Board 8 > Microsoft shuts down several studios, including Tango and Arkane Austin.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Kenri posted...

Game devs choosing where to launch their new game: Ah yes, Microsoft, a company that has proven trustworthy to work with,

They will sell it to Meta in two years because they couldn't make a profit off it like their streaming service

Being Microsoft Gaming instead of Xbox is definitely a sign that it's basically over. But not surprising, they were pushing that brand hard because it's more favorable.

Only fortunate part in this is that both Playstation and Xbox are just glorified PCs at this point so literally nothing changes. Looking forward to the Microsoft Surface Deck, i guess?

https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1788728698184540355?t=A1-Mu0sIKvrVKa62tn8ONg&s=19

Maybe just don't do interviews right now when everyone hates you if you have absolutely nothing of value to say.

Kinglicious posted...

Being Microsoft Gaming instead of Xbox is definitely a sign that it's basically over. But not surprising, they were pushing that brand hard because it's more favorable.

Only fortunate part in this is that both Playstation and Xbox are just glorified PCs at this point so literally nothing changes. Looking forward to the Microsoft Surface Deck, i guess?

I've said it before, but the most logical path forward for MS is to make the next Xbox an actual PC in a box that has BC with previous Xboxs. That way no one had to spend time developing games specifically for it.

Oh Ninja Theory is absolutely fucking doomed.

https://twitter.com/SultanPSN/status/1789968062793314385?t=2FSYRBx-Ny8ZbeBwrrwR6A&s=19

What am I looking at there? It's #248 based on what?

Steam sales ranking for the day. Which is mostly irrelevant, but hardly a good sign.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Oh Ninja Theory is absolutely fucking doomed.

https://twitter.com/SultanPSN/status/1789968062793314385?t=2FSYRBx-Ny8ZbeBwrrwR6A&s=19

The question is whether they'll get to port it to PS5 first or not.

The chart is just a bad look, but the fact that this game is coming out in a week I'm general is fucking insane. 0 marketing budget.

bigger marketing budget than Hi-Fi Rush a week before launch

Hi-Fi Rush was a shadowdrop AA game.

Hellblade II is supposedly a pillar of the Xbox Series that they announced alongside their console 5 years ago.

It (Hellblade) was at one of those summer showcases and then...haven't heard much about it since?

The first game didn't exactly light the world on fire. It was good but not the type of game I'd expect to breakout in a major way.

Hellblade 1 is one of the most niche games I've played in recent memory. There's no way marketing can make that game sell a lot. I'm surprised at how much the original sold, but I wonder how many players actually finished it or played more than a couple hours.

Seanchan posted...

It was good but not the type of game I'd expect to breakout in a major way.

Except at one point Microsoft DID expect it to. Do you remember that huge musical presentation at the game awards last year?

It's been radio silence since then other than the announcement that the game was locked at 30.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Except at one point Microsoft DID expect it to. Do you remember that huge musical presentation at the game awards last year?

It's been radio silence since then other than the announcement that the game was locked at 30.

Well, as if we didn't already know based on the past few weeks, Microsoft is fucking stupid.

Ninja Theory has never made a true breakout hit. Heavenly Sword and Enslaved are both are on that same level as Hellblade; ambitious and interesting but not system sellers. DmC I've still not played but from what I understand it wasn't loved at launch and has only gotten a reputation over time because it was more underrated than it should have been. Then there's Hellblade 1. (A bunch of smaller stuff too that wouldn't matter to the GFaqs audience.)

Hellblade 2 looks like more Hellblade. It's going to be on Game Pass on day 1, which we know kills sales. It will very likely be a good videogame. But it will not move the needle, and that's all Microsoft cares about at this point because they don't care about "catalog" titles, which is what this will likely end up being.

Seanchan posted...

Ninja Theory has never made a true breakout hit.

I was about to challenge this and then I realized that I've been conflating Ninja Theory and Team Ninja, possibly for over a decade.

Seanchan posted...

DmC I've still not played but from what I understand it wasn't loved at launch and has only gotten a reputation over time because it was more underrated than it should have been.

Quite the opposite, amongst critics it was significantly OVERrated at launch! Brad Shoemaker got a TON of shit over at Giant Bomb for giving it a 5/5.

DmC's reputation has improved significantly amongst players because the Definitive Edition is an absurdly better video game than the launch version.

I love Devil May Cry and even I think fans got soooooo butthurt over DmC on launch it was borderline pathetic. Like yea there's a fair amount that's cringe in it but getting SOOOOOOO upset over that one jab they do with the white hair is too dumb, like actually go outside and touch some grass

Yeah amongst a lot of DMC fans I wouldn't say the game was underrated, more like they were acting like it was the end of the world and wanted everyone involved dead.

Which is just a normal Tuesday nowadays in this industry, but was pretty wild at the time.

Personally I like the game well enough when it launched! I couldn't ever touch that version again though, the fucking red and blue color shit, yeesh.

Most of the hate for DmC from the fanbase came from the director being a racist asshole.

DmC sucks shit and complaining about it directly led to DMC5 being made. My thanks go out to all my haters.

