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TheMysteriousGX

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No, see, it's very simple: they need to buy teams that are making games like Hi Fi Rush, but in a late enough stage of development that they don't need to *pay* for games like Hi Fi Rush

Then they can shitcan the studio afterwards and buy the next studio that's 95% done with developing Hi Fi Rush 2

Modern capitalism is just bringing the joys of strip mining to every industry
 

Casual Shinji

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How can these business people be stupid enough to think infinite growth is a tangible possibility?
Because they keep getting bailed out by other business people or the government.

Microsoft isn't being stupid or shooting themselves in the foot for closing down all these studios, they're just being Microsoft and getting away with it because they're Microsoft. This is capitalism protecting its own.
 

BrawlMan

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Short version: Game Pass and Activision really fudged things up for smaller studios.

Like some people assumed or already predicted. I remember back when the buyout/merger happened, people in the industry and talking said how this was a good thing and "paving the way" for the gaming future. Even people at the Escapists or Max Dood said how it wouldn't be that big of a deal or let the lawsuit go on as long as possible. "They got the money to waste it!" Apparently not! I knew not much good would come from this, but I was hoping it would not be this disastrous. I will never touch MS's console ever again. I don't even want look at it in any capacity. The good news is that I don't have a Series X, so it makes thing really easy and cathartic right now.
 
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No, see, it's very simple: they need to buy teams that are making games like Hi Fi Rush, but in a late enough stage of development that they don't need to *pay* for games like Hi Fi Rush

Then they can shitcan the studio afterwards and buy the next studio that's 95% done with developing Hi Fi Rush 2

Modern capitalism is just bringing the joys of strip mining to every industry
Flawed logic though? Because with 76 billion dollars they’d have enough to make 38 GTA6’s if rumors of its 2 billion budget is true. Let that sink in. That’s literally hundreds if not thousands of other standard fare AAA or Indie games respectively. They are throwing their money around because they can and they want to make a statement, and have little foresight beyond that.

They will never make their money back on this. It’s just a childish soft tantrum of, “Well if we can’t succeed here, then we’ll just buy up and get rid of those who can.” Their track record speaks for itself in this industry that they were simply throwing spitballs at a wall to see what sticks. Now most of them are lying on the floor getting crusty and they finally said fuck it.
 
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Because they keep getting bailed out by other business people or the government.

Microsoft isn't being stupid or shooting themselves in the foot for closing down all these studios, they're just being Microsoft and getting away with it because they're Microsoft. This is capitalism protecting its own.
Yeah I suppose I’m overthinking it trying to use reason here. It’s really just the old three E’s to a new degree of shamelessness.
 

XsjadoBlaydette

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Welfare check on quadruple A paradise.


Microsoft's Perfect Dark reboot reportedly in "a very rough state" and a "big, protracted mess"
Despite being announced in 2020.

A still from the Perfect Dark reboot announcement trailer showing the silhouette of Joanna Dark staring out across a city toward a pyramid.

Closing in on four years since Microsoft's Perfect Dark reboot was announced, and a year since it was reported that "little meaningful progress" had been made on the project since its unveiling, it's now being claimed the reboot remains in "a very rough state".

That's according to journalist Jeff Grubb who, while discussing Xbox's surprise recent studio closures on the Giant Bombcast, told co-presenters, "I've been hearing for years that Perfect Dark is in a rough state, [but] it sounds like it's in a very rough state. It doesn't sound like it's really come together in any way since then."

In the wake of Grubb's comments, several other industry pundits (as spotted by VGC) took to social media with similar claims. VG247's Alex Donaldson wrote, "I have some crazy stories about the development of that game I have not put in print out of respect for a team really trying hard to push a boulder up a steep hill. But my patience is getting thin." Meanwhile, video game historian Liam Robertson wrote, "From what little I have heard about the development of the new Perfect Dark, it sounds like... a big, protracted mess."


These latest claims follow an IGN report last year in which the Perfect Dark reboot was said to have made "little meaningful progress" since its 2020 unveiling, after it hit "roadblock after roadblock". IGN claimed the project - a spy flavoured FPS combining espionage, gadgets, and combat - was still in pre-production at the time of its report, despite having been revealed three years prior, and roughly two to three years away from release. And based on these latest reports, it doesn't sound like the project's fortunes have substantially improved.

