This podcast was recorded during Gamescom 2019 in Cologne, Germany. Parris of Gamertag Radio interviews Aaron Greenberg about Xbox, X Cloud, Gamepass, Nintendo Switch, Steam and more.
While we haven't even begun to tap into the full potential of the PS5, fans are already beginning to talk about what Sony's next console, the PlayStation 6, will look like and what features it will have.
“While we haven't even begun to tap into the full potential of the PS5“
We always here this statement yet we have plenty of games that struggle to run at solid frame rates or decent resolutions.
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.
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.
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"
***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.
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.
Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson said generative AI will allow bigger, more immersive worlds, and the developers were very eager for it.
If you want a tool to reduce the time it takes to make a product, AI is a tool to do that. If you want a tool to just make content for you, AI is a poor crutch for good writing and storytelling.
I don't disagree. However, good writing and storytelling in games are still pretty rare. Honestly, AI as it is right now could probably produce output similar to, if not better than, your average experience. Especially because the main issue I see being thrown around for its use is the generation of ludonarrative problems. But, we have literal GotY winners that are incarnations of ludonarrative problems and written by humans. So if specialists don't care, would the average player even notice?
That said, from the perspective of improving the craft, AI will undoubtedly do more harm than good if used for that.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying what we're getting out there right now is overall great from everyone. There are obviously a lot of bad writers out there. The problem is AI learning from bad writers. No thanks!
Time for AI to replace CEOS. That way, when it fails, as it inevitably will, there's no one to tell. The employees can continue to make games, get raises (no CEO bonuses), and there will no longer be bone headed decisions by id10Ts.
Think how much easier it will be to fire an AI CEO than a real one! We've sacked Ocrulos AI CEO and will be replacing him with Kensho Technologies v3 CEO.
Honestly, that's the funny thing I find about AI. Is that it's the management and higher up positions that are the most perfectly replaceable positions with AI vs people at ground level.
Games are about to get worse. AI will do most of the lifting, devs will polish the turd and prices will raise because of "the economy".
'Generative AI Will Allow Bigger, More Immersive Life>>>>>> >> Work Balance and Paychecks for our Employees, Says EA, and Developers Were 'Hungry' for It'
Sounds good to me.
Damn......the folks over at Gamertag have been loyal Xbox fans for a while now....
Talk about dedication.....