Microsoft made the most important move, future-proofing Xbox

"Microsoft’s most important announcement during its E3 2018 conference wasn’t a game, but rather the acquisition of its four new internal studios, and the birth of a new one." -- Xbox Enthusiast

[shinoff2183]

By buying a couple studios. Are they even caught up to how many sony has. I'm just glad I'm getting we happy few on ps4, watch It even sell better on ps4. Atleast that will release before ms completely possibly screws that dev up somehow

[porkChop]

"Are they even caught up to how many sony has."

Probably not, but that doesn't really matter. What matters is that they're finally making a real investment in first party. People have been hammering Microsoft about that all gen, and they're finally doing it.

They have 5 new studios, most of which have at least 2 teams. That means Microsoft will have a far healthier output of games next gen. That means more competition, and that's better for everyone.

"I'm just glad I'm getting we happy few on ps4, watch It even sell better on ps4"

The PS4 install base is more than double the Xbox One's. Of course the PS4 version will sell better.

[shinoff2183]

Yea idk that second comment about selling better, well no sit on my end.

Idk ms had studios I'm basically saying what will be different this go around

[Prubar]

A couple implies 2. Disingenuous comment.

[ThatGuyDart]

Microsoft has 11

Sony has 12

[xsta1ker]

yes and throw in xbox live game pass and the only true backwards compatibility
from ms and next gen should be great.

[porkChop]

Disagrees just for stating facts. Not even surprised.

[DialgaMarine]

@xsta1ker When did an emulator become true BC? True BC would be being able play every single last gen title off the bat, and PS5 will have that next gen.

[Ausbo]

you act like Microsoft has screwed up many devs. Can you name more than Rare as an example?

[Jinger]

Lionhead

[porkChop]

Eh, Lionhead's downfall was more to do with Molyneux. Every dev he's been a part of has had tons of issues. MS likely played a role, but they weren't the big issue.

[Gameseeker_Frampt]

Ensemble Studios.

[Ausbo]

I’ll give you ensemble. But Iionhead made better games after being acquired by Microsoft.

Yeah they were closed, but fable 1,2 were their best games

[Jinger]

But to counter my own point... Sony has also shut down PLENTY of studios as well. The difference is that Sony always had a lot more studios so shutting down one or two a year wasn't as big of a deal.

[Dragonscale]

Bungie.

[81BX]

Lol

[DialgaMarine]

Even if they have more studios, they simply don’t have the quality, and won’t for a long time, if ever.

[THC CELL]

When dreams comes out mini developers are gunna pop up all over, I'm been serious u are going to see some mad stuff on that game

When xbox box gets GG ND SM studios I'll care till then meh

[Ausbo]

Dreams was announced before even crackdown was announced.

At this point, it just needs to come out already.

[Urzusix]

One is a basic shooter the other is a massive creator tool that would take years to tune, take your own advice about being a fanboy X3

[DialgaMarine]

Dreams was announced at E3 2015; Crackdown 3 at Gamescom 2014. Nice try though.

[Ausbo]

@Diaglamarine Dreams was shown at the PlayStation reveal in 2013

[ShadowWolf712]

Dreams was not shown off. Mm showed off their new engine and stuff they'd been doing with Move controls. Not once was their game announced or shown.

[UCForce]

People already played Dream at E3 booth. Their impressions were very positive and i’m pretty sure that they will announce the release date. Yes, Dream was announced at PlayStation Reveal 2013, but it was new engine that MM was working on and we didn’t know the game name back then. In E3 2015, Dream was officially announced.

[BuildTheWall]

There's no future proofing anything

[RadicalCannibal]

Except, when you future proof it

[chris235]

they may he future proofing their box, but gamers misjudge the situation: they are not futureproofing themselves to be a gaming console ;-) the sooner people will acknowledge this the sooner we will stop seeing such nonsensical blogposts.

[PapaBop]

It's encouraging for the nexbox for sure. Now all they need to do is set their sights on Japan, sadly it's probably a pointless endeavour but ultimately that push they made in the early 360 era gave us some amazing games like Chromehounds, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey etc.

[DialgaMarine]

Xbone hasnt even broken 100K in Japan, and that’s after the 360 sold over 1.5 million there. It doesn’t matter what MS does, the Japanese will never recognize the brand.

[Instantnoodles88]

Great job to Phil and the rest of the team, the Xbox team is doing a fantastic job 👍👍

[King_Lothric]

Fantastic job at being last in the market? Wow.

[Godmars290]

Still have yet to show what Future Proofing is. That its nothing more than another empty PR term.

