The Rant: Microsoft [Episode 1]

Well, this is my first leasure time experiment not involving drugs so uh. Ya, hope yall enjoy me writting a wall-o-text about how I despise certain things about gaming.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Microsoft first entered the console gaming industry, everyone thought they were going to fail. The truth is, no one thought they would have gotten this far. Let's look at the history. Despite being new at making videogame consoles and aren't really known for their hardware, the original Xbox was a very ambitious system in terms of tech. It was the first to introduce Hard Drives to videogame consoles, allowing developers to take advantage of the HDD's cache for various things. When it came out the Xbox was the most powerful system on the market. With this hardware, Microsoft managed to obtain an amazing amount of both 1st and 3rd party exclusives that truely show what the Xbox was capable of. Now fast forward a bit to the launch of the Xbox 360. Microsoft still had a considerable amount of 1st party and 3rd party support. In fact, they were shelling out exclusives left and right. I guess my main point is, the Xbox brand was not only a major success but it has a bunch of iconic games. In fact, Microsoft were the one to start advertising the whole "only on xbox" logo on their game cases. Back then it wasn't really well known that certain games on the Xbox/PS2 were exclusive to specific platforms.

So what's the problem? Microsoft isn't TRYING anymore to secure iconic games for the 360. Gears of War and maybe Alan Wake are the only series that are confirmed to be 3rd party exclusives to the Xbox for future sequels. Basically Microsoft now depends on either buying out timed exclusivity for games, or pays off developers not to release specific games in a series on the PS3 . And I use the term "exclusivity" loosely. Splinter Cell: Conviction, one of the more "iconic" 360 games, released on THREE major platforms (not counting the handhelds). The sad thing is, splinter cell isn't even an Xbox series! Every other game release has been on Playstation (hell the newest remake for Splinter Cell is confirmed to be Ps3 exclusive!). The thing is though...Microsoft doesn't HAVE to do this. They own a HUGE number of game IPs. The list is unbelieveable. I nearly forgotten about the old great Xbox games like Jade Empire. The problem here is that Microsoft doesn't DO ANYTHING with their IPs. They are literally the shittiest publisher because they don't actually have any 1st party studios that make games for their catalogue, aside from a Forza game that comes out once every two years. Even their latest Halo game (THEIR BIGGEST FRANCHISE RIGHT NEXT TO FUCKING WINDOWS) was made by a 3rd party developer. They have over 50 IP owned game franchises, and most of which they don't even touch anymore. The only IPs that they even make games off of anymore are Halo, Fable, and Forza. THAT'S IT. What about fucking Perfect Dark? Where the fuck is Viva Pinata? Project Gotham Racing? Blue Dragon? Lost Odyssey (MADE BY THE MAKER OF FINAL FUCKING FANTASY) WHERE ARE THEY? If you aren't going to do anything with these franchises, then you might as well just sell them to someone that will. Most of the best 1st party developers for Microsoft either broke away from them or were closed down after making ONE title (*COUGH COUGH* Ensemble Studios). Oh but don't worry guys, they'll still make those shitty Ninety-Nine Nights games for us. Who needs PGR or Perfect Dark...

And another thing. WHY THE FUCK DO THEY ALWAYS NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SITUATIONS. Bioware were making Xbox/PC exclusives all of last gen and the beginning of this gen. Mass Effect is one of the most defining franchises of this generation. ARE YOU TELLING ME THERE WASN'T EVEN ONE FUCKING HALF-BRAINED MORON that thought it might have been a great idea to buy Bioware? Now Bioware makes multiplatform games across all platforms for EA. Opportunity missed. Oh but what about Valve? Their hate for developing for the PS3 would have surely given MS the opportunity to buy Valve or even buy some of their IPs and have them co-develop it with them...NOPE. Now Valve is bringing Steamworks to PS3 and will release all future Valve titles for the PS3. Opportunity missed.

I mean for fucks sake...EVEN BUNGIE, THE PEOPLE WHO GAVE BIRTH TO THE HALO SERIES, IS NOW GOING TO MAKE MULTIPLATFORM GAMES!...WITH ACTIVISION EVEN! Who is to say that Epic Games might not start making Gears of War games on the PS3 one day? EXACTLY! Microsoft may be the current publisher, but they don't actually own the franchise. A huge mistake on their part.

So...what is MS doing anyways? Well, most of their 1st party efforts are now going into making Kinect games. Well...okay. I don't have a problem with Kinect and what it is trying to do. I honestly don't. If I was Microsoft I would have put some effort into Kinect as well. But before you start trying to cater to a different audience, make sure the audience that you still got are satisfied as well.

