360°

Sarah Bond dodges questions on Xbox studio closures

While on stage with Dina Bass at The Bloomberg Technology Summit the President of Xbox, Sarah Bond, was asked about the Xbox studio closures of Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios

30d ago
ApocalypseShadow30d ago

Of course she did. She's part of the problem and will just tow the company line.

VenomUK30d ago (Edited 30d ago )

Bloomberg’s Dina Bass could barely read her scripted question without looking at her notes, whilst Sarah Bond who WAS expecting the question spoke without saying anything of substance or answering the question in any meaningful way. Clearly she’s had the same expert PR training as Phil, but this avoidance was disrespectful. In time the short-sighted decision to shut down Tango Gameworks will be seen as of the most notorious examples why Phil Spencer messed up his tenure in charge of Xbox. That’s a fully built out talented team that could’ve been put to work on any project.

Additionally, Phil Spencer should not be using Sarah Bond as a patsy for his mistakes- he should be answering that question.

gleepot30d ago

I think you are all really overselling Tangos value. Hi-Fi rush was a lot of fun. Ghostwire was incredibly dull. Evil within 1 and 2 were just okay.

lucasnooker30d ago

Evil within 2 was incredibly under rated. I thought that game was surprisingly good

NotoriousWhiz30d ago

Someone else said it best. I don't think it was a Phil decision. It was most likely a Satya decision. I think Microsoft is done giving out free money to Xbox.

Cacabunga30d ago

people please boycott Activision Bethesda next release and support Hellblade.
these people mus understand that they cannot treat their fans and employees that way.
scumbags.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 30d ago
XiNatsuDragnel30d ago

Yikes you don't help Sarah 😬 making a problem worse

Christopher30d ago

She's playing her role. There's absolutely nothing any of them can say other than the truth, this is about profit margins and not quality, so they just don't answer anything and wait for gamers to forget.

shinoff218329d ago

I think news is coming of more ps5 release but they gotta be careful cause Xbox is still sitting on store shelves. They can't get left holding all that stock

Lightning7729d ago

Come next month they'll flash nice looking games in our faces and expecting us to forget.

The only thing that'll be going through my mind at their showcase is how many of those studios will get shut down after release.

I'm not joking around either. MS probably expects every game to be like COD and do COD numbers. What a way to destroy gaming for the entire industry because they're dumb af at being realistic in what success means for each game.

-Foxtrot29d ago

Always feels she was brought in / promoted for this. Happened just before things started to be out in motion.

Phil and co have someone to throw under the bus and share the blame with

zaanan29d ago

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

darthv7229d ago

....won't get fooled again

Hofstaderman30d ago

Like a deer caught in the headlights.....

VariantAEC26d ago

A deer that just learned how to speak English.

notachance30d ago

I always wondered why xbox had multiple leaders with similar titles like Phil Spencer, Matt Booty, and Sarah Bond, like, how many heads do you actually need?

Seems to me it would be more cost efficient to cut 2 of them instead of all those studios.

DarXyde30d ago

Frankly, I suspect she is the most competent of them. I don't mean that I like her more, I mean that she's the best at articulating herself and giving the talking points MS wants to give. The others are starting to sound more like her than her sounding like any of them.

Are any of these people "responsible" for what's happening? No. This reeks of Nadella. But that being said, I don't see any of the Xbox heads stepping down in protest.

"Don't shoot the messenger", sure, but at the same time, the messengers don't seem to take umbrage with the message. Not enough to remove themselves from it, anyway.

CS729d ago

I disagree. Nadella is looking for profit as a CEO should in my opinion.

The problem is Dr. Phil & Co. had 10 years to bring Xbox back on track and have been failing woefully.

Phil needs to sell to Nadella that if we are to make a profit, we need to make great games. And to do that we need employees here for the long haul and the freedom to work on creative projects.

But as Phil said himself he doesn’t believe great games sell consoles.

VariantAEC26d ago

Profit is what keeps the conpany afloat from one month to the next. Selling a product people want is what keeps a company profitable. If Nadella is looking to profits first... he's running they company wrong.

RpgSama30d ago

Dude, 100%, forgot Major Nelson and Aaron Greenberg, like what is the point for all these suits? They have more C-level executives than games released in a generation.

This is just so they can all pass along the hot potato one at a time and in between all of them can say a lot without actually saying anything, misinformation at its finest.

Show all comments (48)
30°

Interview on Indika with the Actress for Indika (Isabella Inchbald)

Interview with Isabella Inchbald, Actress for (Indika) in Indika which is an emotional, thought provoking journey through a nun's tale in questioning her religion.

