Didnt back up what? Xbox store makes up majority of the revenue for the Xbox store. You say that a statement made by an executive can't be verified and then want me to take you seriously?
Rockstar maybe but definitely not "most AAA games".
en.wikipedia.org
Cory Barlog said in various interviews that God of War is on a tight budget. Most AAA games(most good ones) cost way less than 100 million to make.
Sony’s The Last of Us Part II heralds a rising tide of cinematic gaming titles.
www.bloomberg.com
And other SIE studios definitely would have lower budget. The ICE team which makes the proprietary engine tech used by most SIE studios is also part of Naughty Dog(in case of MachineGames that is handled by id Software).
en.wikipedia.org
100M is not "illusive and efficient", its an overstatement. A studio in Sweden has to spend way less on budget than a studio in Santa Monica. Bethesda spends 100 million on their games(except Fallout 76) but they also take forever to make them. Also, I have always denied the 500 million figure. As per Frank O'Conor, it always had normal AAA budget.
If I was "damage controlling the failures", I won't be telling people to skip Halo 5. I even got permed from the other site for saying Gears of War franchise should be concluded. But I am not defending insecure business takes in every Xbox thread, neither do you have any authority on influencing others what they should consider as "poor decision".
You participate in Xbox threads and then call out people for not receiving your takes positively as "hardcore Xbox fanboys".
I dwell on rumours? Maybe this is what too much participation on Next Gen speculation thread does to people. Atleast don't try to project me with your favorite twitter/discord conspiracy gang, I have zero interest in validation from twitter celebrities. I called you a conspiracy theorist for latching on to them as a last ditch effort. This is why you deserve all the LOL's.
You said I forgot something. My question is what was it? You make it seem like "Xbox store - and its revenue" is the answer to that - profit btw is more important than revenue but whatever. I just don't want to speculate. If the "Xbox store and its revenue" is what you imply I forgot then I didn't forget it since I mentioned third party royalties in my post - that's what the Xbox Store does... provides a platform where third parties sell their games and MS collects a cut, 30%, or whatever on every piece of content sold - also known as a royalty payment. Thus, if it's the Xbox store what you allude as me forgetting.... clearly, in my post I didn't and you failed at reading comprehension in a haste to respond.
I never asked you to take me seriously, but you couldn't help yourself seeing me in this thread with my opinions and you felt compelled to respond and throw a little zinger in the end. I responded in kind and now you're victim? Please....cut the BS and stick to your points or you'll continue to look foolish and I'll continue to point it out. As for the article quoting an ex MS exec, read it again, you brought it up.. not me. The article quotes a youtuber making a quote about a conversation he claims he had with Mike Ibarra, an ex MS suit. All I'm saying is I don't think we have a way to verify Boogie's claim that Mike said that to him.... or that it's 100% correct and accurate even if the conversation took place. It may have happened and accurately referenced or it may have not. That's, I believe, a reasonable take. Now I would have ended that right there and not give that article any more weight but I gave a retort to that anyway. What I retorted with is Matt Booty's interview, a current exec with the hands on this sort of thing. I then connect the dots to The Initiative's Perfect Dark project, looking at their staff levels which helps put Booty's words into context beyond just the mere words of a suit. Again, reasonable. His thread here on Gaf with the video:
https://www.neogaf.com/threads/matt...ames-but-as-close-to-aaa-as-possible.1533639/ . You know very well what I'm referencing too, as an Xbox historian on these subjects as yourself - of which you keep rigorously close tabs. Unfortunately you know it doesn't fall in the narrative you wish to build, and we both know that, as do others reading.
"Well I think Hellblade is a great example to point out because It's just a great example of the kind of game that we're looking for, the kind of games from the studios that we've acquired recently. Which are, they're not going to be 90 hour AAA games, but what they're going to be are things that are super well crafted, that will have as close to AAA production values as we get but we are going to scope them so that they can be done well by a smaller studio.
So I think for us is more a test case of hey, if we were to acquire Ninja Theory, and they were to continue shipping games of the quality and scope of Hellblade will we consider that a success? And the answer to that is Yes.
And I think where that helps our strategy when you think about something like Gamepass where people are subscribing and people wanna know what's next? Those kinds of games are great and those fit perfectly between our bigger AAA releases."
And Booty goes on to mention Ninja Theory's staff of 70-80.... Obsidian as well etc. AA's with AAA shine. An honest moment from a suit having a convo that's uncomfortable to hear in some circles. Now if you're in the console war business you don't want to hear that...you want to portray those games as full AAA to validate your favorite box and ecosystem investment, prop up Gamepass value like a MS employee and all the other silly agendas fanboys undertake to spite the "other side". If you're in that business you want to put Hellblade II next to God of War... we've seen it haven't we? Or this Indiana Jones game against Uncharted... never mind the unclear nature of platform availability or any other fact for that matter - what matters is the narrative that "we eatin' great too".
You dug up some articles to double down and to selectively pick budgets but then leave out common AAA titles like Call of Duty or the Assassins Creeds of this world - specially up to date 2020 and future budgets. And we know budgets don't just end at raw development cost which are often quoted in isolation... marketing also takes a big chunk of the spending, and not an insignificant amount either - just look at Cyberpunk 2077. It's the totality of the expense that matters - if you're looking for accuracy to calculate profit and talk numbers - which these companies do care a lot about cause it's money and not a charity business - and money has no feelings or narratives to accommodate. Like I clearly noted, budgets are not all uniform, they vary by game, by developer (depending on location, and genre) etc... what I'm very sure about is that it doesn't fall uniformly to that 100m, and that these budgets have increased exponentially each year for AAA titles. When you have 23 studios to fund, that's a lot of recurring costs each and every year. As for Halo Infinite, whether the 500m budget is a media lie, invented or not is of no relevance, which is why I didn't quote an exact figure because it's unknown. We do know however that a well salaried staff of 450 devs (minimum) in the U.S, for 5 years and counting, with support of other studios like SkyBox Labs, Sperasoft and Certain Affinity, on top of the marketing budget is certainly, and without a doubt, not 100m, or less than that - you have fun guessing.
I don't levy the Xbox hardcore label to everyone and anyone but you clearly are one. I don't think you'll deny that - and attempting to do so will be laughable which is why you won't. The very reason you're responding to my post in this thread is because you're one - and that I can say with certainty. As for those referenced in my post, Yes, they're and I've seen their behavior pattern to know and I don't think they'll deny that either if confronted about it. My opinion either way - you can agree or disagree. It has to be noted that some do laughably deny association sometimes in order to position themselves better in an argument which always provides a good laugh - the neutral play is often amusing too. There is nothing wrong in cheering strongly for a team either. When things go beyond the normal, and consistently so... that's when you know you're dealing with a loyalist beyond the normal crop that's all. Don't try to paint yourself as part of your average Xbox fan, you're not and you know you're not.
Your opinion is noted on conspiracy theorists and your other claims... just a label you're throwing. I never was that very active on that thread, you could probably count my posts there with your hand..... matter of fact you probably had more posts there than me - who knows - don't matter. I rustled some jimmies there that is however very true on my few posts there - and I understand exactly what has you hurt if you referenced that thread out the blue. It's what it's. Instead of going through all of this you could have said something then and there - clear the air of resentment - never good to build it up.