DMC5 is a vastly superior game yes but DMC5 is also a near-pinnacle in action games so that's hard to compare

I was ambivalent on DmC then when I played it I was so mad that the gameplay was so bad compared to the awesome level design

Some of you have forgotten or missed that Team Ninja picked that fight in the first place. They were outright hostile to DMC for no reason in ways that were baffling once we actually got their finished product.

kevwaffles posted...

Some of you have forgotten or missed that Team Ninja picked that fight in the first place. They were outright hostile to DMC for no reason in ways that were baffling once we actually got their finished product.

The director said some dumb shit, but none of that warrants death threats. The statement I made earlier about the reaction was not intended to be hyperbole.

DmC was good (on PC or the Definitive Edition) although a lot of the key creatives were bad for a variety of reasons. Though lets be honest, they could have been saints and the fanbase still would have lost their minds. The reaction to just that first teaser was pure toxicity.

kevwaffles posted...

Some of you have forgotten or missed that Team Ninja picked that fight in the first place. They were outright hostile to DMC for no reason in ways that were baffling once we actually got their finished product.

They did some cringe shit like I said yea but getting SO fuckin offended at dumb shit like the white hair mirror scene is just too sad lol

UshiromiyaEva posted...

none of that warrants death threats

every developer ever has gotten death threats for stupid reasons. it's not worth bringing them up

Sorry but I'm not ready to normalize it.

DmC had the guy in charge say Dante would be thrown out of a bar if he looked like that and then decided to make his self insert the lead, acting like that guy would be the coolest around. then they acted like 30 FPS for the game was acceptable in any way and the combo system was dumbed down to ridiculous levels; all those things were known before the game launched. dude was an ass and the game deserved to flop almost as much as the mobile game does. 4 was better, 5 was amazing, it's rightfully regulated as "look even after the fixes and upgrades it's better than 2 but that ain't saying much."

only exception i'll give is the spanish dub. mexican donte is cool.

The moment it stops being worth bringing up is the moment the video game industry is lost.

The PowerPoint slides or whatever from Ninja Theory on why DmC would be "better" though are fuckin hilarious and sad as well, both sides were being stupid as hell in that whole thing lmao so glad we got DMC5 after that

https://www.ign.com/articles/square-enix-bracing-for-layoffs-in-us-and-europe-amid-restructuring

And some say that it loops forever, this road, this road, this road

Xiahou_Shake posted...

https://www.ign.com/articles/square-enix-bracing-for-layoffs-in-us-and-europe-amid-restructuring

And some say that it loops forever, this road, this road, this road

This is insane.

How long until the industry realizes "line goes up forever" is completely unsustainable?

Those specific layoffs don't include developers, at least.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

The director said some dumb shit, but none of that warrants death threats. The statement I made earlier about the reaction was not intended to be hyperbole.

And I'm not being hyperbolic when I say he was trying to capitalize on a very xenophobic "Japanese game devs are inferior" attitude especially prevalent at the time to bring in new fans. So don't ask me to empathize with someone getting lowest common denominator in return for starting there.

Edit: And yeah I know I said "no reason" before. I should have said "no good reason".

And nobody is asking you to, some brainworms coming up in here damn lol

kevwaffles posted...

Some of you have forgotten or missed that Team Ninja picked that fight in the first place. They were outright hostile to DMC for no reason in ways that were baffling once we actually got their finished product.

I sometimes think that the higher ups at Microsoft made this exact mistake when they bought Ninja Theory

WazzupGenius00 posted...

I sometimes think that the higher ups at Microsoft made this exact mistake when they bought Ninja Theory

Huh?

I know we got sidetracked but I meant who I said.

Edit: Omg I am wrong lmfao

Like I wasn't even paying attention to what I wrote and thought you were talking about the post that started this.

They already know it's over.

https://twitter.com/NinjaTheory/status/1792601275550302264?t=BH0iWuDss9d94kNcKWa15g&s=19

that's basically what every dev tweets out the day before the game is released

Not on a black background like that, they usually make it look nice and happy and take a more celebratory tone. Saying "making video games is hard" the day before your video game comes out is not a sign of confidence in the product

The black background is just the promotional/box art for the game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2461850/Senuas_Saga_Hellblade_II/

Just look to the right

WazzupGenius00 posted...

Not on a black background like that, they usually make it look nice and happy and take a more celebratory tone. Saying "making video games is hard" the day before your video game comes out is not a sign of confidence in the product

I don't think the quality of the product matters at all. They are going to be closed down even if this is a GotY contendor.

Supposedly it's already confirmed they're working on their next game, but yeah I saw that tweet and went "oh they're so cooked"

https://opencritic.com/game/16475/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii

Slightly worse reviews than the first game overall.

Getting the impression that it's, for all intents and purposes, basically a visual novel.

No problem with that here! Just gotta wait for the inevitable Playstation port.

On Metacritic it is exactly the same score as the original! Ill make a review zone later.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Getting the impression that it's, for all intents and purposes, basically a visual novel.

No problem with that here! Just gotta wait for the inevitable Playstation port.

I think this is quite evitable. But certainly possible.

The only way a PS port doesn't happen is if the team gets disbanded before they can make it, I'd think.