Mixer  

We are always talking about Nintendo and  PlayStation so it’s nice that this week we are able to feature an Xbox story. Back in August, Microsoft and more specifically Mixer made some headlines when they signed one of the worlds most recognizable streamers, Ninja, to an exclusivity deal. My thought was that it was going to start a wave that would see a lot of streamers make the move to the Microsoft platform. 

Well the massive exodus didn’t quite happen but this week we saw another prominent twitch streamer make the move to mixer. Shroud, popular FPS streamer with insane talent who made his name in the esports world mostly with CSGO, announced this week that he would be leaving twitch and would be steaming exclusively on Mixer. This is another big acquisition for Microsoft in the battle for next gen.  Where I would define Ninja as a more family friendly streamer, shroud is targeted towards a more adult audience.

If you don’t know who either of these streamers are then that’s quite alright. The important thing to understand is that Microsoft understands that next generation is all about winning the ecosystem battle. The more people you can get into your ecosystem, the more services and subscriptions you are able to sell. Microsoft has been making moves by filling out their ecosystem this generation in preparation for the next with services like gamepass, mixer, Xcloud and ID@Xbox, I think the future looks bright.

As a quick PSA, The Outer Worlds was released this week and it is available on Gamepass which means if you are already a subscriber then you can go download it for free,  if not then you can sign up for a month for around five dollars and you could also probably even find a trial month pass for around a dollar. So if you wanted to try that game out and you have an Xbox One then it couldn’t be easier. 

Gamepass has been slowly adding features and content that it is now a no brainer if you are an Xbox owner, Xcloud is still unfinished but from previews that have been shown, it looks very promising. This also goes without saying that Microsoft has seen the power of exclusives this generation and has been steadily acquiring studios to have games ready for the launch of shortly after Project Scarlett. 

If you add up all these features and then you throw in popular streamers on your console which is easier than ever to use and the quality is amazing then people won’t even realize that they are being marketed to and that is the best form of marketing. Shrouds first stream on Friday where he was trying to launch the newly released Modern Warfare drew in around 70k viewers at one point. If 70k people are watching you play then it’s possible they might want to purchase that game and if they are watching online they might be interested in purchasing an Xbox. If they are saving up for the next gen and aren’t sure which system to buy but has been watching Ninja or Shroud they might be leaving towards Project Scarlett. 

It might not seem like much off the top but there are many layers to Microsoft acquiring these streamers and the effect it has on the streaming generation. Microsoft continues to make moves that hopefully will bear fruit when the next console launches. It has been amazing to watch what happens when a company understands that they have lost the round but doesn’t plan to lose the game. They have made changes that not only put Microsoft in a winning position but they have also made moves that will change the gaming industry. It helps when you are led by someone like Phil Spencer who has such a specific vision for what the Xbox can and should be.

Blizzcon 

As for the world of Blizzard, last week I mentioned that Blizzard was probably going to be going pretty hard for this years Blizzcon. Obviously before all of this controversy they are currently dealing with happened, there was still last years fiasco of misleading Diablo 4 and then giving the fans Diablo immortal. The mobile game that could turn out to be amazing but it wasn’t the announcement that was expected. Last week I said I expected Blizzard to give the fans exactly what they want and more to over shadow all of the negative PR with positive PR. As a quick sidebar, it’s seems that Blizzards strategy has been to stay quiet because for the most part, other then the adjustment to their decision, they haven’t said anything. This might be working because it feels like even after just a few weeks, I have been hearing and reading much less about Blizzard 

Blizzcon starts next week, but this week Blizzard announced their schedule for the upcoming event, as I expected, it seems as though they will be announcing a lot. This is speculation based on the schedule that they have announced which includes six panels that are only labeled as coming soon. Four mystery panels will be on Friday, November 1st and two more will be on Saturday, November 2nd. The four mystery panels that are announced for Friday are all in Hall D, which by looking at the event map seems to be the main hall. The four Friday announcements are also basically back to back starting at 330 then 430 then 530 and finally 630. The two on Saturday are both in Hall D as well but one is at 315 and the other is at 615 which are a little tougher to predict as those times don’t exactly speak of large announcements 

As for what these mystery panels could be it would be safe to assume that one is Diablo 4, as it would be a year overdue. There has been a rumor about a new entry in the Overwatch series which has said to include PVE elements.  There has also been a Diablo 2 remaster for some time now, which would be nice to see. it would also be great to see a Switch port as it seems like they have seen success on Nintendo’s platform with multiple releases. Most Blizzard games require a constant online connection which is why a lot of their titles seemed like they wouldn’t make their way to the Switch, but with the most recent release of Overwatch, which requires an constant online connection, anything from Blizzard could be a possibility. 

