Acquisition Suspicion

"All good things come to end, I suppose," cried the aching masses upon witnessing Ninja Theory's video explaining the Microsoft buyout. Knees quake as the corporate giant awakens, with everyone wondering whom they may devour next. Cut off the head before it slithers away to squeeze another victim! Who else can they ruin the artistic integrity of with the aroma of dirty Windows Vista money?!?!

So…perhaps that intro got tiring halfway through. You get the gist of it. Microsoft's E3 became the talk of the town with their meltdown-level studio acquisition announcement: a brand new studio, two 2nd-party developers now officially MS' 1st party, and two independent teams (Ninja Theory and Compulsion Games) coming under MS' wing (1). The independent studio acquisitions caused the most grief from gamers under two lines of reasoning:

1.) What were once devs sharing their products across several platforms are now deprived such freedom depending on Microsoft’s say-so. This in turn limits a sizable chunk of their prior fanbase in the process.
2.) They've now been devoured by MS' oh-so-devious temptations.

Now, there's not really much I can contend with in respect to the first point. I follow that genuine concern in seeing fans lose out on the opportunity of their favorite developer’s future titles locked on platforms they may have no interest in using. One could suggest that’s the entire point of console wars, but I know of those ‘intense’ fans never wanting their money funneled towards MS. What I am interested in is that second point with which a lot of shade has been tossed at them in respect to past influences on their closest teams--some of which is rather exaggerated. With that, let's try to separate fact from fiction and assess what we could anticipate from these purchases.

To do so: I wanted to generalize two types of criticism I’ve seen the most levelled against them in the wake of this E3 news.

-"They're like a poison. Just look at their past--esp. how they destroyed Rare."

There’s nary a time where this sort of sentiment isn't hastily made—and I suspect just to horde some likes. That doesn't mean such a claim isn't without evidence. One of the biggest failings of the Xbox brand was the closure of Lionhead Studios and Press Play in one fell swoop (2). But before we get into making spurious comparisons to something like the developer black hole that is EA, it'd also be fair to acknowledge how they and Twisted Pixel left on amiable terms. A team that wasn't dissolved on a whim but instead part ways for different creative endeavors (3). But that sounds less sexy to talk about compared to the instant satisfaction of controversy.

And let me be the first to say I find this whole 'killing' of Rare charge to be recycled ad nauseum to the point I'm convinced that many are only bringing it up in bad faith—this coming from a fan who grew up with and cherished N64 Rare games (discounting Perfect Dark as I didn’t play until later). Now, that doesn't disregard any dip in quality and prestige, mind you. It's the severity that I'm trying to refute.

If I were to compare the earliest-charted Metacritic averages of Rare (Blast Corps-Star Fox Adventures) you'd land on an 88. Comparing that to Rare's console-oriented releases after the MS purchase (Grabbed By The Ghoulies-___________ ) nets you a rounded average of 75. And before appeals about utilizing Metacritic come up for games that arguably don't hold up with gamers today (Perfect Dark Zero) well...I can just as easily raise qualms about Donkey Kong 64 bagging such an unjustifiably high score. We can bandy deserved or undeserved scores ‘til the cows come home and it won’t matter. Plus, I'm not using Metacritic because I like it; I'm using it because you seem to like it. A vocal bunch on here appears to have no dispute about a specific game's 'objective' quality whenever said Metascore helps their argument. I'm just presenting it in the way that's most convenient. And when considering how Kinect games drag down even that generally positive average, I'm compelled to roll my eyes when hyperbole comes sneaking in.

Let's say I'm just deflecting really hard from the Metascore comparison just made, brushing it off as though it was nothing (note: I'm not). The fact remains that a lot of Rare senior leaders, including The Stamper Brothers, left quite early into this acquisition as well; with that noted, I don't think it's fair to lay the charge of terrible management at MS's feet when that team is reeling from the absence of so many key personnel too.

But even if I were to act appalled by such a devalued developer via publisher poison, should blame go squarely on MS making the most lucrative deal at a prime opportunity? Remember: MS didn't pull some backdoor tactic prying them out of Nintendo's oh-so-warm-and-tender hands. There’s not this convenient anti-corporate narrative where MS swindles shareholders until they got 50.1% control. I don't want to spend too much detail here, especially with good references elsewhere (4), but suffice to say Ninty was being too shrewd at the time and MS's closest competition was actually Activision. Say what you wish about the inconsistent track record with Microsoft but it shouldn't take much for even the biggest contrarian to admit this was a lesser-of-two-evils scenario. What Bungie accomplished under them versus Bungie now is rather telling of that. There's no way Rare wouldn't have eventually become an army of shoe polishers for Bobby Kotick.

None of this is intended as denigrating old fans who've drifted away from new Rare's design ethos; furthermore, it’s tough for anyone to stomach a long-running developer with such valuable IP's in their creative vault locked to expending so many resources into Kinect games. Approximately a 5-year period focused on motion-based sports games. Yeesh! But as far as resuscitating old IP's, building new game foundations, and assessing what lies ahead, I can't help but scoff whenever the "Rare’s dead!" platitudes bubble to the surface as it stands today.

-"How can you expect to trust them with such a corporation that seems to have an uneasy relationship with their own game division?"

I'll admit, the dynamic of Microsoft's corporate culture is one of the most compelling & nuanced angles to take in admonishing any creative team signing a 1st party deal. If one could psychoanalyze the collective decisions of The Big Three, there's a compelling case to suggest MS may suffer from bipolar disorder. From their authoritarian bent during the 2013 blunder to end all blunders (5) to now being among the most fervent in crossing online platforms’ thresholds (6); going back to a shipped product ~4 years later to overhaul the matchmaking system Halo: MCC (7)...to giving sequels like Crackdown 2 pitiful development time; all the initial rules for Xbox One being reverted (8). It's a really, really, really strange history to say the least.

With all of this said, it'd be unfair to peg that history against what 'Team Xbox' is doing today. Bleating on about 2013's Xbox Division nowadays is the equivalent of me continuously bashing Sony's snobbish attitude at PS3's launch during the wonderful Age of Butler advertising. It's like a comedian exclusively using decade-old material.

Whether in respect to consumer response or the Xbox brand's place in MS's business hierarchical structure, there's a heap of difference between the division now and five years ago. The Head of Xbox is now a part of the Senior Leadership Team answerable only to the CEO (9), not a go-between nobody knows about. And their actions to virtually everything outside the issue of exclusive games had been handled with great aplomb. So it seems, let's say, “peculiar” when their biggest criticism is directly corrected on stage yet windbags divert attention towards worrying as to how MS will screw things up like a foregone conclusion. It reveals your true colors as insincere actors.

To summarize, I consider this to be one of the most exciting moves of 2018 only tempered by said publisher's past inconsistencies. Holy s***...that sounds so mundane when considering the preceding text you had to read through! While I didn't intend to end with such boring reservations, the more I began typing this the more I questioned just how many people these appeals are responding to directly. I'm in this casual wait-n-see crowd that probably takes up the majority of viewers anyways; despite that, I'm compelled to repel some uncritical assessments spread about (here and elsewhere). Because when considering the change in MS’s corporate dynamics, their healthier responsiveness to consumer complaints, and more, there's more evidence to suggest these studios could produce their best work yet instead of assail their creative aspirations.

Links:

1. https://www.forbes.com/site...
2. https://www.windowscentral....
3. https://www.digitaltrends.c...
4. http://www.ign.com/articles...
5. https://www.youtube.com/wat...
6. https://www.theverge.com/20...
7. https://www.gamesradar.com/...
8. https://www.windowscentral....
9. https://www.zdnet.com/artic...