Let’s help Microsoft to “invent the right business model” to deliver gaming to “more and more people”.
It’s not a secret that the gaming department by Xbox and Microsoft has a big issue with being profitable. Therefore, heavily affecting the future not only of Age of Empires series and gaming as a whole. For me as a customer, the recent changes honestly don’t sound convincing, as I have seen with Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and Sony, it didn’t work out for them, so why should the same work for Xbox and Microsoft?
So here are some suggestions from me as a customer, how to turn the ship around.
I would like to pitch those ideas, and feel free to add yours.
1 You have to stand out as a company, your games need the feeling to be unique and that if not buy them, people are going to miss out a milestone of gaming history.
2 Make your games feasible for the customer and your developers; gaming market is right now like Earth after the meteor killed the dinosaurs; the AAA dinosaurs you produce right now have no niche.
The market is simply too over-satisfied with too big games like World of Warcraft and E-Sport games like Starcraft 2, while older and indie games offer the better game experience.
3 Find a good concept and improve on it. That’s why Total War, Final Fantasy, Anno, and Sid Meier’s Civilization Series have so easy to stay around.
4 I know it might sound crazy, but monetization should be applied only after the game is a success; otherwise, your project eats too many resources.
5 I know the reasoning for games to require online connections and protection, but it kind of is another factor that eats resources and prevents customers from buy the new games. It is important for customer to own the game, but be able to customize and mod it.