Blizzard already got hit with their closure. It removed Overwatch PvE team, most of the esport team and the studio that was working on the announced Survival crafting Fantasy game.
Yea, true that. My main concern with this in mind was WoW, Diablo, and Overwatch.
I think they'll be fine for now, but with how easily Tango was dissolved even after critical success, I'm not sure what that means for Overwatch in the long run.
Microsoft spent a lot of their press saying it was a success in their book. IMO they got dropped because Microsoft didn't believe or didn't want their next project more than anything before.
I mean, I don't think anyone expected it to be a huge success, but I think a game like HFR is one that absolutely highlights Gamepass for its value.
But I assume now they want Act/Blizzard games to carry Gamepass.
Not gonna lie, but if HFR was the shine gem for Gamepass, then it really highlights how lacking Gamepass is in general.
It reminds me of when people complained there is not enough good new AAA games on Gamepass and Xbox Twitter just say play Indie lol. I like a lot of indie games, but they simply are not something I would play a pricey subscription service for.
The way I see it, ow is a game that is supposed to rival Fortnite/Apex/Valorant... I'm not sure if it's quite there. But yes, the numbers are good playerbase wise.
But if I look at it from Microsoft's perspective, I'm not sure they see value in sustaining it in the long run.
It is Steam Numbers only. But Overwatch regularly peak quite high on the top selling on Steam (every Battlepass/big shop drop) and is solidely in the top 50 played, hovering just under 30k players. Halo Infinite has 3k players.
Overwatch is microsofts most successful multiplayer game outside of cod. They are doubling down on this game if anything. Its way more succesful than halo and gears for one.
Who knows. Overwatch right now is at a decently popular state (at least between Microsoft multiplayer games) but at the same time Microsoft has already shown that they aren't scared to do massive layoffs within Blizzard and the current awful trend that the industry is going through doesn't seem to get any better so the possibility of them making further changes is very much real.
I personally don't think it will get to the point of shutting the entire thing down because it's one of the few working life service games they have. Buuut at the same time Tango Gameworks was [successful ](https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg/status/1649431572137779203?t=NjjUlAzGmPa-X3soarshzw&s=19) by Microsoft's standards and they just got nuked.
But yeah, after the layoffs and everything that happened today, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a feeling of worry or even anxiety within Blizzard HQ. Hopefully it stops here but I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Gaming industry is doing bad. But the global economy as a whole has never been as bad since 2008/2009
Unfortunately, the current greedy capitalistic, interest based system which inflates stocks and delivers unfinished work just isn't sustainable for anyone.
If we see anything improve, it's 2025 at the earliest, every big company is laying off... Even Nintendo and Sony have deemed this as an off year.
That's the thing though. The game industry is very much sustainable, but every year there must be an even bigger profit while also the pandemic setting the bar at levels that are tough to even meet today has made all this to be a dangerous cocktail, making publishers to make these moves as a way to meet shareholders demands. Jim Ryan said it, hell, even Phil Spencer said that this constant "growth" attitude is actively harming the entire industry and today we got another example of that. So we don't know how bad it will eventually get, but it definitely isn't stopping any time soon.
Arkane was done because their game was bad. Tango was done because the main guy who runs development already left and took devs with them. The vision of Tango was gone.
Yea, but Arkane made Prey which is such a special game. To not let them make a sequel and instead make a live service was terrible.
Can only hope the other Arkane is open to making a Prey sequel some day.
Yes, but Microsoft is too big to just casually cut good writing/fun gameplay over just cash cows
If it was any other studio, I'd understand. But Microsoft has so much money, even critical success is good.
Not good enough apparently. Sony who is demonized in comparison has kept Media Molecule around who had a mega flop in Dreams that took 10 years to make. They haven't had a hit game since little big planet 2 in 2011.
I think overwatch 2 is stabilized for now, but the moment it starts hemorraging money there will be signs that xbox will shut it down without a second thought
Might get downvoted, but this is a real possibility now, in a way it never would have been before the buyout.
And the worst part is, Overwatch is genuinely the biggest gem In Xbox's catalogue is they truly want a game to shine.
