E3 2018 - Conferences start June 9th - Full Schedule in Post #1

[syz]

Last year they Microsoft only had Cuphead, Halo Wars, and another Forza game. Six months into this year and they've only had Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2, both of which have been fairly negatively received. Sony has had a bigger exclusive output from Japan alone over the last couple of years than Microsoft has had across the board.

Don Mattrick's shit show of a launch put them in a hole in terms of launch sales, but they've done nothing in terms of software to turn things around since then. The Xbox needs to start being more than a Halo and Forza machine. They have the strongest machine on the market and good programs like game pass, but none of it matters until they actually have some more games.

Somebody pointed out recently that if you watch Microsoft's 2014(?) conference, the only announcement that has actually come out is Sea of Thieves. Everything else got canceled or still isn't out (Crackdown). That's a lot of time and money to devote to a bunch of game development that ultimately ends up turning into nothing.

 

[Commander Clueless]

I agree. The One X is a fantastic machine and Game Pass is a fantastic service, but the lack of really good first party titles hurts them.

If you mostly play cross-platform games, though, the One X is a great place to play them.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Last year they Microsoft only had Cuphead, Halo Wars, and another Forza game. Six months into this year and they've only had Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2, both of which have been fairly negatively received. Sony has had a bigger exclusive output from Japan alone over the last couple of years than Microsoft has had across the board.

Don Mattrick's **** show of a launch put them in a hole in terms of launch sales, but they've done nothing in terms of software to turn things around since then. The Xbox needs to start being more than a Halo and Forza machine. They have the strongest machine on the market and good programs like game pass, but none of it matters until they actually have some more games.

Somebody pointed out recently that if you watch Microsoft's 2014(?) conference, the only announcement that has actually come out is Sea of Thieves. Everything else got canceled or still isn't out (Crackdown). That's a lot of time and money to devote to a bunch of game development that ultimately ends up turning into nothing.

From what I can tell, MS generally doesn't have the patience to wait on games for too long to come out. Or they pull unobtainable goals for others. Fable Legends was mostly done and they decided to completely can it, wasting away a few years worth of work. Scalebound was playable at one point and they canned that too. They were going to try to get a Phantom Dust HD Remake but the only got a port of the original game and upped it to be in HD, not much else for that.

Yet Sony has put out, just this year: God of War, Detroit, Ni no Kuni 2, MLB The Show (yearly, but still), H1Z1 Open Beta, Yakuza 6. And they have a shit load of big names coming out later this year as well.
As said before, the only real big games that Xbox has released this year are Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2, which didn't come flying out of the gate in terms of reviews and quality. And... those are pretty much it for now for 2018. While MS has said they would spend money on getting better studios, they clearly haven't been showing it over this entire generation.

 

[Dick Sledge]

What would it take for those who are down on Xbox to turn the corner in the slightest?

Early announcements? Then you may say it's too far off.

No announcements? Well then they clearly have nothing to offer.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

"Weakest" doesn't do it justice right now.

It's practically non-existent.

Even the games they do have aren't really anything special. I wasn't blown away by Halo 5 or Gears 4, and I don't think I would be by their successors either. It's a shame too because I love the Gears franchise.

This was the biggest thing I believe and wholeheartedly agree. With Sony always going after Microsoft with their conference they really had time to hammer that nail in during their show. I'm sure they loved the backlash that MS got and shoehorned in a lot of counters to make them look instantly more appealing. That, the price (because of the kinect) and the kinect itself destroyed any fast start MS could have had. People have to stop acting like Xbox hasn't done anything good since their absolutely garbage 2013 E3.

I don't know if anyone uses this feature but I love the fact that my friend and I can share digital games. Any games he purchases off the Xbox store digitally I can play and vice versa. We just split the cost. Even for Gold, Game Pass and EA access. I'm never paying full price.

Yeah Sony took a giant dump on them and rightly so. So many baffling decisions...

The One is a great console but there's very few things exclusively on it that I would deem reasons to buy the console.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Last year they Microsoft only had Cuphead, Halo Wars, and another Forza game. Six months into this year and they've only had Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2, both of which have been fairly negatively received. Sony has had a bigger exclusive output from Japan alone over the last couple of years than Microsoft has had across the board.

Don Mattrick's **** show of a launch put them in a hole in terms of launch sales, but they've done nothing in terms of software to turn things around since then. The Xbox needs to start being more than a Halo and Forza machine. They have the strongest machine on the market and good programs like game pass, but none of it matters until they actually have some more games.

Somebody pointed out recently that if you watch Microsoft's 2014(?) conference, the only announcement that has actually come out is Sea of Thieves. Everything else got canceled or still isn't out (Crackdown). That's a lot of time and money to devote to a bunch of game development that ultimately ends up turning into nothing.

I'm fully expecting Cuphead to jump to other consoles, even if it was published by Microsoft.

 

[syz]

At this point in the cycle Microsoft would need announcements that will be releasing relatively quickly. They'd need to announce a bunch of stuff that they've been working on and are finally ready to show.

Anything that's too early in development may as well be saved for next gen launch titles; they've only got a few years left, so anything that's like 2 years away is one delay away from being a wash for this generation.

 

[Bjorn Le]

From what I can tell, MS generally doesn't have the patience to wait on games for too long to come out. Or they pull unobtainable goals for others. Fable Legends was mostly done and they decided to completely can it, wasting away a few years worth of work. Scalebound was playable at one point and they canned that too. They were going to try to get a Phantom Dust HD Remake but the only got a port of the original game and upped it to be in HD, not much else for that.

