Jez Corden writes: "One big question still hangs over the big Bethesda acquisition. Will all of those games go Xbox platform exclusive? Let's examine the three major possible scenarios, and see if we can draw some kind of conclusion."
Square Enix is shifting its strategy to aggressively pursue multiplatform releases and focus on quality over quantity.
Yup, it's official. FFXVI and FFVII Rebirth didn't sell as much as they expected.
- 1% increase in net sales compared to a year with Forspoken and Octopath Traveller II, which didn't sell more than 3 millions combined (and I'm being generous).
- A 38.3% decrease in operating income despite the release of 'High-Definition' titles namely FFXVI, FF Pixels Remaster, Dragon Quest Monsters, and FFVII Rebirth.
- Aggressive multiplatform strategy one year after saying that exclusivity with PlayStation was mutually desired.
Sure, it's all in my head.
Probably for PC and the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2. Square Enix games doesn't sell to well on Xbox
Square named Drops Xbox as part of their multiplatform approach in their quarterly reports.
Like it matters MS will probably find away to close them down to.
I mean, maybe? They'll want as much as possible and I figure they could have been hoping for greater impact on PlayStation, but that's good reason to reflect and realize the resources and development cycle of these games aren't very sustainable. The solution is to make more affordable games with shorter dev cycles, then once in a while bring out the big guns.
I think Final Fantasy VII Re make and Rebirth would do really well if it was multiplatform. Specifically, if Nintendo gets their hardware up to snuff, and the rumors are promising. I don't really have much faith in its performance on Xbox, but Nintendo gamers really commit to buying their games. At one point, Breath of the Wild for Switch outsold the Switch itself.
Granted, Zelda always solos everything except GTA, but Nintendo folk are avid Final Fantasy fans. I think it would do exceptionally. Nintendo just needs to make porting easy and inexpensive and they'll get more games.
The two most profitable games for them didn't sell as much as expected. Yes. Make it make sense.
Hopefully the next Nintendo system isn't a potato and it can contribute to FF sales in future as well, in addition to PC releases. If this ensures the long term health for SE and franchises than like FF and KH then I'm all for it.
Adding Nintendo and PC customers is the best way to increase sales and long term success. Not going to get that from Xbox.
Hof,
You must not have heard they are launching new hardware and have already committed to a Next-Gen Xbox.
But, for some reason, I think you already knew that and wanted to spin a silly narrative; besides, why wouldn't they release games on the SX/SS? You do know these consoles will still be here, right?
Optics. They have a STATED plan to do so. Thats not commitment. The shareholders and board are calling the shots now. Lets see if they have the appetite for hardware because they are owed 80 Billion Dollars already. Investment in hardware, R and D and marketing is how much again? That cost with the history of their hardware performance....at most maybe a handheld. What I am certain of XBOX is finished, the writing has been on the wall before the studio closures. Its MS Games and they are not hardware. They are software because MS is a software company. Expect them to be folded in the Surface team.
*hardware
I believe they committed to hardware.
I hate to nitpick, but that's kind of the company they are. You have to.
"They have a STATED plan to do so. That's not commitment."
Huh? What are you talking about? They announced they would be unveiling new Hardware this holiday season; how else are they supposed to commit to it?
" Lets see if they have the appetite for hardware because they are owed 80 Billion Dollars already"
What a silly statement, you think this deal was approved so they could make 80 billion in less than a year? This is a long-term commitment, a future-proofing of profit.
"What I am certain of XBOX is finished,"
No, you are not certain of this lol; as you stated, if they make even a Handheld in the form of a Steam-Deck that can dock to a TV/monitor, wouldn't that be just changing the form factor but still XBOX?
Closing these studios has really got you guys delusional; that is what happens in companies, in a changing market: you acquire, and you trim; like it or not, that is the way things are done. Lets look.
Where is the new Psygnosis with a new wipeout?
What happened to Japan Studio? Pixl Opus? London Studio?
Where is Zipper Interactive?
I can list more, but you see, closing devs doesn't mean your company is finished, especially when you have like 30+ dev teams.