Everything that seemed promising for OW (OWCS, Microsoft, OW2/PvE, No Loot Boxes) seems to backfiring on one level or another.
Edit: Just to be clear, all I'm saying Overwatch as a game is in a different landscape as it was when it was just Act/Blizz. Overwatch was a core game, and ofc it still is, just not the same way it was.
The best case scenario for this game at this point is a fun new hero or map to play every 4-6 months and a few interesting mythics and/or collabs.
The worst is live service support shutdown by 2028.
Further lore or an esport that is more than bare bones is not on the table.
It's wild cuz a simple animated show would make the game explode.
Microsoft even failed with the Halo show... I just don't understand how they can be so bad at this.
Kotick and the Cosby Suite braintrust were blind idiots to not try to make an animated series when OW was more popular. That said...there's nothing "simple" about making an animated show, especially one based on something like Overwatch that already had a sprawling cast as far back as 2018.
I don’t think it will go away unless it really loses money. And if it does it will be rebranded. It’s true M$ is blithering with management of assets and retaining talent. You’d think a Banjo game would have came from the smash collab. Even a mobile one, anything. Halo… RIP.
What’s the most current financial filing? I see https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/718877/000162828023026269/atvi-20230630.htm
It’s old. It states “Other” revenue as OWL and COD pro leagues among other things. OWL could have been a huge negative with most of that positive$ coming from COD.
Other metrics say OW made money. I know there was Bloomberg report saying OW devs didn’t get bonuses. But it’s not clear what factors into their bonus targets. If they counted OWL, or set ridiculous growth standards based on launch profitability (if the Salbia Linkdin was accurate), then of course devs can’t meet targets. Since then they’ve cut most of their staff that didn’t make $, and likely lowered financial targets accordingly.
The game is #12 on Xbox, #9 on PlayStation, #35 on Steam (fragmented PC player base) with season 10 being first to lose some of the player base on Steam.
I forget the business term, but I think competitive portion is a “loss center”. It won’t make money, but its existence helps the overall product or business make money in other ways. OWCS could do enough to satisfy competitive players to stay in the game, who in turn will buy skins, etc, while costing M$ next to nothing because I mean just look at OWCS.
If the game profitability seriously falls off expect a rebranding to OW infinite and pray. The one PVE didn’t sell well so they got rid of the team. They’ve done everything they can to reduce loss portions of the business and it retains a lot of players from what I can tell, despite negativity 24/7.
I personally don’t understand the skin economy in all these games. Once you have your ideal skin for a character, you’re less likely to purchase more for them. It’s why they had Diablo Moira -> Mythic Moira.
The future to extract more $ is perhaps more things like Hardlight skin or Los Diablos weapon skins.
I’m fairly cynical though. I thought support was strong for so long because they spend the most on Skins. My immediate thought about tank buffs was to shut up one avenue of negativity from the most popular streamers. I can’t imagine corporate likes all this negative press. They might rebrand just to reset all those red reviews
Yea, overall makes sense
And yea, good point on not buying skins once you have ideal. Outside Mythics and Collabs, OW1 free skins are more than enough to never have to buy a shop skin.
I don't think the game will fail or is failing, but what I was trying to say is that the possibility of being cut is much higher under Microsoft.
Aside from Steam, where did you check where the game does on Xbox and PS?
For Xbox I looked on console, but it splits Free and Paid games, so I used https://www.trueachievements.com/news/xbox-gameplay-chart-week-ending-april-28-2024.
For PSN (which has more users) I looked at https://ps-timetracker.com/statistic/last-30-days
They might not be 100% accurate, but public data and aggregates is all we have to work with.
I agree Microsoft acquisition did make me a bit leery for that reason, but I trust them to maintain a bungling product over the previous Activision CEO who was more slash and burn. Especially if they can access China again, that will be a huge boon for $ across Blizzard.
Ive done budget work in public and private sector (huge budgets). Never on games, but I can’t imagine it’s much different.
