Gadgetory

ports of motors for Gears of War halo Microsoft's hits help the company sell over 80 million Xbox 360 but then the Xbox one had a pretty terrible launch so Microsoft is betting its future on the biggest hits of its past let's see how they're doing so how do you get people to embrace Gears of War you hire someone who has been with the game from the beginning and knows and loves the franchise more than anyone else just set the standards we give fans what they want this is it like this is the apex of my career I'm totally fine with that because Gears of War has been amazing to me and I love that franchise but I get to work on my favorite franchises not only my favorite franchise to build but my favorite franchise to play so you know that's why I wouldn't got the tattoo I'm just like I'm okay being Gears Viking you know and if that's what I'm known for for the rest of my life and then when I die they go back there's some notion about all that's on my you know thing is they you know helped create years of war I'm totally happy with that in 2014 Microsoft acquired the Gears of War franchise rights and tapped a small studio previously built to create new properties for Microsoft the company rebranded as the coalition and now is focused entirely on Gears I always talk about managing soar the betrayal of expectations right because if you don't betray their expectations at all and you give them everything they think they want then they go like I've seen this before I already have this game why do I want to play the new one it's exactly the same thing if you betray their expectations too far you create a completely different experience people kind of reject it and go like it's so different it's not even Gears anymore and I don't want it that's not the game I want in this fall the Coalition released a remastered version of the original Gears of War but it's big drop comes next year when the team will ship its first new Gears of War game this one were assured won't just be fanservice so part of what you have to do is as you plan through sort of the next evolution of your game is you have to look at managing that betrayal of expectations ago okay I'm going to betray them here and I'm gonna betray them there and what you hope as those betrayals actually become delight and surprise over it turn 10 designers have been releasing reports of games since 2005 making it oldest most established of the three studios and it shows we want to change gaming culture we want to change car culture and move those into the future of the last the next 10 years over the last 10 years we've seen cars go from something we licensed to being something where we can be there at the debut of the most important car that Ford is gonna debut in the next 20 years and we were there at its debut that wouldn't have happened 10 years ago and it's not because of us it's not because of Xbox not Microsoft's not for say it's because of gamers it's because gamers have become more important turn 10 embraces iteration believing in regular updates additions and revisions benefit the fans the stability allows its leaders to think not just about the next games but bar down the line that's what are we changing in car culture and pop culture how do we want to ignite car passion in a younger generation that don't look at cars the same way that we do my kids most kids are growing up with screens not one iPad a laptop a phone I mean just lots and lots of screens and games are part of their everyday life that's the power of gaming I think the car industry has a leg down the car industry is selling cars that's really hard to get a 12 year old engaged with a car unless it's in a game in one's turn 10 he gets that 12 year old van hooked it works to meet her expectations time and again we do this for our fans I mean if if they weren't here we wouldn't be here right you know so we definitely listen to them we survey them we research with them we bring them in and play test with them we never stop we don't burn out but we never stop and so there's car production always going there's game design always going there is work always going on here where'sa is at its best when it's closest to reality but in a fictitious game like halo success can be more subjective gamers I think even more than movie fans are fussy and they want exactly what they want but one of the first things to emerge from the launch of Halo 2 was halo 2 sucks calm where they were just complaining about all the things that we destroyed and ruined and meanwhile you know millions of people were loving it and inhaling twos sort of fondly thought of and widely beloved more than I think most Halo games and so when you make these little changes and maybe it may be small to me but it can be super meaningful to a lot of people halo is Microsoft's most iconic franchise to a fault more than any xbox game Halo fans have ideas about what makes halo great let's say you went to see you know you two in concert right you you definitely want to hear a couple of big hits you just I mean that's what you paid for right you want to hear the new album because that's what they're promoting but you also need to be satisfied that you get there the original hits and I think that's fine but there's nothing wrong with that like if you go to your favorite restaurant it's probably because there's a few dishes in there that you absolutely love and there's nothing wrong with criticizing either that kind of criticism makes us think about well what is the value of the tank what could we do to make it better and so as long as it's thoughtful criticism and basically any criticism is valid it's amazing to have such a passionate community it's really intense and I think for us what we focus on is how do we sort of distilled down to the things that are important for halo from a gameplay from a story from a sort of brand perspective and stay true to those things knowing that we're going to experiment and we're going to try some different things in order to appeal to a broad fan base 343 industries is expanding the Halo universe with everything from spin-off television programs to companion books to experimenting with other sometimes stranger ideas I look at the universe is our most important character and and so I think when you look at the books you don't like tell us so much story in an FPS and so when you look at the books the comic books the live-action it basically just enables us to really broaden the canvas and how do we make the universe richer so that when we want to we can pick up different stories Microsoft has invested millions of dollars in these three big franchises hoping they will attract gamers to Xbox one but what if they don't Microsoft has a back-up plan spin-offs and remakes are expanding into the world of Windows 10 halo has its own mobile games the new Gears of War Ultimate Edition is coming to PC and Windows 10 owners can stream ports in the rest of their Xbox one to their home computer for the past decade Microsoft biggest franchises were the reason to buy into Xbox for the next decade don't be surprised if Marcus Fenix and Master Chief are the best reason to run Windows 10