Microsoft Xbox Series X | S OT - Power Your Dreams, update: FTC case unredacted documents leaked, including XSX mid-generation refresh, new gyro/haptic-enabled controller, and next-generation plans for 2028

[JPDunks4]

My main complaint is lack of gameplay, meaning the vast majority of.these projects are probably 2022 or later.

 

It is kind of expected as a lot of the studios MS bought had recently released a game or deep in production of a game, so most projects would be early.

 

Even Forza they said is early in development, which seems odd since they skipped last year's Forza.

[Greatoneshere]

12 minutes ago, JPDunks4 said:

My main complaint is lack of gameplay, meaning the vast majority of.these projects are probably 2022 or later.

 

It is kind of expected as a lot of the studios MS bought had recently released a game or deep in production of a game, so most projects would be early.

 

Even Forza they said is early in development, which seems odd since they skipped last year's Forza.

 

Let's just be glad that the entire slate of first party games has finally been announced (except from The Coalition, Mojang, and Compulsion). It's a start. Microsoft hasn't even, had, like, games for awhile now. Not a whole slate/line-up at least like this on Xbox/PC. 

[crispy4000]

Quote

343 confirmed that Infinite will get a free raytracing update sometime after launch.

https://www.ign.com/articles/halo-infinite-2-wont-be-happening-says-343-industries

 

 

[Remarkableriots]

14 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

https://www.ign.com/articles/halo-infinite-2-wont-be-happening-says-343-industries

 

 

What's the problem with that?

[JPDunks4]

37 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Let's just be glad that the entire slate of first party games has finally been announced (except from The Coalition, Mojang, and Compulsion). It's a start. Microsoft hasn't even, had, like, games for awhile now. Not a whole slate/line-up at least like this on Xbox/PC. 

Initiative as well.

 

I'm excited about the slate of games and diversity of games.  InXile is also said to be  working on a AAA Unreal Engine RPG as well.

 

All on Game Pass Day 1.

 

I think the fact so many 1st party games are so early is why MS said the next few years will be cross gen, cause the titles coming out in next few years will be smaller projects.

 

Looking at the roadmap today I'm not sure what games would be ready for release next year.  I think they may lean on 3rd party partnerships for the next year or so until their new acquisitions are ready to release starting 2022.

[Brian]

I have no faith that 343 will make a good halo. 

[crispy4000]

21 minutes ago, Remarkableriots said:

What's the problem with that?

Nothing's wrong with it coming.  That's a good thing.  So is the continued support.  It's more surprising to me that it won't be there (at some level) at launch.

[Greatoneshere]

10 minutes ago, JPDunks4 said:

I think the fact so many 1st party games are so early is why MS said the next few years will be cross gen, cause the titles coming out in next few years will be smaller projects.

 

It's the same problem with Sony to a degree as well. Of their 15 studios, only 9 could announce any games (which they did), the other 6 just had games released in either 2019 or 2020, so no way those 6 companies can have anything lined up and ready to go yet (or even announce yet). By comparison, at least Microsoft was able to have 12 of their 14 studios to have announced games, which is better than Sony's 9. That indicates Microsoft and their studios' games for the next generation are further along than Sony's, though 9 vs. 12 isn't a huge gap. But Sony having 6 secret games waiting in the wings vs. Microsoft's 2 secret games (from Compulsion and Mojang, unless that 3rd one you mentioned is real from inXile) does give Sony more room for future announcements whereas Microsoft is done until these 12 current games come out.

 

So presumably Sony is just as screwed in the roadmap regard?

[TwinIon]

Watching the Halo trailer again, two things strike me:

-A lot of the lack of detail seems to be an art design choice more than anything. They wanted a classic Halo feel, and part of that was a certain simplicity. If you're building a game that you want to build on for 10+ years, maybe a simplistic art style isn't a bad choice.

-Even with a very simplified look, it really should look better than it does. You're really not highlighting this new memory architecture when even a relatively simple game still has texture and geometry pop-in during a demo. It also seems like they forgot to turn on the lighting and other effects.