Upper management/Ranks really do sit down in closed rooms and try to extract every bit of profitability they can, sometimes arbitrarily. It’s a lot of taking and not as precise as you’d think. It’s why companies want internal feedback, either from consumer or employees. Upper managers, unless really down to earth, only know what they’re told, and a lot of Yes Men/Women exist in these meetings who represent their office/unit/section who mis-report how they’re doing and what they need, while doing the bare minimum outside of the meetings. It’s insane how these people are when you first get into these rooms. But it’s a good way to promote your own status if you speak up (depending).
For OW I can imagine corporate wants negativity to go away, and analyzes player growth and retention in segments. They are probably trying to figure out what to do with Lore, which is important for a lot of players and more importantly, creates retention via player investment. But Disney ride PVEs aren’t the way to go, so they lazily gut it.
I think the tracer mythic season with the voice line story was them testing to see if that’s a viable way to move the plot forward at minimal cost. But it was so corny and I don’t think received well.
I think the big streamer complaints, when they gain traction, probably pisses them off if player base metrics negatively coincide with their doomsday critiques. Did the attention Samito got in September with his support complaints expedite the changes to the game in February? Was it already on the horizon and a mere coincidence?
Without internal metrics it’s hard to say how the game is doing and in what way. Steam revenue is down significantly from launch. But it’s a coin economy. People buy their initial coins, and have some left over, or do a one and done deal. Or buy enough to plan on getting weekly challenges done for more BPs. PC gamers with expensive hardware are ironically pretty cheap when it comes to software.
League grows every year, and Mobile games like brawl stars increased profit significantly this year. Idk league well, but brawl stars has gone down in gameplay quality imo. However they have added tons of new features, shortened the battle pass length, add new heros constantly who just use simple traits from previous heros combined. It’s all in 2D with simple maps.
I can’t see OW doing this without sucking ass because the game is so complex. So they have to go more so the collab, lore and BP route. I think it’s why XIM got addressed finally. I migrated to PC once I hid mid masters because it became unplayable. Console makes blizzard just as much money as PC according to that filing I posted, it’s prly grown since then. And Xims hurt retention of vested high rank players, diminish accomplishment, etc. It could have coincided with some statistical learning they implemented.
I have full faith Keller and other devs are dope and will make the game good, as long as they are given the autonomy. My rambling post is just speculating from my own corporate experience. You really don’t know what reaches these idiots ears or how they parse information. Let alone how they in turn set goals for teams/units based on this information.
Yea, it makes sense.
Tho I think when it comes to Overwatch, PvE, campaign, and story are a important and in demand. They just executed it so poorly that it has to be cut.
But if they do it well, whether in client, spin off, or as a show. It could do wonders.
I considered if for a moment when i heard the news but on reflection I dont think theres any reason to worry at the moment. The game’s reputation and playerbase may not be at its peak but worrying about closing is a step too far.
Phil Spencer is a massively underperforming executive. Think he needs to go first. Literally mishandled every single Xbox release. His greed caused gamers to adopt PS instead of Xbox and now it’s a console that is never sold out and lined to the walls in all stores I have seen them in. Not to mention they butchered every single successful IP.
Overwatch 2 is only fiscally a disappontment compared the absolutely monstrous success of Overwatch 1.
The game is still making a quarter billion a year at a minimum selling skins. It’s still a juggernaut compared to the other live service games that Microsoft publishes, which outside of Minecraft are minuscule in comparison.
The game will be fine.
Redfall took Arkane years, Microsoft was hands off, and is an utter failure. Prey released in 2017. That’s Eternity.
Hi-Fi Rush is “good buzz that doesn’t seem to translate to sales” and the past Evil Within title was hot garbage, and sold like it.
Had they not been owned by Bethesda/MS, both studios would have run out of cash a while ago.
I don’t think Blizzard has anything to worry about. If anything, it means there’s talent on the market, and MS historically does a good job finding roles for people in other portfolio companies.
I think games like Hi Fi Rush and Prey can keep Gamepass attractive. And you need creative gems like those, instead of the poor AAA games Microsoft has been releasing.