Removing the most recent Blizzard troubles from the equation, I don’t think it will be just enough to show teaser trailers for some of these games, especially when it comes to Diablo 4. I think at the very least for Diablo 4 would be actual gameplay but a release date should be expected for this game. There are a lot of projects that Blizzard could be working on so these could be anything or these could all just be small updates and expansions to their existing games. It will be interesting to see what announcements get made and what effect it will have on their recent PR troubles. 

Last of us 2 delayed 

There has to be reason for developers choosing this week to delay their games. It could be because this is a very busy time frame for game releases and people will be too busy to focus on negative news and it will just get swept under the rug instead of a large uproar if the public has nothing better to do. Either that or it’s just a very large coincidence because this week Naughty Dog delayed The Last of Us 2.  Yes, the same game that just announced their release date of February after staying almost silent on the game since it was revealed at PSX at the end of 2016.

Naughty Dog could have been keeping silent for so long since it was still working on and releasing Uncharted: Lost Legacy near the end of 2017 but since then they have most kept their heads down working on the game giving us little morsels of info every so often. Last month they decided to throw a big media event where the press would be able to see the game and actually get hands on with it and speak with the developers. It was a good way to generate publicity for the game and announce the release date during the most recent Sony State of Play. 

The bad news is that the game has been delayed from its mid February slot all the way back to the very end of May. The highly anticipated sequel from Naughty Dog will be available on May 29th, 2020 which is where is expected the game to be released in the first place as I have said on this podcast. Naughty Dog does have a track record of releasing games in and around the summer time. Clearly they have found success in that time frame and choosing this new date bodes well for the success of the sequel. 

The late winter/early spring time frame that was originally planned for the game in late February was the start of a fairly crowded schedule. Most of the highly anticipated and big budget games like FF7, Doom Eternal and Cyberpunk 2077 didn’t start releasing until March. This would have led to very hungry gamers after a few months of AAA drought. If there is a game or studio that doesn’t seem to be affected by choosing the proper release window, it’s Naughty Dog. They have established themselves as a studio that deliver on a consistent product and people have become familiar which leads to a loyal following who are going to buy your game no matter what. 

The Official PlayStation Blog posted the article from Vice President of Naughty Dog and Game Director of The Last of Us 2, Neil Druckmann. It was on the blog that he announced the delay until May 29th, 2020 and elaborate on the reasoning as to why. 

“it was during the last few weeks, as we were closing out sections of the game, that we realized we simply didn’t have enough time to bring the entire game up to a level of polish we would call Naughty Dog quality. At this point we were faced with two options: compromise parts of the game or get more time. We went with the latter, and this new release date allows us to finish everything to our level of satisfaction while also reducing stress on the team....While we’re relieved that we won’t have to compromise our vision, we’re disappointed that we weren’t able to avoid this exact situation. We wish we could’ve foreseen the amount of polish we needed, but the size and scope of this game got the better of us. We hate disappointing our fans and for that we’re sorry”

As you can see it’s clear that they didn’t want to have to announce a date and then delay the game. Overall it’s unfortunate that this game has gotten delayed with usual developer response including polish, our level of quality and so on but we have waited years for this game so a few more months is not a huge deal especially when there are so many games to be played this spring. 

Ubisoft  

With Ubisoft just a few days away from announcing their second quarter earnings report on October 30th it seems weird that this week they would release updated financial targets and adjusted release schedule for the rest of the fiscal year.  The changes reflect the fiscal year 2019-2020 and how the first 6 months of the fiscal have affected the back half. 

Ubisoft have also adjust their financial projections with netbookings of around 1,45 billion euros down from the previous target of 2.185 billion euros and total operating income will now be between 20-50 million which is down from 480 million. These aren’t small adjustments, these are massive misses on multiple fronts. If you look at the games that Ubisoft released this year, it becomes obvious why they missed the mark so bad. 

The most recent memory is the release of Ghost Recon Breakpoint which is disappointing in many ways, primarily in how it is completely losing its identity and now looks like The Division among other Ubisoft titles. Ghost Recon used to be about smart, tactical, and slower paced missions and with the success of Wildlands it seems the team at Ubisoft forgot about the core pillars of the game. Wildlands was a pretty big hit overall, it reviewed above average and was one of the best selling games of the year.