Damn...that was long. Well, that was my first rant. Stay tuned for more.

I agree. They need far more 1st party developers. The biggest mistake they have ever made is not acquiring BIOWARE. Seriously i blame steve ballmer. >_> Microsoft couldn've completly destroyed sony if they tried.

Toxicmaniac wrote:

I agree. They need far more 1st party developers. The biggest mistake they have ever made is not acquiring BIOWARE. Seriously i blame steve ballmer. >_> Microsoft couldn've completly destroyed sony if they tried.

They would have won the console wars if they had Bioware, Epic Games, and Bungie...

They seem to be embracing the "casual" route, which doesn't bode well for the so called "hardcore" gamer. Something tell's me the "X720" will be more like the Wii when it's released.

Sony on the other hand, know who their audience is and I'd be surprised if they even considered that route.

Besides getting Gears 3 and Forza 4 this year, they don't have jackshit when it comes to quality exclusives (excluding Kinect games). They have so many PC ports of games that suck anyway. They basically got rid off their best developer, Bungie, and lost Mass Effect. The only games that sell well on 360 are Gears, halo, COD, and FPS shooters.


All they have is XBOX LIVE. A service that is superior to PSN. However, this may change if Valve takes control of Sony's online department and creates a beast with steam.
I doubt that Microsoft even wants a console next gen. If they do, they're in for a rude awakening. Sony Won't make the same mistake again that they made this gen and possibly could release a Valve-Sony combo console. Microsoft needs to get their shit together and get some quality studios.

They can start by acquiring Platinum Games, A studio that is slowly turning into one the most elite devs on the market today.

It all went down hill with Kinect..

Teckno wrote:

It all went down hill with Kinect..

I don't even blame Kinect. I understand they are trying to reach out to a bigger audience. But I don't see why or how they need to alienate the core Xbox userbase. Releasing 1-2 AAA 1st party exclusives and some timed exclusive multiplat crap is not enough. You'd think the list of PS3 exclusives this year would have scared Microsoft into doing something about it.

Oh well, I mean not ALL hope is lost. There still is a SLIM chance they might announce maybe 1 or 2 more exclusives for this year to go along Gears 3 and Forza 4. But other than that I'm very disappointed in MS. I know it's just 1 year and that most of the time they consistantly release a good number of exclusives per year, but the whole Kinect thing is scaring me a bit. I think they are trying to force it on too quickly.

Microsoft owned Ensemble since 2001 and they made 3 games with them and some expansion. They got closed down because Ensemble kept going overbudget, but then they formed Robot Entertainment. Just saying.

I think the reason they don't buy studios is cause they cost 100's of millions of dollars. Rare cost about 400 million with inflation. Epic Games would be fucking expensive. Probably like 1 billion or more because of the Unreal Engine. If you buy Valve, then you have to buy Steam. That'd be really fucking expensive too. But with Bioware yeah they just fucked up big time. Sony has bought a lot of studios, but they've also lost all the money they earned on the PS2 on the PS3.

But honestly I don't care much for exclusives anymore. Duke Nukem Forever, Skyrim, and Mass Effect 3 take the entire PS3 2011 exclusive line up and rape it up the ass.

BlackStigma wrote:

Microsoft owned Ensemble since 2001 and they made 3 games with them and some expansion. They got closed down because Ensemble kept going overbudget, but then they formed Robot Entertainment. Just saying.

I think the reason they don't buy studios is cause they cost 100's of millions of dollars. Rare cost about 400 million with inflation. Epic Games would be fucking expensive. Probably like 1 billion or more because of the Unreal Engine. If you buy Valve, then you have to buy Steam. That'd be really fucking expensive too. But with Bioware yeah they just fucked up big time. Sony has bought a lot of studios, but they've also lost all the money they earned on the PS2 on the PS3.

But honestly I don't care much for exclusives anymore. Duke Nukem Forever, Skyrim, and Mass Effect 3 take the entire PS3 2011 exclusive line up and rape it up the ass.

Uncharted 3 SHITS all over those games GOTY 2011.

Ok. It won't win game of the year. However, UC3 will be get a high AAA score and so will The Last Guardian!

I fully agree. I've been thinking about this a lot recently myself. Microsoft are such cocks and are just not taking advantage of what they have. Allt hey care about is teh haloz and how to market kinect!!!
Plus, Xbox live is a rip off. I'm becoming more pro-ps3 day by day.

The only reason I like xbox is for these games:

Fable, Bully, Alan Wake, Mass Effect.


