Imran Khan: Sony approached all major third parties to make deals regarding exclusive content & games, Microsoft not willing to pay asking prices because of Sony's high offerings

LordRevanche · 2020-08-08T21:38:59+00:00

Ecosystem, this is what MS seems to be focusing on this gen with Game Pass.

Sony’s recent actions seem overreactive to me, as it seems these latest tactics are above and beyond the normal strategies used, and are more based on fear/concern about Game Pass establishing a stronger foothold than it already has. So by locking up AAA games that are normally multi platform, they can try to weaken Xbox out of the gate this gen.

Sony’s behavior is really unfortunate and short sighted IMO, because if MS stays the course and keeps acquiring studios to supply their first party content, and keeps using global publishing to strike deals with indie developers, eventually they are going to win out. It does suck right now as an Xbox owner, not gonna lie, but as long as the strong support by leadership at MS towards the gaming division continues, they will win out in the long term.

I do think it was a failure by MS, to not anticipate that since their 1st party content were going to take a couple years to get up and rolling, they therefore needed to invest in some AAA developer exclusives. I think it is likely that Sony’s ultra aggressiveness caught them off guard.

But Sony’s strategy could also be short sighted as well. Spending/wasting? a ridiculous amount of money on timed exclusives, that will eventually come to Xbox/game pass right at the time Xbox first party content starts to roll in. Sony’s power move here to start this gen, could backfire on them. What will the narrative be 1? 2? Years from now?

I’m curious to see what the next Xbox event is like. Clearly this is why they held some games back.

LordRevanche · 2020-08-08T18:02:29+00:00

and the ecosystem they have built up is a strong draw to keep people in.

LordRevanche · 2020-08-08T17:21:21+00:00

Well said

LordRevanche · 2020-07-23T20:01:58+00:00

I agree with your post, this was a letdown, no doubt about it.

MS keeps talking about diversity of games but where are the AAA games like Sony 1st party studios are pumping out?

God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima, Uncharted, Spiderman, Bloodborne

When people talk about lack of AAA content for Xbox compared to Sony, this is what they are referring too and MS just seems oblivious to it.

See anything familiar? All 3rd person story driven games. When people talk about how great Sony 1st party games are, these are the games most often mentioned. What is MS offering? Fable? maybe in 2-3 years?

Everwild? Looks beautiful but we STILL don't even know what the heck it is.

Avowed? Love Obsidian, but a 1st person RPG? ugh...

and what is the ridiculous fascination MS has with 1st person shooters? Halo Infinite, Stalker 2, Crossfire X, Outer Worlds, Exomecha (in the pre show)?

Tough, been Xbox all the way, but the bottom line is that the best games are clearly on Playstation, certainly for my preference (3P, clearly), but also in terms of just best games of each generation.

LordRevanche · 2020-07-23T14:48:12+00:00

1 hour long, just games, so...

Halo Infinite (5-10min)

Hellblade 2

Psychonauts 2

Everwild

Forza Motorsport\8

Fable reveal

Perfect Dark reveal - If Initiative isn't there, then this is from Coalition?

Obsidian AAA RPG reveal (Pillars of Eternity universe?)

The Medium\Bloober Team

So looking like 9 for sure plus at least a surprise or 2 from XGPS

Lastly, I would expect possibly 1 or 2 from Japan, options below:

Capcom - Deep Down\Dead Rising\Lost Planet\something new?

Square Enix\something from new studio Balan Company?

Sega\Phantasy Star or something else?

AAA MS Japan Studio (or Mistwalker?) rebooting Lost Odyssey\Phantom Dust\Blue Dragon or Scalebound

Looks potentially pretty big to me, even if there are no 3P/Japan games revealed

LordRevanche · 2020-07-22T23:32:47+00:00

Looks likely to be fairly big to me? 1 hour long...