 

At ~3:40 there's a small indoor space and the lighting is completely flat inside and out. It really stuck out to me after watching this DF tech review of Crysis on switch. At ~6:05 they demonstrate how the global illumination changes lighting for indoor areas. It's pretty odd that the premiere Xbox 2020 launch title lacks comparable features to a 13 year old game being ported to a handheld.

 

Destiny 2 is a game that they expect to be adding on to for years, is already 3 years old, and I'd argue already looks better than Infinite. Part of that is they do a pretty good job with lighting and other effects work to really spruce things up.

 

If Infinite really does look like this on PC with max settings, I'm going to be rather dissapointed. I'll still play it as long as it's fun, but I do think MS could do better.

[JPDunks4]

9 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

It's the same problem with Sony to a degree as well. Of their 15 studios, only 9 could announce any games (which they did), the other 6 just had games released in either 2019 or 2020, so no way those 6 companies can have anything lined up and ready to go yet (or even announce yet). By comparison, at least Microsoft was able to have 12 of their 14 studios to have announced games, which is better than Sony's 9. That indicates Microsoft and their studios' games for the next generation are further along than Sony's, though 9 vs. 12 isn't a huge gap. But Sony having 6 secret games waiting in the wings vs. Microsoft's 2 secret games (from Compulsion and Mojang, unless that 3rd one you mentioned is real from inXile) does give Sony more room for future announcements whereas Microsoft is done until these 12 current games come out.

 

So presumably Sony is just as screwed in the roadmap regard?

You're forgetting The Initiative, which is supposedly Microsoft's most ambitious studio.  Microsoft has 15 studios I believe.  

 

And inXile confirmed their next project already.

 

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2020/05/inxile_confirms_it_will_use_unreal_engine_5_for_xbox_series_x_rpg

[Greatoneshere]

11 minutes ago, JPDunks4 said:

You're forgetting The Initiative, which is supposedly Microsoft's most ambitious studio.  Microsoft has 15 studios I believe.  

 

And inXile confirmed their next project already.

 

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2020/05/inxile_confirms_it_will_use_unreal_engine_5_for_xbox_series_x_rpg

 

I don't count The Initiative for the same reason I don't count Sony's San Mateo Studio (formerly Foster City Studio) or Sony's XDev Studio since The Initiative seems to just shepherd projects for other studios rather than make any games of their own. That's my understanding of them so far anyway. If I were to count The Initiative, that would make it 15 for Microsoft, but then I'd have to count San Mateo and XDev for Sony, which would make 17 for Sony. But studios who shepherd projects to help out other studios doesn't strike me as being worthwhile to count (in terms of games), despite all the great support work they do, I'm sure. 

 

And we'll see if that comes to fruition for inXile! A company working on two games at once is pretty rare, we'll see if the game ever really materializes, as this happens a lot during a new system launch where studios get ambitious, pseudo-announce an untitled project, and then it never happens. I stick to a game with at least a title and/or a trailer of some kind (even just an announcement trailer). I have the same policy with films, TV, and anime, after having been burned too many times in my life from exciting announcements that never went anywhere for years in many instances. I think Remedy (for example) recently said they're going to expand and make like 3-4 games, and I was like: "yeah right, we'll see". 

[JPDunks4]

2 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

I don't count The Initiative for the same reason I don't count Sony's San Mateo Studio or Sony's XDev Studio since The Initiative seems to just shepherd projects for other studious rather than make any games of their own. That's my understanding of them so far anyway. If I were to count The Initiative, that would make it 15 for Microsoft, but then I'd have to count San Mateo and XDev for Sony, which would make 17 for Sony. But studios who shepherd projects to help out other studios doesn't strike me as being worthwhile to count (in terms of games), despite all the great support work they do, I'm sure. 

 

And we'll see if that comes to fruition for inXile! A company working on two games at once is pretty rare, we'll see if the game ever really materializes, as this happens a lot during a new system launch where studios get ambitious, pseudo-announce an untitled project, and then it never happens. I stick to a game with at least a title and a trailer of some kind.

 

The Initiative is very much a real studio working on its own IP, rumored to be the Perfect Dark reboot.  It has acquired some of the top talent from top devs over the years.  I highly doubt they are just a support studio.

