Microsoft Consoles and Updates

[Nag]

 

Won't expect too much... The next dlc for Alan Wake 2 is apparently going to be shown... like I said don't expect too much.😂

[DANGERMAN]

I've got this Xbox showcase on, it looks like Blooper have got another action horror game in the works. Seems an interesting premise. It's called Cronos 

[one-armed dwarf]

I missed the start of it, but they announced Subnautica 2. It has co-op

 

Subnautica is cool so I'm looking forward to that

[one-armed dwarf]

Not bad, not great. All the games looked really good but a bit limited in genre diversity with how much co-op shooters or soulslike there is.

 

Most excited about Subnautica 2. I'm curious how they figure out how to implement co-op with it, is it just a guest in another player's world or something more asynchronous and how does it handle each player's progression. Also excited about Control co-op but only cause it's Remedy tbh, otherwise I'd ignore it.

 

I didn't see the Alan Wake trailer so I'll let the DLC be a surprise I guess. I hope I like it more than the last DLC. 

[DANGERMAN]

yeah, there wasn't much there for me tbh, but I wouldn't say it was bad or anything, everything looked fine

[mmmark]

Pretty great personally. Lots for GP I want to play and others like animal well I’ll pick up from eneba one day. Wheel World looked great. 

[DANGERMAN]

Quote

Microsoft boss Satya Nadella has called last week's Black Ops 6 launch the "biggest Call of Duty release ever", saying its arrival set a record for "Game Pass subscriber adds on launch day."

https://www.eurogamer.net/call-of-duty-black-ops-6-sets-records-for-game-pass-subscriber-adds-on-launch-day-says-microsoft

 

Must be a bit frustrating for the Xbox team. Proof that their plan had some grounding, especially as the game still sold well on its own. But they've had to lose so much goodwill, and just about kill Xbox as a viable console platform going forward in the process 

[Nag]

Couple of little bits from an interview with Phil Spencer... he basically confirmed that a handheld of some form is coming "although it's years out" and that they're still looking at more acquisitions... which as you can imagine got some folk very riled up.😂

[DANGERMAN]

I heard they're buying the Job Centre as a support studio

[Nag]

Yeah... going halves with Sony.

[one-armed dwarf]

Cheerleading consolidation by any company will always be weird to me.

 

It reminds me of stuff like trickle down economics, the way they try to sell it to people.

[Nag]

I suppose it's one of those things... it's going to happen regardless and there's more important things in life to worry about.🤷‍♂️

[Nag]

Oh... forgot one other thing... there's no "red lines" in regards more Microsoft ip's heading multiformat apparently. 

[Maryokutai]

I wish they were done with acquisitions. Every time a smaller studio of theirs releases a game these days I'm half expecting the news of them getting closed the day after. Plus there's no really a point to it either, they have the biggest brands now for multiplatform stuff – realistically speaking, as buying Epic is probably (thankfully) off the table.

[Maf]

I’m not against MS buying more companies simply because those companies have to agree to be bought. It does pose massive risk for that company, but it’s their choice. Take the bag or don’t take the bag

 

I’m still not even against MS buying Activision. It has gone terribly. But for all the criticism of it, the company it hurt the most was Xbox

 

At the time the talk was around CoD being such a big game and how it changes the shape of the industry. 
 

But as it turns out PlayStation is doing better than ever, CoD is seemingly the same, Gamepass is up marginally, Xbox is losing exclusivity on first party game and somehow Tango and Arkane got shutdown. Terrible result. But who had that on their bingo card 

 

I still think I see the vision for what MS owning Activision was meant to be, but it took too long and ended up too expensive and has backfired in the most unpredictable way

 

Clusterfuck, but not all acquisitions are inherently bad. Sega bought Atlus for example, and they’ve only got bigger 

[one-armed dwarf]

Companies don't get to choose. We are still talking about these companies like they are amorphus economic units, not like there are people working in them. It invites massive uncertainty to your role if your company gets targeted in an acquisition.  Unless you're an executive, you don't get to "take that bag", you sit tight and hope the inevitable restructuring plans don't blow your way 

[shinymcshine]

Acquisitions are a good example of the "trickle down" BS - someone takes over the company and the owners & shareholders all get a big payout, whilst the workers get nothing (or maybe a short term pay rise, only to then get laid off a few months later....)

[Maf]

Employees are vital to a company but they don’t own it. They work for it. Good companies will look after their employees best they can*. Understanding it is a benefit to the business. But it’s not an obligation, unless something contractual  

 

Outside of charities and non-profit, business are in fact amoral. It’s not good or bad. It is business, not personal. 

 

And some companies get bought to give them selves a chance and keep people employed. Double Fine is a great example of this. They were resorting to kickstarters and crowd funding before MS bought them 

 

EDIT: *and bad companies will screw employees over. The owners/managers can be good or bad. But business itself follows the money. 

[Maryokutai]

Double Fine had a small publishing arm that, while they were not technically let go, kind of had no purpose anymore after the acquisition which IIRC let to those people leaving the company.

 

I don't want to go to deep into this because it's a) off-topic and b) I don't know you personally, but that's also kind of an odd stance to have after all the stuff you have mentioned in the 'tales from work' topic over the years.

[Maf]

I won’t get deep in to it here but in the summer our account’s assistant was let go because she needed extra support for childcare and the company said no. And I was in between. Someone I work with everyday, and my manager who is saying we talked about it and just can’t do it. So she left. It sucks, I really liked her. I fought with our manager for her job and support. But what can you do. Sometimes it just doesn’t work

 

I’m not full raging capitalist all hail the numbers. I think CEO’s of game companies get paid too much, are not penalised enough when making bad decisions, I hate seeing the creative teams get shafted and shuttered and coming back to MS, things like Tango just make me go what the fuck are you doing.

 

I’m not trying to sit here and say swallow it and be grateful

 

I am saying everyone, from bottom to top, their job is to make the business successful. Work satisfaction, employee care, all imo vital to that business success. But ultimately. It is for that success of the business. 
 

And speaking of trickle down hopefully people get pay rises out of it (like me, somehow…sitting here writing on the phone)

 

But the business is just a thing that exists on paper and the bank. Even a business owner, their job it to own it and keep it afloat or expand it 

 

If they analyse it and say the answer for the next step of this company is to be acquired or make an acquisition, I’m not saying you have to like it, but I don’t see anything morally wrong with it