A lot of crying wolf has fallen upon the space of game's journalism regarding the imminent demise of Xbox as a powerhouse within the top tier of the industry. They seem to be setting themselves up to abandon the console war entirely and become full time publishers for the rest of eternity. Whereas I loathe the idea of a Sony-Controlled industry, what else can you forsee in a world where Microsoft lose more and more marketshare every year, both from the successes of Sony and their constant depressing failures. The move to start shilling of exclusives was a nowhere road into the wall, the dragging out of long-term exclusives that end up scoring mid reviews is dressing, and now Xbox have finally gone the route of scaring off all small studios that might have had a future to grow up into something big. Truly the future is dead at Microsoft Game Studios.
You've probably heard the news. Arkane Austin are dead, killed for the crime of creation Redfall- a game that was, to be fair, absolute dog-crap from the ground up. But here's the thing- it was a game that they didn't even want to make, which only carried on to launch by Microsoft incompetence when it came to project management which the then-leader of Xbox accepted responsibility for. (I'll call Phil Spencer 'then leader' in the knowledge that once Microsoft falls into a holding pattern of publishing, they won't have need of a man with his talents anymore.) They were punished for being led to crap. How utterly twisted and diabolical for any god-fearing games company to do. It almost sounds as though their positive contributions were thrown away entirely.
Because yes, Arkane Austin were also responsible for putting together the beloved Prey reboot game which some have gone so far as to label the revitalisation of the Immersive Sim genre. And yes, Prey did underperform- and it also stole it's name from the original Prey property for absolutely no reason- they had no ties to that original game whatsoever- but the game was considered a classic. That is the kind of goodwill that, when correctly fostered, can eventually generate the kind of smash hit that moves consoles down the line. But I guess Xbox just couldn't be bothered to put in that effort so at the very first sign of weakness they decided to let Arkane A go. Whoops.
Now I know, as sick as it tastes to even consider, there is a sick logic to this. If from a monetary standpoint the company is looked on as a liability- a cold and emotion-deficient producer won't think twice about heading for layoffs. And Redfall wasn't just a disaster- it was a disaster that had already sold season passes promising buyers more content. Extra playable characters that had technically already been sold to a community that dried up within a couple of weeks, that promise was a liability hanging over the studio where they had to spend the development hours and money to create content that realistically no one could pay. Now that is the tiniest possible inconvenience for a multibillion dollar company- but how do you think they become multibillionaires? By being stingy.
But now I'm going to slap you in the mouth and tell you to dispense of that blasphemy you call 'Logic' because this next point defies that. Tango Gameworks has also been shut down. They were the developers of the two pretty decent Evil Within games that carried on the survival horror genre when everyone felt it was good and buried. Then just over a year ago they were the ones to inject something of a hope into the possibility of Xbox as a first party game developer with the surprising Hi-Fi Rush hit that came out the same day it was announced and knocked people's socks off. To this day that is the only first party Xbox game of this generation that seemed to have received straight universal praise, and Xbox fired it's developers.
That means if you develop under Xbox you need to be careful because one stinker from your studio is enough to put you on the chopping block, regardless of the circumstances around it and all your previous contributions to the craft. But you also need to be careful because if you develop a hit, you'll be on the chopping block, regardless on whether or not that hit is the spine upon which your rocky reputation is held up. The lesser know Alpha Dog and Roundhouse Studios, yet to make names for themselves, were also shut down- so be careful about not making a splash. Essentially- don't work for Xbox- because they cannot offer security to literally anyone. They are toxicity incarnate.
Everytime Xbox's long term strategies have been brought up it has been about 'building up studios' into the same sort of hitmakers that Sony has on their back bench. They rejected the toxic method of simply buying up everyone Sony could ever work with in favour of the long-play which would be healthier for the industry as a whole. But there's only so long you can say "Hold on, the real good games are all coming next year!" especially when all these middle weight makers are getting gutted and left to dry out because Xbox are too cheap to sell them on to new owners and potential keep a team of well-working professionals together. That was the very heart of the Xbox brand they just wantonly cut out- and now what's left?
A dead future and a public address that no one wants to make. At this point it's pretty much said and done. Starfield and Indiana Jones might as well get released on Playstation before the year is out so Microsoft can prepare to exit the console market, because there is no coming back from a torpedo like this. A total assassination of brand and self that ruins what little respect Xbox still had built up for itself. I only wish they had the good graces to throw in the towel years ago and save us this prolonged will-they won't they- which has contributed a grand total of barely anything to the art form and just ended up ruining a bunch of promising up and coming Studios. Phil Spencer has some answers to give, and if they aren't good enough- maybe that speech should come with his papers too.
No comments:
Post a Comment