They won't be unveiling the hardware this holiday season it will be like the series x and s they got a tease at the game awards 2018. But no details until year of their release in 2020 lol
Please tell me the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is still coming. I feel like I've been waiting forever for that game.
i think the juggernauts kingdom hearts (disney provides the money for that one) final fantasy and dragon quest are fine, the rest not as much
Another sign that dedicated consoles market is in trouble, while PC seems more and more attractive to big publishers.
Having a good gaming PC and a PS5 myself, given current trend form both Sony and MS I am less and less playing on PS5, waiting for exclusives to release on PC, so I understand the logic behind the new strategy.
Ants,
I get that we don't know exactly without numbers, but come on, man, we can clearly see what's happening.
The console market has not grown much, the highest-selling console in history is still the PS2. You can play the " prove it" game all you want, but Sony's more aggressive PC push, SE completely rebooting their company/business, after being mainly exclusive to one console and showing a sizeable profit loss is telling.
PC is a high seller, and your doubtful PS5 dominant stance does not change the clear writing on the wall, straight from Sony's mouth, that they need to be, and will be more aggressive in the very lucrative PC market.
So, in other words, PC market is indeed looking more and more attractive to Pubs.
@730
Numbers?
I'm willing to bet the farm that ¨PC gamers are not the dominate number compared to console, but I don't know because I don't have numbers. However, the price point of entry can allow us to infer what I had just stated.
What an ironic thing to say on a link-agreggate site like N4G. Explains your comment history perfectly.
Paul Thurrott in a recent episode commented on the on-going Microsoft fiasco hinting at more job losses and that "there's more to come".
There won't be no more acquiring game publishers from Microsoft in the future . Xbox has to pay Microsoft back. It might take two decades to do that.
I don’t understand what you’re saying. Xbox IS microsoft so there’s no “paying back “.
And MS gross profit in 2023 was over 140 billion dollars so forget your 2 decades.
Unless you mean the money MS invested in Xbox (acquisitions included) and the time it will take for xbox as a brand to gain that money back on it’s own, then yeah, that could take a while.
The better term to use might be return on investment, xbox is simply a division of Microsoft one that MS can easily do away with if profit margins are not met. So in that regard he's right, if xbox isn't showing the expected return on investment the higher ups are expecting than it's unlikely Microsoft will acquire any other studios any time soon, especially if they are spending billions buying developers just to shut them down in the end.
Xbox is a division that they discussed shutting down but doubled down on after Gamepass was pitched.
It needs to make money at some point. Big money.
According to Statista the net income of Microsoft is about $72.4 billion dollars which is a bit lower than last year profit. That is almost as much as Activision's acquisition but I assume that would be a one off since it costs so much plus I see how their focus has been shifted to AI, thus any major future investments will probably be in that area.
@romulus23
That is not why MS buys studios. They might continue to buy because it's about taking that sweet sweet IP out of the corporate husks of their acquisitions.
“There won't be no more acquiring game publishers from Microsoft in the future”
No bro, there do be is for Microsoft not acquiring for what is now if not what it be is 😂
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Let’s be real, this is the media spinning all the acquisitions and liquidations of said developers and spinning it to make M$ the villain.
This was bound to happen, a bigger slice of pie and cut costs, when the games come they stand to make more and that’s their agenda—it was the writing on the wall when the sales went through and legally all those who approved the sale and mergers knew this would happen.
Snowflakes need to realize business is ugly and you can cry all you want but this is how capitalism works. And it works.
That said, M$ needs to steer the narrative and grab hold of all this, make their plans known, hype the hell out of all those dead IP’s they plan to revive, and be honest about the timeline. This is likely to involve mobile and IP on other consoles, and most people realize that.
The problem is this company is incapable of being transparent and seems to often want to dissuade and confuse is customer base. The lack of E3 has hurt Microsoft and I don’t think they know how to properly or effectively market their brand anymore.
There really needs to be a class action lawsuit here. You buy these companies just to put people out of jobs. And it’s not like something happened to derail their plans this WAS the plan. Microsoft has no business in this space at all.
Microsoft has been doing this for years. They simply want the IPs. Look at Nokia. Look at Skype. This time it simply expanded to games. Gaming is not as important to Microsoft’s executives as it was to the founders too. Bill Gates was willing to sell the og Xbox at a loss. Steve Balmer approved the red ring of death fiasco. This CEO isn’t really a gamer.
Maybe it's time though to put a stop to it and use a big giant like Microsoft as a huge example to the rest of these big companies.
There has to be a line drawn somewhere.
People like the FTC and the like went against Microsoft yet their Actvision deal was still allowed to go through yet look what's happened...it's not even Acitivisions studios aswell, it's Bethesdas.
You do realize this happens in ALL industries? Or are you just saying this because it is Microsoft? In any case I feel for those that are being let go but the trch industry is suffering right now.
This absolutely does NOT happen all the time. Let me know the last time 1 company with a terrible product track record spent 100 billion onto acquire MULTIPLE successful companies in under a year only to shut them down and stop making their products regardless of how successful they were. Not merge them, completely shut them down.
And you can’t use Microsoft in your example.
Class action lawsuit? The law is on their side and protects them at all costs. There are no rules to protect the people at the bottom.
Ninja Theory, Perfect Dark, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Wolfenstein 3, Dishonored, Prey, Doom, Quake... something tells me that bad things are going to happen to these entities under Microsoft.
ID software, the makers of Doom and Wolfenstein that have been with us since 1991 could be gone and MS will keep the IPs.
I hope some of these studios can buy their freedom from MS otherwise this is going to be even more devastating for the industry and gamers.
That's exactly what I'm worried about. I've been a fan of id since Wolfenstein 3D and I'm honestly afraid.
Toys for Bob saw the writing on the wall and bought themselves out.
Wouldn't be the first time a company did that under MS either. Bungie and Twisted Pixel did the same. Considering what just happened, I can see some other devs trying to buy themselves out too.
Won't make a difference.
The whole structure needs to be overhauled. Anyone that replaces Phil will be no different than him, Mattrick, or anyone else.
Until the company changes how they go about business, nothing will change
I just don't have any idea what they would do , they have done sooo much damage on their xbox brand, they have a show at July or June I think, but will it even matter even they show amazing games, idkn
True,
But they may as well get it over with. Whether it happens now or later, the burning is going to hit the same.
Reality is the ONE move that can alleviate a lot of this is the one move they can't make. Remove day 1 from gamepass.
Sega has released its financial statement for the 2023-24 fiscal year, and profits may be up, but it's mostly not down to video games.
76, Elders Scrolls online, Zenimax New IP Death loop and Ghost wire timed games will be on PS5.
New AAA's going forward will be on MS machine and services. Why? Because MS made 15b$ back during the period of the acquisition able to buy them twice. Other platforms and services (besides steam) won't be needed.
The only game that I think could come to other platforms is Starfield. I can actually see that being timed exclusive for a year on Xbox. The game is said to be far along and I'm sure a PS platform was in the works at the time. It would be pretty pointless just to dump the PS version just because MS owns them.
E6 and Indiana Jones etc are gonna be on Xbox platforms though.
Minecraft is a big money maker and very popular Microsoft would be stupid to limit it to one platform. It's also still too early and I doubt Microsoft has a plan hammered out on how to run Zenimax yet. They would have to keep previous services going or else they could face pitchforks and torches from the gamers. As for the games being timed exclusives before the Zenimax purchase. They would have to keep it timed Sony made contracts with Bethesda on the games and probably paid cash to make those games exclusive. For Microsoft to wreck that they would have to buy out that said timed contract or find a loop hole to put the game on another platform or make amends to the contract. Like what Namco did with Tales of Vesperia that was an XB360 exclusive that also saw the PS3 Namco found a loophole. I would want Microsoft to keep the Zenimax studios as a separate entity that way different titles come out and the studios are not locked to a certain title like 343 for Halo and The Coalition to Gears. Right now as it sits it's just a wait and see what Microsoft will do when they have a plan hammered out on what to do with Zenimax again it's still to early. You can guess all you want and Microsoft could do a 360 and drop a bomb that will piss people off and fans of the games and that is the last thing they want to do.
Any other platform MS puts their first party games on, MS will want and probably require Xbox Live integration into. I don't see Sony allowing that.
No way they will go multiplatform. Nothing obsidian and ninja theory have released since being bought or announced has gone or has been said to be going to PS4 or PS5...so i don't know why Bethesda is a special case. They are just keeping it vague so they don't seem too anti consumer.
it is clear to anyone that MS sunk 7.5bn into Zenimax to get these games exclusively on MS platforms.