This kind of success will make you forget what made the game popular in the first place and just try to implement more action. It’s possible that I just prefer what Ghost Recon used to be but I can say that the gameplay of Wildlands felt good and it was fun to play. When Breakpoint was announced earlier in the year, I had genuine optimism for the game as it look like it was melding the old and the new. It looked like it was ditching the AI squad companions that you had in Wildlands and making it a more intimate and survival game. Unfortunately, that was not the route they took at all. The main criticism in reviews of Breakpoint is that it tried to introduce too many new mechanics that don’t make the game fun and instead actually breaks the game.  There are too many bugs along with too many poor design choices. 

Last week on the VDGMS podcast we took a quick look at the NPD of last month which included the release of Ghost Recon Breakpoint and although it was released at the tail end of the time period, it is still a Ubisoft AAA title that should make waves in its first week. Breakpoint charted the month as the 6th best selling game. It should be noted that NPD doesn’t have data from all sources but they are usually a good barometer. 

The other major release this year for Ubisoft was Division 2 and although according to NPD that game currently sits at the sixth best selling game of the year, it will most likely slip farther down as we have yet to see some of the years biggest releases including Modern Warfare, Death Stranding, Jedi Fall Order and Pokémon. This is disappointing as the game had a strong base to go from after the success of The Division as well as the continued support that Ubisoft showed the game up until the release of the sequel. As live service games become the norm, it is refreshing to see developers stick with games by providing continuous updates and fixing issues. 

This is very unfortunate news for a company that was seemingly on the right track with their release cadence as well as the quality of their games. The adjustment of their financial projections is bad news for investors and it showed immediately with their stock down around 20 percent the following day. The other group the news is bad for is gamers and that is because among the news was that Ubisoft will be delaying not one, not two but three games out of the fiscal year and have been pushed back into fiscal year 2020-2021. The games that have been delayed are Gods and Monters, Rainbow Six Quarantine, and Watch Dogs Legion. 

Their financial targets for the current fiscal year have been adjusted to reflect the poor performance of the two releases this year as well as the delay of these games. Yves Guillemot, co founder and CEO of Ubisoft had this to say

“we have not capitalized on the potential of our latest two AAA releases. For Ghost Recon Breakpoint, while the game’s quality appeared on track – based on E3, Gamescom, previews and our latest internal playtests, critical reception and sales during the game’s first weeks were very disappointing. As we have done with past titles, we will continue to support the game and listen to the community in order to deliver the necessary improvements. We are tackling these issues head-on and already are implementing significant changes to our production processes….We are confident in our capacity to adapt and evolve, as we have done successfully many times in the past”

It seems like Ubisoft honestly felt like it was on the right track with Breakpoint based on these comments. Yves continued to add on to the comments further by saying

“In this overall context, we have decided to postpone the releases of Gods & Monsters, Rainbow Six Quarantine and Watch_Dogs Legion until 2020-21. While each of these games already has a strong identity and high potential, we want our teams to have more development time to ensure that their respective innovations are perfectly implemented so as to deliver optimal experiences for players. This decision will have a very significant impact on our financial results for this fiscal year and goes against our recent successes in building a more stable development model. However, it is in line with our strategy to maximize the future value of our brands for the long- term benefit of our employees, players and shareholders. We expect it to have a positive impact on our financial performance as from 2020-21”

The good news is that Ubisoft is aware that they missed the mark, especially with Breakpoint and wants to make sure that their next big three releases aren’t repeating the same mistakes. The other thing to keep in mind is that these games have been pushed back to fiscal year 2020-2021 which starts April first so st this point in time we aren’t sure just how long these games have been pushed back and the delay for some of the titles might not be more than a few months but I think Ubisoft doesn’t want to announce a new date until they are positive they will hit the target. 

Another idea that is lingering in the back of my mind is that Ubisoft has always been very prominent in the release of new consoles and with two very big consoles due out next holiday they could be delaying these titles just to hold them for a simultaneous release. It’s possible that they want these games to be launch titles for the next generation hardware as well as capitalize on the current generation install base. Ubisoft has mentioned in previous earnings reports and press releases just how important it is for their company to be launch titles when new hardware is released. These three titles were due out around the start of spring,  adding an extra six months or so to development time to optimize for next generation doesn’t seem hard to believe.