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Compulsion on joining Xbox Game Studios - "Trying to maintain creativity within a organisation like MS, isnt as hard people think it is"
- Thread starter Theorry
- Start date
I reckon Compulsion Games could be a dark horse for Xbox going into next gen, with the additional funding and general support they now have it's going to allow the studio to do what it's good at - making interesting and quirky games.
AFAIK, this isn't even remotely analogous. Xbox own these studios, and their IP. There can be no divorce.
*ahem* Lionhead *ahem* Bungie *ahem*
RIP my notification. Imma leave the building before my inbox burst.
Lionhead were closed. Bungie bought themselves out with the Halo IP, what? Ten years ago now? New Xbox, new contracts etc.
Is the world so lacking in nuance to you that you never question things? Of course not, that would be a gross assumption on my part.
hahahaha.
read your post out loud.
Read the posts prior.
Then post again.
I generally read the posts before mine, but your condescension is unwelcome nonetheless.
You seemingly missed the point you replied to, so I'll just politely ask you to consider refraining from making rash generalisations about people you know nothing about as it's a pretty uncool approach, internet or otherwise.
Hope this helps and best of luck with the optimism :)
I can confirm that. Not once throughout the development of Blind Forest or Will of the Wisps has Microsoft forced us to implement one of their ideas. They leave it to us to do what we're doing best - and that's great :)
Sweet, definitely good to hear :D
Off-topic but wishing you and the team at Moon all of the luck for the upcoming months :) Really excited to play WotW and I'm already quite sure it'll end up very high on my GOTY list.
Hopefully there's another collaboration between both of ya'll on another game. Would love to see your creativity in a different genre with MS's funds.
Oh all the platform hold are very bad, but not because of intrusiveness over creative visions. More your every day evil megacorporation capitalist stuff.
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I agree. It makes me wonder if they are working on something really promising that hasn't been announced yet. They are the acquisition that made the least sense to me.
Well yeah. The worst thing to do would be for MS to buy these studios and just ruin or change the corporate and social culture there.
User banned (5 days): personal attack
Elenaire works under EA's watch.
So whatever posts they make should be seen with skepticism
Should be more skeptical of folk who post nonsense like your post.
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Hey look a not a MS owned company.
Things are definitely looking rosy now, as they're expected to. They are getting great support and not being asked to compromise their vision. Quick reminder though: at this point in Microsoft's journey with Xbox, everything is built to serve Game Pass. Uniqueness and diversity is important right now as is volume and turnaround of content. Any big changes that happen at the top should expected to cascade down to these studios. So basically, with GP being positioned as Xbox's principal focus, it stands to chance that changes will be made in how games are designed to suit. Maybe... maybe not, but there's one thing that is guaranteed is that time will tell.
They put out a documentary a few days ago about the development of We Happy Few. There certainly were technical issues, but it seems like the main issues with the game came from the fact that they were beholden to their Kickstarter backers. They sold the campaign as a procedural survival game, and when people wanted it to be more like a Bioshock or immersive sim after that E3 trailer, they got trapped between two fanbases who wanted very different games. They had to stick with the survival game stuff since, well, that was the game they sold on Kickstarter, and it led to this really weird fusion between the two. Reviews talked quite a bit about how the game they tried to pivot to being was held back by the game they originally were, a game they couldn't fully break away from.
They seem to have a much better understanding of their strengths now. Impressions i've seen of the DLC (especially the most recent one) is way more positive, and now they don't have to worry about the budget and timeline that forced them into a survival roguelike in the first place. They did that because they felt they had to make that game in order to survive as an indie and get their game funded on Kickstarter. Having access to teams like The Coalition should help significantly on the technical side. Ideally their next game will play into their strengths in worldbuilding, story and presentation, and the resources and other 1st party teams at Microsoft can help them shore up the areas they're weak in like combat.
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This. And big reason MS got them. Story and world building they are really good at. The rest is kinda a struggle always for smaller teams.
Wich "easy" can be improved with time, budget and help. Wich is alot harder for story and world building. Wich is kinda the studio has it or not.
Bungie made better games while under Microsoft, so that should tell you something.
Exactly. There's a reason that the trailer at E3 got so much attention despite not being anywhere near the biggest game on that stage. It just ended up that they didn't have the time, resources or freedom to fully follow through on that game. If they can keep that level of creativity and worldbuilding but actually deliver on it with the resources that being a 1st party affords them they have the potential to make some really awesome stuff.
They absolutely deserve skepticism, they're the least proven of any of the studios MS picked up and they have to show they can deliver -- it takes more than resources to do that -- but there's a lot of potential there to where it makes sense why MS picked them up.
I agree with this sentiment. It'll be a few years before you face the actual pressures of being acquired. This sounds like someone a little who's being quite hopeful about the situation
Don't expect a response back :p
Doesn't fit the narrative
Anywho, Compulsion is easily the biggest wildcard in XGS. They'd make a great Bioshock game.
literally two posts under mine we have it from the horses mouth.
It's a smart move imo. Microsoft shouldn't pull an EA and absorb studios and then try to make them fit another scope. As seen with Outer Worlds and a few others they realize they need IPs to sell their boxes/passes, and right now with Nintendo and Sony with their first party IPs, Indies are the logical next step. Bolstering middle/lower bracket studios to invest in their future was probably a hard sell to people obsessed with money, but I give MS a ton of respect for going "We need games, and these people are making unique and interesting games. Let's try to help them."
This means that indies are being given opportunities like early Nintendo studios to be weird, branch out, and be creative while building IPs for the future. It's a win/win as of right now.
This means that indies are being given opportunities like early Nintendo studios to be weird, branch out, and be creative while building IPs for the future. It's a win/win as of right now.
Compulsion, Not Moon.
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I recently finished We Happy Few and I am glad the team recognises that the game fell short in not having a clear, defined goal of what the game was supposed to be.
Hopefully, they have overcome their growing pains as a studio and will be able to hone their talent for world building into an appropriate size game next time.
Hopefully, they have overcome their growing pains as a studio and will be able to hone their talent for world building into an appropriate size game next time.
The linked position on gamasutra mentions all platforms including PS4.
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this isn't North Korea, no one was forced to say any of this. There's no ominous force watching over the studio waiting to pounce.