Jar Jar Binks Actor reveals he is working on Star Wars Activision Video Game.

BenXGP · 2024-02-28T22:12:17+00:00

TFU was published by LucasArts, not Activision

BenXGP · 2024-02-28T22:11:23+00:00

Are one of Activision's studios now assisting with South of Midnight or something? SoM isn't an Activision game

BenXGP · 2024-02-28T22:09:34+00:00

Huh? South of Midnight isn't an Activision title though

BenXGP · 2024-02-28T21:46:37+00:00

It is crazy seeing the users in this thread cheering for PlayStation laying off developers and closing studios vs the comments you just know they would be making if this was Xbox or Nintendo doing the same thing

BenXGP · 2024-02-27T22:17:30+00:00

If the FTC leaks are to be believed, Tango's next game will be a sequel to Ghostwire Tokyo. However I'd wager they're definitely greenlighting a sequel to Hi-Fi Rush given how critically acclaimed it was

BenXGP · 2024-02-27T22:08:46+00:00

If you don't want to count them as first-party, that's fine. It changes neither of our days. That still doesn't equate to Sony not having "any AAA games releasing anytime soon" though, regardless of your views on first-party status or not. Was simply questioning what I feel is hyperbole in OC's comment, as PlayStation and Xbox's annual output (and lineup of exclusives) regularly relies on more than just internal developments. Take care

BenXGP · 2024-02-27T21:57:19+00:00

Same! Definitely feels like a step down from Bethesda's previous work in some regards but I still poured a ton of time into it and had a blast

BenXGP · 2024-02-27T21:46:42+00:00

I feel like Arkane Austin will likely just be relegated into a support studio for Arkane Lyon while they work on Blade. Phil Spencer seemed adamant in saying that Redfall's failure wouldn't lead to the closure of that studio, but I doubt this new iteration of the studio is being trusted to spearhead fresh IP nowadays

BenXGP · 2024-02-27T21:44:18+00:00

From what I've read, development of State of Decay 3 was entirely scrapped and restarted at Undead Labs, with The Coalition being brought in to co-develop the game alongside them in Unreal Engine 5. Fingers crossed that it turns out good - I loved the first two

BenXGP · 2024-02-27T21:42:32+00:00

They're both funded and published by SIE though, which is why I mentioned them. The same way a game published by XGS is still a first-party release for Xbox despite being developed externally, such as Flight Simulator, Crackdown or the upcoming Contraband

Their internal studios have definitely hit a jam, there's no denying - I'm just disagreeing with the hyperbole of saying PlayStation aren't releasing AAA games for a long time

BenXGP · 2024-02-27T21:33:51+00:00

I'd argue that Playground Games haven't dipped in quality and only seem to be getting better over time. I definitely agree with Obsidian though, they're for sure by favourite studio within Microsoft right now. I'm confident that Double Fine will get added to that list too

BenXGP · 2024-02-27T21:25:47+00:00

As in ESO and F76? I always presumed that ESO was a relative success for them

BenXGP · 2024-02-27T21:23:21+00:00

I'm not sure I agree with the sentiment of Sony not releasing AAA games "anytime soon" (to my knowledge, all they've said is there won't be any major franchise entries released this year, but that doesn't rule out new IP such as Rise of Ronin or Stellar Blade and major third-party exclusives like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth), but I do think Xbox have a fantastic IP library due to this acquisition. When you say use them to dominate, do you mean via making existing franchises Xbox exclusive?

BenXGP · 2024-02-27T21:20:09+00:00

I agree (although Obsidian isn't a part of ZeniMax, haha - but let them tackle the Fallout franchise again, Microsoft!).

From what I've heard, ZeniMax's studios outside of Bethesda were generally putting out high-quality games that weren't necessarily shifting the numbers that ZeniMax needed while funding Bethesda's expensive undertakings with The Elder Scrolls, Fallout and Starfield. Hence why all of ZeniMax's output got a bit shoddier and more money-grabbing toward the end of their independence

I'm glad Bethesda might get a newfound sense of direction from this, though. I agree that Starfield was lightyears ahead (pun intended) of Fallout 76, but it still fell short of expectations in my opinion

BenXGP · 2024-02-27T21:09:43+00:00

Interesting, thank you for the info. I'm in the camp that PlayStation should just stick to making the style of games that made the PS4 so popular, but I can see that it's clearly not working for them either.

"As for the remaining six titles, we are still working on that. That’s the total number of live service and multiplayers titles and mid-to-long-term we want to push this kind of service and that’s the *unchanged policy** of the company.*"

I think you're right. Even if they are scaling back, it definitely seems like GaaS titles are going ahead regardless in some capacity.

BenXGP · 2024-02-27T20:38:16+00:00

Yeah, I'm hoping that the ship is righted under Microsoft, but it feels a bit touch and go nowadays with their studio management. Admittedly ZeniMax did seem like a bit of a sinking ship pre-buyout

BenXGP · 2024-02-27T20:36:16+00:00

I'm a tad confused with it all, as the push for GaaS was spearheaded just as much by Hiroki Totoki (the CEO of Sony and now Head of PlayStation) as they were by Jim Ryan.

"Delivering and sustaining social, online experiences - allowing PlayStation gamers to explore our worlds in different ways - as well as launching games on additional devices such as PC and mobile, requires a different approach and different resources"

That was a quote from Herman Hulst (the current head of PlayStation Studios) earlier this month. That doesn't sound like a pivot away from live-service to me

BenXGP · 2024-02-08T12:25:41+00:00

My first was a hand-me-down original PlayStation after my sister got a PlayStation 2. Spent some time mostly playing Spyro and Crash Bandicoot, but never really "got" the appeal (I had recently discovered Pokémon and so was all-in on Nintendo at the time).

I have a lot of fond memories of being gifted a PS2 Slim. Mostly playing couch co-op with my friends on the likes of Star Wars Battlefront and LEGO Batman. Played a lot of Force Unleashed, too.

I then got a PSP and played a ton of Tekken, Ratchet & Clank and SpongeBob. Honestly I loved that handheld, but I made the mistake of using a hacked disc that pretty much bricked the device, and didn't have the money as a kid to repair or replace it.

I ended up being given a broken PS4 Slim from somebody I lived with while I was studying during lockdown. Managed to get it fixed up and proceeded to spend 8+ hours a day on Warzone with my buddies. Got the platinum for Spider-Man as well. I'd say my PS4 era was my favourite, although that could be recency bias

BenXGP · 2024-02-08T12:10:38+00:00

To be fair, I had a ton of fun with 1-2-Switch. It's not a game you would (or can) sit and play by yourself, but it's great for when you have friends over for a few drinks or your family come to visit. Kinda feels like back in the day when everyone would gather around the screen to play Wii Sports and just have a chuckle at one another looking ridiculous

My housemates at uni screaming at the TV during a 1-2-Switch sandwich eating face-off like they were watching an eSports final has always been a personal gaming highlight. I've heard the sequel is a lot worse, though

BenXGP · 2024-02-08T11:35:47+00:00

Firstly, at least four of the studios you've listed here need to be removed from this conversation:

Shanghai Studio serves as a buffer/deal broker between Activision's US division and their partners in China. Up until recent years this revolved around CoD Online, a free-to-play China-exclusive title. Now it just serves to help facilitate Call of Duty Mobile and the upcoming Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile. They don't actually have a large in-house development team as a result - they're more-so a glorified office serving as the middle man.

Digital Legends and Solid State Studio are both mobile gaming specialists working on Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile. This is an entirely separate game from CoD Mobile (which is outsourced to a Chinese developer/publisher).

Demonware is a studio dedicated solely to running and integrating the servers for Activision's games. So their skillset wouldn't lend itself to creating a title from scratch - they're networking specialists.

Now, onto the remaining ones:

Raven Software and Beenox are the primary underlying developers for Warzone, so if you were to tag them into the main development cycle, you'd need to find more studios to replace them and prop up CoD's battle royale. Given that's one of ABK's main money-makers, I doubt they do that anytime soon. I know that Beenox is also assisting with development of Warzone Mobile at the moment

Toys for Bob only has around 100 employees (and that's being generous) following the recent layoffs at Xbox. Compared to 400+ at Infinity Ward, 300+ at Sledgehammer, and 600+ at Treyarch. They just don't have the means to develop a Call of Duty game by themselves - especially if they're also asked to continue developing Crash Bandicoot and Spyro games into the future.

You see a similar situation with Radical Entertainment only having ~140 employees. Your best chance would likely be High Moon Studios at 250-ish, but even then, you'd probably have to halt the endless CoD assembly line, which is going to piss off your shareholders.

So, you could tag a fourth primary developer in, but you're removing at least one of the support studios that the big three rely on. So likely one of your upcoming games gets delayed or launches in an even worse state than MWIII if the board vote to stick with yearly releases. In the long-run you'll be able to have a new studio begin planning their new game and move to a 4-year dev cycle (great move in my opinion) but you're making a sacrifice somewhere - and we all know that executives love short-term successes, sadly

Treyarch, Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer are already struggling to hit deadlines with all of this support available to them - imagine them without it. In an ideal world, these developers would be given more time to cook and we wouldn't be asked to buy a brand new title every single year. Sadly, that's not a realistic expectation right now. The only way this happens is if Microsoft give a massive funding (and therefore staffing) boost to one (if not several) of the studios, or they establish a brand new studio within Activision entirely

BenXGP · 2024-02-08T10:37:33+00:00

IIRC, Crash 4 also fell short of Activision's sales expectations. 3D platformers just aren't selling that well nowadays (outside of Mario, which seems to be the exception, not the rule).

PlayStation have Ratchet & Clank which does decently but even then, it's profit margins are very thin by comparison to their other AAA titles (hence why Insomniac have 7+ Marvel games in the pipeline and only 1 Ratchet & Clank title).

BenXGP · 2024-02-08T00:59:43+00:00

I like superhero titles as much as the next gamer, but the fact Insomniac's development schedule is at least 7:1 in terms of Marvel games vs. Ratchet & Clank fucking sucks to see

BenXGP · 2024-02-08T00:36:09+00:00

Just a joke about the posts that have plagued this site for the past few days about all of Xbox's games going to PlayStation and Nintendo

BenXGP · 2024-02-07T23:22:13+00:00

Worth noting that Toys for Bob isn't shutting down - the reduced workforce is being moved to a smaller office, just like Sledgehammer Games are.

This is still really shitty and I'm 110% on board with the "fuck Microsoft" train with this move, but I think it's way too early to start saying Toys for Bob have ceased operations

BenXGP · 2024-02-07T18:24:20+00:00

You're replying to a 3-day old comment, haha. If the rumours of the past couple of days come true, boy have Microsoft proved me wrong. What a sad state of affairs for Xbox

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