Xbox Delivered the Exact Showcase They Needed | Unpacked

Xbox came out swinging at Summer Game Fest this year. Now they need to follow through.

[mr.p]

Now lets see how many of these games launch in a playable state.

[samuraispartan]

Phil Spencer talks about severance pay as if it's some selfless act of charity. Why should anyone give him props for doing what he's legally obligated to do?

[TheGuwrovsky]

I am still mad and salty of Tango's shutdown

[FrMZTsarmiral]

After closing Tango I don't think they deserve any praise until those games they showed are released and their studios are given the treatment they deserve.
Gamers LOVE to forgive companies for their wrongdoings the moment they're shown a new shinny hype thing, after all.

[jonathan]

The road to success is paved with the souls of passionate developers.

[dahmerung]

It did seem like people were the most hyped for upcoming games and for Game Pass that I've seen for a while.

Please perform a wellness check on your local Banjo Kazooie and Hollow Knight fans.

[AwesomeWookiee]

They don't have a "long road to rebuilding confidence". They have an entire road. A few good trailers doesn't unshut those studios and they've done literally nothing to show that they're a positive force for good in the industry.

I wasn't that wowed either tbh. Most of it looked pretty unremarkable and uninspired.

[Zubatticus]

Pretty sure the exact showcase they needed would include a new release from Tango Gameworks

[angelnickl]

So, consistency with closing studios. I can't wait!

[MorrisseyMuse]

Yes! and there was at least 12 seconds of actual stunning gameplay in the show too! 😮 Lol

[davidfranklin]

I don't entirely disagree with you, but I also don't agree. They offered very little in terms of release timing and showed minimal game play for the portfolio they showed off.

[LonkinPork]

The Xbox showcase blew me away. Some of those games from original IPs look awesome (shoutout South of Midnight, hell yes give me Bayou Souls)

[intothevoid]

Amazing how quickly the last year gets forgotten when people watch a flashy presentation. It was exactly that: A Presentation. How often gave those turned out to be nothing but? Only the coming years will show if XBox and the industry has learned something - for the better of all gamerkind.
Bethesda has already shown us what to expect with their paid missions for Starfield...

[MrSomethingred]

It would be real nice if Sony and Microsoft could compete on having a better product, rather than better monopolies over particular games.

[eldibs]

It's not so much that they've built a strong foundation, more like that they've hacked off so much foundation that they have no choice but to support the foundation they have left.

[ItsHyomoto]

I know shouting to the consumer is rarely a winning move but it does feel like at this point we have to go beyond "was the game good?" It's nice when good games get made, but if it comes at the cost of jobs and studios it's kind of hard to be like "thanks Xbox! Your business practices suck, thanks for fucking over hundreds of people so I could be adequately distracted!" Mostly because we have choice and good games that don't need that to choose from. The game sure looks swell but if I can have as much fun with a cheaper product from a smaller developer who won't have to find a new job next week because their game only sold 200, 000 copies I gotta pick that alternative.

[BlazeMakesGames]

Yeah the problem with microsoft right now is that it's hard to get hype for a game when apparently a game being a critical darling and widely liked by everyone is no longer good enough to avoid everyone losing their jobs. Sure I think that the guys making Doom are probably safe, and of course Bethesda as a whole gets unfair treatment because they spent so much money on them specifically, so when they put out a stinker like Starfield, it's the studios like Arkane and Tango that get punished. And it's feeling like other studios like Obsidian are just next on the chopping block because no matter how well Avowed turns out, is it gonna do Skyrim Numbers? of Course not, but what if Xbox *wants* it to do Skyrim Numbers to help cover their 70 billion dollar debt? Then they're in trouble...

[potroastmutt]

Xbox was feeling the community rumblings about "Xbox haz no gaemz" at the end of last gen and the start of this console generation. That's why I personally think they went on such a massive buying spree for all these studios; to get some major IP under their belt without having to actually develop any new games and spending the money (or generating the negative press because Xbox seems more interested in live services than any other of the big three developers, and has been putting out more and was also the first to adopt the push when it started kicking off).

Now, their ownership gets them retroactive credit for major IP in most spaces from the studios they've bought. Even SkillUp's coverage of the showcase was highlighting "remember, this is now the company of WoW and gets to announce WoW expansions now, this is the company of Overwatch, this is the owning company of ID and gets to announce DOOM". Xbox now has "gaemz".

The problem is this buying of studios was completely unsustainable in the long run, because Xbox has ZERO intention of maintaining and running those studios off of itself with its own money, that's why they didn't have any games at first. The press changed that, I feel. It's like when Nintendo or Sony launch their consoles as loss leaders; eat the cost to win thr slow game with a steady release of games on your platform, only instead of a console, it was a bulk purchase of studios.

Xbox got all those IPs now, it doesn't need their studios, or their creators. I don't think we're going to be seeing a sudden spike of output from Xbox just because they own these studios now, because that would involve paying them. I also expect the quality to drop, and a lot of live services coming out of these studios because Xbox is still all on on this trend, and most importantly, I expect WAY more closures. Like a vampire, Xbox got all the juice it wanted out of these studios when it bought them and all the rights to their IP, it's time to toss the carcass away. Xbox couldn't purge all it eanted to because the negative press that would generate would completely tank their chances of ever generating competeing revenue to Sony this console generation, so we're going to be seeing a steady drip feed of studio closures, just enough that they can keep the positive press up to sweep it under the rug as it's happening

[MANUELEYTOR]

Very optimistic take. My impression of the showcase was "Look at all these cool games that will also come out on PS5"

[jcace]

Nick, I don't think you can talk about positive social media and show your own tweet haha.