Microsoft's Perfect Dark reboot was initially being developed by the company's Santa Monica-based The Initiative studio, but 2021 hinted at troubles for the project when it was revealed Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics had been brought in to assist. An exodus of key staff - including the game's design director, lead level designer, principal level designer, and principal world builder - was reported the following year.

Claims of continuing turmoil on the Perfect Dark reboot come in a week Microsoft is already facing criticism for its handling of other studios in its portfolio, with the company having just announced - following 1,900 layoffs at Xbox earlier this year - the shock closure of Prey and Redfall developer Arkane Austin, The Evil Within and Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango Gameworks, Mighty Doom developer Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Games. It's also been reported further cuts at Microsoft's Xbox division are on the way.
hey is understandable, announcing games is easy and does wonders for shareholder comfort and valuation. It's just the whole, you know, having any creative vision whatsoever to be able to finish making them is not so.

-

Unrelated but a game called "Gift" appeared on the PSN store and am now realising I can't Google reviews for it cause it might as well be called "controller" or "console" lol.
 
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CriticalGaming

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Look, announcing games is easy and does wonders for shareholder comfort and valuation. It's just the whole, you know, having any creative vision whatsoever to be able to finish making them?
Microsoft is addicting to taking L's dude.
 

BrawlMan

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Welfare check on quadruple A paradise.



hey is understandable, announcing games is easy and does wonders for shareholder comfort and valuation. It's just the whole, you know, having any creative vision whatsoever to be able to finish making them is not so.

-

Unrelated but a game called "Gift" appeared on the PSN store and am now realising I can't Google reviews for it cause it might as well be called "controller" or "console" lol.
Microsoft is addicting to taking L's dude.
At this point I wouldn't mind if microsoft crashes and burn hard. They have not learned a single solitary thing for these past two decades.
 
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TheMysteriousGX

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Flawed logic though? Because with 76 billion dollars they’d have enough to make 38 GTA6’s if rumors of its 2 billion budget is true. Let that sink in. That’s literally hundreds if not thousands of other standard fare AAA or Indie games respectively. They are throwing their money around because they can and they want to make a statement, and have little foresight beyond that.

They will never make their money back on this. It’s just a childish soft tantrum of, “Well if we can’t succeed here, then we’ll just buy up and get rid of those who can.” Their track record speaks for itself in this industry that they were simply throwing spitballs at a wall to see what sticks. Now most of them are lying on the floor getting crusty and they finally said fuck it.
No, see, that's the beautiful part: they don't give a shit about Microsoft: The Company either. If Microsoft takes on 76 billion dollars of debt, they'll shunt it to the Gaming division, write that off as a tax break, juice the shareholder price, and laugh all the way to their personal banks. Phil Spencer is 100% getting a raise no matter what, and when Microsoft Gaming starts to fold: he retires early, and the board makes the Stunning and Brave decision to hire a female CEO to take the fall for the collapse

It's a shell game
 

FakeSympathy

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The first game under Dunkey's publishing company is out, and it's getting positive review across the board!

Mad respect to him! Especially considering he's still making regular contents on his channel and raising a child with his wife
 
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Dirty Hipsters

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Short version: Game Pass and Activision really fudged things up for smaller studios.

Like some people assumed or already predicted. I remember back when the buyout/merger happened, people in the industry and talking said how this was a good thing and "paving the way" for the gaming future. Even people at the Escapists or Max Dood said how it wouldn't be that big of a deal or let the lawsuit go on as long as possible. "They got the money to waste it!" Apparently not! I knew not much good would come from this, but I was hoping it would not be this disastrous. I will never touch MS's console ever again. I don't even want look at it in any capacity. The good news is that I don't have a Series X, so it makes thing really easy and cathartic right now.
Yup, I knew that the acquisition was going to be an overall negative for the games industry, but people are so blinded by their hate of Bobby Kotick that they assumed anything would be better than having him at the helm. Well, now he's gone and there's tons more layoffs and studio closures than there would have been otherwise, and studios that had nothing to do with the acquisition are in the line of fire.

Tango Gameworks didn't do anything wrong, they got axed because Microsoft got too spend-crazy.

And how does Microsoft plan to earn back that $70 billion that they spent on Activision Blizzard when they're just shutting down any new games that were being worked on? Even if Call of Duty brings in a billion in profit every year that would still take Microsoft 70 years to make its money back at that point, and Call of Duty definitely doesn't have 70 more years in it.