@Shamuz I agree there are many other genres ms could explore without using fps or halo in one sentence.

Microsoft like Sony and Nintendo do try new IP's, a list of some this generation that they've supported, published, developed, etc.

Kameo
Shadow Complex
Gears of War
Ninja Blade
Ninety-Nine Nights
Viva Pinata
Crackdown
Blue Dragon
Mass Effect (albeit they lost the publishing rights to EA)
Lips
Too Human
Alan Wake
Milo & Kate
The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai
Joy Ride
Snoopy: Flying Aces (although this one is iffy given the franchise)
Toy Soldiers
Lost Odyssey
A Kingdom for Keflings

Just to name a few, ALL companies have experimented this generation but also relied on their key IP's to help fund the others, check out a site like Unseen64 for various projects started but scrapped by Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, etc.

Okay, and what out of that list have they either apparently dropped, have closed the dev house, have no creative input whatsoever or just hasn't been rated that well?

To my knowledge none of the games I've listed had developers who shut down. All games have some sort of creative input during the brainstorming process.

Who cares how they were rated or sold? People claim Microsoft takes no risks and that list alone proves that they have taken risks this generation with new IP's from all sorts of developers.

Elven, stop wasting your time with these PS3 fanboys. They aren't here to listen to you but rather to bait you and they will always have some little b*tch azz attitude about why it's not good enough..

Btw, nice ownage on these fools.

They took risk with what, The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai? Some indy title they got with a contest? Creating an IP takes actual creative effort. Not just throwing money around like it was something else and hoping that it sticks, like something else.

MS hasn't done jack creatively in-house. Anything that's managed to come out has either been unimpressive, derivative of a shooter or both. See Too Human, Mass Effect and Crackdown for examples.

yep might as while rename it the halo 360 lol

MS has tried other genres, but they simply do not sell. It's a shooter console

Godmars: Did you happen to miss all those other titles I've listed? Dishwasher: Dead Samurai was a risk proposition and one that really showed the world what XNA was capable of. Microsoft took a gamble with Japan and the JRPG's they've published in that region. XBLA and the other digital distribution stuff they are doing for consoles is also noteworthy. Shadow Complex alone broke records, games like Trials HD, Tower Bloxx Deluxe, etc all move over a thousand copies a week. Xbox Live Marketplace is set to make over $1 billion in revenue by 2013, why? Because such risks are explored.

Even with existing IP's they've tried to take some risks by looking at things differently. Shadowrun, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, etc are all recent examples.

I'm not saying Microsoft has lead the way for such things but it certainly isn't as bad as what fanboys are trying to make it out to be.

Unimpressive is objective, if you don't like it that doesn't mean others won't, it's like art, everyone is bound to see something in their own way.

I'll say it again: Dishwasher: Dead Samurai came about as the results of a contest. If it hadn't won another game would have and been promoted. In the end it came from an outside source that MS capitalized on. No inside or established creativity played apart in its making, much like most of the titles on your list.

And while MS did bet on JRPGs, it was a skewered one meant to be in their favor. Relied more on name power than the inventiveness that allows an IP to flourish.

MS trying to be nintendo because they fail at being Sony

That new Final Fantasy game that just came out, whats the number next to it? lol stupid hypocrites.

Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon were new IP's, what name could they possibly have had for themselves other than the developers? Lost Odyssey for one tried something new with the way the story was told, critically acclaimed Japanese authors were called in to pen a book which was split up and used in the game, the book was popular enough to get published after the game had launched. This of course is a minor example but these games did try something new, much more than you are giving them credit for.

Think that if you like, but had Dishwasher not been published by Microsoft on the XBLA the service would be much different. Why? People wouldn't realize the games could have been "talent scooped". After the ga

First of all, we need to get out the ps3 fangirls out of this articles! Their sore but hurt loosers because Halo is destroying the ps3 completly!