Ps3 may have no gaems
but at least it's getting some.
microsoft are just getting saelz

Epic did say that they would love to put Gears trilogy on ps3

DukemNukem43 wrote:

BlackStigma wrote:

Microsoft owned Ensemble since 2001 and they made 3 games with them and some expansion. They got closed down because Ensemble kept going overbudget, but then they formed Robot Entertainment. Just saying.

I think the reason they don't buy studios is cause they cost 100's of millions of dollars. Rare cost about 400 million with inflation. Epic Games would be fucking expensive. Probably like 1 billion or more because of the Unreal Engine. If you buy Valve, then you have to buy Steam. That'd be really fucking expensive too. But with Bioware yeah they just fucked up big time. Sony has bought a lot of studios, but they've also lost all the money they earned on the PS2 on the PS3.

But honestly I don't care much for exclusives anymore. Duke Nukem Forever, Skyrim, and Mass Effect 3 take the entire PS3 2011 exclusive line up and rape it up the ass.

Uncharted 3 SHITS all over those games GOTY 2011.

Ok. It won't win game of the year. However, UC3 will be get a high AAA score and so will The Last Guardian!

mass effect 3 destroys uncharted 3 puny 6 hours campaign and its online
uncharted 3 will be amazing but mass effect 3 utterly pwns it to death.this year its the year when mass effect 3 wins goty 2011

Microsoft needs to step their game up. Seriously, after the catastrophe and mega-fail that was X11, they NEED to announce some games for this year. As of yet, they have Forza 4 and Gears 3 as their big exclusives...

Alan, you're right. It's like they aren't even trying anymore. I'm surprised that they hadn't bought Bioware. Also, bullshit on Black's reasoning as to why they don't buy studios. Microsoft has enough money to throw around to buy some first party developers.

BlackStigma wrote:

I think the reason they don't buy studios is cause they cost 100's of millions of dollars. Rare cost about 400 million with inflation. Epic Games would be fucking expensive. Probably like 1 billion or more because of the Unreal Engine. If you buy Valve, then you have to buy Steam. That'd be really fucking expensive too. But with Bioware yeah they just fucked up big time. Sony has bought a lot of studios, but they've also lost all the money they earned on the PS2 on the PS3.

Didn't Microsoft just spend $500 million last year marketing Kinect? Obviously they've got deep-enough pockets.

igame wrote:

Epic did say that they would love to put Gears trilogy on ps3

They cant.

They can put next gen gears of war games on playstation 4 though.

Y'know, people on here are talking like MS are idiots even though they have done a fairly better job this gen then last gen.

Look at how much sony has F*cked up this gen.PS3 had a terrible launch and first few years.It was a big mistake to use blu ray as early as they did.Who the hell would pay 400-600$ for a gaming console?Were they that stupid to beleive PS3 would sell for its first few years?

And for a long time sony wasnt gaining any profit with ps3.I think it was until last year that they just STARTED to gain profits.While MS were making billions with XBL, sony were loosing money with the ps3.

MS on the other hand have made huge profits this gen.XBL, 360 sales and kinect have been huge successes.Kinect has been seelling like crack and hell, even more then Move(while Move was released before kinect).

Dont get me started on the failure that was PSP(sorry DDD, its the truth).

You know whats funny?Everyone on here is all like "Hellz yea, sony hav more gaems then MS this year so PS3 wil be a success ect" when the fact is that if all these ps3 games come out this year, what will sony have next year.Unless they want to do a cod effect and release there games in very short development time.MS destroyed sony last year(sony line up wasnt up to par) so when sony has a good line up this yearm you guys are all like "hellz yea" even though you wont be buying half the games lol.

If MS release a few good exclusive's this year it means they can have more games for next year.And heck, even with ps3 line up this year I still cant see ps3 outselling 360 or kinect.MS are playing it smart.

See, 2012 is more likely to be a better year for 360 then a better year for ps3.

MS have shown to know what they are doing.Sony have shown that hey dont(I still cant figure out why they thought they would sell ps3 at a 400-600 price range).MS have shown to make huge profits this gen while sony have lost money

Sony went from 140M ps2's sold to 48M PS3's sold(around that area).Sony crashed this gen and they crashed hard.There's no denying that.

And now with people in the industry saying that sony's new NGP will be dead apon arrival I cant see sony doing well in the handheld part of the industry.

And guys, dont go saying Bs stuff like "MS are dumb cuz they didnt buy ___ Developer).Whens the last time you spent 500 mil buying something?Developers(expecially the good ones) cost alot of money.Money that could be used in game developement cost, advertising, production ect.

And Kinect has huge potential, for both casual and hardcore.So dont go bashing it and Ms just because they deliver some casual games into the 360 library.

