were rooting for the acquisition to go through like people do when their team makes it to the Superbowl are receiving this news lol
Honestly i think Bethesda needs to buy themselves out of zenimax/MSs hands and do their own thing, i honestly think that would fix a lot of issues and save them from a potential closure.
There's a reason they sold in the first place. And Bethesda is not closing anytime soon lol. As much as I hate the studio closures. They were all small studios 2 of them were mobile studios.
I think these are growing pains and Xbox will get back on track. But they're not getting any more passes.
I’d like to see your reaction to being growing pained out of your job after the launch of a successful product.
Excuses, Excuses, excuses.
If growing pains have been happening for the best part of a decade, they're not growth.
Zeref nii San
I'm sorry but xbox has been rightfully bashed due to constant incompetence
Yet you literally just gave them a pass, being "small studios" or "mobile studios" is irrelevant. There's no excsue for closing Tango, none. They praise the game, they PR talk about it's the kind of game the company needs and yet they shutter the developer, that's foul on every level.
Ah Zeref head in the sand like a idiot. Gamepass is a absolute failure like we all told you. Nothing at this point will turn this around. It's not growing pains, the growth is done. Even streaming with 100 million subscribers can't turn a profit and you think Xbox with Gamepass will turn it around? Lol.
It's not a coincidence that Xbox stopped announcing Xbox Gamepass numbers just like they stopped announcing Xbox One hardware numbers and no Series S/X numbers which are behind the Xbox One even.
Remember when we said Xbox customers don't buy games?! Lol. Well this confirmed literally everything we told Xbox fans that said Gamepass was very profitable? Sorry revenues and lack of profit suggest otherwise
Can't wait to see your reaction when their 2nd round of closures happens. Perfect Dark studio and Ninja Theory will next.
No, this isn't growing pains. Xbox has been on the scene for over 20 years.
This is Microsoft not being content with competing, they want to own and control the industry. Buy out as many major devs/publishers as possible so that they own all the IPs. It's only the IPs they care about. Not the Studio's, not the people. They're an insidious, cancerous company and are the worst thing to ever happen to the gaming industry.
Bethesda greenlit Redfall, launched Fallout 76 in the condition it was in (and the fiasco with the bonus bag), and spent all that time on Starfield finishing it as it was with that same engine. Wolfenstein Youngblood exists because of them too, not Microsoft.
Are you *sure* leaving them alone would actually result in a better outcome, not just a different one?
A lot of this excessive monetization, and GAAS crap started when Zenimax decided to start looking for a buyer. Not a coincidence that there was a sudden shift in prioritizing profits above quality or even coherence at the same time. They wanted big numbers to attract buyers, now that they've been bought, MS wants exactly what they were baited with.
However even under Zenimax they made enough to self publish sometimes, so i would imagine it's not too far fetched that they could pay their way into independence if they REALLY wanted to.
Also even people at Bethesda and Arkane were hoping MS would cancel the game as again, they were forced to make something they didn't want to make.
Havent seen any decisions since the buyout that lead me to believe MS knows what to do with them either . Easiest one would have to be the fallout 4 upgrade...with minimal effort it could have been a big win for leadership...but nope we got a standard Bethesda release for a patch.
Tacoboto. Bethesda greenest it to be made. Ms greenest the release. Remember phil telling us he don't know what happened because it polled well behind closed doors. Nice try on that one with redfall. In the end it was on Ms not Bethesda
Ah, we can see how the Microsoft media machine works.
Every article I read now is some kind of attempt to shift the blame off Microsoft and paint them as the victims or convince people that Microsoft mistakes were just some kind unforeseeable unfortunate twist of fate.
The shills are out in full force today.
This is not at all what this article is saying. It's saying that honest and useful studios are getting closed because of big money deals elsewhere and the faults with game pass as a model.
I understand what the article is about.
It's a deflection, it's a putting the cart before the horse article.
Let me tell you how this problem wouldn't have existed in the first place.
Microsoft not creating a service funded by subsidization and having the foresight to see that it would disrupt consumer spending habit to begin with. Then not buying Bethesda and undertaking costs for a service that was already failing to pay for itself because their own expectations of Game Pass having "billions" of subscribers was unobtainable from the very start.
And if you don't think that was the case go back to the article on the day Game Pass launched and read the comments from people from day one who foresaw that this would be an unsustainable model and would cause people to stop spending in the same way.
***Microsoft not creating a service funded by subsidization and having the foresight to see that it would disrupt consumer spending habit to begin with.***
This article literally supports this opinion. He's not praising Game Pass or the ABK purchase.
