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Xbox Developer_Direct on the 25th of January

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bear

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https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/xbox-will-host-developer_direct-games-show-with-arkane-bethesda-and-more-this-month

 

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From what we understand, the Developer_Direct show is slated for January 25 at 12PM PT on Xbox's official channels on Twitch and YouTube. Although these dates may be subject to change. The show will be hosted by both Xbox and Bethesda, with deep dives into Redfall, Minecraft Legends, Forza Motorsport, and content from ZeniMax Online Studios. 

From what we understand, this won't be a full-blown E3-scale kind of show, and will be a more intimate look at some upcoming exclusives. As such, we've heard Starfield may even be skipping this show for a bigger marketing beat later on. 

 

People seem to have been getting this idea of a January showcase since Xbox basically no-showed at The Game Awards but this is the first time I've seen someone go as far as naming a date.

 

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Sarlaccfood

Sarlaccfood

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1 hour ago, Haribokart said:

Spoiler: This is the year we release all of the games, the year of Xbox!

 

Again. Just like 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 etc were meant to be.


That’s the summer one. This one will be the bizarre livestream that goes on for hours and contains no new info. 

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bear

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45 minutes ago, MidWalian said:

Would have liked to see more Starfield but will have to settle for some Redfall then.

 

How many dev studios does Microsoft now own? And is Avowed dead?

 

  Reveal hidden contents

PREY 2!

 

The Starfield part of the story is a bit odd. If it's not part of this event then the big talking point will be "where was Starfield" unless they announce a Starfield event during this (rumoured) event but that'd be a very, very weird thing to do. 

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Broker

Broker

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I know making games takes years, and by that metric the acquisitions weren’t that long ago, and I’m aware that Gamepass is incredible value and is making them money, but god damn I would like some new Xbox games.

 

I know it’s an unfair comparison but I miss when MS we’re trying to get a foothold and churning out weird shit that I couldn’t play anywhere else. It’s all the same few franchises that I don’t care about and there’s always some nebulous future where cool games are coming but it never arrives. 

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Wiper

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1 hour ago, Broker said:

I know making games takes years, and by that metric the acquisitions weren’t that long ago, and I’m aware that Gamepass is incredible value and is making them money, but god damn I would like some new Xbox games.

 

I know it’s an unfair comparison but I miss when MS we’re trying to get a foothold and churning out weird shit that I couldn’t play anywhere else. It’s all the same few franchises that I don’t care about and there’s always some nebulous future where cool games are coming but it never arrives. 

 

Screenshot_20230110_114902_DuckDuckGo.thumb.jpg.cdcefc38902667289e4db74d273fa165.jpg

 

:angry:

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RubberJohnny

RubberJohnny

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The framing this of as a "dev_direct" makes it seem like they still don't have a lot to show and need to pad it out with long talks from devs, if they just had trailers they'd have been at the Game Awards, having a big presence there in previous years (revealing your current gen console even!) and abandoning it at the height of its popularity only really makes sense if you're presenting in a format that's a bad fit for it.

 

Hopefully I'll be proven wrong, but after the last couple of years I doubt it.

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MidWalian

MidWalian

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Answering my own question here but they now have 23 development studios, some of these have multiple teams.

 

https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-game-studios#:~:text=Our 23 game development studios,%2C PC%2C or mobile devices.

 

I'm still enjoying game pass but surprised about how MS struggles with their own first party content after having so many studios. We may get an odd situation where a huge amount of titles will be ready be released in the same year.

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bear

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22 minutes ago, MidWalian said:

Answering my own question here but they now have 23 development studios, some of these have multiple teams.

 

https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-game-studios#:~:text=Our 23 game development studios,%2C PC%2C or mobile devices.

 

I'm still enjoying game pass but surprised about how MS struggles with their own first party content after having so many studios. We may get an odd situation where a huge amount of titles will be ready be released in the same year.

On paper they have seven first party games due for console release this year, six of them supposedly in the first half of the year.

 

Three of those are ports but yeah, they need a more consistent release schedule. 

 

Edit: I'm not sure if that reads a bit sarky but that's not my intention. 

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MidWalian

MidWalian

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34 minutes ago, bear said:

On paper they have seven first party games due for console release this year, six of them supposedly in the first half of the year.

 

Three of those are ports but yeah, they need a more consistent release schedule. 

 

Edit: I'm not sure if that reads a bit sarky but that's not my intention. 

 

I didn't read that as snarky btw. Could you list the games? I can think of Redfall, Starfield and Forza.

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LaveDisco

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That's the thing with the acquisitions, even correcting for COVID this has been a problem that has plagued Xbox since the start of the Xbox One, and there is always an excuse.

"They are all making kinect games"

"It takes time to pivot from kinect games"

"Now they've closed those dev houses, the rest will be able to given attention and speed up"

"They're saving the AAA for next-gen"

"COVID"

"Post-COVID"

 

I don't argue any specific excuse, but I fundamentally don't believe MS can manage game developers. I believed the Bethesda purchase was to get ZeniMax to manage for them, but that doesn't seem to happen.


Hell, the big defense of their strategy, pentiment, the only first party release this quarter, was made in secret for 9 months by a splinter group of first 4, before growing to 13 developers. Who were quoted as saying:

 

Quote

“A big part of being a smaller team is that the communication is so much simpler,” Frey says. “Not needing that overhead hierarchy of producers and managers to make sure everyone’s communicating, and just knowing you can trust your team members to trust another person to work that stuff out … It allowed us to pivot the game really quickly. If we had ideas or wanted to try something, that was something we could throw in our chat channel and everyone just does it.” - Digital Trends

 

It's played as a quaint loveable story, but they are interviewed as hiding it from MS until it was far enough along to 'convince them'. When you've 23 devs and the only game that gets released was hidden for the majority of it's short dev time, you've gotta think you need to work on how you manage your company. 

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Boothjan

Boothjan

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If there's 'only' Redfall, Starfield and Forza to come out by the middle of this year, I still think that's exciting!  Only 3 games, but 3 games I'd definitely want to play on release, and there's months of gameplay in all of them too.  And all Game Pass Day 1. 

 

Maybe I'm just easily pleased, but there we go.

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thesnwmn

thesnwmn

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I think there's a mix of mismanagement of their pipeline for their longer standing studios.

 

For example the complete lack of a Forza Motorsport you can buy now, let along a current gen version one is embarrassing. The Halo ball has clearly been dropped too. Infinite arrived late and undercooked.

 

As for all the other studios I think you have to consider why and hod they bought them. Are/were these studios that were really firing on all cylinders before their acquisition or is there a reason they were available to grab in the first place. Without know too much I think there's an element of these developers and publishers that means they were already stuck. Either having dropped quality or struggled to complete projects. Others were maybe more AA studios who are now being asked to do a little more.

 

In the end I think MS have a problem of being pulled in two directions. They need massive high profile truely AAA titles to shut up one part of the audience. They need massive numbers of games to fill Game Pass. I think they should concentrate their internal talent on the former but they still need to deliver. They cannot spend another 2 years waiting for that. They have the lineup this year in theory. They just need to deliver all of it (and it be great).

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bear

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18 minutes ago, MidWalian said:

 

I didn't read that as snarky btw. Could you list the games? I can think of Redfall, Starfield and Forza.

Age of Empires 2

Age of Empires 4

Ghostwire Tokyo (supposedly a director's cut update that'll also get released on PS5) 

Minecraft Legends

 

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Sarlaccfood

Sarlaccfood

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3 hours ago, LaveDisco said:

but I fundamentally don't believe MS can manage game developers.


Well a bunch of Playground people just left to form a new studio,

 

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/forza-horizon-leads-leave-xboxs-playground-games-to-form-new-aaa-studio/

 

I wonder if we’ll start to hear from them and the people that recently left the other studios at some point soon. 

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MidWalian

MidWalian

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12 minutes ago, Sarlaccfood said:


Well a bunch of Playground people just left to form a new studio,

 

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/forza-horizon-leads-leave-xboxs-playground-games-to-form-new-aaa-studio/

 

I wonder if we’ll start to hear from them and the people that recently left the other studios at some point soon. 

 

They've given an interview already. 

 

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/playground-games-leaders-form-new-aaa-studio-maverick-games

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LaveDisco

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14 minutes ago, Sarlaccfood said:


Well a bunch of Playground people just left to form a new studio,

 

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/forza-horizon-leads-leave-xboxs-playground-games-to-form-new-aaa-studio/

 

I wonder if we’ll start to hear from them and the people that recently left the other studios at some point soon. 

 

Oooh, interesting. I'm not sure we'll hear gossip, as they'll need to launch on Xbox, but it's interesting they're not leaving to make smaller passion projects like most, it's to form another AAA studio (maybe MS will buy them!).

 

Oh, and that link says the team includes:

Quote

Harinder Sangha, who was previously co-studio head of Sumo Digital Leamington

 

Outrun 3 confirmed.

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