[Greatoneshere]

6 minutes ago, JPDunks4 said:

 

The Initiative is very much a real studio working on its own IP, rumored to be the Perfect Dark reboot.  It has acquired some of the top talent from top devs over the years.  I highly doubt they are just a support studio.

 

I had no idea, if that's true then yes, that makes it 15 for Microsoft, exactly the same as Sony. That would make it 4 out of the 15 studios that didn't or haven't announced a game from Microsoft then (though I think it's a safe bet to assume that The Coalition is working on Gears 6 and I doubt Mojang is working on anything). So that does leave two left, including The Initiative. Thanks for the info! Surprised The Initiative didn't announce a game then. But I think 12 out of 15 first party studios having announced games is pretty damn good on Microsoft's part, all told (with Obsidian working on two at once). Technically that's currently better than Sony's 9 out of 15 studios with announced games (with Insomniac working on two at once), so at that point it becomes about the catalogue of games and what intrigues each individual person. Son'y lineup and style of games feels very different from Microsoft's lineup and style of games (in terms of first party studio games). 

[legend]

I feel kinda bad for 343 at this point.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

1 minute ago, legend said:

I feel kinda bad for 343 at this point.

[Bacon]

2 minutes ago, legend said:

I feel kinda bad for 343 at this point.

Maybe they should learn to make good games. That had 3 or 5 examples of what makes a good halo game and they just fucked it up. 

 

I mean, H:I could be good, but boy this brute is doing a number on them. 

[crispy4000]

24 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

It's the same problem with Sony to a degree as well. Of their 15 studios, only 9 could announce any games (which they did), the other 6 just had games released in either 2019 or 2020, so no way those 6 companies can have anything lined up and ready to go yet (or even announce yet). By comparison, at least Microsoft was able to have 12 of their 14 studios to have announced games, which is better than Sony's 9. That indicates Microsoft and their studios' games for the next generation are further along than Sony's, though 9 vs. 12 isn't a huge gap. But Sony having 6 secret games waiting in the wings vs. Microsoft's 2 secret games (from Compulsion and Mojang, unless that 3rd one you mentioned is real from inXile) does give Sony more room for future announcements whereas Microsoft is done until these 12 current games come out.

 

So presumably Sony is just as screwed in the roadmap regard?

 

I wouldn't assume anything about how far along games are that haven't been announced for release this year.  Even 2021 targets could be questioned with COVID.

 

That said, there is a fair chance that Microsoft's games are further along than what they've led on.  How long has Playground been working on Fable now?
 

[Greatoneshere]

1 minute ago, Bacon said:

Maybe they should learn to make good games. That had 3 or 5 examples of what makes a good halo game and they just fucked it up. 

 

Even Halo Wars 1 + 2 are good! Better than Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians, certainly.

[Greatoneshere]

4 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

I wouldn't assume anything about how far along games are that haven't been announced for release this year.  Even 2021 targets could be questioned with COVID.

 

That said, there is a fair chance that Microsoft's games are further along than what they've led on.  How long has Playground been working on Fable now?

 

I absolutely agree - all release dates will shift. Was my post assuming anything about how far along games are? To elaborate: I'm saying I think both Sony and Microsoft's roadmaps are screwed, just that on its face since Microsoft has more announced games that perhaps they are more far along in terms of games getting lined up for the next generation. Part of the reason I think this is because 6 of Sony's studios just released games in 2019 and 2020, which isn't the case with Microsoft's 15 studios, so Sony has to by default be "more behind". It's all just speculation, but that's why I think that. No credence to it you think? First party studios can only really work on one double or triple A game at a time (just look at each company's resume, seems to be the case) so it's going to take those 6 studios awhile to get going. Not only is there a console generation shift and COVID-19 to contend with, each of those 6 studios just finished hauling ass on their last game in each case.

