When they bought all those studios, it bought a lot of goodwill from gamers like myself.
They are actively destroying it now.
It’s one thing to kill a bunch of 1-2A projects. Killing 2.5-3A projects that already have marketing and hype trains is just dumb from a business perspective.
These execs never consider the dynamic side of the business when they’re counting beans.
Agreed 💯. It's a strategic failure hidden by firing skilled labor to always grow earnings per share. Or they are purposefully killing competing IP. I'm sure the execs are immoral enough but perhaps not smart enough for that version.
The funny part is that they’re just seeding the next wave of their own competition. While many will go on to other jobs, at least SOME of these laid off game devs will go on to start their own studios and start cranking out the next wave of indie hits.
MS or some other big titan will then acquire them ten years from now, and fire all their employees a few years after that, completing the cycle.
This industry is so broken. I know it’s a cliche, and a lot of other industries have shitty cycles like this. But there’s just so much potential constantly getting tragically wasted, it’s unnecessary. And depressing.
Need to look into the industry before you talk about it. Every generation of console cancels between 50-60 games during the consoles life time. Looking into it by company as that's what you are implying it's Microsoft that is in the wrong. To date, Playstation has cancelled more games and closed more studios than Xbox.
I’m not sure what assumptions you’re making but they don’t really match my implications.
First of all, I know the industry. Thanks, I’m good.
Second, I’m not talking about “every generation”, I’m talking about a single company that has canceled a large chunk of its top-end WIP, with basically zero transparency about its reasoning behind that.
There seems to be a cluster of these Microsoft cancellations of games from studios who used to know how to make games in a timely fashion. I wonder if something’s happening to break their systems. Is it an inpouring of cash? Microsoft management? Genre pivots? Something else? One day I hope we have a clearer understanding.
Not true. It's the same as it always has been. Look at the Sega Genesis it was over 500 games cancelled. We have had about 50 on both PS and Xbox. It's nothing new it's just more publicised than it used to be.
I don't see a universe in which you can compare massive tentpole franchise games barely ever making it to launch within a year of their first release date—if ever—to a bunch of 2d platformers and shovelware that took a seventh of the development time being quietly put to pasture, all while game studios that have prestigiously operated almost as long as the industry itself are taken out behind the barn and unceremoniously executed.
Those bastards.
When they bought all those studios, it bought a lot of goodwill from gamers like myself.
They are actively destroying it now.
It’s one thing to kill a bunch of 1-2A projects. Killing 2.5-3A projects that already have marketing and hype trains is just dumb from a business perspective.
These execs never consider the dynamic side of the business when they’re counting beans.
Agreed 💯. It's a strategic failure hidden by firing skilled labor to always grow earnings per share. Or they are purposefully killing competing IP. I'm sure the execs are immoral enough but perhaps not smart enough for that version.
The funny part is that they’re just seeding the next wave of their own competition. While many will go on to other jobs, at least SOME of these laid off game devs will go on to start their own studios and start cranking out the next wave of indie hits.
MS or some other big titan will then acquire them ten years from now, and fire all their employees a few years after that, completing the cycle.
This industry is so broken. I know it’s a cliche, and a lot of other industries have shitty cycles like this. But there’s just so much potential constantly getting tragically wasted, it’s unnecessary. And depressing.
Need to look into the industry before you talk about it. Every generation of console cancels between 50-60 games during the consoles life time. Looking into it by company as that's what you are implying it's Microsoft that is in the wrong. To date, Playstation has cancelled more games and closed more studios than Xbox.
I’m not sure what assumptions you’re making but they don’t really match my implications.
First of all, I know the industry. Thanks, I’m good.
Second, I’m not talking about “every generation”, I’m talking about a single company that has canceled a large chunk of its top-end WIP, with basically zero transparency about its reasoning behind that.
There seems to be a cluster of these Microsoft cancellations of games from studios who used to know how to make games in a timely fashion. I wonder if something’s happening to break their systems. Is it an inpouring of cash? Microsoft management? Genre pivots? Something else? One day I hope we have a clearer understanding.
Games just don't get released anymore. We live in a gameless world
Not true. It's the same as it always has been. Look at the Sega Genesis it was over 500 games cancelled. We have had about 50 on both PS and Xbox. It's nothing new it's just more publicised than it used to be.
I don't see a universe in which you can compare massive tentpole franchise games barely ever making it to launch within a year of their first release date—if ever—to a bunch of 2d platformers and shovelware that took a seventh of the development time being quietly put to pasture, all while game studios that have prestigiously operated almost as long as the industry itself are taken out behind the barn and unceremoniously executed.