Xbox leader Asha Sharma has reportedly broadcast her intent to “create enduring new IP” alongside the company’s much publicised plan to organise around its biggest gaming brands – think The Elder Scrolls, think Blizzard, etc. But according to Sharma: “We will not survive if we only revive on the past.”
Sharma apparently made those comments during a company-wide ‘town hall’ meeting last week, which Windows Central claims to have seen transcripts of. Incidentally, we’ve asked Microsoft to verify this town hall meeting took place and whether these transcripts are accurate.
Sharma reportedly said this in addition to dropping more information about Xbox’s next-gen console Project Helix and while reflecting on Xbox’s “return to growth” after “an all-time low”.
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“We’re backing our strongest franchises,” Sharma allegedly said. “I want our great games to become great global billion-dollar franchises. I would also like to see us continue to create enduring new IP. We will not survive if we only revive on the past. We have to find new ways, and courage, to have invention on new IP, that reaches new sets of audiences.”
It’s a declaration which seems at odds with Xbox’s recent actions. Parting ways with studios like Double Fine and Compulsion, and probably Arkane – all of which have a track record in creating new game ideas such as Keeper and South of Midnight, and Dishonored and Deathloop – seems an odd way to go about engendering a culture of courage in creation. Similarly, having an inventive studio like Obsidian work under Bethesda making a Fallout game suggests there’s no immediate room there to pursue wholly original ideas. But at least Xbox is investing in Hideo Kojima’s Physint, right? Right?
Cuts at id Software and consolidation elsewhere across the Xbox gaming division also reflect a company that appears to be reorganising around its biggest gaming brands rather than one intent on taking new, creative risks. Indeed, a look at Xbox’s upcoming roster really only reveals InXile’s Clockwork Revolution – one of its two Xbox exclusives – as an obvious contender in the ‘big new idea’ area. But will it be strong enough to start a lasting series?
Meanwhile, the studio behind the other Xbox exclusive, Gears of War: E-Day, fears for its future after releasing its game, despite it seeming to have been a success. That’s because of the hundreds of impending cuts Microsoft still intends to make to its Xbox division. There, uncertainty looms large.
Dom reviewed Gears of War: E-Day for us recently and, generally, really enjoyed it. “Though there’s still plenty of waist-high cover, ebb-and-flow firefighting, and braindead machismo, Gears E-Day proves that looking back can, indeed, help you look forward, too,” Dom wrote.