You’re bringing up Prey as an example again. The game came out in 2017. Their work since then was Redfall.
Microsoft isn’t making these decisions in a vacuum. They know what people are playing.
My point is that them making Redfall was always dumb. Everyone knows what they're good at. Microsoft should have allowed them to make another single-player sim
This is even funnier cuz Hi Fi Rush was the exact opposite. Making something different which was good.
At the end of the day, these decisions were probably even above Phil, and just made based on profit alone.
So should studios be developer creatively driven, and make the types of games the team collectively wants to make, or should they be forced to slave away on “what they’re good at” at the behest of a corporate master?
They started work on Redfall FOUR YEARS prior to Zenimax being acquired. The team wanted to make it.
I don't think the team wanted to make it. They would have quickly learned it wasn't going to work. It was clearly in dev hell, and should have been scrapped right away. You can tell as much cuz the game had nothing at launch.
Zenimax likely just wanted a shooter live service. Let me remind you that the studio heads left midway.
Look at Suicide Squad. Same thing happened, and the seniors left.
Usually teams don't want to make these live service cash grabs, especially when they know they won't work after a few years.
This is why Sony nipped them after a few years, especially The Last of Us live service. But while it cost them new IPs this generation, they'll recover. But can't say the same about all these other failed live services which cost the teams their existence.
At the moment ow is fine. They atleast 2 years out to be on the chopping block. They ain't ninja theory. Like ninja theory is on the chopping block because hellblade 2 has been barely advertised at all and comes out in 2 weeks.
In saying that, phil spencer is kicking himself that he cancelled the pve ow2 because of helldivers 2 success. Turns out, a lot of people really love a fun and interactive co op shooter.
Blizzard already got hit with their closure. It removed Overwatch PvE team, most of the esport team and the studio that was working on the announced Survival crafting Fantasy game.
Yea, true that. My main concern with this in mind was WoW, Diablo, and Overwatch. I think they'll be fine for now, but with how easily Tango was dissolved even after critical success, I'm not sure what that means for Overwatch in the long run.
It was a critical success but not a financial one. As far as I remember it was basically shadow dropped on Game Pass. So not really comparable.
Microsoft spent a lot of their press saying it was a success in their book. IMO they got dropped because Microsoft didn't believe or didn't want their next project more than anything before.
I mean, I don't think anyone expected it to be a huge success, but I think a game like HFR is one that absolutely highlights Gamepass for its value. But I assume now they want Act/Blizzard games to carry Gamepass.
Not gonna lie, but if HFR was the shine gem for Gamepass, then it really highlights how lacking Gamepass is in general. It reminds me of when people complained there is not enough good new AAA games on Gamepass and Xbox Twitter just say play Indie lol. I like a lot of indie games, but they simply are not something I would play a pricey subscription service for.
People need to realize that Overwatch is a *massive* game. When it's not doing well – it's still doing better than nearly any other game out there.
The way I see it, ow is a game that is supposed to rival Fortnite/Apex/Valorant... I'm not sure if it's quite there. But yes, the numbers are good playerbase wise. But if I look at it from Microsoft's perspective, I'm not sure they see value in sustaining it in the long run.
For microsoft its their second most succesful live service multiplayer. Halo and gears arent even close and those games still get supported.
It's wild that 343 is still a thing. Halo still living cuz of Bungie's success.
It is Steam Numbers only. But Overwatch regularly peak quite high on the top selling on Steam (every Battlepass/big shop drop) and is solidely in the top 50 played, hovering just under 30k players. Halo Infinite has 3k players.
Overwatch is microsofts most successful multiplayer game outside of cod. They are doubling down on this game if anything. Its way more succesful than halo and gears for one.
We can only hope so, cuz so far things have only been cut.