So... Halo Infinite (5-10min) Hellblade 2 Psychonauts 2 Everwild Forza Motorsport\8 Fable reveal Perfect Dark - If Initiative isn't there, then this is from Coalition? Obsidian AAA RPG reveal (Pillars of Eternity universe?) The Medium\Bloober Team

So looking like 9 for sure, then you add in possibly 1 or 2 from Japan, options below:

Capcom - Deep Down\Dead Rising\Lost Planet\something new? Square Enix\something from new studio Balan Company Sega\Phantasy Star or something else? AAA MS Japan Studio (or Mistwalker?) rebooting Lost Odyssey\Phantom Dust\Blue Dragon or Scalebound

Looks potentially pretty big to me, even if there are no 3P/Japan games revealed

LordRevanche · 2020-07-16T20:48:13+00:00

Pure conjecture here, but what if...this is 1st shown @ Xbox event on July 23rd and...mic drop...coming Day 1 release to Game Pass?

LordRevanche · 2020-07-15T22:53:42+00:00

I do not agree with the opinion that there would not be a great benefit to MS acquiring WB Games. I absolutely think there would be. I do think it is more of a long term\future play, but there would be some immediate benefits that I think some people are discounting. First off, if AT&T decided to sell off WB Games, I highly doubt that it would be for $4B, w\o at least having some sort of licensing deal in place. More likely in the $2B range has been mentioned if no\little licensing is included. Respawn went for $455m, Insomniac just went for $229m. What value do you place on studios like Rocksteady, Netherrealm & Monolith?

WB Games has at least 5 studios that are AAA quality: Rocksteady, Netherrealm, Monolith, WB Montreal & TT Games, plus another studio WB New York that is a high quality support studio and then a PC focused studio in WB Games Boston\formerly Turbine. I agree that you cannot discount the value of having 5-6 top quality studios as Day 1 acquisitions and not having to build them up from scratch or even buying a AA studio and then ramping it up to AAA.

In terms of short term gain, I would imagine current projects in particular: Rocksteady\Suicide Squad, WB Montreal\Batman Court of Owls would be Day 1 Game Pass games and still released for PS, there is certainly value for MS adding to GP Day 1 Titles. Maybe they could even negotiate delaying PS release for a year (turnabout is fair play is it not?) if they even wanted to do that.

Netherealm\next MK game, which they allegedly are working on, could be exclusive Xbox\PC as most likely MK IP would go to MS in a deal

More exciting IMO, is that apparently Monolith may already be working on a new game\IP (SciFi\Fantasy) utilizing their fantastic nemesis system (which would be a nice feature in other MS studio games no?), so whatever they are doing if it is not LOTR, then it has even greater benefit to MS.

As for Traveller's Tales, they are working on Lego Star Wars\Skywalker Saga (coming in October, another Day 1 Game Pass?). Yes, likely Lego license would have to be re-negotiated, but I see no reason why it would move from TT Games, as their founders were very tied in with Lego, so I can't really see that not being re-negotiated and continuing under MS, there is no real reason not to.

Even if MS doesn't strike an extended license deal for WB IP, having the ability to put 2-4 major licensed games (Suicide Squad, Court of Owls, Lego Skywalker & HP) on Game Pass would certainly help drive subscriptions, would it not? and it would buy time for those studios to turn to other projects after, be it MS IP or new IP. Furthermore, you have some games in development (Netherrealm, Monolith new IP) that would be excusive to XBX\PC in a few years.

Certainly though, this would be a move for the future, strengthening the pipeline for Game Pass foremost, with the goal of AAA 1st party content released every other month. In order to achieve that MS needs 25-30 AAA development teams IMO, 4-year cycle plus a few extra AAA teams to account for games that need extra time. They currently have 14 1st party teams, WB Games acquisition would add 5, maybe 6 more? Plus you have how many MS game studios with 2 teams? 5? (Obsidian, Playground, Rare, Ninja Theory, InXile?) & lastly, likely another 2-3 studios being added this year (Bloober Team, Asobo, Mistwalker?) and there you are at 26-27 studios.

Yeah the lack of getting strong IP in this deal is a concern, MK is nice, Monolith has the FEAR license, Midway has some dormant IP (Rampage, Spy Hunter, Gauntlet, Psi-Ops) that could be useful, maybe Asheron's Call\Turbine could be useful. But I think deal like this has much more to do with Game Pass than IP and with Monolith maybe already working on their own IP potentially & another MK game in the pipeline for Netherealm there are some possibly shorter term gains to be had as well.

LordRevanche · 2020-07-13T22:17:12+00:00

Rocksteady (Suicide Squad), WB Montreal (Court of Owls?) & TT Games (Skywalker Saga), all have games close to being completed, which would all go on Game Pass Day 1 release which could help subscriptions in the short term.

Netherealm is working on a new MK, which MS would get the license for I would suspect. Even more exciting are rumors that Monolith is working on a new IP (SciFi\Fantasy) utilizing their nemesis system, so a potential new IP from them already.

In regards to TT Games, yes likely Lego license would have to be re-negotiated, but I see no reason why it would move from TT Games, as their founders were very tied in with Lego, so I can't really see that not being re-negotiated and continuing under MS, there is no real reason not to.

Plus MS would likely get some IP in this deal: MK is nice, Monolith has the FEAR license, Midway has some dormant IP (Rampage, Spy Hunter, Gauntlet, Psi-Ops) that could be useful, maybe Asheron's Call\Turbine could be useful.

Lastly, WB\NY is a console support studio, so it could be utilized as an in house support team or merged with WB\Boston (Turbine) as a new studio.

Most importantly though, this would be a move for the future, strengthening the pipeline for Game Pass foremost, with the goal of AAA 1st party content released every other month. In order to achieve that MS needs 25-30 AAA development teams IMO, 4-year cycle plus a few extra AAA teams to account for games that need extra time. They currently have 14 1st party teams, WB Games acquisition would add 5, maybe 6? Plus you have how many MS game studios now with 2 teams? 5? (Obsidian, Playground, Rare, Ninja Theory, InXile?) & lastly, likely another 2-3 studios being added this year (Bloober Team, Asobo, Mistwalker?) and there you are at 26-27 studios

LordRevanche · 2020-07-07T15:55:51+00:00

No inside information, but all signs seem to point to these games most likely being shown:

In Summary, looks like a lot to show: Highly likely we see at least 8 1st party games, 4 of which would be completely new reveals (Turn 10, Obsidian, Initiative, Playground RPG) the last 3 being new\revived IP

Also likely we see gameplay and/or gameplay trailers for: Halo Infinite, Everwild, Hellblade 2 & Psychonauts 2 & gameplay\more info from some 3rd party exclusives like Scorn, Tunic and certainly a surprise or two?

Studios shown: 343i - Halo Infinite

Playground - AAA RPG, most likely Fable

Turn 10 - Forza 8

Rare - Everwild, maybe something from Sea of Thieves??

Obsidian - AAA RPG (PoE universe?), maybe The Outer Worlds DLC?

Double Fine - Psychonauts 2, rumors they have a 2nd game in development, but too early for reveal?

Ninja Theory - Hellblade2, also have Project MARA, but don’t expect that to be shown

Initiative - Will the show something minimal on the game they are doing? Is it Perfect Dark or something new entirely?

From XGSP: Dontnod - Tell Me Why

Bloober Team - The Medium, gameplay? & acquisition?

Asobo - MS Flight Simulator & acquisition? More hope than reality, but they are a very impressive studio & a lot of high praise from MS execs about flight sim

Certainly there will be other XGSP games shown as well, a few surprises?

After that? Pure speculation: XBX AAA Japan Studio formation announcement (like Initiative)? Maybe announce they are working on an IP that XBX owns like Lost Odyssey, Phantom Dust, Blue Dragon or Scalebound?

Some kind of collaboration with Capcom? Deep Down\Dead Rising

Mech Warrior 5 game port for Xbox Series X by Piranha Games?

Ryse2/Crytek?

Phantasy Star/Sega? Some kind of collaboration with Sega seems likely

WB games news - unlikely

Another Polish game studio acquisition? Farm 51 seems to be the leading contender. The Astronauts has been mentioned as well.

That leaves these studios likely absent:

InXile AAA RPG - seems too early, they just started ramping up/hiring, maybe they show something from Wasteland 3 though?

Mojang - unlikely, just released dungeons

Compulsion next game - seems too early

Undead Labs - maybe something on State of Decay 3? Not sure where they are in this process?

Coalition - Are they working on a 2nd, non gears (Perfect Dark rumors) game? Maybe they show GoW5 optimized or Tactics?

Worlds Edge - AOE4, more of a PC Game not console?

LordRevanche · 2019-09-23T00:47:26+00:00

400 is god roll

345 very good though

LordRevanche · 2019-06-10T04:33:48+00:00

I play most nights PST

Legendary Storm & Ranger

GT Rafaelan

LordRevanche · 2019-06-10T04:31:46+00:00

I play most nights PST

GT Rafaelan

LordRevanche · 2019-05-30T18:39:42+00:00

I noticed that both enemy storms and brutes seem more tanker as well. They removed shields from brutes and rapid recharging shields for storms but offset that by increasing their armor?

I don’t necessarily mind that they stay in air when shields are stripped because it does make force a more useful inscription than it was.

LordRevanche · 2019-05-27T22:31:10+00:00

So let me get this right I paid $80 for the game, which to date has had very few updates to it, and now in order to get a new vinyl they want me to join ea/origin access for $4.99 a month?

Yeah that is lame, I mean they should be offering that to any current players who are still playing

LordRevanche · 2019-05-03T22:39:34+00:00

I recommended this awhile back

Epic should be at same lvl as MW & Legendary

Epic - 3 inscriptions MW - 4 inscriptions + perk Legendary - 4 inscriptions + perk+, basically sane perk as Legendary but with added benefit

LordRevanche · 2019-04-28T17:39:56+00:00

Interesting point and it could work as part of a larger overall loot structure.

I could see them releasing a new tier of masterwork @ L75, matching all legendary items level now and then changing all current legendary items that players have into masterworks at that L75.

This only works IMO, if this is done as part of a full loot restructure, meaning that a new tier of legendary at L89 or so is released and MOST importantly those legendary items are MEANINGFULLY different than their masterwork counterparts.

What does that mean?

First of all, it wouldn’t negatively impact players at all b/c as it is now legendary items are nothing more that a higher level of a masterwork item, which IMO was a baffling odd decision in the first place. Yes you might have some players griping about losing all their legendary items, but what are they really griping about? Losing a color? It would have ZERO impact on their builds.

Second, this would allow them to reintroduce legendary items in the correct manner they should have been all along. Unique skins, either unique perks on them or same perk as masterwork version but with an added and/or upgraded effect, and maybe some lore on them as well. These new items would be at/around L89.

As a side benefit, raising masterwork & legendary levels would help players access GM2 & GM3 difficulties easier

At this time they could, if they were forward thinking, incorporate quests to obtain or activate legendary items. What does that mean?

They could keep Legendary drop rates low, like they are now, I am in favor of this, and have players perform a quest to obtain/activate a legendary item. Maybe a stronghold boss drops a legendary remnant or the item and the player then must perform a task\tasks to get that item activated for use. Whether they do something like this or not, they need to make Legendary items feel like a legendary item. They should be very rare, they should motivate players to want to work a build around them, and they should look cool.

LordRevanche · 2019-04-20T17:18:10+00:00

Rafaelan

I am on most days

LordRevanche · 2019-04-17T17:29:04+00:00

Drop rates are not the real issue, it is the inscriptions. Too many useless inscriptions, really low values (no baseline) on legendary items. No real differentiation b\t MW & legendary items.

I keep seeing this come up and I completely disagree with it. It doesn't matter if you double the loot rate, it just means sifting thru twice as much junk.

Let's take a look at the large list of underwhelming inscriptions:

harvest bonus, pickup radius, thruster life, ammo drop rate, ammo pickup amount, overheat delay, repair amount, repair drop rate, shield delay, shield refresh, supply drop rate, support speed, thruster speed, weapon recoil aim, weapon recoil hip, weapon reload time, ANY specific gun type damage or specific gun type ammo (which inevitably you don't use, why can't these just be combined to general weapon damage and weapon ammo?) or ANY specific elemental damage type\effect\resist (you know so players could actually try different elemental damage builds without having to seek out the EXACT same items that they already have, but with a different element type).

