Game Studio Flight From Microsoft A Sign of Troubles? 122
Newsweek's LevelUp blog continues to produce some highly interesting material. Today they have up a look at the 'flight' of game studios from Microsoft's corporate umbrella. BioWare's purchase by EA distances it a bit from their cosy relationship with Microsoft, as does Bizarre's purchase by Activision. Bungie's departure from the company itself goes without saying. So what does all this mean? Is this a sign of troubles in Redmond, or just more fallout from the huge undertaking required to get the Xbox 360 to the position it has today? "For us, the flight of the Killer B's is a clear indication that Microsoft as a whole is still shell shocked not only by the massive losses in the Xbox division, but also more importantly by the poor showing of Rare, which has to rank as not only one of the Microsoft's least successful purchases, but as quite possibly the worst acquisition in the history of gaming. Microsoft paid $375 million in cash for Rare, and based on the modest revenues from its ensuing titles--a Conker's Bad Fur Day remake, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero and Viva Pinata--all they've got to show for it is that proverbial lousy T-shirt, completely stained with red ink."
Bioware? Bizarre? (Score:3, Insightful)
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Gotham is dead; long live Metropolis (Score:1)
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Both companies will now be able to develop for other platforms as well.
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Re:Bioware? Bizarre? (Score:5, Insightful)
If they go platform neutral that's a large blow to Microsoft's Third Party development and the release of Bungie is a huge blow to Microsoft's internall developed games. Overwall it reflects poorly on the 360s continued success. It might be a blip or it might be the first signs of major trouble in Microsoft's games department.
To put it more bluntly, the idea is that if Microsoft were on the ball and interested in developing first part titles for the 360, they would have kept Bungie and bought both Bioware and Bizarre. As it is now, they are leaving themselves very much at the mercy of their third party games developers. Hoping that they will stick with the Xbox line of products. If the PS3 ever surpasses the Xbox in sales (I know, not terribly likely at this time), they could end up royally screwed.
Re:Bioware? Bizarre? (Score:5, Informative)
Nintendo has lots of development companies inhouse and exlusive ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nintendo_developers [wikipedia.org] ).
Even Sony has been pretty consistent about maintaining worldwide developer studios ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Computer_Entertainment#Internal_organization [wikipedia.org] ). Leaving aside studios like Insomniac Games (Resistance:Fall of Man, Ratchet & Clank Series) who have "Close ties" to the studio.
MicroSoft has a much smaller stable of inhouse (and related) development companies ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Games#In-house_studios [wikipedia.org] ). They also have the split focus of providing games for the XBox 360, and providing games for Vista (though this is not mentioned). Any decrease in the inhouse development obviously puts more reliance on outside development, and as more and more games (especially from developers like EA) go cross-platform, its those in-house developers that help provide differentiation between competing products (all else being equal).
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It is close to two years into the 360's life. Microsoft isn't buying ANYONE. They just let their entire first party line up of developers go multiplatform outside of their basket case of a dev Rare.
With break even on the hardware losses being pushed back year after year before the 1.1 billion dollar RRoD fiasco and multiple Microsoft execs having made it clear over the past few years that bleeding cash is something that will no longer be tolerated for the Xbox mess, Micro
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You can say that again. I've not looked for a couple of months, but the last time I checked prices here in the UK I could be an XBox 360 *and* a Wii for less than I could get a PS3. I know cost isn't everything, but *damn*.
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The point is: the 360 *and* the Wii are already on the decline, technically and software-wise, while the Playstation 3 is still warming up. The latter is the system with the most stuff up its sleeves, and Sony sure are patient guys. The system sellers are not out ye
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No, not at all. They were always independant within the company and MS still owns a large chunk of their equity. No don't expect to see Marathon on the PS anytime soon.
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Don't dis (Score:3, Funny)
That's the only reason my boy swaps the XBox on, in place of the Wii.
We are a market of ONE!
