Microsoft Studios förklarar sina framtidsplaner

Sony har haft väldiga framgångar med sina singleplayeräventyr de senaste åren, medan Microsoft istället tydligt fokuserat på multiplayer med bland annat {State of Decay 2} och {Sea of Thieves}. Och detta fokus tycks vara något som gäller även framledes för Microsoft, att döma utifrån vad spelchefen Matt Booty nyligen sade till MCV:

"There will always be single-player games with maybe 20 to 30 hours of gameplay, we love those kinds of games and there's a place for those, but it's also certainly the case with the focus on watching, streaming, broadcast and esports that it's really important to think about the longevity of a game.

It's really difficult for anybody to think about making a large scale triple-A game these days without having in mind a content and service plan that goes one to two years into the future out of the gate."

Booty fortsätter med att förklara hur han ser på saken:

"Games really have become much more social, much more mainstream, much more widespread. We know that the games industry is growing, and that's taking nothing away from what you call the 'single-player, narrative, cinematic game' but we see a lot of interest from our players in more community-driven ongoing franchises. I think that is in alignment with a lot of the trends we see in gaming overall.

With games being as large as they are, with the move to games as an ongoing service...It is difficult to pivot quickly and try to chase after trends that might happen even on the scale of a year. In business terms a year can be a long time, but development time being three to four years these days, that's the span we need to think about."

Booty avslutar med att säga att detta är strategin inför framtiden och att de räknar med att det ska leda till succé:

"We've got to get our strategic long-term bets, our game development cycles and the things our players like to do in sync. And that will set us up for success."

Låter det som rätt strategi från Microsoft att främst fokusera på onlinespelande, eller tycker du att det är singleplayer de borde trycka på först och främst?

Multiplayer är Microsofts melodi.