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Game Studio Flight From Microsoft A Sign of Troubles?
Newsweek's LevelUp blog continues to produce some highly interesting material. Today they have up a look at the 'flight' of game studios from Microsoft's corporate umbrella. BioWare's purchase by EA distances it a bit from their cosy relationship with Microsoft, as does Bizarre's purchase by Activision. Bungie's departure from the company itself goes without saying. So what does all this mean? Is this a sign of troubles in Redmond, or just more fallout from the huge undertaking required to get the Xbox 360 to the position it has today? "For us, the flight of the Killer B's is a clear indication that Microsoft as a whole is still shell shocked not only by the massive losses in the Xbox division, but also more importantly by the poor showing of Rare, which has to rank as not only one of the Microsoft's least successful purchases, but as quite possibly the worst acquisition in the history of gaming. Microsoft paid $375 million in cash for Rare, and based on the modest revenues from its ensuing titles--a Conker's Bad Fur Day remake, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero and Viva Pinata--all they've got to show for it is that proverbial lousy T-shirt, completely stained with red ink."
Since when was either Studio owned by Microsoft? This is such a fluff piece for a slow gaming "news" week.
!Viva Pinata!
That's the only reason my boy swaps the XBox on, in place of the Wii.
We are a market of ONE!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
What happened with Rare? I remember when Nintendo announced that it had let Rare go from 2nd party Nintendo developer to Microsoft exclusive developer. I figured that would be the "white flag" moment for Nintendo.
They took with them the underrated Conker's Bad Fur Day series, anything Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie (I think)... arguably the best games development studio behind Nintendo itself. What happened?
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
More Twoson than Cupertino
I predict they will declare bankruptcy when Linux wins the desktop.
Was M$ forcing them to make new games vista only? and the game coders do not want to piss of people who still have XP.
Microsoft failed to keep first- and third-party developers happy? THAT'S news ...
The BioWare thing is a tragedy, but lack of console exclusivity is the least of my worries there. I don't care what console it comes out for, if I see "EA Games Presents Mass Effect 2009" I'm getting out the torches. The Rare deal was a stupid decision that was more about keeping the brand away from Nintendo, and it's old news anyway.
As a fan of Bungie since the first Marathon, I am absolutely ecstatic that they're going independent again and wonder how many of their firstborn it cost them (really, though, how the HELL did they pull that off?). PGR is in my opinion a B franchise and I can't see it hurting them very much.
Added up, there seems to be a trend of Microsoft failing to buy innovative development studios before somebody else does ... given history, that may be the best news of all. As to the future of the Xbox, I don't really care. As long as this fight continues, we (the consumers) win.
That about says it all. Does Microsoft still own Newsweek?
--
Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.
This article came off very strange. It seems like trying to create a story out of nowhere.
Last I heard MS was already making a profit on the 360, due to the cost coming down quicker than expected. Yes they took that billion dollar charge, but as I understand it each one sold is still profit at this point.
Add onto that some pretty killer titles in the last year and MS has made some cash. Halo3 alone would offset any losses in the last year I would assume. (Short of the charge).
If you read the statement Bungie released on their website it sounds more like what MS did was pull lots of companies into the fold, in order to foster the growth of its image as a gaming company. Now that they've established their beachhead, they can let those companies go sink or swim on their own merits.
I think Rare is the perfect example of why MS is letting the studios go (though still in publishing agreements for many of them). With a good partner relationship MS doesn't take on the risk of a studio starting to turn out poor quality product. At the same time, its become a large enough, established enough player, that those publishers will pay attention to MS, even if they aren't subsidiaries.
Here is how I called in 2002 and I'm sticking with my statement!
You can read the whole post there, but in short I closed with: "While I hate to see a core group from Nintendo go over to the hands of the soulless boys and girls of Microsoft... deep down I almost hope that Rare actually continues it's pitiful slide into the hole of mediocrity and takes MS with them... but that would be hoping for to much I guess."
Or you can read one of my many posts on the subject on this very site.
Maybe that's actually playing out as predicted? Who can tell. The facts of the matter are that Microsoft got screwed in the purchase.
Bryan
That's the only reason my boy swaps the XBox on, in place of the Wii.
Your boy might also like Animal Crossing, a GameCube game with a lot of the same ideas. It works fine on a Wii, and a native Wii version is rumored to be in the works.
X [] O
The games Rare made for Nintendo were some of the only playable non-Nintendo titles on the N64. Rare certainly benefited from having access to Nintendo's characters and Nintendo benefited from having a studio which could competently create a playable game. I'm looking at you Namco and Capcom. After the break-up there were too few good games on the Gamecube and this article tells you everything you need to know about Rare's post Nintendo success.
We willna be fooled again!
4-5 billion in losses with the first Xbox for a tie for last place with Nintendo last gen
Rushed out the door underpowered piece of shit follow up console
1.1 billion in red ink just for one specific flaw in the 360
Disc scratching/destroying lawsuits
Peter Moore gets fired
Internal studios being jettisoned
Closely tied third party studios heading off to multiplatform companies like EA and Activision
Cancelation of major Xbox conferences
Almost complete silence on any plans beyond 2007
Microsoft has finally had enough with the seven year long Xbox trainwreck. They have decided it is time to move on. Perhaps some of the non-hardware Xbox stuff will live on as part of Vista gaming.
Regardless, the Xbox is done. Get over it.
Microsoft UN-monopolizing a market is a bad thing? Wow- those guys really cannot win the press no matter what they do.
---Vote None of the Above---
Subversion of the masses through electronic drugs is the primary goal. If Microsoft dies, then it will be replaced by some other machine designed to make people dumb and slow and distracted.
I'm sure all the MS employees, however, don't see it this way. But they're just expendable cogs in the works of a greater force.
Among the best things I ever did for myself was to throw out my television set, to stop playing video games, and to start eating healthy foods.
-FL
This was actually what I was wondering. DirectX10 could be the problem as well. Vista so far seems quite unpopular and forcing gamers to it isn't going making anyone happy.
Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
The biggest loss is Bungie and seeing as MS has a larger share in them still than Sony has in Square Enix there's certainly no worry for MS there and even then Bungie is nothing without Halo and Halo 3 would be nowhere near the success it was without MS' resources. Bungie would be stupid to totally divorce themselves from MS because their only other success prior to MS was Halo 1 which sold 5 mill units compared to Halo 2 at 9 mill units and Halo 3 which will possibly top that again.
Mass Effect is staying 360 only for now, if it does get ported to PS3 the port is so far away it's irrelevant so there's nothing to worry about there at least from the Bioware merge with EA.
Bizarre, well, yeah, PGR is good but it's just not as good as Forza II, so the 360 sure as hell aint gonna die if it loses the PGR series because racing fans still have Forza 2 so again Bizarre is no big loss.
It certainly can't be spun off as being good for MS certainly but to suggest it's in any way a disaster is a major overexageration, particularly when you compare the amount of previously Sony exclusives and exclusive studios that have jumped shipped or at least gone dual format. When you take that lot into account it's still a massive net win for MS over the last generation so there's certainly no need to start panicing just yet!
Geez, astroturfers suck...
More like 3 stories makes a conspiracy. How many of those companies were EXCLUSIVELY with M$? One maybe? Sounds like PS3 scaremongering.
I have excellent Karma and I am not afraid to Troll it.
...bodily fluids as well?
If you do, reset the game without saving to get a surprise :-)
Bring back Jet-Pac !