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Microsoft Games Boss Promises Higher Quality, Fewer Games
Thanks to the San Jose Mercury News for its article discussing Microsoft Game Studios' new general manager Shane Kim's attitude to development, as the piece notes: "Some of Kim's first acts have been to ax or delay several projects. Since the fall, Microsoft has scaled back its staff of internal game developers from 1,200 employees to about 1,000." But it's argued: "Because there are now so many others making games for the Xbox, Microsoft needs to make fewer titles, Kim said... This shift toward a conservative investing style mirrors the larger shift within the video game industry, where development budgets and marketing costs are reaching Hollywood proportions."
They may merely assimilate a good code shop here and there, but they have good taste. Oh if I could only have the hours back wasted on the "Age of" series, sigh. Maybe than I would have a girl, oh well back to my game of star wars galaxies.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Personally I think it's a little worrying that budgets for games have spiralled up so quickly to approach the level of hollywood blockbusters, while the process of making games is still somewhere in the early 1900s, by hollywood standards. I'm glad to see studios favoring quality over quantity, but I'll be happier when the processes mature to similarly modern levels. Once we cut out the majority of wasted work, schedule overruns, and plain old bad planning I think we'll start seeing what games can really do.
Taking a page from Nintendo's book?
When I read the first part of the headline, I thought this was going to be an information on how to beat the Microsoft Games Boss. Something like:
* Press X-X-Y while pressing both triggers
* Jump up
* File antitrust lawsuits
* Fire wave-motion gun
* Go to Court
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
So are they basically admitting to flooding the market with crap games to offer consumers a "choice" when buying games? Were they padding their number of titles with junk just to make XBox look like a viable console next to the PS2? And now that they have a decen number of third party developers producing horrible games, they don't need to anymore? I see, gotcha. One hundred percent clear, now.
Th
And its not even only their software. Just look at the perhiphrials market (keyboards, joysticks, wheels, etc), where Microsoft actually makes some competetive products. I'm primarilly a Logitech man myself, but my Microsoft sidewinder wheel is actually a pretty good piece of hardware (even if the software bundled with it sucks :P)
Sure they are going to invest more money in the games and with the new capabilities of the graphics cards we are going to see some amazing graphics.
But they are going to be even less willing to take the risk to innovate than before. A high-quality game isn't just last year's game with prettier graphics.
True warriors use the Klingon Google
What I'm wondering is... does Alexei Pajitnov (the inventor of Tetris, for both of you who didn't know that) still work for Microsoft games division? It's kind of sad how he didn't make anything of notice since then ...
After the PS2 and the GBA.
And who cares about third place vs. fourth?
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
Stop the offtopic "Microsoft is evil" bullshit you homos. We are talking about GAMES, and Microsoft games are actually pretty decent. Like age of empires, halo, flight simulator and midtown madness.
Actually, Japan is the third biggest videogame market, not second. It has really been shrinking the past few years. Maybe you can't really ignore it now, but there is plenty of evidence that you can safely do that for the next console generation. The Japanese just aren't buying many games anymore, period.
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon
Why is the title of your post "Final Fantasy 7?" Did you have another point to make before posting this one....?
Besides, there is no evidence that proves that Microsoft will WANT to ignore Japan. If anything, they are going to attempt to fix their fuck-ups in PURSUIT of Japan in the next generation. If California somehow bought less games this year than last, do you think MS would pull their CA accounts?
It's been said time and again, but the problem in Japan regarding the games indstry is that of economy. When Japanese buying power goes up, the industry (as with other industries that are currently seeing a slump in Japan) will likely see a resurgence. Even the used games buyers eventually get bored and go out and buy something. I have a respectable collection, but I buy new stuff too.
EA just announced they are trying to double in size every 5 years while Microsoft is cutting back on game dev? What does Mr. Kim have to say about EA's direction? So Microsoft is saying that it wants to produce quality games -- so it wants to only create million-selling items? Yet by cutting out all its sports titles they have left the field to be owned by EA in an areana where quality versions guarantee return of the faithful on an annual basis. The MMORPG market is flooded -- so killing Mythica kind of made sense. Except for the fact that then leaves them holding AC which has to compete with the next generation from other companies. Mythica would have been the "quality" replacement they're claiming they want to produce. Very sad. All this just seams to point to the reality that Microsoft doesn't have the stomach for a protracted building of a franchise that has more potential than Gate's Dreamworks (see http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,61358,00.ht ml).
If Microsoft is truely about producing quality games, then it must realize that it could easilly cut down on marketing budget since allowing Mods, level editors, and online play all build community and word of mouth that buys you far better sales than an add in any Nothing-Gets-Less-Than-4-Out-Of-5-Stars game "review" magazine.
Sigh.
I've been very happy with IBM's perhiphrials as well. MS brands some excellent stuff, but all of the majors (except maybe Logitech) outsource everything. IBM sold most of these business to Lexmark (who was licensed the brand for a certain period) but Lexmark focused on printers in the late 90s and sold or stopped work on the few products they were still making at that point. Anything from IBM is from one of the big asian ODMs, with IBM's logo slapped on the box.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
where development budgets and marketing costs are reaching Hollywood proportions
and so is quality.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
The fact that game production costs are now approaching Hollywood proportions isn't really news to anyone who follows the industry. What is news and what is different here is how Shane Kim approaches game investment and development, and how that directly affects quality and innovation in games.
Laying off 200 (presumably) talented game developers and alienating some of those that remain seems counterintuitive to producing high-quality games, but on paper I'm sure it looks like a good financial move for a Microsoft division that is hemorrhaging cash like there is no tomorrow.
Here's the original post, highlighting comments from Blue Fang's president that expresses some concerns.
I'm not sure Hollywood is the best place to look for a standard of well thought through 'quality' projects. Don't believe me? Take a look at the "major" releases that came out this week. I'm thinking there are some 'quantity' films there.
Don't let the flash and glamour of tinsel town fool you, games are pretty much at the level of movies right now. For every Lord of the Rings there's a Tony Hawk, and at the same time, for every Fugitive Hunter, there's a Battlefield Earth.
Yeah, I have a webcomic...
Of course. That's why they've axed Psychonauts and green-lighted Blinx 2, right? Idiots.