[crispy4000]

21 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

I absolutely agree - all release dates will shift. Was my post assuming anything about how far along games are? I'm saying I think both Sony and Microsoft's roadmaps are screwed, just that on its face since Microsoft has more announced games that perhaps they are more far along in terms of games getting lined up for the next generation. Part of the reason I think this is because 6 of Sony's studios just released games in 2019 and 2020, which isn't the case with Microsoft's 15 studios, so Sony has to by default be "more behind". It's all just speculation, but that's why I think that. No credence to it you think?

 

I think it's best to look at release history to get a gauge of how long a particular developer takes between releases.  Then consider which developers are US based because of COVID work challenges.  Then consider if they're making something iterative or not.  Then consider if they're need to scale up for their next project.

 

There's just a ton of variables.  We can speculate, sure.  But this isn't so much a numbers game as a scale and proficiency question.

[legend]

13 minutes ago, Bacon said:

Maybe they should learn to make good games. That had 3 or 5 examples of what makes a good halo game and they just fucked it up. 

 

I mean, H:I could be good, but boy this brute is doing a number on them. 

 The end products aren't good, and they can't seem to make them good. That's why I feel bad for them  

 

But development is never as easy as "learn to make good games." There can be so many other factors that result in them failing. So at this point I just feel bad for them.

[Bacon]

The Chad Brute

[Greatoneshere]

24 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

 

I think it's best to look at release history to get a gauge of how long a particular developer takes between releases.  Then consider which developers are US based because of COVID work challenges.  Then consider if they're making something iterative or not.  Then consider if they're need to scale up for their next project.

 

There's just a ton of variables.  We can speculate, sure.  But this isn't so much a numbers game as a scale and proficiency question.

 

I do feel as if I took all that into account too already when I made the list. You can't even average out the game development time for 4 of the 6 studios from Sony who haven't even announced yet. Even with your additional variables, Microsoft comes out ahead. Again, yeah, I agree it's more scale and proficiency question than numbers, but numbers do tell us something when everything else is taken into account.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Alright, I gotta salvage this thread somehow 

[best3444]

[TwinIon]

Something that I'll be interested to see, other than whatever graphical improvements they make from now till launch, is how exactly Infinite becomes the "platform" for a decade of Halo releases. 

 

I've seen a bunch of stuff saying that it's not necessarily a "service" style game a-la Destiny, but it's not clear what the alternative is. Will we just get "expansions" that are basically new Halo games, but tied into the same multiplayer service? I suppose that's what I'm expecting at this point, but all this together is serving to make Infinite feel far less ambitious than I was expecting. 

[Rick2101]

If the ray tracing is coming later, then I’ll wait to play the single player until then.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

They finally announced Fable, so this was the best MS show in years. 
 

That said, after all this time that was a pretty weak announcement.
 

There was more time spent taking about the update to make Ori 120fps than given to showing off a new Forza. 
 

Tell Me Why would barely look good for Xbox 360 standards. 
 

As Dusk Falls; a game so boring looking, even the voice actors sounded bored, devoid of any emotion. 
 

Everwild; I’m beginning to think this will make Sea Thieves feel epic and engaging by comparison. Are they afraid to actually SHOW what this game is like to play? 
 

Thanks for taking time to not show new Senua

footage, but to let us know there is a developer diary in YouTube where they give us the history of Greenland. Perfect use of time. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

6 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Everwild; I’m beginning to think this will make Sea Thieves feel epic and engaging by comparison. Are they afraid to actually SHOW what this game is like to play?

 

You should check out the article I just posted in the Everwild thread

[Remarkableriots]

Whatever happened to Tomcat after all his hype talk and now MS just crashed and burned?

[crispy4000]

 

I agree with him about 'low time budget.'  I bet we wouldn't be seeing these blemishes if it wasn't for COVID.

 

[skillzdadirecta]

14 minutes ago, Remarkableriots said:

Whatever happened to Tomcat after all his hype talk and now MS just crashed and burned?

This show was a crash and burn?

[crispy4000]

3 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

This show was a crash and burn?

 

Crash and burn was Don Mattrick.

[skillzdadirecta]

1 minute ago, crispy4000 said:

 

Crash and burn was Don Mattrick.

 

[crispy4000]

1 minute ago, skillzdadirecta said: