Do you want Microsoft to get creative?
Because this is what you get when Microsoft gets creative:
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More seriously: Microsoft's game department is pretty good. Rare games have a lot of games in the style that I like personally (Killer Instinct, Battletoads remake). Apparently Sea of Thieves but I'm not into that. The "Age of Empires" series also is pretty good from a strategy perspective. Microsoft Flight Sim is an old-hat, but it does the job too.
Yeah MS has bought some good studios in its time
But the output? Rare... that's Goldeneye64. Where is GoldenEye 64-bit?
This is nearly DOOM-levels of classic potential. And look at what Rare made during the Nintendo days overall, as well...
its like, the partnership with MS basically made them irrelevant in the genres they used to dominate. This happens a lot with studios under the wing of big publishers. Can't have them getting too popular and forge their own path, now can we? Big business and spreadsheet heroism is choking creativity, it always has and always will. The moment one of those studios tells a developer/team to 'do as they want' you get blockbusters - even from parties like EA. Respawn is a good example of that, producing sleeper hits one after another. Its good to realize this is not EA's forte... they just offer a bag of (extortion?) money. Anyone can do that - even the fanbase itself.
But yea. MS and creative, its hilarious. From Steve Ballmer, to 'cool' Microsoft ads on TV... oh man. Its so bad, you want to erase the memory to avoid PTSD. Phil Spencer is another such clown, he's all about his community but the amount of BS this man has spewed in its days... He's like that guy telling everyone what they already knew days back, and presenting it as if he invented the wheel and is going to give it to us all.
Anyway.