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If you like Piñata Crossing... (Score:1)
That's the only reason my boy swaps the XBox on, in place of the Wii.
Your boy might also like Animal Crossing, a GameCube game with a lot of the same ideas. It works fine on a Wii, and a native Wii version is rumored to be in the works.
X [] O [uncyclopedia.org]
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It's putting me in a dilemma, because I've never bought any Microsoft software and don't want to start, but it kinda looks like a neat game.
Resetti (Score:2)
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The story behind Rare? (Score:3, Interesting)
They took with them the underrated Conker's Bad Fur Day series, anything Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie (I think)... arguably the best games development studio behind Nintendo itself. What happened?
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Re:The story behind Rare? (Score:4, Interesting)
When Microsoft bought rare, all they really bought was the name and some semi-popular franchses. Honestly the games they've made for the DS have probably made MS more money than the Xbox branded stuff they're put out. I'd be impressed if they've even as much as made half of the original investment back at this point.
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Sadly, TimeSplitters was and still is an excellent game series. The game play matches, or not passes, that of GoldenEye for the N64 and the story was super fun and humorous. Sadly, I never meet many people who knew this, despite them saying how much they loved GoldenEye.
Cheers,
Fozzy
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Perfect Dark Zero, despite being developed by a completely different staff, actually does capture a lot of the spirit of Gol
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I agree that PDZ's controls were poor and the core flaw of this launch title. What I don't get, is why this was allowed to happen. Halo is an MS franchise and Bungie was MS-owned at the time. Shadowrun's console controls were stellar because they were taken directly from Halo 2. Why didn't they carry over the same aiming scheme from Halo like they did for Shadowrun? Or was PDZ's failure the lesson that taught them to bri
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Honestly, looking at the genres where the Xbox 360 is lacking... Platformers and Fighting games come to mind.
This is their competitor's biggest advantage right now. Nintendo obviously has platformers on lock, Sony's got great franchises like Rachet&Clank, Jax&Dexter, God of War, etc. What does MS have? Kameo could hav
Let's jump in the way-back machine-reality check (Score:2)
You can read the whole post there, but in short I closed with: "While I hate to see a core group from Nintendo go over to the hands of the soulless boys and girls of Microsoft... deep down I almost hope that Rare actually continues it's pitiful slide into the hole of mediocrity and takes MS with them... but that would be hoping for to much I guess."
Or you can read one of my many posts on the subject [slashdot.org] on this very site.
Maybe that's actually playi
Rareware (Score:2)
Re:Rareware (Score:4, Insightful)
Now it seems Rare has gotten lazy, and MS let that happen. Nintendo's probably been laughing their butts off at all this. AS IF Rare could have made $375 mil for Nintendo if they'd been this lazy releasing games for GCN.
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Re:Rareware (Score:4, Insightful)
And yet there was a reason Nintendo was willing to part with them. Remember, Rare was not an independent company - MS bought them from Nintendo.
Rare's output was dropping for years before the sale. In their last three years of development for Nintendo, they released five home console games: Donkey Kong 64, Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and Starfox Adventures. Of those, only Perfect Dark could be called a legitimate hit. (DK64 sold well as a pack-in game, but it wasn't what you'd call a top quality game.)
A lot of people were pretty shocked at the price MS paid for them. This isn't just a 20/20 hindsight thing - many people said at the time that it was a dumb purchase. There were some hardcore hopefuls who thought otherwise, but this was not a purchase that was universally praised at the time.
And while this doesn't really apply to a studio like Bungie that's buying themselves, whenever one publisher is all too willing to dump a development studio onto another publisher, you have to ask yourself why. It's always a big red flag, and it seems obvious now that Nintendo knew something that MS didn't. Not about how to run Rare, but about how far Rare had really fallen.