Zeratul wrote:

Y'know, people on here are talking like MS are idiots even though they have done a fairly better job this gen then last gen.

Look at how much sony has F*cked up this gen.PS3 had a terrible launch and first few years.It was a big mistake to use blu ray as early as they did.Who the hell would pay 400-600$ for a gaming console?Were they that stupid to beleive PS3 would sell for its first few years?

And for a long time sony wasnt gaining any profit with ps3.I think it was until last year that they just STARTED to gain profits.While MS were making billions with XBL, sony were loosing money with the ps3.

MS on the other hand have made huge profits this gen.XBL, 360 sales and kinect have been huge successes.Kinect has been seelling like crack and hell, even more then Move(while Move was released before kinect).

Dont get me started on the failure that was PSP(sorry DDD, its the truth).

You know whats funny?Everyone on here is all like "Hellz yea, sony hav more gaems then MS this year so PS3 wil be a success ect" when the fact is that if all these ps3 games come out this year, what will sony have next year.Unless they want to do a cod effect and release there games in very short development time.MS destroyed sony last year(sony line up wasnt up to par) so when sony has a good line up this yearm you guys are all like "hellz yea" even though you wont be buying half the games lol.

If MS release a few good exclusive's this year it means they can have more games for next year.And heck, even with ps3 line up this year I still cant see ps3 outselling 360 or kinect.MS are playing it smart.

See, 2012 is more likely to be a better year for 360 then a better year for ps3.

MS have shown to know what they are doing.Sony have shown that hey dont(I still cant figure out why they thought they would sell ps3 at a 400-600 price range).MS have shown to make huge profits this gen while sony have lost money

Sony went from 140M ps2's sold to 48M PS3's sold(around that area).Sony crashed this gen and they crashed hard.There's no denying that.

And now with people in the industry saying that sony's new NGP will be dead apon arrival I cant see sony doing well in the handheld part of the industry.

And guys, dont go saying Bs stuff like "MS are dumb cuz they didnt buy ___ Developer).Whens the last time you spent 500 mil buying something?Developers(expecially the good ones) cost alot of money.Money that could be used in game developement cost, advertising, production ect.

And Kinect has huge potential, for both casual and hardcore.So dont go bashing it and Ms just because they deliver some casual games into the 360 library.

Uh, what games????????? They basically have no exclusive games left that are any good after 2011. M$'s lack of first party devs bites them in the ass. The third parties are just making crappy kinect shovelware. that are worse than the wii's shovelware. Left 4 Dead will be on PS3 due to Valve's interest in Sony. Fable is over. The main Gears story will be complete by then. All they really have left is the dead franchise known as HALO, that should have been finished after Reach. All they have left over PS3 is sales. The 360 is dying. Kinect will eventually stop selling, because M$ isn't Nintendo. Simple as that.


PS3 still has FFvs13 and Sly Cooper 4 in 2012. Although, Bioshock Infinite will win GOTY.

I love how Zeratul threw all of these sales figures out there and completed ignored the fact that Microsoft is giving us gamers barely anything.

Seriously, you completely failed to refute what Alan was saying.

@Zeratul

You didn't refute anything I said Zeratul. In fact, you went off topic. I never once mentioned sales and nor do I give a shittte about that. I was simply ranting about Microsoft's incompetence in their 1st party efforts. They are using their money and resources wrong. This is going to greatly damage their PR in the future and the lack of many iconic games for the 360 might even slowly kill the brand. Fact is they have a huge catelogue of game IPs and they barely touch them. They might as well just sell those IPs to someone that will do something with them.


@DukeNukem43

The older L4D games probably won't come to the PS3 but I see no reason why they wouldn't make future titles available to it. I also don't like how you make fun of the current microsoft exclusives. Fable, halo, and Gears are very kickass games. Fable isn't "over". And Halo isn't a "dead" franchise (a very moronic statement ). Not having MORE 1st party exclusive franchises is what is going to kill MS. There is nothing wrong with the games that they DO make.

Sovereign Alan wrote:

@Zeratul

You didn't refute anything I said Zeratul. In fact, you went off topic. I never once mentioned sales and nor do I give a shittte about that. I was simply ranting about Microsoft's incompetence in their 1st party efforts. They are using their money and resources wrong. This is going to greatly damage their PR in the future and the lack of many iconic games for the 360 might even slowly kill the brand. Fact is they have a huge catelogue of game IPs and they barely touch them. They might as well just sell those IPs to someone that will do something with them.