Read Full Story >>
gamerheadquarters.com
480°

Mark Cerny: When making consoles, we're not trying to build low-cost PCs

PlayStation legend Mark Cerny discusses PS5, the challenges of making consoles, and his 42-year games industry career

Read Full Story >>
gamesindustry.biz
darthv721d 21h ago

Well... they used to design their own chips. Emotion Engine, Cell, RSX... when they switched to using X86 based chips is now more akin to low-mid cost PCs than before. It may not look like a PC but it pretty much is one. I'd bet it could do productivity stuff just fine if they allowed it to.

Cockney1d 19h ago (Edited 1d 19h ago )

I think series consoles are closer to pc than playstation seeing as they used the full suite of rdna 2 functions, didn't Sony strip a lot of that away to streamline their machine to be games focused? Its probably lacking in the office and productivity department, don't ask me what their custom chip does or doesn't do I just remember reading a lot about at the time, "rdna 1.5" was the call and yet what we see is pretty much level pegging as far as games go

GamerRN1d 18h ago

Actually, stripping that away doesn't streamline, it hinders. Those features are actually helpful for gaming.

And they didn't strip them out, they just didn't work closely enough to be able to use them all since specs weren't finalized. Microsoft took an inside line on that one.

The reason why things are equal is because Xbox rarely has games designed on their box, they are usually designed on PS5 and ported over. So Xbox loses the power edge it has to making up the poor optimization.

It's ok, I think the lesson is you have to have a significant increase in power of 30 percent or more to be noticeable. And you have to sell enough to become the lead console for development otherwise you lose that power.

Einhander19721d 17h ago

@GamerRN

PS5 outperforms series x because it uses custom chips to process things that on xbox need to be done by the GPU/CPU.

Things like Tempest Audio, and it's custom compression chip for SSD as well as having a separate chip for upscaling using checkerboard and presumably FSR runs off it as well.

OlderGamer171d 5h ago

O please stop the myth that the seriesX mythe is the only console that is using the "the full suite or Rdna2" is already debunked al long time ago.

Number1TailzFan1d 18h ago

The consoles use video ram as system ram as well since it's all shared, so nah.

1d 6h ago
Christopher1d 17h ago

You should probably read the whole quote and not just go based on the title.

darthv721d 17h ago

I have read it... I dont think anyone can build a PC that equates to the performance of a PS5/Series X for anywhere close to their selling point. Not for a while at least.

And my comment about them switching from custom chips to more PC related just adds to that fact. whether people want to believe it or not... Sony has built a low cost (not spec, there is a difference) PC.

neutralgamer19921d 17h ago (Edited 1d 17h ago )

We need better games on these consoles. This generation has been such a huge letdown so far. Moving forward these current consoles will be supported even when newer Playstation and Xbox are in the market. AAA games have been so expensive to make and it seems fun is taken out of games and loot boxes take their place. Try playing a NBA 2k game it's like a casino with slot machines

just_looken1d 7h ago

The cost of making these games is a scam

Nba 2k19 to 2k14 its like madden the budget to make went stupid high but the fundamental of the game and the game modes never changed.

Anything now even basic intersection construction is tens of millions but pre coivid few hundred grand.

2018 here is $400 landscaping now here is the pink slip to my car.

I swear the cost of everything is the same but there taking of that huge profit top for there own pockets.

Einhander19721d 17h ago

The PS5 is incredibly customized.

The SSD, the Tempest Audio, the APU itself is a mix of cross generation AMD hardware in order to be more optimized for gaming and cost efficient.

The PS5 Pro also has features from cross generation AMD hardware with RT features from RDNA 4 plus it's own custom upscaler PSSR.

PlayStation 5 Pro features next-gen RDNA 4-based ray tracing engine, allows 2-3x faster RT
https://www.tweaktown.com/n...

PlayStation still uses custom designed hardware.

darthv721d 14h ago

honestly... I dont know why some are taking offense to it being called a low cost PC. It really is... and low cost is a good thing. the article did not say low performance PC... that is totally different.

Einhander19721d 14h ago

I'm saying they still are designing their own chips, they just use AMD templates.

The PS5 APU has features from RDNA 1 2 and 3, and the PS5 Pro adds features from RDNA 4, and the CPU is the same with it own customized features.