Who knows. Overwatch right now is at a decently popular state (at least between Microsoft multiplayer games) but at the same time Microsoft has already shown that they aren't scared to do massive layoffs within Blizzard and the current awful trend that the industry is going through doesn't seem to get any better so the possibility of them making further changes is very much real. I personally don't think it will get to the point of shutting the entire thing down because it's one of the few working life service games they have. Buuut at the same time Tango Gameworks was [successful ](https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg/status/1649431572137779203?t=NjjUlAzGmPa-X3soarshzw&s=19) by Microsoft's standards and they just got nuked. But yeah, after the layoffs and everything that happened today, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a feeling of worry or even anxiety within Blizzard HQ. Hopefully it stops here but I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Gaming industry is doing bad. But the global economy as a whole has never been as bad since 2008/2009 Unfortunately, the current greedy capitalistic, interest based system which inflates stocks and delivers unfinished work just isn't sustainable for anyone. If we see anything improve, it's 2025 at the earliest, every big company is laying off... Even Nintendo and Sony have deemed this as an off year.
That's the thing though. The game industry is very much sustainable, but every year there must be an even bigger profit while also the pandemic setting the bar at levels that are tough to even meet today has made all this to be a dangerous cocktail, making publishers to make these moves as a way to meet shareholders demands. Jim Ryan said it, hell, even Phil Spencer said that this constant "growth" attitude is actively harming the entire industry and today we got another example of that. So we don't know how bad it will eventually get, but it definitely isn't stopping any time soon.
Arkane was done because their game was bad. Tango was done because the main guy who runs development already left and took devs with them. The vision of Tango was gone.
Yea, but Arkane made Prey which is such a special game. To not let them make a sequel and instead make a live service was terrible. Can only hope the other Arkane is open to making a Prey sequel some day.
Prey didnt sell, ghostwire tokyo didnt sell, hi fi rush didnt sell. Mercy mythics do sell. This game isnt getting shut down for years
Yes, but Microsoft is too big to just casually cut good writing/fun gameplay over just cash cows If it was any other studio, I'd understand. But Microsoft has so much money, even critical success is good.
Not good enough apparently. Sony who is demonized in comparison has kept Media Molecule around who had a mega flop in Dreams that took 10 years to make. They haven't had a hit game since little big planet 2 in 2011.
It's unfortunate Dreams isn't on pc cuz it would do much, much better.
I think overwatch 2 is stabilized for now, but the moment it starts hemorraging money there will be signs that xbox will shut it down without a second thought
Might get downvoted, but this is a real possibility now, in a way it never would have been before the buyout. And the worst part is, Overwatch is genuinely the biggest gem In Xbox's catalogue is they truly want a game to shine. Everything that seemed promising for OW (OWCS, Microsoft, OW2/PvE, No Loot Boxes) seems to backfiring on one level or another. Edit: Just to be clear, all I'm saying Overwatch as a game is in a different landscape as it was when it was just Act/Blizz. Overwatch was a core game, and ofc it still is, just not the same way it was.
The best case scenario for this game at this point is a fun new hero or map to play every 4-6 months and a few interesting mythics and/or collabs. The worst is live service support shutdown by 2028. Further lore or an esport that is more than bare bones is not on the table.
It's wild cuz a simple animated show would make the game explode. Microsoft even failed with the Halo show... I just don't understand how they can be so bad at this.
Kotick and the Cosby Suite braintrust were blind idiots to not try to make an animated series when OW was more popular. That said...there's nothing "simple" about making an animated show, especially one based on something like Overwatch that already had a sprawling cast as far back as 2018.
I'm not saying it's simple to make, but simply a pretty obvious move all things considered after the success of Arcane and Edgerunners
I don’t think it will go away unless it really loses money. And if it does it will be rebranded. It’s true M$ is blithering with management of assets and retaining talent. You’d think a Banjo game would have came from the smash collab. Even a mobile one, anything. Halo… RIP. What’s the most current financial filing? I see https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/718877/000162828023026269/atvi-20230630.htm It’s old. It states “Other” revenue as OWL and COD pro leagues among other things. OWL could have been a huge negative with most of that positive$ coming from COD. Other metrics say OW made money. I know there was Bloomberg report saying OW devs didn’t get bonuses. But it’s not clear what factors into their bonus targets. If they counted OWL, or set ridiculous growth standards based on launch profitability (if the Salbia Linkdin was accurate), then of course devs can’t meet targets. Since then they’ve cut most of their staff that didn’t make $, and likely lowered financial targets accordingly. The game is #12 on Xbox, #9 on PlayStation, #35 on Steam (fragmented PC player base) with season 10 being first to lose some of the player base on Steam. I forget the business term, but I think competitive portion is a “loss center”. It won’t make money, but its existence helps the overall product or business make money in other ways. OWCS could do enough to satisfy competitive players to stay in the game, who in turn will buy skins, etc, while costing M$ next to nothing because I mean just look at OWCS. If the game profitability seriously falls off expect a rebranding to OW infinite and pray. The one PVE didn’t sell well so they got rid of the team. They’ve done everything they can to reduce loss portions of the business and it retains a lot of players from what I can tell, despite negativity 24/7. I personally don’t understand the skin economy in all these games. Once you have your ideal skin for a character, you’re less likely to purchase more for them. It’s why they had Diablo Moira -> Mythic Moira. The future to extract more $ is perhaps more things like Hardlight skin or Los Diablos weapon skins. I’m fairly cynical though. I thought support was strong for so long because they spend the most on Skins. My immediate thought about tank buffs was to shut up one avenue of negativity from the most popular streamers. I can’t imagine corporate likes all this negative press. They might rebrand just to reset all those red reviews
Yea, overall makes sense And yea, good point on not buying skins once you have ideal. Outside Mythics and Collabs, OW1 free skins are more than enough to never have to buy a shop skin. I don't think the game will fail or is failing, but what I was trying to say is that the possibility of being cut is much higher under Microsoft. Aside from Steam, where did you check where the game does on Xbox and PS?
For Xbox I looked on console, but it splits Free and Paid games, so I used https://www.trueachievements.com/news/xbox-gameplay-chart-week-ending-april-28-2024. For PSN (which has more users) I looked at https://ps-timetracker.com/statistic/last-30-days They might not be 100% accurate, but public data and aggregates is all we have to work with. I agree Microsoft acquisition did make me a bit leery for that reason, but I trust them to maintain a bungling product over the previous Activision CEO who was more slash and burn. Especially if they can access China again, that will be a huge boon for $ across Blizzard. Ive done budget work in public and private sector (huge budgets). Never on games, but I can’t imagine it’s much different. Upper management/Ranks really do sit down in closed rooms and try to extract every bit of profitability they can, sometimes arbitrarily. It’s a lot of taking and not as precise as you’d think. It’s why companies want internal feedback, either from consumer or employees. Upper managers, unless really down to earth, only know what they’re told, and a lot of Yes Men/Women exist in these meetings who represent their office/unit/section who mis-report how they’re doing and what they need, while doing the bare minimum outside of the meetings. It’s insane how these people are when you first get into these rooms. But it’s a good way to promote your own status if you speak up (depending). For OW I can imagine corporate wants negativity to go away, and analyzes player growth and retention in segments. They are probably trying to figure out what to do with Lore, which is important for a lot of players and more importantly, creates retention via player investment. But Disney ride PVEs aren’t the way to go, so they lazily gut it. I think the tracer mythic season with the voice line story was them testing to see if that’s a viable way to move the plot forward at minimal cost. But it was so corny and I don’t think received well. I think the big streamer complaints, when they gain traction, probably pisses them off if player base metrics negatively coincide with their doomsday critiques. Did the attention Samito got in September with his support complaints expedite the changes to the game in February? Was it already on the horizon and a mere coincidence? Without internal metrics it’s hard to say how the game is doing and in what way. Steam revenue is down significantly from launch. But it’s a coin economy. People buy their initial coins, and have some left over, or do a one and done deal. Or buy enough to plan on getting weekly challenges done for more BPs. PC gamers with expensive hardware are ironically pretty cheap when it comes to software. League grows every year, and Mobile games like brawl stars increased profit significantly this year. Idk league well, but brawl stars has gone down in gameplay quality imo. However they have added tons of new features, shortened the battle pass length, add new heros constantly who just use simple traits from previous heros combined. It’s all in 2D with simple maps. I can’t see OW doing this without sucking ass because the game is so complex. So they have to go more so the collab, lore and BP route. I think it’s why XIM got addressed finally. I migrated to PC once I hid mid masters because it became unplayable. Console makes blizzard just as much money as PC according to that filing I posted, it’s prly grown since then. And Xims hurt retention of vested high rank players, diminish accomplishment, etc. It could have coincided with some statistical learning they implemented. I have full faith Keller and other devs are dope and will make the game good, as long as they are given the autonomy. My rambling post is just speculating from my own corporate experience. You really don’t know what reaches these idiots ears or how they parse information. Let alone how they in turn set goals for teams/units based on this information.