All I'm seeing is that updates will allow for improving the graphics of an older game on a new system, if an update is made for that game.

[chiefJohn117]

Lol of course you don't

[Melankolis]

Let's hope they don't screw Ninja Theory like they did to Rare.

Hellblade : Senua's sacrifice -become-
Hellgun : Alien domination.

[Automatic79]

I see a lot of individuals saying future proof but in reality MS is on record stating there consoles are forward and backward compatible. So yes, a new console is coming the games being made will take full advantage of new hardware and old. Playground already working on Forza Horizon and they have another Studio. That's one example. Compulsion is dropping we happy few in a month. Overall, these teams are working for now and beyond. Ninja Theory will probably reveal new game next year.

[Rude-ro]

Outside of pc software of which dates back 30 years...
Microsoft studios has been around since 2002...
That is 16 years ago...
And we “future proofing” what exactly?
I mean, they have closed or ended partnerships with up to 10 studios in that time frame? Bought more third party games than releasing in house AAA games?
We still have to see Microsoft actually produce.
Putting trust, Ie your money, into a company that needs articles like this after 16 years is the very definition a bad investment and a warning sign.

They produce, then we can talk.
Sony had 4 new high end ips on demonstration at e3 and got nothing but bad press... even though we know all of their developers are working on titles and Sony has a history of providing...
Microsoft announces nothing new, had the same e3 basically 6 years in a row, bought 4 studios that already made games and it is “future proofing” and got tons of positive articles.

I mean, ok. Then we wait till next gen... 3 years in to truly see where they are going.

So yeah.. in about 5 years, they could possibly be worth buying into for the larger market base that jumped ship for their lack of providing.

[DialgaMarine]

A 17 year old console brand is still preparing for the future. Gotta love it.

[timotim]

❓❔🤔

[DialgaMarine]

What about now?

[Mr_Writer85]

How do they know for sure? I'm not trying to be a negative nelly here, but a developer doesn't always bang out a quality title.

If one or more of these studios launches a lame duck or two who's to say they will be kept.

Tbf more studios increases the likely hood of good games being made, but it might not equal success right away.

Look at Sony, Drive club is a good example, I really enjoyed DC, but from a business standpoint it was a disaster, same for the developers of All Star.

Would Sony had closed them if they had been great games? Doubt it.

But at the same time they will have to reward hard work. Look at Guerilla games, Killzone was decent, but was never for me, but it did enough to convince Sony to let GG do something different.

And we got HZD. Same with ND, Jak led to Uncharted, uncharted led to TLOU.

You can imagine that whatever ND go to Sony with next will get greenlit without much convincing.

That's what MS needs, to have the faith in its studios that you can give them the freedom to create new, or improve on old.

Rather than the current scenario of dictating to them what to make.

[kevnb]

Well if they want to compete with Sony while offering a nearly identical product, they have to come up with compelling exclusives.

[MonChiChi]

I wont lie, I thought some of the studios they acquired were already MS studios lol .

[ccgr]

Glad to see they're in it for the long haul

[THC CELL]

My god Microsoft was point scoring that's all
People buzz over little things these days you will never get the old ms back the good days

[King_Lothric]

Facts
- There is no such a thing as "future proofing". The article is out of reality to start with.
- 2 of 5 of the studios adquiered were already making games for PC and Xbox. No big change.
- 1 studio acquired is mediocre, Team Ninja is a good studio but under Microsoft is another story and the Initiative doesn't even had a team formed yet.

- Getting new studios does not instantly translate into big success and great quality games as the media and some people wants to pretend.

[BiggerBoss]

Team Ninja and Ninja Theory are different studios. Microsoft acquired Ninja Theory.

[BiggerBoss]

Don't know why i got disagrees, because this is a fact lmao.

Microsoft did not buy Team Ninja, they bought Ninja Theory.

What is there to disagree with..?

[Tazzy]

Microsoft went out and bought a few companies big deal it doesn't mean they're future proofing people thought them purchasing RARE future proofed them and that hasn't turned out good. A company with great first party games that sell well are future proofed Sea of Thieves wasn't good State of Decay 2 wasn't good Ninja Theory put out Hellblade that game just hit 1 million sales in close to year after release. Sony and Nintendo are future proofed they've been releasing hit after hit where Microsoft has failed when was the last time Microsoft put out a game that sold over 2-3 million copies??? It's been quite awhile Microsoft is not future proofed if people think they are get your head examined.

[AgeInTheCage]

Ninja theory, team ninja same thing.