Sure, but almost all of those are first party games and while it may seem like a narrow distinction, I’m excluding those from consideration since they will always be limited to the console owned by that party. I don’t anticipate ever playing a Mario game on my Xbox, so if I am jonesing for some Mario action I just have to buckle down and get a Switch.
But as a hypothetical, let’s say Sony had locked down Bioware or Rockstar for this generation. If I wanted to play Andromeda (and laugh if you must, but I absolutely did) then I would have been in a bind. Do I get a new PC, upgrade what I’ve got, or just suck it up and buy a PS4? I might very well have bought a PS4, and there aren’t many games I can say that about.
I realize this is a humblebrag but honestly for me it’s more a matter of available time than it is about money. I could probably buy one if I really felt like I needed it but I’m already drowning in games! I have to draw the line somewhere and right now, I’m sticking to one console.
That said - if Sony got their act together and released backward compatability for all previous generations, I’d be in. Play my old favorites from PS and PS2, plus stuff I missed on PS3 and PS4, in one package? That would be a bigger temptation than I can withstand.
I think Xbox management prior to Phil Spencer did not value or know how to cultivate in-house development, resulting in short-sighted moves like buying and then closing functioning studios like Ensemble, Lionhead, and FASA, and under-utilizing Rare, which has had no real AAA releases since the Gamecube was still a thing (and even then Kameo was only ok and PDZ sucked).
It’s simpler than that: gaming has long been one of the only profitable ventures Sony has, so they’re able to keep investing into it, while Microsoft’s big money comes from Windows and enterprise stuff, and gaming’s mostly been an afterthought as long as the Xbox business has existed.
They definitely have a bad habit of killing studios after acquisition. They’ve also been rather risk averse this generation, The Coalition was working on an original IP and instead got transitioned to Gears 4.
I understand. I almost bought an original xbox when it seemed like the only platform for Jade Empire, and did buy an xbox 360 for Mass Effect 1. And did buy a PS3 to get the japanese version of Demon’s Souls. But I don’t really buy into the distinction between inhouse and 3rd party - all that matters to me as a gamer is whether there is a game I can’t get elsewhere. I can understand why for some gamers that might be Forza (really feels like Halo and Gears of War have lost their way and are now “exclusives” in the way that Killzone and Resistance were on the PS3), but for me if I didn’t have a PS4 I would have definitely gotten one for Bloodborne, Last of Us 2, or Horizon Zero Dawn of the games already released, and there is nothing close to having system-selling appeal to me on the xbox. And I say that as a Scorpio fanboy - I’ve never loved a console more.
For sure. It was one of the main reasons I was interested in a Scorpio - lot of 360 games I already had and was still interested in that I hadn’t gotten around to, like Red Dead Redemption, Gears of War 3, Oblivion Shivering Isles - the fact that a couple of those got enhanced versions was a huge bonus (and they’re awesome).
I imagine if there were a first party game that blew me away, that I just had to have it, the distinction wouldn’t mean as much to me. So far I just haven’t seen it.
Well, yes and no. I think with regards to TV/device gaming that MS would definitely rather license software to HW manufacturers and move to a cloud system less dependent upon local hardware and hardware upgrades. However, I don’t think they are solely focused on Windows 10 and the PC at all. Look at how MS is changing Office, and pushing all of their clients to Office 365, on all platforms. I think they will shift towards Azure hosting and offloading of computational/graphics to cloud processing and try to beat Amazon to this market.
Managing internal development was literally Spencer’s primary responsibility before he became head of Xbox. Before and after their investment in first party has consistently been going in one direct: down. Before they were shedding anything that didn’t contribute to their always online, games as a service, Xbox lead strategy, and now it’s just a general divestment of carrying expensive, risky teams of developers. I don’t know how you can conclude anything at this point but that the purse strings are drawn tight, which would be fine if Xbox execs didn’t keep promising reinvestment that never materializes.
All right kiddies gather round, we’ve got our GwG announcement for February:
On Xbox One we’ve got Shadow Warrior and Assassin’s Creed Chronicles India, and on Xbox 360 and back compat we will have Split Second and Crazy Taxi.
Edit: and my understanding is that this version of Crazy Taxi does not have the original soundtrack. So yay! We don’t have to listen to Offspring. But also boo! We don’t get to listen to Bad Religion.
Aaaaand since Split Second is apparently a new addition to back compat, that game plus Lego Indiana Jones 2 have been added to the program today, looks like.
Split Second? Awesome! I was replaying it recently on the 360 with my son. Talk about a crazy racing game. I love the way you can trigger every bigger course altering changes.
Oh sweet! That Split Second? I remember that game. I always meant to try to that, but forgot all about it. I think Tom had a good review of it somewhere too.