Was M$ forcing them to make new games vista only? (Score:3, Interesting)
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So? (Score:2, Insightful)
Is Newsweek still owned by Microsoft? (Score:2)
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wikipedia [wikipedia.org], the source of all knowledge doesn't mention anything about that, no
Xbox Losing Money? (Score:4, Insightful)
Last I heard MS was already making a profit on the 360, due to the cost coming down quicker than expected. Yes they took that billion dollar charge, but as I understand it each one sold is still profit at this point.
Add onto that some pretty killer titles in the last year and MS has made some cash. Halo3 alone would offset any losses in the last year I would assume. (Short of the charge).
If you read the statement Bungie released on their website it sounds more like what MS did was pull lots of companies into the fold, in order to foster the growth of its image as a gaming company. Now that they've established their beachhead, they can let those companies go sink or swim on their own merits.
I think Rare is the perfect example of why MS is letting the studios go (though still in publishing agreements for many of them). With a good partner relationship MS doesn't take on the risk of a studio starting to turn out poor quality product. At the same time, its become a large enough, established enough player, that those publishers will pay attention to MS, even if they aren't subsidiaries.
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You heard wrong. The billion dollar allocation for RRD problems with the existing retail models pushed their possibility of profitability into 2008. Each machine is sold at a profit but the division itself is still in the red due to warranty issues. If you factor in the extended RR of D warrant
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The reason this is interesting is because the console market is NOT like the PC market where "MS is in a singular place".
There is actual competition in the market, and exclusive titles (usually developed by in-house publishers), is one of the key differentiators between one console and another.
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Partnering and software alliance are VERY common in the Enterprise market, a market MS knows all too well.
I just see this as MS applying much more of a software/IT market philosophy to its gaming division.
As any H
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I'm glad neither Sony or Nintendo are taking lessons in hardware development from MS.
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even then only on their top of the line model. As well there is some FUD about the halo package being the falcon chip. It's not. Neither is any retail unit in the system right now.
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And how is this demonstrative of good behavior?
Seriously, what you are describing is essentially the use of other companies' mojo, name, ability, image, etc. until said attribute was ascribed to MS, then let the used up company go "sink or swim" after taking thei
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Considering three facts:
A. Microsoft has never given up on a flagship product line
B. They have more cash reserves then their competition
C. Their developer's network treats third party like gold
I don't think we will be seeing Microsoft leaving the market any time soon. We might be in denial, but at lease we are not delusional.
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Considering three facts:
A. Microsoft has never given up on a flagship product line
B. They have more cash reserves then their competition
C. Their developer's network treats third party like gold
I don't think we will be seeing Microsoft leaving the market any time soon. We might be in denial, but at lease we are not delusional.
A. is not entirely true. They have discontinued unprofitable products [wikipedia.org]. The distinction "flagship" might be the dividing line. But strictly speaking they have discontinued products.
B. T
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Like Sony and Nintendo, they can see that the
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Still Sony's gaming division loss is the same as, if not more than, Microsoft's gaming divisions loss. Is Sony intending to leave the console market?
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Sony's not the king anymore, no doubt. But no one would say there were dumb to get into videogames in the first place, which is what some say about MS.
Thing is, we're in the now, so MS might as well stick with its winner.
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A. Windows ME (granted they has Win98 to fall back on, but they gave up on ME and abandoned anyone who went to it). (although they are releasing a new version of the Zune)
B. Definitely true.
C. Don't know, but considering some of the rumbles from Nintendo and Sony, that may not last as a differentiator.
You're right, they probably are not going to leave the market, and the 360 has already sold more units than the Zune (lots more, I know), but the real question is, can they keep up
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Windows ME is not the product line, it is either the Windows product line or the client/server product lines, depending on how you segment it. Yes, they have dropped products and even product lines (Bob, shutter), but their flagships, such as windows, sql server, exchange, etc... they will not likely drop. Sometimes they have renamed product lines (Backoffice). The only exception I can think of is DOS.
Looking at the financial statements, MSFT current assets are 40 billion, most of it in cash, short term in
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Sorry, that is the second most commonly mentioned "screw". Heading off posts and I hate Sybase - ASE has the most backwards query engine by my opinion. I hated 1-2-3, but I grew up on VisiCalc for the Apple II.