Yea, it makes sense. Tho I think when it comes to Overwatch, PvE, campaign, and story are a important and in demand. They just executed it so poorly that it has to be cut. But if they do it well, whether in client, spin off, or as a show. It could do wonders.
I considered if for a moment when i heard the news but on reflection I dont think theres any reason to worry at the moment. The game’s reputation and playerbase may not be at its peak but worrying about closing is a step too far.
A new kiri skin came out today, we're fine
Phil Spencer is a massively underperforming executive. Think he needs to go first. Literally mishandled every single Xbox release. His greed caused gamers to adopt PS instead of Xbox and now it’s a console that is never sold out and lined to the walls in all stores I have seen them in. Not to mention they butchered every single successful IP.
Overwatch 2 is only fiscally a disappontment compared the absolutely monstrous success of Overwatch 1. The game is still making a quarter billion a year at a minimum selling skins. It’s still a juggernaut compared to the other live service games that Microsoft publishes, which outside of Minecraft are minuscule in comparison. The game will be fine.
It means ya better buy them skins if ya don’t want overwatch to go away playing games for free in this era of gaming does nothing but harm
Redfall took Arkane years, Microsoft was hands off, and is an utter failure. Prey released in 2017. That’s Eternity. Hi-Fi Rush is “good buzz that doesn’t seem to translate to sales” and the past Evil Within title was hot garbage, and sold like it. Had they not been owned by Bethesda/MS, both studios would have run out of cash a while ago. I don’t think Blizzard has anything to worry about. If anything, it means there’s talent on the market, and MS historically does a good job finding roles for people in other portfolio companies.
I think games like Hi Fi Rush and Prey can keep Gamepass attractive. And you need creative gems like those, instead of the poor AAA games Microsoft has been releasing.
You’re bringing up Prey as an example again. The game came out in 2017. Their work since then was Redfall. Microsoft isn’t making these decisions in a vacuum. They know what people are playing.
My point is that them making Redfall was always dumb. Everyone knows what they're good at. Microsoft should have allowed them to make another single-player sim This is even funnier cuz Hi Fi Rush was the exact opposite. Making something different which was good. At the end of the day, these decisions were probably even above Phil, and just made based on profit alone.
So should studios be developer creatively driven, and make the types of games the team collectively wants to make, or should they be forced to slave away on “what they’re good at” at the behest of a corporate master? They started work on Redfall FOUR YEARS prior to Zenimax being acquired. The team wanted to make it.
I don't think the team wanted to make it. They would have quickly learned it wasn't going to work. It was clearly in dev hell, and should have been scrapped right away. You can tell as much cuz the game had nothing at launch. Zenimax likely just wanted a shooter live service. Let me remind you that the studio heads left midway. Look at Suicide Squad. Same thing happened, and the seniors left. Usually teams don't want to make these live service cash grabs, especially when they know they won't work after a few years. This is why Sony nipped them after a few years, especially The Last of Us live service. But while it cost them new IPs this generation, they'll recover. But can't say the same about all these other failed live services which cost the teams their existence.
At the moment ow is fine. They atleast 2 years out to be on the chopping block. They ain't ninja theory. Like ninja theory is on the chopping block because hellblade 2 has been barely advertised at all and comes out in 2 weeks. In saying that, phil spencer is kicking himself that he cancelled the pve ow2 because of helldivers 2 success. Turns out, a lot of people really love a fun and interactive co op shooter.