In an industry where boycotts, fanboyism and corporate warfare are just this morning’s news, no force holds as much sway over the success or failure of a gaming franchise as the dreaded sequel. Will it live up to the standard its predecessor set, or will it ruin the series? Is it unique enough to stand apart from its brethren, or is it the same song and dance we’ve come to expect?
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
Spiders: "We're going to cut straight to the chase so you're not left wondering: After a long period without clear answers, we have received confirmation that Spiders is being liquidated.
What does it mean? This means the company as a whole no longer exists. We'll cease our functions immediately. The planned DLC will release via Nacon, and then-- well, that's it.
We're sorry that it's come to this and would like to thank each and every one of you for your support over the years.
If you have any questions or run into issues with your games, please contact Nacon directly as we'll no longer be able to reply."
Good points raised, the CoD comment was a little hyperbolic, but that just serves to drive home the point that Activision is milking the franchise.
The critics can go hang. It's no doubt nice to get good reviews, but when dealing with sequels, name recognition and word of mouth are better selling tools. So a sequel should be designed to please the fans and, hopefully, add new ones. So it makes sense to build on the features that made the fans happy to begin with. If it's the story, write one just as good, if it's the characters, continue the original story. If it's the multiplayer, expand it. If it's the level editor, expand that. It's a lot easier said than done, however. Expanding the multiplayer at the expense of the story, you risk alienating fans who were into the story. Building on the story could drive away fans of the multiplayer. It's a fine line, and only a few games have pulled it off. I'll let you decide which ones in your replies.
There are a good number of sequels that I'm betting will deliver the goods this year, in no particular order:
Batman: Arkham City, if they manage to deliver all the new features AND improve endgame bosses, this could be a personal GOTY contender.
inFamous 2, level editor, many new powers, improved cinematic story.
Portal 2, Creating a full-fledged game from Portal was always going to be a challenge but Valve seem to have captured the spirit of the original quite nicely. The introduction of co-op is definitely the icing on the cake.
edit: On a side note, Uncharted 3 is in quite a unique position. After all how do you follow up one of (if not THE) most critically acclaimed game of all time? It's one of those titles that I hope they don't muck about with the formula too much. TBH if they kept the gameplay exactly the same, I'd be pretty happy, however that's not to say I wouldn't want improvement if it was possible.
I will be one of the few playing in 3D, I know it doesn't really effect the actual game but at least it's a little bonus that helps with immersion. Hopefully Naughty dog will release more than just a short story trailer (with missing rain) in the coming weeks and we can get a better idea of how it is shaping up.
Easy, take what Activision does for every Call Of Duty game, and do the exact opposite!
I'd say MW2 ruined the series for me, I loved COD4s SP and MP but MW2 SP was a joke. Then they over did the killstreaks ruining MP.
It's like they took everything that was good in COD4 and tripled it in effect ruining the game. Balance people, balance.
Salt makes food taste better but overdo it and the dish is ruined.