Starfield director says Xbox exclusivity is ‘awesome’ but he’s feeling the pressure to sell consoles

Thread: Starfield director says Xbox exclusivity is ‘awesome’ but he’s feeling the pressure to sell consoles
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Starfield director says Xbox exclusivity is 'awesome' but he's feeling the pressure to sell consoles​


Todd Howard discusses how expectations have changed since Microsoft acquired Bethesda

Todd Howard has discussed the benefits and challenges that come with being a first-party Xbox studio.

In an interview with the Lex Fridman podcast, Howard said Microsoft's $7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax Media has benefitted development of Starfield, which will be released next year for Xbox and PC.

However, he also said he was feeling the pressure to deliver a system selling title, which is a new responsibility for the Elder Scrolls and Fallout studio.

"We've had a lot of success with the games that you talked about but we've never been kind of the platform seller, you know 'the game' for a platform for a period of time, and so, there is a lot of pressure, there's a lot of responsibility there to make sure we deliver for everybody."

Howard presented the first Starfield gameplay in a 15-minute reveal at the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase in June, shortly after the title had been delayed from this year to the first half of 2023.

He told Fridman the decision to delay the game was a tough one "but it was the right thing to do", and that Bethesda was working with "the top engineers at Xbox" to make the game sing on consoles.

Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda was controversial because it means the studio's future games won't be released on PlayStation consoles, but Howard said the developer already had a history of releasing Xbox exclusive content dating back to 2002's The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

"Keep in mind that for us that exclusivity is not unique, even though we've done PlayStation stuff and I think the PS5 is just an insane machine – they've done a great job and we've had great success on PlayStation," he said.

"We were traditionally a PC developer in the beginning. We transitioned to Xbox [and it] became our lead platform, like Morrowind's basically exclusive to Xbox, Oblivion was exclusive to Xbox for a long period of time, Skyrim DLC was exclusive, so we've done a lot of, like, our initial stuff is all Xbox.

"So when we get into development and say we're focused on Xbox, it's not abnormal for us in any way, it's been kind of the norm. And from a development side I like the ability to focus and have help from them, you know the top engineers at Xbox, to say we are going to make this look incredible on the new systems, from my standpoint it's just awesome."

Elsewhere in the interview, Howard said MachineGames' Indiana Jones title is a "unique" genre mash-up.

Source: VGC



Can't wait for it. Don't fuck it up, Todd.
 
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I wonder if there exists a Plan B for what happens if sales and game pass subs don't hit expectations compared to the costly investment of development.

Do they just do timed exclusivity? Or do they just reduce the budget for the next Bethesda game? Or do they try to cram tons of MTX into Starfield that weren't originally planned? It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out.
 
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It will sell a lot, it will be fine. If it was just Xbox/Game Pass, maybe there could have been a chance of a sales issue, but the Xbox/Game Pass/Steam combo will keep it strong.

And I'm sure they have the usual amount of DLC planned for it like they have with Fallout and TES.
 
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This guy would be the perfect replacement for Phil Spencer, hard to tell who is more full of shit.

It's also funny when he put it like that, it turns out that MS big move of making Bethesda games exclusive already happened multiple times in the past and PlayStation did just fine without them.
 
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Grinchy said:
I wonder if there exists a Plan B for what happens if sales and game pass subs don't hit expectations compared to the costly investment of development.

Do they just do timed exclusivity? Or do they just reduce the budget for the next Bethesda game? Or do they try to cram tons of MTX into Starfield that weren't originally planned? It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Click to expand...

I've thought about this as well, like...imagine how much Starfield will end up costing to develop and market. They really expect the comparatively puny Xbox user base to recoup all that?

Edit - "comparatively puny" in regards to it not being multiplatform, figured I'd put thst disclaimer. I can hear the seething already
 
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Phunkydiabetic said:
I've thought about this as well, like...imagine how much Starfield will end up costing to develop and market. They really expect the comparatively puny Xbox user base to recoup all that?

Edit - "comparatively puny" in regards to it not being multiplatform, figured I'd put thst disclaimer. I can hear the seething already
Click to expand...
I think Bethesda games have historically done very well on PC and Xbox, in all fairness. But yeah it's a big slice of pie to give up to not have PS sales.

I called it Plan B because Plan A is selling a fuck ton of copies haha. Maybe that's still likely to happen and it justifies the exclusivity by making game pass look attractive for those not buying a copy on PC or Xbox. But yeah, it'll be quite interesting if the money that comes in doesn't justify the money that went out and if there's some backup plan or some consequence to future budgets.
 
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Bullet Club said:

Starfield director says Xbox exclusivity is 'awesome' but he's feeling the pressure to sell consoles​


Todd Howard discusses how expectations have changed since Microsoft acquired Bethesda

Todd Howard has discussed the benefits and challenges that come with being a first-party Xbox studio.

In an interview with the Lex Fridman podcast, Howard said Microsoft's $7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax Media has benefitted development of Starfield, which will be released next year for Xbox and PC.

However, he also said he was feeling the pressure to deliver a system selling title, which is a new responsibility for the Elder Scrolls and Fallout studio.

"We've had a lot of success with the games that you talked about but we've never been kind of the platform seller, you know 'the game' for a platform for a period of time, and so, there is a lot of pressure, there's a lot of responsibility there to make sure we deliver for everybody."

Howard presented the first Starfield gameplay in a 15-minute reveal at the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase in June, shortly after the title had been delayed from this year to the first half of 2023.

He told Fridman the decision to delay the game was a tough one "but it was the right thing to do", and that Bethesda was working with "the top engineers at Xbox" to make the game sing on consoles.

Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda was controversial because it means the studio's future games won't be released on PlayStation consoles, but Howard said the developer already had a history of releasing Xbox exclusive content dating back to 2002's The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

"Keep in mind that for us that exclusivity is not unique, even though we've done PlayStation stuff and I think the PS5 is just an insane machine – they've done a great job and we've had great success on PlayStation," he said.

"We were traditionally a PC developer in the beginning. We transitioned to Xbox [and it] became our lead platform, like Morrowind's basically exclusive to Xbox, Oblivion was exclusive to Xbox for a long period of time, Skyrim DLC was exclusive, so we've done a lot of, like, our initial stuff is all Xbox.

"So when we get into development and say we're focused on Xbox, it's not abnormal for us in any way, it's been kind of the norm. And from a development side I like the ability to focus and have help from them, you know the top engineers at Xbox, to say we are going to make this look incredible on the new systems, from my standpoint it's just awesome."

Elsewhere in the interview, Howard said MachineGames' Indiana Jones title is a "unique" genre mash-up.

Source: VGC



Can't wait for it. Don't fuck it up, Todd.
Click to expand...

 
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Grinchy said:
I think Bethesda games have historically done very well on PC and Xbox, in all fairness. But yeah it's a big slice of pie to give up to not have PS sales.

I called it Plan B because Plan A is selling a fuck ton of copies haha. Maybe that's still likely to happen and it justifies the exclusivity by making game pass look attractive for those not buying a copy on PC or Xbox. But yeah, it'll be quite interesting if the money that comes in doesn't justify the money that went out and if there's some backup plan or some consequence to future budgets.
Click to expand...
I'm sure it will benefit them in long run for Microsoft but ps5 sold more that Xbox series and a large percent would have bought. I'm sure a few will play on pc or buy Xbox though.
 
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Bethesda doesn't want my money. Thats fine, I've got too many games to get through as is. The last 2 BS games have been a letdown for me anyway.
 
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