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Who is Xbox's best first-party developer (revisited after Bethesda acquisition)?

Who is Xbox's best first-party developer?

  • One of the new Bethesda studios

    Votes: 424 57.4%

  • One of Xbox's original 15 first-party developers

    Votes: 315 42.6%
  • Total voters
    739
Montresor

Montresor

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,219
My original thread got locked (justifiably so) because it was a reaction thread on the day of the Bethesda acquisition. But a couple of days have passed, and so I'd like to revisit the discussion. This is going to be a hard poll to make because there can only be 7 options. So I'll simply include two options: one of the new Bethesda studios, or one of Xbox's original 15 first-party developers.


The full list is here:

  1. New Bethesda studios:

    1. Alpha Dog Games: mobile developer, known for MonstroCity and WraithBorne
    2. Arkane Studios: Deathloop, Dishonored, Prey
    3. Bethesda Game Studios: The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Starfall
    4. id Software: Doom
    5. MachineGames: Wolfenstein
    6. Roundhouse Studios: new studio, formed in Nov 2019, consisting of former Prey developers
    7. Tango Gameworks: The Evil Within, Ghostwire: Tokyo
    8. ZeniMax Online Studios: The Elder Scrolls Online

  2. Xbox's original 15 first-party developers:

    1. 343 Industries: Halo Infinite
    2. The Coalition: Gears of War franchise
    3. Compulsion Games: Contrast, We Happy Few
    4. Double Fine Productions: Broken Age, Psychonauts 2, Headlander, Costume Quest, Grim Fandango Remastered
    5. The Initiative: working on AAA game, rumoured to be Perfect Dark
    6. inXile Entertainment: Wasteland 3, The Bard's Tale franchise
    7. Mojang Studios: Minecraft
    8. Ninja Theory: Hellblade 2, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
    9. Obsidian Entertainment: The Outer Worlds, Avowed, Grounded
    10. Playground Games: Fable, Forza Horizon franchise
    11. Rare: Sea of Thieves, Everwild
    12. Turn10 Studios: Forza Motorsport franchise
    13. Undead Labs: State of Decay franchise
    14. World's Edge: Age of Empires franchise
    15. Xbox Game Studios Publishing: Battletoads, Flight Simulator, Gears Tactics, Ori, Tell Me Why, in other words, 2nd-party publishing deals
 
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fracas

fracas

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,636
It's Arkane with no one else close for me. I'm so excited to see what they can do with a big budget, though I know their games don't sell quite as well as many AAA endeavors.
 
data west

data west

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,008
Prey and Doom 2016 are two of my GOTGs. I think a lot of MS's other developers have the potential to be the best, but they're just stuck doing very predictable, stale franchises.
 

Raigor

Member
May 14, 2020
15,132
Arkane in first place
ID Soft in second place
Playground games in third place
 
HiLife

HiLife

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
39,616
id Software was a part of the acquisition right? If so then them. They took the FPS space away from 343i pretty handily, to me.

Bethesda is locked for WRPGs.

I am more excited for the newcomers to MS rather than the OGs.
 
MistahS

MistahS

Prophet of Truth
The Fallen
Sep 2, 2018
3,732
Id and Playground are their top dogs imo.


Would be interesting if any of the previous studios make the switch to Id Tech.
 
Altair

Altair

Member
Jan 11, 2018
7,901
I'd still put Playground at the top with Obsidian right behind them. id is pretty close as well for Doom. BGS is complicated. They've made some really good games, but recently they've been kind of eh. Hopefully ES6 and Starfield are amazing.
 
Man Called Aerodynamics

Man Called Aerodynamics

Member
Oct 29, 2017
7,500
This is a tough one actually. But based just on how much I enjoy their games, Bethesda is #1 followed by The Coalition. I have a really good feeling about Playground though.
 
Ghost of Jhoto

Ghost of Jhoto

Banned
Jul 20, 2020
1,314
This is tough, Bethesda softworks is probably the studio with the most beloved games. I know people act like fallout 4 wasn't good but it was a solid game and skyrim was a goty level game.

