they may he future proofing their box, but gamers misjudge the situation: they are not futureproofing themselves to be a gaming console ;-) the sooner people will acknowledge this the sooner we will stop seeing such nonsensical blogposts.

It's encouraging for the nexbox for sure. Now all they need to do is set their sights on Japan, sadly it's probably a pointless endeavour but ultimately that push they made in the early 360 era gave us some amazing games like Chromehounds, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey etc.

Great job to Phil and the rest of the team, the Xbox team is doing a fantastic job 👍👍

Still have yet to show what Future Proofing is. That its nothing more than another empty PR term.

All I'm seeing is that updates will allow for improving the graphics of an older game on a new system, if an update is made for that game.

Let's hope they don't screw Ninja Theory like they did to Rare.

Hellblade : Senua's sacrifice -become-
Hellgun : Alien domination.

I see a lot of individuals saying future proof but in reality MS is on record stating there consoles are forward and backward compatible. So yes, a new console is coming the games being made will take full advantage of new hardware and old. Playground already working on Forza Horizon and they have another Studio. That's one example. Compulsion is dropping we happy few in a month. Overall, these teams are working for now and beyond. Ninja Theory will probably reveal new game next year.

Outside of pc software of which dates back 30 years...
Microsoft studios has been around since 2002...
That is 16 years ago...
And we “future proofing” what exactly?
I mean, they have closed or ended partnerships with up to 10 studios in that time frame? Bought more third party games than releasing in house AAA games?
We still have to see Microsoft actually produce.
Putting trust, Ie your money, into a company that needs articles like this after 16 years is the very definition a bad investment and a warning sign.

They produce, then we can talk.
Sony had 4 new high end ips on demonstration at e3 and got nothing but bad press... even though we know all of their developers are working on titles and Sony has a history of providing...
Microsoft announces nothing new, had the same e3 basically 6 years in a row, bought 4 studios that already made games and it is “future proofing” and got tons of positive articles.

I mean, ok. Then we wait till next gen... 3 years in to truly see where they are going.

So yeah.. in about 5 years, they could possibly be worth buying into for the larger market base that jumped ship for their lack of providing.

A 17 year old console brand is still preparing for the future. Gotta love it.

How do they know for sure? I'm not trying to be a negative nelly here, but a developer doesn't always bang out a quality title.

If one or more of these studios launches a lame duck or two who's to say they will be kept.

Tbf more studios increases the likely hood of good games being made, but it might not equal success right away.

Look at Sony, Drive club is a good example, I really enjoyed DC, but from a business standpoint it was a disaster, same for the developers of All Star.

Would Sony had closed them if they had been great games? Doubt it.

But at the same time they will have to reward hard work. Look at Guerilla games, Killzone was decent, but was never for me, but it did enough to convince Sony to let GG do something different.

And we got HZD. Same with ND, Jak led to Uncharted, uncharted led to TLOU.

You can imagine that whatever ND go to Sony with next will get greenlit without much convincing.

That's what MS needs, to have the faith in its studios that you can give them the freedom to create new, or improve on old.

Rather than the current scenario of dictating to them what to make.

Well if they want to compete with Sony while offering a nearly identical product, they have to come up with compelling exclusives.

I wont lie, I thought some of the studios they acquired were already MS studios lol .

Glad to see they're in it for the long haul

My god Microsoft was point scoring that's all
People buzz over little things these days you will never get the old ms back the good days

Facts
- There is no such a thing as "future proofing". The article is out of reality to start with.
- 2 of 5 of the studios adquiered were already making games for PC and Xbox. No big change.
- 1 studio acquired is mediocre, Team Ninja is a good studio but under Microsoft is another story and the Initiative doesn't even had a team formed yet.

- Getting new studios does not instantly translate into big success and great quality games as the media and some people wants to pretend.

Microsoft went out and bought a few companies big deal it doesn't mean they're future proofing people thought them purchasing RARE future proofed them and that hasn't turned out good. A company with great first party games that sell well are future proofed Sea of Thieves wasn't good State of Decay 2 wasn't good Ninja Theory put out Hellblade that game just hit 1 million sales in close to year after release. Sony and Nintendo are future proofed they've been releasing hit after hit where Microsoft has failed when was the last time Microsoft put out a game that sold over 2-3 million copies??? It's been quite awhile Microsoft is not future proofed if people think they are get your head examined.

Ninja theory, team ninja same thing.