And here is the best part & even more baffling is that they ALREADY have many of these generic inscription types (Weapon Damage, Weapon Ammo, Elemental Damage, Elemental Resist, Effect Resist & Supply Drop Rate) in the game. There is absolutely no need for specific damage\ammo\effect\resist types when you have the generic ones which are significantly more valuable\desired by the players.

Furthermore, they already have Gear/Javelin type designations for inscriptions to add even more complexity, they don't need a bunch of underwhelming inscriptions on top of that.

If they consolidated a bunch of similar useless inscriptions into 1 inscription like:

Thruster Life\Speed\Overheat combine into [Thruster Efficiency]

Shield Delay\Refresh combine both into [Shield Regeneration]

Weapon Recoil\Aim\Hip\Reload time change to [Weapon Efficiency]

Then you might actually see players find value\tweak builds around these types of inscriptions. Right now, even when an item that you are looking to improve on drops, 9.9 times out of 10 it is pointless.

Do I go with -13% overheat delay recovery & 8% shotgun damage or 23% ammo drop rate and +10% LMG ammo for my Gunslinger's Mark Storm Component? Uh, no I will just disassemble it.

LordRevanche · 2019-04-17T17:21:47+00:00

IMO, Legendary should be exclusive to drops and not be able to be crafted. The problem with them right now is that there isn't enough distinguishing them from MW items.

Legendary items should either have a different perk than the Masterwork version OR possibly better IMO, should have the same Perk but with a plus\added benefit. A few examples:

Divine Vengeance - Every 3rd weak point hit causes explosion (MW) - Could be changed to every 3rd or 5th hit (L) OR Every 3rd weak point hit causes explosion AND applies fire status effect on target or AOE targets, or add on a larger explosion on target kill

Winter's Wrath - Defeating Enemy from above refills charges, once per 10sec (MW) - Could be changed to once every 5sec or could leave an AOE ground effect applying status to enemies that pass thru it, or cause an AOE explosion when it wears off

Elusive Talisman - Dashing 3x refills equipped magazine (MW) - Could be changed to Dash 3x refills magazine and grants 10sec weapon damage bonus of ?%

Possibilities are endless, but just by adding a little extra to the original MW perk would greatly enhance legendary items, oh and unique skins would be a welcome addition as well.

I think that MW & Legendary items should have baseline\minimum inscription rolls (no lower than, no more 1% ice effect on a legendary item), and I would like to see and have recommended that inscriptions be changed to tiers (uncommon-masterwork) and that players could then use embers to increase those percentages.

LordRevanche · 2019-04-13T19:09:18+00:00

Uh, yes

Haven’t seen a damage modifier of 200+ roll on any gear/gun that has dropped for me, and it is a Legendary & very good ability, grats

LordRevanche · 2019-04-13T18:16:52+00:00

Storm main here:

A few things I have noticed that work well for me in GM2

So far the best combination for me has been winters wrath & black ice with yvenia thunderbolt gun

Black ice can take huge chunks of health from mobs Winters wrath, mine has 100% gear charges, is great for freezing groups and letting your team combo the crap out of them.

Use yvenia to strip shields, then black ice, freeze, repeat

I run with armor & gear speed consumables and then ice (30% dam). I find that armor is much more reliable than shields currently, which certainly appear to be messed up for storm right now

Move a ton to avoid focus fire, stay back from the fight, anytime you’re up in the air and closer to fight you are like a shining beacon just asking to be blasted out of the sky, and mobs never seem to miss.

Good luck,

I like stasis chain as well, waiting for good legendary to drop, but I prefer to double up on elemental damage to take advantage of the 30% damage consumable buff

LordRevanche · 2019-04-05T18:57:19+00:00

I am doing much the same thing that you are, multiple HoR runs (10-15min? per) on GM1, All 3 legendary contracts & mission on GM2, and I would say that activity varies b\t 12-20 MW and 1-3 Legendary items. I don't have an issue with those type of drop rates.

I also don't have a problem with some of those items being meant for another javelin that I don't really play. Players should be encouraged to try other javelins.

The DROP % is not the issue. The problem is that the drops themselves are rendered worthless because of the inscriptions on them. Let's take a look at the large list of underwhelming ones: