Xbox - Series S/X: Thread 01

[QualityChimp]

It's not a dig, TA!

I totally agree that GTAV was incredible and vast, and that to make a 4K 1080p game is not going to be an easy task.
I'm saying that I don't believe that is what they are currently focused on.
I think they've seen the revenue stream from GTA Online and are focused short-term on maximising profits from GTA Online and RDR2 Online. Long-term, I would be surprised if they didn't drop single-player completely for GTAVI.

Again, that's pure speculation on my part.

I read an article about the good and bad of GTA Online on Kotaku (where I got those price rises from) and most of the comments were mourning the loss of any SP DLC like in the last few Rockstar games.
Conversely, on a Facebook advert for the new GTA Online has many people lambasting anybody who says the want SP DLC or it's unbalanced. They think it's great.

Personally, I've gone from owning each and every GTA game and the DLC (plus loads of others like L.A. Noire, Red Dead, Max Payne, Manhunt and even Table Tennis!), but now I'm sceptical about the content of the new RDR2 because I'm worried the SP is lighter and the focus is on Online and I'm worried GTAVI will have no SP at all.

I think some companies just shift their focus, because it's all about the money, at the end of the day.
Facebook would still be a college-only site, YouTube would be a dating site, Twitter would be a podcast subscription finder, Starbucks would only sell coffee makers, Flickr would only save pics from Game Neverending, Shell would import decorative shells, Nokia would be selling rubber boots, National Geographic would just be a magazine and Nintendo would only be selling playing cards.

I get it, it just makes me sad.

[Team Andromeda]

It's not a dig, TA!

I totally agree that GTAV was incredible and vast, and that to make a 4K 1080p game is not going to be an easy task.
I'm saying that I don't believe that is what they are currently focused on.

The shinny comment was overused last gen . How many staff in Rockstar North, I think it's over 300 and at a guess (and its pure speculation on my part) that most of those staff are busy working on GTA 6, while small line continue with the online updates to GTA 5. That tends to be the pattern for most corps .

And why shouldn't Rockstar milk GTA V. I see it has no different to the films or music studios that to the day continue to milk their classic films or Albums. I'm all set to buy Jackie Chans Poilice story for like 5th time and no doubt will buy the 8k version of Bladerunner too .


We'll see, but I'm willing to bet that Red Dead II will be amazing and vast, never mind when we get to see GTA 6.

[Digfox]

You aren't really forced, you have a choice. Halo V, Rainbow Six Siege the multiplayer content in base games is packed enough and the free content given out in Rainbow Six Siege is to be commended

I can't agree 'you're not forced'. That sounds suspiciously like the 'its only cosmetic' argument. For example if you used to love Rainbow Six games for the solo story PVE content, then effectively Rainbow Six Siege is redundant to you. It's a great multiplayer game. No doubt. Even though there is lots of other stuff to play it's a great example of a series which now offers nothing for certain players. And we see a lot of that in even this thread.

I suppose to bring it back on point. Just because people raise valid complaints or concerns, doesn't mean that gaming isn't in a great place at the moment. The two are not mutually exclusive.

What next, Nintendo are milking Zelda because they can only one Zelda game each gen? Making Huge vast games takes a lot of work and some teams take their time. I'll expect GTA 6 to impresse when its show off and for the base RD II to be huge, vast and a increabile game .

But we'll have to see

Again I think [MENTION=10111]QualityChimp[/MENTION] uses the perfect term; 'not focused on'. No doubt GTA 6 is and will be a resource heavy endeavour. But unlike the past they are receiving massive revenues from GTA Online (estimates put it around $1bn+ a year) and therefore don't have the expensive production downtime anymore and don't have to rush any sequels out. I suspect Rockstar are very good at pacing their resources so they don't have to outsource or rapidly expand to release a game on a certain time.

And I've no doubt GTA 6 and RDR 2 will be stunning. But their multiplayer modes will be a freemium, mobile esque game experience. If they have or do integrate multiplayer into the single player experience, then who knows. It will be a new frontier.

[Neon Ignition]

That's it, GTA6 will be in development but they'll be purposely being slow not because the game is of unimaginable scale but because they're so busy milking the teets off GTA5. If that weren't the case and the whole games took so long then GTA5 would have never arrived within the same gen as RDR and GTA4.

There's absolutely no reason at all that the PC gets releases later other than milking the audience and really no reason why they can't do non-GTA games in between too given the amount of teams and resources they've absorbed over time. Then again, it's probably much to do with Take Two as well, they've slacked off on their big name ip this gen in generation. As of right now, GTA, RDR, Bioshock, Borderlands, Midnight Club, Max Payne and LA Noire are all effectively defunct barring a rushed remaster of one or two old entries.

You nudge past their late cross gen ported offerings to what they've actually done this gen outside of their usual Civ/sports lines and it's:

-Evolve
-XCOM2
-Mafia III
-Battleborn

Honestly, GTA Online might be a massive cash cow but I'd be fascinated to know how much of a profit maker it is when you apply that money's requirement to keep the lights on across so many low-output studios Take Two is keeping going over the 5+ years since the game and current gen launched.

[QualityChimp]

The shinny comment was overused last gen . How many staff in Rockstar North, I think it's over 300 and at a guess (and its pure speculation on my part) that most of those staff are busy working on GTA 6, while small line continue with the online updates to GTA 5. That tends to be the pattern for most corps .

Yeah, I just meant they'll want it to be polished. Each iteration of GTA has been an advancement and GTAV was an astonishing achievement. Even on 360, it had the ability to stop you in your tracks at something beautiful, funny or ludicrously detailed. I'm tempted to rebuy GTAV on PS4.

And why shouldn't Rockstar milk GTA V. I see it has no different to the films or music studios that to the day continue to milk their classic films or Albums. I'm all set to buy Jackie Chans Poilice story for like 5th time.

Agreed, but a better analogy is that Jackie Chan gets more sales from his new album, so stops making action films.
you'd think nobody would want that, but that's where the money is and you're sad there'll be no more Police Stories.

We'll see, but I'm willing to bet that Red Dead II will be amazing and vast, never mind when we get to see GTA 6.

As always, I love your enthusiasm and I'm probably being over-cynical, not helped by their current actions, but ultimately, I hope I'm wrong, RDR2 is amazing and GTAVI is even more astonishing than that!

[Digfox]

Then again, it's probably much to do with Take Two as well, they've slacked off on their big name ip this gen in generation. As of right now, GTA, RDR, Bioshock, Borderlands, Midnight Club, Max Payne and LA Noire are all effectively defunct barring a rushed remaster of one or two old entries.

Agreed, although I'm not sure about the T2 influence.

I also think Borderlands was incredibly successful and an important IP. And hence why they outsourced The Pre-Sequel as a cash-grab whilst taking their time with the new sequel. However Battleborn probably took a lot of resources. But I've no doubt Gearbox are 100% working on Borderlands 3/Worlds. Where as stuff like MC, Max Payne and Noire is probably dead or will be low budget future projects.

It may also be Borderlands is bigger in scope, which is adding to the production timeframes.

[Team Andromeda]

I can't agree 'you're not forced'. That sounds suspiciously like the 'its only cosmetic' argument. For example if you used to love Rainbow Six games for the solo story PVE content, then effectively Rainbow Six Siege is redundant to you. It's a great multiplayer game. No doubt. Even though there is lots of other stuff to play it's a great example of a series which now offers nothing for certain players. And we see a lot of that in even this thread.

Well Rainbow Six to me has always been a squad based game and so it made sense (not that I agree with it) to go down the multiplayer route and it works brilliantly to be fair. I had more of an issue with the focus of multi player in Ghost recon wildlands, where I felt the single player mode lost out and it wasn't a patch on the 360 games. I think Halo V suffered too with the focus on co-op gameplay, while the multi player modes are the best in the series.

I suppose to bring it back on point. Just because people raise valid complaints or concerns

Thats fair enough, there are always issues and its great to have a debate. I don't think games are that overpriced, not compared to what one had to pay for games in the 16 bit or N64 era.

And I've no doubt GTA 6 and RDR 2 will be stunning. But their multiplayer modes will be a freemium, mobile esque game experience

I will agree with you, if the single player mode suffered, but to me GTA V single player mode is the best in the series and I have high hopes for the sequel. I don't see Rockstar North as ones that will cut the single player mode short, each entry in the series has been increabile and pushing the sandbox world.

We'll have to see, but I really don't think the single player modes in RD II, GTA 6 will be just filler for the multi player modes.

[Team Andromeda]

Yeah, I just meant they'll want it to be polished. Each iteration of GTA has been an advancement and GTAV was an astonishing achievement. Even on 360, it had the ability to stop you in your tracks at something beautiful, funny or ludicrously detailed. I'm tempted to rebuy GTAV on PS4.

I never have Rockstar North down for ones who just knock out a sequel to GTA like SEGA does with Yakuza or Ubi with Assassin's Creed. Where they play much like the last, nothing much new and in Yakuza case take place in the same locations time and time again.

When Rockstar North make a sequel to GTA, its a big even with a completely new world and characters and even more vast scale, that no game can equal or match . So I would think that the task of trying to better GTA V is talking up most of their time and effort.

Agreed, but a better analogy is that Jackie Chan gets more sales from his new album, so stops making action films.

I wish Jackie Chan would stop making films tbh but I don't have any issues with him or anybody else milking their classics.
I guess it depends on how good GTA 6 will be or RD II turns out. To see if Rockstar has given up on developing games and just milking their past games.

As always, I love your enthusiasm and I'm probably being over-cynical

It depends on the firm and I just don't have Rockstar down as ones that take the easy money and don't try to make great amazing single player games that all.
Its taking The Last Of US II team most of this generation to make their follow up and I wouldn't put that down to SONY milking the IP with 'shiny' 4K updates and remasters, but more because its taking team a long time to model the world up to this gen standards

[Digfox]

Thats fair enough, there are always issues and its great to have a debate. I don't think games are that overpriced, not compared to what one had to pay for games in the 16 bit or N64 era.

We're probably coming to the end of this debate, but I do think the business model then were fair even if £65 SF2 was expensive etc. I genuinely believe there is no place for Loot boxes or overly manipulative business models and progression systems. And I absolutely believe more is needed to protect the consumer. Particularly where kids are concerned. That to me is probably a major difference or now versus then.

[QualityChimp]

I was kind of picturing Jackie Chan in '85 getting massive sales for the singing on the Police Story soundtrack, then deciding it's easier being in the warm recording studio singing lyrics on a sheet than learning lines and fight choreography, getting punched, sliding down massive poles with lights plugged into the mains or spending months editing.

We never would have got Police Story 2, Armour of God, Dragons Forever or Project A II, for example.

That was my weak analogy to Rockstar seeing dollar bills from MP and ditching SP.

Back on topic, you mention Last of Us 2, but Sony not only have some good studios but also some unused IP in the wings they could resurrect.

Microsoft doesn't really have that option (Blinx?!), so I hope those new studios it bought can produce some great new content.

[Neon Ignition]

It's mostly down to faith I guess, I have a lot of faith in Rockstar making their next game a great one just none that we are experiencing a dearth of other releases from them because that one next game is so resource intensive and epic in scale that it needs a decade of development.
Last of Us 2 has taken its time but it's still coming in half the time and with its studio having released other similar scale titles in that window whilst providing a lot of support to other studios and projects. In a way Rockstar resting on their GTAO laurels feels more like Valve not making anything with a 3 in it. They could do it easily, they just can't be bothered and in doing so start to annoy the very audience that got them into the position they can enjoy that cash milk.

It just feels like a rubbish way to handle the majority of your fanbase. They've done well now but the Salt Mines are definitely going to open up if they don't show some sign of life from GTA6 very early into next gen, let alone if they have the audacity to instead rererelease GTAV on PS5/XB4

[Neon Ignition]

I take it all back! Take Two have just announced a brand new game!

Carnival Games for Switch



*Sigh*

[Cassius_Smoke]

I simply can't believe GTAV is still going strong! I have moved house twice, got married and have a 2 year old in the space of time this was first released.
Is this what we can expect from the future generations, just 1 game from each studio milked for all eternity?

[Cassius_Smoke]

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2018/06/28/sources-google-is-planning-a-game-platform-that-could-take-on-xbox-and-playstation

This article got me thinking about the Xbox 4. With MS azure cloud business can spin up virtual servers that live in data centres and run software on them. There is no reason the new Xbox couldn't do the same. Perhaps you buy an Xbox one X level of hardware which will run the games for you like a traditional console, or you can then pay MS a subscription to spin up a more powerful console, accessed through the original hardware.

[QualityChimp]

Oh, it's definitely coming, [MENTION=16707]Cassius_Smoke[/MENTION].

https://www.cnet.com/news/why-your-next-gaming-console-may-be-in-the-cloud/

Microsoft's Phil Spencer: "Our cloud engineers are building a game streaming network to unlock console gaming on any device."
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot: "there will be one more console generation and then after that, we will be streaming, all of us."
Ken Moss, EA's technology chief: "You'll be able to play games on any device at any time as long as it's connected to the internet."
"The combination of streaming and subscriptions is really going to change the way games are consumed,"
Sony already have Playstation Now.
GeForce Now, from Nvidia, is a streaming service built around PC games.
Capcom have a streaming version of Resident Evil 7 in Japan.

Your next console could just be an internet-enabled joypad with a subscription service...