This is an explanation of why it failed, there is zero blame put onto Microsoft itself.
Yes, it talks about what went wrong, but it doesn't say Microsoft shouldn't have done it. It doesn't say Phil should have foreseen this outcome and stopped before it got to this point.
"convince people that Microsoft mistakes were just some kind unforeseeable unfortunate twist of fate"
Thats what I took from the article. Maybe we're mistaken Christopher lol
It saying why it failed puts enough blame on Ms imo. Eben if they didn't come put and say fk Ms etc.
***but you're seeing the impact; all those smaller studios making really interesting games are going to fall away, simply because as good as games like Hi-Fi Rush are, they're never going to make enough money to make up that $70B hole that Xbox now has to dig itself out of.***
If you see that as support or you explicitly just want people to end their argument with "and, in conclusion, Microsoft bad" then that's on you. This article does not support Microsoft's choices and highlights the faults. Nothing it says is good about these choices, even saying that putting CoD on Game Pass would be money losing for them because they've set themselves up for failure (and not putting it on there will drop subscriber numbers like crazy, meaning their Game Pass plans were shit to begin with).
No matter how you look at it, they're saying Microsoft made decisions that hurt the bottom line, force closures, and leave Game Pass in a situation where they lose no matter what they do. It's all negative.
Christopher, if Microsoft hadn't made Game Pass and bought a bunch of publishers would this article even need to exist?
***Christopher, if Microsoft hadn't made Game Pass and bought a bunch of publishers would this article even need to exist? ***
How is this an argument to anything being discussed? This is just as valuable of an argument as "if fish had stayed in deeper waters, they wouldn't have evolved to tetrapods, adapted to shallow water and then to land, and we wouldn't even exist and have to worry about game pass at all."
You're bringing nothing to this argument and then complaining that other people are highlighting the issues with Game Pass and spending tens of billions on studios because what we should be discussing is what it would be like if Microsoft hadn't done any of that.
Well, they did do it. Now pull up your big boy pants and join in on the discussion of what that has meant for the industry since then and, especially right now, how that is affecting the industry and game studios under Microsoft. None of us are able to go back in time and change what was done.
Christopher, this isn't me not understanding what the article is about, it's you not understanding what I am saying.
If you want me to make excuses for Microsoft's bad decisions you're not going to get that or just agree with people who are doing that, it's not going to happen, nor are you going to convert me into thinking xbox "needs to exist".
Ya know what, maybe "Microsoft bad".... maybe their decisions ARE having a negative effect on the industry, and instead of deflecting from their actual actions and making excuses for them we stand up and say "no" "Microsoft is hurting the industry"
And maybe, just maybe, it was so obvious that this was going to be the outcome that even nobodies in comment sections on websites were able to easily predict this outcome, yet Microsoft did it anyway then kept doing and even when it became undeniable that it was having a negative impact on their business and and the industry itself, then they knowingly made even bigger purchases and caused more problems.
And the one thing you're right about is that I can't go back in time, but I CAN speak up and try to keep it from happening again...
Maybe if the people who were speaking up 7 years ago were listened too we wouldn't be having this discussion and Tango and Arkane would still be in business along with all the other people who have lost their jobs due to Microsoft's actions.
Do you like analogies?
What you're saying is like an alcoholic crashing their car then trying to explain it by saying it was caused by everything except the fact that they were dunk because they are an alcoholic and don't want to stop drinking.
Why the excuses here? Microsoft did one thing no other company can do which is subsidize Xbox with these insane purchases in hopes of suffocating the industry out in hopes to be the last one standing so they can charge whatever they want.
How are you excusing this crap even and putting your head in the sand here? It's pretty clear who is at fault here for the situation they built and put themselves in. It's them trying to push everyone around with cash that no one else can compare.
They knowingly did all that and now are trying to pretend the market is to blame? Lol. That is absolutely rich irony. That you can't see the forest for the trees here too.
The article is essentially focusing the blame on MS. GamePass was a hail mary play to change the gaming paradigm and carve out a special niche for themselves, emulating the Netflix model, that might have led to MS becoming the leader in the long-term. Unfortunately, the subscriber growth isn't really there, and the model isn't really built to weather that lack of revenue. MS is now in a restructure mindset to figure out how they balance out their model in a way that can still make them money.
've always believed that GamePass was a high risk shot that had a very low chance of long-term success. But the problem with it, whether it succeeded or not, is that it accelerated the proverbial "race to zero" consumer expectation that ran its course in the mobile gaming industry in the late 2000s. When consumers start thinking that games should be "cheap" (as in through a $10/month all-you-can-eat subscription model), it turns the narrative against games being priced at realistic levels. So with the GamePass failure, they've not only sabotaged their market share, but they've impacted the entire industry and devalued the cost of game development to the average consumer. So now it's harder to develop mega-big budget games and to earn the revenue needed to pay for them.
***If you want me to make excuses for Microsoft's bad decisions you're not going to get that or just agree with people who are doing that, it's not going to happen, nor are you going to convert me into thinking xbox "needs to exist". ***
No one is asking you to make excuses for Microsoft's bad decisions nor is anyone asking you to convert to anything.
***Ya know what, maybe "Microsoft bad".... maybe their decisions ARE having a negative effect on the industry, and instead of deflecting from their actual actions and making excuses for them we stand up and say "no" "Microsoft is hurting the industry" ***
Literally no one here is doing this. They're literally discussing how Microsoft's decisions have hurt the industry. Except you. You're rambling about why people aren't complaining about Microsoft when people are in fact complaining about Microsoft.
*** And the one thing you're right about is that I can't go back in time, but I CAN speak up and try to keep it from happening again... ***
Then perhaps actually add something to the conversation other than calling people shills when people are complaining about the decisions and repercussions of Microsoft's actions.
Christopher, you're fighting a block wall here - Ein will continue twisting and contorting any remark to fit his self-created narrative.
"Then perhaps actually add something to the conversation other than calling people shills when people are complaining about the decisions and repercussions of Microsoft's actions."
Cristopher, in no way is the author of this article complaining, they are explaining what happened it's literally the title. They never once say that Microsoft shouldn't have bought Zenimax or Activision or that Game Pass was a bad idea to begin with. They think the problem with Game Pass is that it didn't grow fast enough, not that it was a bad idea from the get go.
BTW this is his job title.
"Public Relations and Communications Leader"
What do you think a Public Relations and Communications Leader does to make money?
Edit: I have read a dozen of these articles that just started coming out in the last 24 hours that are trying to shift the conversation away from blaming Microsoft, the shift here and in several other articles is trying to say it just didn't gain subscribers fast enough, not that it was a bad idea to begin with that was doomed to fail or placing the blame on anyone.
It was all just an unforeseeable outcome, no one should be held responsible it was just a billion dollar oopsie that's costing thousands of people their jobs and has caused a downturn in the entire industries sustainability.
Oopsie!
It's greed. MS has the IP's it wants now it's dumping the studios that it's raided, MS will still make money from Tango's games unlike the people that made them. If anyone follows MS outside of gaming you'll see this is what they do, buy companies take what they want consolidate some of the workforce and shut them down. I don't know why people are acting so surprised when this is Microsoft being Microsoft.
MS is a three trillion dollar company, if it enters a market it has no need to compete, they take what they want and with the financial influence it can bypass laws that are meant to protect the consumer and the workforce. Just look at how they are cornering the AI market right now with buyups and investments.
Yep. Many of us said gamepass is not sustainable.
Something has to give. Quality dropping, studios and employees getting dropped, games with more MTs , battle passes and a price hike(s) are all needed to make Gamepass even have a chance to be sustainable.
Man we're we ridiculed for this foresight though. Turns out us armchair close weren't all that wrong.
I'm sorry but this is a simplistic answer to a complex problem.
for 1 if the problem was purely Gamepass then we wouldn't see massive cuts across the industry.
Last I checked Game Pass is not on PlayStation and they have the biggest player base.
Now the author mentioned that HI-Fi Rush is a flash in the pants on Gamepass because it's played for a month then it drops making it impossible to recoup investment versus 1st day sales.
And I agree with the established IP making no sense in releasing day 1but HIFi Rush isn't an established IP
meaning that it would have failed no matter what
Sony themselves acknowledged this in an investor call when they mentioned that raising the price of AAA games didn't bring new money for the PlayStation brand but made the consumer more selective with their money favoring established IP.
Is Rise of the Ronin selling well?
How did Lord of the Fallen perform?
And that is the sad real truth for why Game Pass exist
because nobody actually buys unknown or less popular games
Sure everybody claims that if the game is good it will succeed but suddenly excuses are always mentioned when the game failed.
Just remember Gamepass wasn't there to explain
Dishonored and Dishonored 2 lack of sales
Evil Within and Evil Within 2
Prey, etc.
Many people literally showed with 100 million subscribers on streaming failing to turn a profit and how Xbox would also need 100+ million to even be profitable and you guys kept pushing back. They are no where near 100 million even. It's a giant loss of money. Add in COD and the losses will be insane
WTF is the thing with your 100 million subscribers?
MS said they had 34 million subscribers and it's been close to the same for 2 years.
So let me ask you again if Gamepass is not on Playstation 4-5 with the largest user base then why are they having problems?
Why does Square is having problems when they don't care about Xbox?
What's the excuse for Dead Space remake, Alan Wake 2, Rise of Ronin, and countless games not selling on PlayStation?
Gamepass?
This is specifically a Ms problem with buying all those studios and shutting a bunch down. Sony it seems will go more on the pc side but Sony has released anything on Xbox that they weren't forced to do unlike Ms. There's a reason Ms is releasing games on ps and more will come. It's because it's small base cannot sustain all those ips and gamepass has really killed sales. Ms said this themselves
...and overspending on aquisition only to find out they cannot aford to keep what they aquired. It's like an idiot winning the lotto and blowing it all on hookers and blow in loosing it in one night (or like Bobby Kotick rolling his bonus in Macau).
i think we all knew this qould happen really, after the Activision buyout.
but this is just blame shifting in the end. seen a few of them already
I’m not buying HB2, but I will resub for a month to beat it. Such is the nature of GamePass, I guess.
I did exactly this, with A Plague Tale: Requiem which is one of my favourite games of last year and despite having bought the first game. That is Game Pass for you. Now I have A Plague Tale: Requiem sitting on my Steam wishlist so that I can buy it on discount and support the developers in some small way.
Ninja Theory is definitely going down after Hellblade 2. They historically have never made games that ship millions and are thus not in MS' future plans.
Theybmight keep em around a few months to get any sort of patches out that may need but after that I think your right
Short story - MS sucks, MS is woke. Bought many game developers, ruined them, drove off the talent, lost much money, closed them, made excuses.
My perspective over the years is that gaming has become so mainstream that companies looking for profit or new heads trying to make a name for themselves are buying out these gaming companies for profit. They do not care about the vision of the creator anymore. Everything is risky. They want to buy ideas and talent that they never had. Games are barely even on disc's anymore. So many now have to be online. These companies just want to keep selling you stuff as many times and for as long as they can. They want you to act on that dopamine drip. Thank goodness for studios like Larian and From Software. Not even the Big N has stooped this low yet.
I always like it when an "insider" comes out and confirms an obvious truth that everyone with common sense had been saying for years, and it's treated as big news.
All is forgotten if you win the game. Show us what’s coming , hype the hell out of all those games on the horizon, and make sure the next big release on Xbox is actually ready to ship and most of these hate articles will go away
Xbox just needs major first party releases on game pass in order for it to grow. I’m not talking about 1 game a year either but 4-5.
Will it though. Phil himself said they lost the worst generation to lose. And they lost it by a fking huge chunk. I wouldn't be surprised if half the Xboxs bought were for a secondary console or people like myself that buy all consoles at some point.
I won’t be surprised if we find out that this was the plan all along, buy the parent companies, axe all the small studios and put all the focus on the big IPs and shelve all the small IPs for years until they figure a way to turn them into money machines. Or just let them rot. Fuck Microsoft. Cuz it’s either that, or the biggest case of fucking gross incompetence in like a decade. Either way fuck them.
Something finally came back round and bit them on the ass
Now we are going to see sly articles from them which try and make out it was the studios fault not them, like Bethesda and Ubisoft are being the jackasses here.
At the end of the day, gaming journalism isn't political journalism. Leaking government documents is different from leaking game news. Kotaku can't complain that they have been blacklisted because they did something bad in the eyes of the publisher. This industry should work together, not against.
I don't mind if 'journalists' and developers or pubs work together to enhance the industry than try and cause so much friction and call male gamers Mysoginistic and unwelcoming to women.
In conclusion, gawker is sinking, especially after their disgusting, needless display of revealing a person's personal affairs over being gay. Kotaku is just as bad as their daddy site and is sinking with it. The 'we hate gamers' narrative can only end one way, gamers always win
Great article.
The website is an extremely politically biased (owned by gawker) hipster haven. Right down to one of their editors drinking PBR on a live stream. They're also responsible for stirring up the gamergate thing trying to subvert the issue that a developer was sleeping with an editor possibly compromising the editors review of said developers game.
I really agree with the title and sentiment.