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I sold it on poor, unknowing customers 13 years ago. I have crimes to atone for.
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If anything, the PS2 was too successful. If the Wii keeps on doing what its doing, developers will either go 'next gen'
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I agree there. Microsoft will give a developer a lot, but the costs with just the graphics are prohibitive. (I understand that trying to get a dev box out of Sony is harder then trying to get blood from an anemic with low blood pressure) I am interested what Introversion is trying, software that procedurally creates simple 3D objects. This will lower the need for graphic artists.
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Rare (Score:1)
Endless cash. (Score:2, Troll)
Subversion of the masses through electronic drugs is the primary goal. If Microsoft dies, then it will be replaced by some other machine designed to make people dumb and slow and distracted.
I'm sure all the MS employees, however, don't see it this way. But they're just expendable cogs in the works of a greater force.
Among the best things I ever did for myself was to throw out my television set, to stop playing
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Don't go drawing silly conspiracy theories and backhandedly painting yourself as superior simply because you don't enjoy things that other people do.
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Silly? I'm just looking at the results of the forces which have been playing upon society and drawing conclusions which, yes, I believe do infer intent, though not probably from the standard sectors people might assume. --But wherever it stems from, the old patterns still work; Bread and circuses, and all that. And even in the event that there is no delibera
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Healthy food I agree with completely, but there are quality television shows and videogames that don't turn your brain to mush. I'd prefer to be selective about what entertainment I consume, rather than completely cutting out entire mediums of entertainment which, if used properly, can be great sources of education and self-improvement. To follow your own drug metaphor, it looks like you were forced to go "cold-turkey", because you were unable to manage them any other way.
The videogames and television show
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Well, I'll concede a point here. .
Are you protecting your precious... (Score:2)
Nonsense (Score:2, Insightful)
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I think all 3 are is rough shape. Sony can't seem to generate the sales, MS is bleeding cash due to design decisions and now close companies jumping ship, and nintendo can't seem to stop releasing wiimote addons nor can it seem to really come up with concepts that fully utilize it's controller. Toss i
For the Ultimate gaming experience (Score:1)
Re:Stick A Fork In The Xbox, It's Done (Score:4, Interesting)
First, my non-fanboy credentials. I own an Atari 2600, Jaguar, NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, GBA, DS Lite, Genesis, Game Gear, Dreamcast, PS1/PS2/PS3/PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, and a fairly up-to-date gaming PC.
That being said, my 360 BY FAR has provided me with the most enjoyment and gaming time this generation. I myself haven't experienced a RRoD, however two of my friends have...and you know what? They got them replaced and continue to buy games for the system. Why? Because it's a fun fun FUN system.
The controller feels great and controls tightly (aside from the horrendous d-pad...but no system really has a decent d-pad anymore), the first party/exclusive games are fun and replayable , the graphics are fantastic on an HDTV (and still look damn good on an SDTV), and the interface is fluid and easy to use.
The hardware itself has it's obvious issues for some people, but overall it is a damn fun console and if mine ever went belly up, I would replace it in a second.
Re:Stick A Fork In The Xbox, It's Done (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm no fanboy either, hell I love the 360, but the gaming division at MS is taking on a ton of watter. Gota face reality that the 360 may just be the last console MS puts out.
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Overall, my favourite would be a tie between the SNES and the PC
The SNES does hold a lot of Street Fighter II Turbo and NBA Jam memories for me though
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While your post sounds like you are intelligent I am boggled by how you can be unaware that MS purchased Bungie long before the original Xbox came out - that's why Halo was a launch title.
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Halo was possibly the most anticipated game ever back when it was cross platform (pre release). That's why MS bought them in order to make it an X Box exclusive.
Halo 3 would have been more of a success without MSs involvement because more people could have bought it were it available on more platforms. Everyone already knew about it, so there wasn't really anything positive MS added to the pic