Wed, Sep 10, 2008 | 12:21 BST
Microsoft “ramping down” games development – St John
WildTangent boss Alex St John, speaking to GI, has claimed that Microsoft is backing down from first-party development as part of a “recovery phase” and a bid to make its games business profitable.
“You will clearly see Sony and Microsoft ramping down their investment in those platforms… What’s interesting to note is that Microsoft [Game] Studios: the number of titles they’re producing is in decline. So they’re investing a lot less in the Xbox, and Sony is doing the same, because they’re in a cost recovery phase,” he said.
St John’s comments come in the wake of the shock closure of Ensemble Studios overnight.
More through the link.
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Posted in: Development, Hot, Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live
Tags: Alex St John, ensemble studios, WildTangent
18 comments
#1
BraveArse
10/09/08, 1:04 pm
He is saying both Sony and Microsoft are doing this surely?
#2
Psychotext
10/09/08, 1:08 pm
He does specifically mention MGS but talks about Sony and MS.
#3
No_PUDding
10/09/08, 1:18 pm
So Sony can afford to only get rid of Paulina Bozek, becuase nothing else is beign ramped down?
Hell SCEJ announced Derby Onine just the other day. Yet another inspired non shooting and yet crappy PS2 quality Japan game for the PS3.
Isn’t WildTangent something I had to download to play online games?
This guy = Phail.
#4
deftangel
10/09/08, 1:25 pm
SCEE have canned a few games of late too. 8 Days, Getaway Next Gen among others as well I think. Warhawk got downscaled to a PSN title etc.
#5
wz
10/09/08, 1:25 pm
Mr St John (great name!) would be the guy to know, I think. He made the initial DirectX specs at MS.
#6
rainer
10/09/08, 1:30 pm
Alex knows a thing or two about MS but he talks trash constantly so his comments are hard to believe.
I seriously doubt Sony would ever shed it’s internal studios given that they are its trump card delivering unique titles that are keeping the PS3 in contention.
Microsoft on the other hand are obsessed with making money this time round and are undoing the deals they made to try and slim their costs at Microsoft Game Studios as much as possible, Rare & Lionhead may have a reprieve as those two studios have the possibility of tapping into mainstream games (which is what MS wants the most), the other studios like Fasa, Bungie and Ensemble all catered to the hardcore market.
#7
Tonka
10/09/08, 1:59 pm
It’s as if the cost of HD games is too high for devs to take risks. Who would have thought…
End. Of. Gaming.
#8
wz
10/09/08, 2:00 pm
rainer: But he’s not the last person to know any details about MS plans. That’s all I have to say about him
#9
No_PUDding
10/09/08, 2:22 pm
“SCEE have canned a few games of late too. 8 Days, Getaway Next Gen among others as well I think. Warhawk got downscaled to a PSN title etc.”
8 Days and the Getaway were canned earlier this year. But the team wasn’t cut back. And Warhawk being downscaled!?
What the hell? Someone help?
Surely this is a good sign for the PS3 and the consumers on it. And has no relation to the size of internal teams.
#10
Blerk
10/09/08, 2:30 pm
Warhawk was originally supposed to have a single-player campaign mode as well as the multiplayer stuff. That was chopped at a fairly late stage, round about the same time they decided to make it a downloadable. And then changed their minds and did a disc as well.
#11
No_PUDding
10/09/08, 2:36 pm
Sounds like a pretty schizophrenic development cycle. Hope it works better for whateve rthey are working on now. Which we don’t know at all, I am guessing.
#12
Psychotext
10/09/08, 2:39 pm
No_PUDding: Sony scaled back the number of their dev staff recently. There just wasn’t a lot of noise because it wasn’t full group closures.
#13
Tonka
10/09/08, 2:44 pm
The End Is Nigh! First masonic experiments at CERN and now this.
/updates youtube stream
#14
mortiferus
10/09/08, 3:14 pm
It’s the “Cycle” man. Development of 720 and PS4 has begun in earnest. Like Yogi Berra said “It’s Deja Vu all over again”.
#15
Tonka
10/09/08, 3:18 pm
PS4 you say. You really think so?
#16
Syrok
10/09/08, 3:26 pm
I think it’s save to assume that all three console manufacturers have started planning or at least to develop a general outline for their next products.
#17
Tonka
10/09/08, 3:40 pm
I have no doubts about that. But I doubt that they are shifting much inhouse dev teams in that direction.
#18
Syrok
10/09/08, 3:43 pm
No, probably not just yet.