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PC Gaming Era | March 2019 - The Ides of Smarch

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matimeo

matimeo

UI/UX Game Industry Veteran
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
979
JaseC said:
That's not entirely true. MCC is arguably Microsoft's first flagship WinStore release to hit Steam, Microsoft's first WinStore release in general to launch day-and-date on Steam, and the first such release to forgo Steamworks in favour of XBL integration. This isn't merely a repeat of ReCore et al.; it's Microsoft dipping its feet in the water to see if XBL-based Steam versions of its games can complement Game Pass on the PC.
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Not how MS works. That idea would have been used with KI and probably when it was conceived because they will have 3rd party developed games with mp aspects and want to control that data and have it add to MAU the new measure of success set by the CEO. Platform agnostic is the future and parts of gaming has known this for years which is why wordament used Xbox live on iOS and Minecraft (newer one ) requires login on all platforms. That strategy should expand and is not dependent on Halo or PC.

MS is big , different teams work on things so when say a API is ready well what can we use to verify? To stress test ? Well we are cleaning up MCC for PC and play anywhere. Perfect.

Lots of things change but the original strategy still stands. You will not find a first party developed MS ip anywhere but Windows Store until the strategy changes. When it fully changes you should see same day all Xbox exclusives release across platforms.

Your value of older games is not the same value the company has of them which is why their development continues to be outsourced as much as possible compared to actual flagship titles.

MCC is a great test just like Apex was , and great marketing and lead up to the next game which will help grow MAU if the login requirements is true.

Remember big companies take awhile to adjust. internally most just don't care about steam it's a console focused culture that only released on PC when mandated by higher ups. The culture is being forced to shift but that takes time.

If this strategy had been in place when MCC released it would have been on steam eventually just like Halo Wars. Since it didn't meet internal expectations it's re releasing so to speak and the new strategy is now in place hence steam and win 10.

No reason to stagger it's already late lol. we also understand enough about the store internally, and PC ( forge was 343 test) simultaneously releasing isn't as big of a risk especially once the live API is validated.

In Recores defense it was also a super early test of the store and all of us early games had challenges and had to help drive store features while dealing with UWP. So simultaneously releasing was not going to be a thing any leader agreed to do so they could mitigate risks, not to mention teams didn't get extra staff to support a new sku.
 
Alexandros

Alexandros

Member
Oct 26, 2017
17,811
daxy said:
I dunno. They've been transparent to a fault so far (in regard to their own reputation). At the same time, people may not have gotten around to it, not seen the news, etc.
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Tizoc said:
I like to think of it that at the time they did the AMA they've seen the amount of refund requests being 3%.
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Rosenkrantz said:
I dunno, their community manager openly said that they won't lose money even if every backer demanded a refund, seems weird to me to lower the percentage of refund requests after your employee said something like that.
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Well, first, the entire company has lost all credibility for me. After what they did I simply do not trust them for anything. And second, actions speak louder than words. Snapshot scrambling to announce that backers will still receive GOG and Steam keys isn't something they would do if only 3% of people refunded. I don't doubt that the announcement stemmed the tide of refunds.
 
GrrImAFridge

GrrImAFridge

ONE THOUSAND DOLLARYDOOS
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Oct 25, 2017
9,675
Western Australia
matimeo said:
Not how MS works. That idea would have been used with KI and probably when it was conceived because they will have 3rd party developed games with mp aspects and want to control that data and have it add to MAU the new measure of success set by the CEO. Platform agnostic is the future and parts of gaming has known this for years which is why wordament used Xbox live on iOS and Minecraft (newer one ) requires login on all platforms.
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Killer Instinct's Steam version doesn't use XBL integration but rather the Steamworks <-> XBL network API that was beta tested with Rise of Nations' UWP release. It's still, for all intents and purposes, Steamworks, which is why it has separate leaderboards despite supporting cross-play. I imagine the aforementioned API served as the foundation for the XBL integration we'll see in the Steam release of MCC, though.

That strategy should expand and is not dependent on Halo or PC.
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I neither said nor implied Microsoft's big picture for XBL rests on Halo and/or increasing the scope of MAUs on the PC. The context here is just how Steam may fit into the PC side of things in particular (if at all).

Lots of things change but the original strategy still stands. You will not find a first party developed MS ip anywhere but Windows Store until the strategy changes. When it fully changes you should see same day all Xbox exclusives release across platforms.
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Oh, I'm not asserting Microsoft has changed course. I'm simply saying the circumstances surrounding MCC's Steam release aren't quite the same as previous WinStore -> Steam releases and therefore an inference can be made that it, while not Gears 4 or Forza Horizon 4, represents the testing of an adjusted perspective.

Edit: To be clear, I am not suggesting that assessment is incontrovertibly accurate. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. I don't know, and given you're speaking in corporate generalities, I assume you're not entirely certain, either, despite your relatively close proximity to the situation. Only time may tell.
 
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Memphis-Ahn

Memphis-Ahn

Member
Nov 7, 2017
59
dex3108 said:
There are too many developers going indie route. Market today is either big budget or smaller indie budget. THQ Nordic is only publisher that is currently going for that middle range. So in my opinion we need larger indie studios instead lots of smaller ones.
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I'd say Bigben (which now owns Cyanide) 505 Games, Daedalic, and Paradox are also midrange pubs, unless we have different definitions of big and small indie budget.
Also I don't know how a large indie studio would feasibly work considering a lot of the appeal of being indie is being able to work on what you want at your own pace without interference. It sounds like it would be unsustainable if everyone at a company did that. Maybe if it was a worker co-op?
 
dex3108

dex3108

Member
Oct 26, 2017
22,608
Memphis-Ahn said:
I'd say Bigben (which now owns Cyanide) 505 Games, Daedalic, and Paradox are also midrange pubs, unless we have different definitions of big and small indie budget.
Also I don't know how a large indie studio would feasibly work considering a lot of the appeal of being indie is being able to work on what you want at your own pace without interference. It sounds like it would be unsustainable if everyone at a company did that. Maybe if it was a worker co-op?
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Issue is that doing whatever you want and be sustainable is not that easy. There are already many indie devs who are doing that and market can only sustain limited number of them. But I guess if they go bigger they are not technically indie because they would need publisher. It is hard situation but going indie and hoping for big success is kinda crazy these days.
 
Uzzy

Uzzy

Gabe’s little helper
Member
Oct 25, 2017
27,205
Hull, UK


GRIS is in some fine company, but should win.



Kassandra confirmed as the one true way.



Missed that GRIS is up for best debut too!
 
Chance Hale

Chance Hale

Member
Oct 26, 2017
11,842
Colorado
God of War makes me feel like I'm going insane given the level of praise and how much I was looking forward to it. Game is a series of corridors separated by the boat equivalent of slow walking, the story goes absolutely no where and character quirks are brought up and forgotten, the combat is boring and hurt by the limited enemy variety, there are almost no bosses other than the one you fight four fucking times, and there were a lot of poor textures on the base PS4. It was so aggressively mediocre and I normally love Sony first party games. Aghhhhhhh

Humor in Donut County is absolutely unbearable and they don't let you skip the horrendous campfire scenes.
 
Memphis-Ahn

Memphis-Ahn

Member
Nov 7, 2017
59
dex3108 said:
Issue is that doing whatever you want and be sustainable is not that easy. There are already many indie devs who are doing that and market can only sustain limited number of them. But I guess if they go bigger they are not technically indie because they would need publisher. It is hard situation but going indie and hoping for big success is kinda crazy these days.
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No disagreement there. There's an incredible amount of luck involved that I don't believe talent or hard work can solve.
 
Cecil

Cecil

Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,449
Rosenkrantz said:
According to yesterday's AMA only 3% of backers requested refund for PP. Seems like the silent majority made its choice.
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Most people won't make an active decision about this.
The badwill surrounding the game will linger though. They're not really going to be able to succeed with crowdfunding again, that's for sure.
 
dex3108

dex3108

Member
Oct 26, 2017
22,608
Halo MCC PC Announcement Trailer has over 600K views and over 30K likes with like 300 dislikes. I would say that announcement was success XD
 
Dinjoralo

Dinjoralo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,152
matimeo said:
Forza Apex Team member here

The point of this is to quickly learn about PC, T10 engine was for console only not to mention the UI work we had to do for PC support. Even the cars can be driven by keyboard even more work for a game tuned for controller.

It was also to begin working with the Windows team. Microsoft is a big your team priorities may not align with another so the sooner you can begin to engage the better.

This was done to ensure a successful launch for Horizon 4 and Motorsport 7. Lots of learnings gained on Apex and work so the core titles wouldn't have to worry about it as they prepared to release on PC.

Saved both products a ton of time and is a great example of solid development leadership.
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Ohhhh... Sorry. These are good points.
Though I will say, it all came at a very bad time. Both Forza Apex and Forge were after Microsoft announced their Play Anywhere system, which makes sense with this explanation, but at the time it gave an impression that Microsoft's titles from before then wouldn't fully come to PC, including stuff like Halo. It also didn't help when Horizon 3 and Motorsport 7 then released with some pretty bad performance issues.
 

Deleted member 32374

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Nov 10, 2017
8,460
I own Gris but I haven't launched it during my three months of ownership. The backlog.

Beat saber should win best debut. I don't own it, I don't plan on being able to own it for years to come but I'll never forget the 10 minutes I spent with it. My good friend has a HTC Vive setup in his small apartment and he demos various VR games for people at times.

I got to be a fucking Jedi DJ for 10 minutes.
 
Shengar

Shengar

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,052
BronsonLee said:
My limited understanding is that Tencent has pissed off the Chinese government in some fashion currently (likely in terms of not coughing up enough to them), so they're on the outs a bit
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By coughing up do you mean money or something even more extra? Regardless though, if they angered CPC somewhat, that mean Tencent isn't (or at least wholly) apparatus of China and have goals of their own. I don't like EGS, but seeing conspiracy theories that they sold their data to China because Tencent own 40% of them is ridiculous.
 

Deleted member 1849

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6,986
Shengar said:
By coughing up do you mean money or something even more extra? Regardless though, if they angered CPC somewhat, that mean Tencent isn't (or at least wholly) apparatus of China and have goals of their own. I don't like EGS, but seeing conspiracy theories that they sold their data to China because Tencent own 40% of them is ridiculous.
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I mostly hate that theory because Epic have already shown themselves to be completely willing to irresponsibly harvest customer data. No need to muddy the waters by speculating about China.
 
Dan L

Dan L

Tried to PM someone for a tag
Member
Oct 28, 2017
6,177
Regina, Saskatchewan
Yeah the one thing Detroit has for it is it's visually stunning. But yeah the David Cage wrapping really ruins the rest of it

And Gris is amazing so happy to see it nominated so much
 
BlueOdin

BlueOdin

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,014
Nappael said:
I mostly hate that theory because Epic have already shown themselves to be completely willing to irresponsibly harvest customer data. No need to muddy the waters by speculating about China.
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Yeah. Tencent in the background is not as much a concern to me because Epic is an American company which don't have a great track record when it comes to collecting customer data.

Not to say that a Chinese company wouldn't want my data (and is probably collecting it) but I notice a lot in this forum that the image of "America is the good guy!" is not that uncommon. In Gaming and in EtcetEra.
 
MJnR

MJnR

Member
Mar 13, 2019
667
Tried to play XCOM EU but it just crashes either in the menu or 2 ~ 3 minutes in a mission. Guess I'll just skip it and go to XCOM 2.
 
Nabs

Nabs

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Oct 26, 2017
15,695
I didn't know you spoke Russian, Tizoc. Only one other person on the internets does.
 
arts&crafts

arts&crafts

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,123
Toronto
Have you guys seen this? Gotta download it now before it is DMCA into oblivion. I have been out of the loop for while so it was likely already posted, but still! Need an official remaster of the greatest racing game ever!
 

Deleted member 3897

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When a game becomes (timed) exclusive to the Epic Store.

wQ4Ldk0.gif
 
Nabs

Nabs

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Oct 26, 2017
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On Thursday, March 21 at 12:45 pm, representatives from Valve are scheduled to give a presentation on the Steam platform in West Hall 2011 during this year's GDC. Topics will include a global market analysis, information on the coming multi platform networking APIs, a first look at new features and updates, and more.

https://uploadvr.com/valve-steam-gdc-updates/
 
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