On the other hand Ninja theory seems to be doing something special with Hellblade II and Project Mara.

Playground was one of the few studios xbox owned that was up there with Sony this past gen so they are up there too.

Its tough tho, they have a ton of quality studios now.
 

cooldawn

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,445
Arkane Studio's seem to be good but...

...good enough to beat Ninja Theory or Playground Games?

Wait and see.
 
Mathieran

Mathieran

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,857
Arkane. Their games are the only ones that I'll miss from this deal. At least we will get Deathloop on ps5.
 
TripleBee

TripleBee

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 30, 2017
5,641
Vancouver
Best is subjective obviously, but Double Fine has probably been the one to most consistently bring a smile to my face.
 
christocolus

christocolus

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,932
There are so many talented developers under XGS now, It makes it difficult to pick out one. damn. I'll probably go with PG, NT, ID or MachineG, Tango.. Dude I cant.
 
Yuntu

Yuntu

Prophet of Regret
Member
Nov 7, 2019
10,668
Germany
It's probably a tie between BGS and Ninja Theory for me. Skyrim is still magic to me and even if they do the same game but prettier with TESVI I would be more excited for that than anything else any other dev could do on that list.
 

rafiii

Member
Feb 7, 2019
498
From a technical perspective The Coalition is a good step ahead of all the others, with Turn10 / Playground Games just behind at #2 and #3.
 

stefanomusilli96

Banned
Jun 13, 2020
1,302
Arkane for sure, they've made some of the most interesting AAA games in recent years (Prey was the only one that I didn't care much for, but Deathloop looks great).
 
ghostcrew

ghostcrew

The Shrouded Ghost
Administrator
Oct 27, 2017
30,349
There's so much variety/diversity of genres in there that this is really going to come down to what kind of games you prefer.

For me personally, it's probably still Rare that I'm most interesting in. But I've always been a Rare fanboy, going right back to early Nintendo days. I follow everything they do with childlike wonder.

But BGS are fast nipping at their heels to be honest. The Elder Scrolls is one of my favourite franchises. I think some of TES games are the best games ever made. And I adored Fallout 3 (Fallout 4 not so much). id is exciting too. I'm obsessed with Doom and always have been. I have Doom tattooed on my leg.

I think it's probably Rare, Bethesda Game Studios and id for me at this point.
 
Sheev

Sheev

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
1,809
Arkane
Id
Obsidian

Tango are going to be ones to watch in the future though, the Evil Within 2 was very underrated.
 
Colargogol

Colargogol

Member
Jan 22, 2020
334
I really like the Wolfenstein games from MachineGames. This acquisition is pretty exciting to me because I feel these games are expensive to make and probably don't make much money.
 
Richter1887

Richter1887

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
39,146
id

They make some of the best shooters ever made. It is the reason I am actually sad MS bought them cause now it will be years until I am able to play Doom 6.
 
Big G

Big G

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,604
Taking into account each developer's entire prior track record, as well as where each of them stands currently, I'm going to say Arkane. If they all started working on a new game today, I'd bet on theirs being the best of the bunch.
 
Heshinsi

Heshinsi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,091
Playground, and it's not even close. There is only one studio (whose games I play so ID doesn't count for me) there that I would never doubt the quality of their games, and are guaranteed to get my money the day their game releases.
 
VivekTO

VivekTO

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
433
For me its playground studio. But I predict that this poll will favor one of the Bethesda studios , which pretty much tell you about how important this buyout for Xbox studios was.
 
Lukas Taves

Lukas Taves

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
5,713
Brazil
Gamepass.

All those studios are nice and dandy, but it's gamepass having all those games at no additional cost that make it almost impossible to believe it's all real
 
Seijuro

Seijuro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,858
Arkane
Tango
Bethesda Game Studios

Looking at the list in the OP and at the replies shows that MS was right on the money with the purchase.
 
Cosmic Voyager

Cosmic Voyager

Banned
Oct 24, 2019
6,560
Arkane, id, and BGS are all better than anything Microsoft had previously, by a long shot.

The only one that comes even remotely close is Playground.
 
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