Yet Sony has put out, just this year: God of War, Detroit, Ni no Kuni 2, MLB The Show (yearly, but still), H1Z1 Open Beta, Yakuza 6. And they have a **** load of big names coming out later this year as well.
As said before, the only real big games that Xbox has released this year are Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2, which didn't come flying out of the gate in terms of reviews and quality. And... those are pretty much it for now for 2018. While MS has said they would spend money on getting better studios, they clearly haven't been showing it over this entire generation.

It has nothing to do with patience. For Microsoft, first and second party titles are such a minuscule part of the company's revenue that it's been an afterthought. They don't have carte blanche to develop studios or games, and they certainly don't have room to push out games that were going to be failures like Scalebound and Fable Legends. On the other hand. SCE has been one of Sony's only profitable divisions since the late 1990s (and even they weren't making money early in the PS3 generation). So it's a lot more important for them to invest in first party studios in order to maintain profitability. Same goes for Nintendo.

Combined with the fact Microsoft divested themselves of the vast majority of their first and second party studios around the same time the 360 came out, you're left with the Xbox division having to build from the ground up again, with their only mainstay IPs being two shooters and a racing game (albeit that racing series is the best in the business). It takes a long time to build up AAA studios, and it's not like lack of exclusives has made Xbox unprofitable.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

At this point in the cycle Microsoft would need announcements that will be releasing relatively quickly. They'd need to announce a bunch of stuff that they've been working on and are finally ready to show.

Anything that's too early in development may as well be saved for next gen launch titles; they've only got a few years left, so anything that's like 2 years away is one delay away from being a wash for this generation.

Right. Companies should get in the habit of announcing games that are just months away, not years.

Sony for instance is still showing the same few games they showed a couple years ago.

 

[syz]

Right. Companies should get in the habit of announcing games that are just months away, not years.

Sony for instance is still showing the same few games they showed a couple years ago.

Sony's had a pretty consistent stream of releases since ~2015, even if some games have taken some time. They're in a similar situation where I dunno if they'll bother announcing another 3-4 year-away PS4 game at this point. Like, what does Naughty Dog do after Last of Us 2 comes out? Another full game would take another 3 years and they'd probably be looking at a PS5 launch at that point anyways.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Sony's had a pretty consistent stream of releases since ~2015, even if some games have taken some time. They're in a similar situation where I dunno if they'll bother announcing another 3-4 year-away PS4 game at this point. Like, what does Naughty Dog do after Last of Us 2 comes out? Another full game would take another 3 years and they'd probably be looking at a PS5 launch at that point anyways.

Oh they have, but their show in 2017 was essentially identical to the one they had in 2016.

Then again Sony is so far ahead of Microsoft they don't really need to pound out releases.

 

[Dick Sledge]

Officially delayed until February. If it does release in February then I actually think it's a smart move. Albeit a disappointing one.

The fall/winter is just too crowded. I mean COD, whether you love it or hate it is a monster. And they're afraid of Red Dead Redemption 2.

Imagine if Cyber Punk gets a release date this year. Add another HUGE game in the mix. Crackdown would get swallowed whole.

 

[Leafs at Knight]

Supposedly Gearbox is showing off a new 1v1 shooter, because Borderlands 3 was delayed... Gearbox please. The company is like a meme at this point.

 

[Dick Sledge]

Is LoU2 releasing this year?

 

[TheBeastCoast]

Is LoU2 releasing this year?

They haven't announced a release date yet but I wouldn't be shocked if it was a November release but they also might want to push it to early 2019 to get it away from Red Dead.

 

[Dick Sledge]

They haven't announced a release date yet but I wouldn't be shocked if it was a November release but they also might want to push it to early 2019 to get it away from Red Dead.

Be afraid of Red Dead. Be very afraid.

 

[XX]

They haven't announced a release date yet but I wouldn't be shocked if it was a November release but they also might want to push it to early 2019 to get it away from Red Dead.

Days Gone is early 2019.

No need to rush a ND game, it will sell a ton regardless. TLOU was the capstone of the PS3, would be fitting if it's what the PS4 went out with.

 

[syz]

Days Gone is early 2019.

No need to rush a ND game, it will sell a ton regardless. TLOU was the capstone of the PS3, would be fitting if it's what the PS4 went out with.

They're not gonna hold onto it for another 3 years.

 

[Dick Sledge]

Just Cause 4 accidentally leaked on Steam. Although the Walmart thing kinda did it first.

 

[syz]

Canadian Walmart still batting 1000.



I dunno what's left that isn't announced in some capacity? Dunno what that Insurgency thing is, I guess.

 

[Dick Sledge]

Way to go Canada.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Even though I was a tad disappointed with the main campaign in Just Cause 3, the series is just a chaotic open world delight, so I'm all about Just Cause 4.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Even though I was a tad disappointed with the main campaign in Just Cause 3, the series is just a chaotic open world delight, so I'm all about Just Cause 4.

I don't normally obsess over framerate but on console 3 was pretty awful, real bad slowdown when there's any type of action. Not sure how the sequel is going to be better with how physics heavy the game is.

 

[XX]

I dunno what's left that isn't announced in some capacity? Dunno what that Insurgency thing is, I guess.

A PC shooter mod that will be published on consoles somehow. Realistic.

 

[RandV]

Nevermind just the Xbox One, has Microsoft really had much a focus on games before that? They got a huge early lead on Sony last gen by getting a jump on the console release date, but after the first few years Sony put the focus on creating more games to catch up (which they did) while Microsoft just kept coasting along. And nothing changed when the next gen rolled around other than MS completely botching the launch.