@DukeNukem43

The older L4D games probably won't come to the PS3 but I see no reason why they wouldn't make future titles available to it. I also don't like how you make fun of the current microsoft exclusives. Fable, halo, and Gears are very kickass games. Fable isn't "over". And Halo isn't a "dead" franchise (a very moronic statement ). Not having MORE 1st party exclusive franchises is what is going to kill MS. There is nothing wrong with the games that they DO make.

The L4D games might come to PS3 if Valve wants them too. I didn't make fun of the exclusive titles. I just said that they are done for this gen. Gears of War 4 will not be coming to this gen, with the newest unreal engine being too powerful for current consoles. Fable is good franchise made by an overhyping train moron. Halo has been around for 10 years now. It should have ended with Reach. The franchise is slowly turning into COD with developers making the game that isn't the original dev making the game. Halo is kiddy as hell and should just end. There's my response.

Reaper wrote:

C'mon Zeratul leave that sales shite at the XBR, this is about games.

Plus, PS3 is going to pass 360 in sales by the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012.


NO DOUBLE POSTING- Alan.

@DukeNukem43

The older titles won't come. Why waste development efforts porting 2 year old games when you can just make a new L4D to maximize profits.

You are trying to undermine every one of MS's franchises. Fable is a good franchise, nothing more. Who cares if the developer hypes it up. What developer doesn't hype up their own game? Halo has been around for 10 years, while Gran Turismo and Metal Gear have been around for much, much longer. There is no reason why they can't continue the Halo and Gears of War franchises next gen. And don't even try to compare Halo to COD. COD games release yearly and have barely any updates to them. Ignoring the fact that each full Halo game comes out once every 3 years, they also use a new graphics engine and have completely different gameplay. Reach plays nothing like Halo 2, for example. Having a prequel be the last Halo game in the series doesn't make much sense. And up until now every Halo game has been developed by the same developer, rendering your comment about "multiple developers" completely wrong. Even the newest Halo studio that is going to take Bungie's place are comprised of people that had experience from making Halo CE. This is no Treyarch or Sledgehammer.

"Halo is kiddy as hell." Sure it is. :\ Stop with the ignorant halo hate. I wish for once Halo haters had something clever to say.

Sovereign Alan wrote:

@DukeNukem43

The older titles won't come. Why waste development efforts porting 2 year old games when you can just make a new L4D to maximize profits.

You are trying to undermine every one of MS's franchises. Fable is a good franchise, nothing more. Who cares if the developer hypes it up. What developer doesn't hype up their own game? Halo has been around for 10 years, while Gran Turismo and Metal Gear have been around for much, much longer. There is no reason why they can't continue the Halo and Gears of War franchises next gen. And don't even try to compare Halo to COD. COD games release yearly and have barely any updates to them. Ignoring the fact that each full Halo game comes out once every 3 years, they also use a new graphics engine and have completely different gameplay. Reach plays nothing like Halo 2, for example. Having a prequel be the last Halo game in the series doesn't make much sense. And up until now every Halo game has been developed by the same developer, rendering your comment about "multiple developers" completely wrong. Even the newest Halo studio that is going to take Bungie's place are comprised of people that had experience from making Halo CE. This is no Treyarch or Sledgehammer.

"Halo is kiddy as hell." Sure it is. :\ Stop with the ignorant halo hate. I wish for once Halo haters had something clever to say.

Halo still needs to die. Get over it.

DukemNukem43 wrote:

Sovereign Alan wrote:

@DukeNukem43

The older titles won't come. Why waste development efforts porting 2 year old games when you can just make a new L4D to maximize profits.

You are trying to undermine every one of MS's franchises. Fable is a good franchise, nothing more. Who cares if the developer hypes it up. What developer doesn't hype up their own game? Halo has been around for 10 years, while Gran Turismo and Metal Gear have been around for much, much longer. There is no reason why they can't continue the Halo and Gears of War franchises next gen. And don't even try to compare Halo to COD. COD games release yearly and have barely any updates to them. Ignoring the fact that each full Halo game comes out once every 3 years, they also use a new graphics engine and have completely different gameplay. Reach plays nothing like Halo 2, for example. Having a prequel be the last Halo game in the series doesn't make much sense. And up until now every Halo game has been developed by the same developer, rendering your comment about "multiple developers" completely wrong. Even the newest Halo studio that is going to take Bungie's place are comprised of people that had experience from making Halo CE. This is no Treyarch or Sledgehammer.

"Halo is kiddy as hell." Sure it is. :\ Stop with the ignorant halo hate. I wish for once Halo haters had something clever to say.

Halo still needs to die. Get over it.

Nice, when I've destroyed all of your points I gues the only thing you can do is troll hard .

Back on topic though. I think my Rant series will be a great success.