Then all of that is paired with other custom chips.

just_looken1d 7h ago

What you all said my rig in my bedroom can do it no issues

That plastic box has a 2020 cpu with the pro using a 2021 6700

The custom is do to them being dirt cheap with a 2 prong power supply so they made a cpu/gpu combo chip aka apu.

Get a amd laptop with there new mobile chips get the same performance.

VincentVanBro1d 14h ago

You’re right but downvoted for some reason.

just_looken1d 7h ago

Its this site even the head admin banned me for awhile being but hurt over my "anti" sony comments.

n4g is pro sony nothing sony will ever do can change that.

Pyrofire951d 12h ago (Edited 1d 12h ago )

When you only look at the big flagship chips that seems true, but there's a lot going on in a modern console that takes advantage of being a dedicated kit. The various elements put into how the pipelines are connected shape the direction of games. End to end decryption and data streaming is something big that PC can only kind of do and with less certainty for example. Dedicated audio chip that rivals the main CPU in the PS4 is a big paradigm shift, devs used to fight for cores and audio was often last priority, whereas in traditional PC design the main CPU does both of those jobs of processing audio and decryption, while also performing all the other CPU based tasks.
It's not the custom silicon that used to be what made consoles but there's a lot more to consoles now. Data storage was not even a consideration and almost no RAM was on old consoles. Now there needs to be an enormous amount of SSD storage, and RAM to make these games tick with how much is demanded from them.

just_looken1d 7h ago

@darth

Your comment show how many sony blindboys are on here

You are 100% correct but to add on the gamecube-ps3 also had a gpu/cpu combo back in the day unlike modern consoles that are just glorified tablets using apu/igpu's.

I miss the ps3 era start of ps4 era that sony was awesome

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 1d 5h ago
MIDGETonSTILTS171d 19h ago

Yah, hence the majority of the PS5’s hardware investment going towards an SSD instead of a GPU.

There are countless custom pc gaming rigs out there, and I bet none of them took an SSD-centric approach to their design, like the ps5 did.

just_looken1d 7h ago

LMAO wow sony blind boy's are mad in love

That is called direct storage windows 10 has had that for over 5 year's every computer with a nvme based ssd has had that tech for years.

https://www.thewindowsclub....

The ps6 will then have this new amazing tech you all will go crazy over resize bar
https://www.howtogeek.com/8...

But that tech has been out for 2 years all 40series gpu's intel gpus and the new amd cards have that tech.

There is nothing a ps5 can do over a 4+ year old computer 2019 rig want resize bar? get a cheap amd/intel card for half the cost of a ps5.

MIDGETonSTILTS1719h ago

Clearly you did not watch Cerny’s first ps5 breakdown, so you don’t appreciate EVERYthing Cerny did to leverage their extremely fast SSD.

bigfish1d 18h ago (Edited 1d 18h ago )

I can see where he’s coming from re ps5 not just being a box with parts like a pc. They must also spend an awful lot on r & d just to design the thing so it has aesthetic appeal and typical Japanese with some sort of Philosopy behind the design. Would also think other factors around the custom airflow and the like would cost a lot given that it’s not a standard box shape

TheColbertinator1d 18h ago

That's all a console will ever be.

gold_drake1d 18h ago

true, but the alternative is, relatively, a expensive ordeal.
unless you dont game at all ha.

mkis0071d 12h ago (Edited 1d 12h ago )

Just spent 2000k on a 4070ti super 7800x3d 1440p gaming pc. Honestly consoles will never be replaced at this wide a gap in price. I plan to get a ps5 pro too.

just_looken1d 7h ago

@mk

You waisted 2 grand you mean

At 1440p a amd4 chipset with a 5600x3d combined with a 6750xt even a 6800 can push 1440p just a much for half the cost or less used/new and or sales.

I have a 75hhz monitor in my bedroom 1440p playing games maxed out spent around 1200cad but aio 5800x3d 32gb of ram and a 6750xt 28 or 30 inch monitor.

Every time i hear pc so expensive i just laugh you can spend less than $500 buy a used ebay rig fix it up or a office pc toss in a cheap low profile card.

Pyrofire951d 12h ago

If you look into the hardware beyond just the CPU and GPU things start to look different, and there's plenty beyond just those two parts, those two parts even are modified to their own design in some degree.

Show all comments (55)
50°

Eternal Damnation Interview With Soham Jaiswal, CEO, SD Games

Recently Gareth at Skewed and Reviewed spoke with Soham Jaiswal, CEO, SD Games about the pending Eternal Damnation game. The game is a hybrid of RPG and RTS and cast players as a Spider.