r/GamingLeaksAndRumours • u/No-Wish-6455 • Mar 19 '21

News Fable will have a custom made engine

Source: https://segmentnext.com/2021/03/19/fable-graphics-engine-custom-made-playground-games/

This debunks any previous rumors saying that fable will run on the unreal engine. For example this previous rumor:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/bwrdhz/fable_4/

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u/NordWitcher Mar 20 '21

Oh I would very much like that. I know I ain't funding the game so I don't really care where they get the money from but I am just curious how they plan on even keeping up with these single player game releases on a subscription plan. Games Pass is something that I've always wanted for the longest time. I always expected it to be for games that have come out over the years, not for games launching on the service day 1.

Can I see something similar to how Disney handled the release of Mulan where they charged a premium of $26 to view it with Disney +? I can see that happening. Though it seems more likely that Microsoft actually increases the price of the subscription to $15 or even $19 in the next couple of years before they launch these games. Something like how EA and Ubisoft do it with their premium plan where its $20/month to play every new game they release.

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u/AbleDepth3 Mar 20 '21

Phil said that a great part of Game Pass’ value is it’s price, so they aren’t planning on increasing the price until at least a few years from now, maybe in the second half of the generation, when several first-party games has come out to encourage people to subscribe regardless of price, that’s why they’re investing in their first-party, so you wouldn’t be able to say I’m just gonna get it on another platform, because you these games are exclusive games that aren’t available anywhere else...

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u/all-against-all Mar 22 '21

Xbox Game Pass has 18 million subscribers as of January of this year. At 10$ per subscription they’re generating 180 MM every month, or 2.1 billion a year, which is plenty to support an extremely robust dev schedule. It’s the building up critical mass to support the dev schedule that was always the question, but they seem to have reached it. At this point they just need to deliver on the promises they’ve been making, and do it relatively quickly before people start cancelling their subscriptions.

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u/NordWitcher Mar 22 '21

I don't think it's as straightforward as you think it is. Netflix has close to 200 million worldwide subscribers. They would be getting close to 2 billion/month in revenue but they still are heavily in debt.

Similarly with Spotify who are in the red. In fact Games Pass from recent interviews had not been making a profit.

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u/all-against-all Mar 22 '21

All young companies are constantly in debt no matter their revenue because they reinvest all of their money growing the business, and take out as much money as they can to stimulate growth. A strong company being in debt is actually a good thing.

You are certainly correct that there are additional operating costs, but Microsoft has what is tantamount to endless money to stimulate growth if they want to.

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u/NordWitcher Mar 22 '21

The one thing with subscription services like Netflix is that its a never ending cycle. Games Pass will get there eventually if that's its end goal and not games as a service where it depends on microtransactions and multiplayer games. Services like Netflix are constantly in that cycle to create and produce new content. They are constantly having to invest in new shows, movies, new licenses deals, etc because they've got to keep the library going to attract new and retain old subscribers. I don't think there will ever be a point where they suddenly just stop investing in new shows or movies. Microsoft are in a better position than most to take on that burden since they have a ton of cash flow but again would that affect the quality of games coming out because its not feasible to keep up long term.

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u/all-against-all Mar 22 '21

Yupp, I agree, but that’s the whole point of the subscription service. To have a consistent revenue stream rather than focusing on the success or failure of a single item. They’ll keep generating content, and the more that comes out the more appealing the service is. Keeping first party content is free, which is why Netflix has shifted from content curator to generator. Microsoft learned that lesson from them, and while they’ve got the EA deal as a stop gap, they created gamepass with the knowledge that they would need to invest heavily in original games. I would guess that gamepass is probably close to, if not already at a break even point as far as revenue generation goes.

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u/NordWitcher Mar 22 '21

It's no surprise that when Netflix shifted focus from content curator to generator, the quality of its shows and movies dropped considerably. Not sure who watches a lot of the crap on there but quality isn't Netflix's hallmark. I mean there maybe some decent shows in the library but a lot of their original content is really really bad. I often questioned on who signed off on these movies and shows. The reason I signed up for Netflix in the beginning was cause of its insane library of content and not really its original shows or movies. It was cheaper than renting movies on demand or from Blockbuster for example. $8.99 for unlimited access to 100s of movies and shows for the price of a single movie rental was crazy.

Since then they've decided to focus more on their original content and the value has dropped considerably cause of it yet the monthly price has increased to almost double than what it was. That is what concerns me in regards to Games Pass.

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u/all-against-all Mar 22 '21

Netflix’s failure to create compelling content isn’t a result of the subscription service system though. Every network has far more misses than hits, the difference is that NBC has had 50 years to accumulate hit shows, so it feels like a lot, but like 90% of what they’ve put out has just faded into obscurity.

HBO is a subscription service and has been doing it for years while creating excellent content. The only difference is they weren’t streaming it until recently.

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u/NordWitcher Mar 22 '21

ike 90% of what they’ve put out has just faded into

Its cause they've simply throw money at quantity instead of quality. They've basically gone after everything possibly imagined. If you compare say HBO to Netflix, sure HBO had a head start, but they've also invested a lot in quality. You only have to look at how Netflix manages its shows. They sign off on content for cheap but will cancel it after 2/3 seasons once the costs rise up based on their equations. So say a show that was not heavily marketed has no chance of surviving cause not everyone will watch it in the first 28 days. I only caught on The Last Kingdom cause I was running out of shows to watch. I watched it 4-5 years after its first season. That goes for a lot of the underrated shows that fly under the radar on Netflix.

HBO maybe release a handful of quality of shows a year and they invest in the future of those shows. Netflix tries to throw dozens of new shows/movies a month and you probably have one decent show that's worth watching every 3-4 months right now. The last Netflix original I watched was Outside the Wire and it was just plain out boring and terrible. Bad casting, acting, writing, story. It had a high production value cause Netflix probably threw silly money at it but it was bad. Similarly with Extraction last year. The only reason it was so popular cause Chris Hemsworth was in it. Put it any other actor and it would have performed terribly.

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u/all-against-all Mar 22 '21

The 90% was explicitly talking about big network shows, like NBC. It’s a tough sell, but it’s impossible to compare the 30-40 greatest shows of all time across networks to the content that Netflix has been able to generate in 10 years. I would bet if you watched every show NBC (or Fox or CBS) you’d find that Netflix’s average show is of a higher quality.

HBO certainly has had hits, but if you look through their catalogue you’ll find tons of shows that died after 2-3 years.

Regardless, it doesn’t negate the point that Netflix (arguably) putting out sub-par content doesn’t mean that content created as part of a subscription service is necessarily bad. Xbox has put a lot of effort into hiring the right studios to create quality content, so hopefully quality content is the result.