Well on the other hand, i wouldnt mind another Halo game, why? Because Halo is a great game, probably the best game i have ever played! It makes me sad that probably Bungie is not going to make no more Halo games. I wouldnt imagine a Halo game without Marty O'Donell's music. And im sure if another company like 343 industries makes Halo, its not going to be the same.

What i think, is that Halo Reach is going to be the last Halo game for the 360, but when like the Xbox 720 comes out, Bungie is going to surprise us all like with Halo 4 or something. Or maybe their just saying that Halo Reach is their last Halo game to cause comotion, and sooner or later their going to introduce us with another Halo game for the 360.

Bungie you cant let us down! You have a whole bunch of fans who still want Halo from you guys not another company!

Lost Odyssey's main draw was that the father of Final Fantasy made it while Blue Dragon used the same artist for Dragon Quest and Dragon Ball. One was called a return to FF4 while the other wasn't called much of anything at all. Both were decent if not outright good games, but the one flaw both shared was the obviousness of their exploitation to open the Japanese JRPG market to the 360.

That's how MS explores new IPs: by exploiting the familiar to expand their market share. How is there not a contradiction in that?

As for the Dishwasher, MS's attempt to go into its own community to discover and create new IPs, where is the next one? Not talking about Dishwasher 2 since I understand that's in development, but the next title from XBLA that MS is going to step behind? How long ago was that contest, and since as you suggest it was a success, where is the next one? Was that only a one-time experiment that now is going to be supplanted by the Arcade room, tons of retro titles that MS had to invest very limited creative energy into?

If you're going to look at it like that, no company is any different, no company has taken any risks, etc.

Except that MS has a history of taking someone else's work and effort and trying to make it their own while also attempting to supplant that competition.

Its the difference between Sony taking a franchise like FF from Nintendo while offering improvements like more space and improved graphics, more mature story telling, and MS funding FF's key creator to make a FF like title in the hopes of replacing it. Getting ahold of a FF title but offering nothing in addition, just use it to keep their install base from buying the other guy's console. Many of MS's moves and motives are just that transparent.

Its also the difference between allowing something like Ratchet and Clank to continue on its own momentum, and actively creating a fan network within their own gaming network for Halo while churning out one title atop another. Of doing something like that while trying to re-image the 360 a casual console, not a shooter.

And you didn't even touch my question: where is the next Dishwasher off XBLA?

You're making no sense at all. A increase in graphical performance and such is all hardware related, story telling depends on the publisher, developer, etc. Developers have often praised the support Microsoft gives them for development on the Xbox 360. They also have publicly available tools, documentation, etc on MSDN to make development easier and quicker, you don't have to be a big name developer to take advantage of MSDN either.

Ratchet and Clank continuing on its own momentum? Must be why the series has three different developers, and mediocre ports all over the place, etc. Halo is still a critically acclaimed series with great sales as well, all Halo titles have above 80% on MetaCritic and have all sold over 1 million units.

It seems you are simply hating for the sake of hating.

I probably do have a strong dislike for MS at this point. But when MS uses their PR machine to hinder and block technologies they didn't have a hand in or weren't ready for, like with BR and now 3D TVs, its hard not to feel jaded towards them.

But when Square made the move from Nintendo to Sony they not only got the advantages of new hardware, but the content restrictions the Big N was putting on everyone who made games for them. That lead to telling stories above 10 year old understanding for the whole industry.

And just because Halo sells well, rates high on MetaCritic, hardly makes it a creative example. Just that it sells well and is liked by people like me.

Not because I "hate" MS, I'm just not a major FPS fan.

It doesn't need to be a movie to have a deep thralling universe. Believe it or not(and I am not saying Halo is) you can find cinematic quality in games that can rival what you see on the screens today. I don't limit something just because it is a game or movie. To me its all entertainment, and it all builds worlds.

and personally, there hasn't been a great Star Wars film since RoTJ. Hell, KotOR was better than all three recent films combined.