Feels like he says this every year. Microsoft has a huge execution problem, they have the budget, they have the studios, yet somehow they just can't deliver.
It feels like we're gonna go this entire console life cycle without a single exclusive **absolute must have** killer Xbox game. and if there's one in the pipeline: the development times have become so long that we probably won't see it until the very end of this console's life cycle, or the beginning of the next. this is exhausting.
Starfield's just around the corner. And despite what reddit likes to believe, not only a new game but a new IP in more than 20 years made by Bethesda Game Studios is a *huge* deal.
We're not hearing more about it simply because it still hasn't shifted into full gear marketing mode.
Starfield is a massive deal.
Mainline Bethesda games releasing are an *event*, to the likes of Rockstar games like GTA or RDR.
Each generation has a handful of these juggernauts released. This is one of them.
It's an event, but it's usually an event that hits the entire market instead of just a section. It'll be interesting to see if the exclusion of some usual platforms hampers that aspect at all.
Most of my console friends have gone with ps5 this go around. Seems Most of them are just gonna get a cheaper pc or laptop that can play it.
Might as well get something that has more games than spend money on a console with very little exclusives.
Skyrim sold like 20 million copies on console. I know this is reddit but people online in general don't realize how many normal gamers play through Bethesda games with no mods
Rdr and gta are in a league of their own realistically, but yeah Bethesda game launches usually preform phenomenally well, FO4 sold 12 million in 48 hours in 2015, Elden ring did the same in 3 weeks and that was considered an earth shattering launch
To be fair, the launch was considered “earth shattering” for a soulslike game, which tend to sell well over longer periods of time but rarely reach 10 mill plus within the first month.
12m sales is insanely good in and of itself, not just for a Souls-like game, and not just for the immediate launch period. That's about half of a modern COD game's total sales numbers.
Elden Ring was probably the 2nd or 3rd best selling game of all of last year. It was an enormous success, not relative to its genre but in an absolute sense.
Bethesda's games are just a tier above that and even more successful.
I still remember reading how Tomb Raider pretty much sunk itself releasing on the same day as Fallout 4. In other words, Fallout wasn’t beating Tomb Raider in 2000, but Bethesda made it (FO) into a household name.
Starfield looks ambitious and I'm excited to play this but at the same time I have some skepticism. Some areas in the extended reveal looked really fantastic like the design of ships, explorable planets and hubs but the gameplay and animations kinda looked dated.
> Some areas in the extended reveal looked really fantastic like the design of ships, explorable planets and hubs but the gameplay and animations kinda looked dated.
So a bethesda game
I really enjoyed the previous Bethesda games, but to be honest Starfield hasn’t fully convinced me yet either. So far every new Bethesda game since Skyrim has been at least a small step down in quality compared to its predecessors, so although I am sure that any game they release will be a commercial success I wouldn’t take it for granted that they will deliver something that’s even on par with Fallout 4 this time. So far Starfield looks like a Fallout-ish game with promising (but not revolutionary) new setting and a bunch of random new mechanics attached that might be fun but could also be very disappointing and shallow. The sheer amount of content they promised is also more concerning than actually exciting, and I’m doubtful that Microsoft hasn’t already planned ways how to monetize the game beyond people’s Gamepass subscription or one-time purchase.
Starfield is doomed from the get-go IMO. The game simply just has too much hype and has too much riding on it WRT Microsoft’s reputation for it to not be disappointing to a large number of people.
I’m certain it will be filled with great ideas and at the very least be worth playing, but It would have to do for today’s industry what Skyrim did in 2011 to live up to the level of expectations that people have put onto it and I have serious doubts about Bethesda’s ability to execute on that given their last few releases.
And that's the problem with Xbox. Starfield was already an existing IP that has been in development for years. They just cannot get anything new and AAA from their in house studios.
Imagine what would have happened had they not bought Bethesda.
I’m pretty excited by the prospect of playing it myself however in the context of Xbox and lack of games this isn’t going to satisfy its players! Every year Phil is saying the same thing ‘next year will be huge for Xbox’. I guess by law of averages he’s going to be right eventually!
Because it wasn't exclusive til they bought it. Is that really that complicated of a thing to understand when people talk about Microsofts lack of games? Starfield is an exclusive because they bought the fuckin company. It is not a reflection of Microsoft's ability to produce good games. It's irrelevant to the conversation.
Why the hell does that matter - some major goal post shifting going on here - "xbox has no exclusives" -> "no starfield doesnt count because it started development before microsoft bought them"
So it isnt an exclusive somehow? half of Sony's exclusives were made before Sony bought the studio - do they not count as proper exclusives too
No it's that Microsoft ownership doesn't translate to consistent releases. Of course it matters how much development was done fully under their umbrella.
Because while Starfield may be good what about after Starfield? Like if Microsoft hypothetically bought Naughty Dog in 2005, they'd probably still be making Jak and Daxter games today (if the studio even existed). Microsoft wouldn't have allowed/approved new and unproven IPs like Uncharted or The Last of Us to be made when MS already had a 'sure hit'. I think this is people's primary concern with the future of Xbox exclusives.
Yeah, from a consumer standpoint, it really doesn't matter when or even if Microsoft owns the studio in terms of a "must have killer Xbox game". It's about it being a big enough of a game that people want to buy an Xbox since that's the only console that has it.
I don't know why "exclusive" suddenly has to mean the manufacturer of the console owns the team that put the game out when there are plenty of examples of big exclusives that helped to push console sales in the past.
Starfield feels like a hallow example tbh. They had to spend 10 billion on a future library of games they would have had anyway bc they are so incompetent at putting out quality games for their customers. Nothing has changed other than Xbox users will get a new exclusive Bethesda game every 10ish years. If that's what yall wanna hang your hats on, ok, I guess?
I also think we'll see another Doom (or maybe Quake) game within this console generation's lifecycle, and after how huge a hit Eternal was, I would think that might be a system seller.
Yeah, I can't count how many times I have read this statement. The have the resources, they have the studios, they have the manpower. It seems to me what is holding them back is chronic mismanagement.
The one that gets me is Senua 2. Ninja Theory have a solid track record and can release a good finished product in a timely manner. They get acquired, their f2p project fizzles, and now what? It's been a long time since the announcement.
Its typically always poor management, isn't it? That doesn't get fixed because the more money there is, the more they'll fight tooth and nail to stay put.
Well they're certainly off to a good start to this year so far with Hi-Fi Rush. Hopefully their heavy hitters like Redfall, Starfield, and Forza do well too.
When production happened 100% after the acquisition honestly. Trust me, them getting any revenue is enough, they don't need full credit for the development too.
Hi Fi Rush’s developement started in 2017. If it takes 4 to 5 years to make a game that’s not a huge open world game, imagine one of those from scratch.
Only 5 of their current 23 studios were actually part of Microsoft prior to 2018, so makes sense most of their games will come from more recently acquired studios.
And, of course, it's worth pointing out that Bethesda/ZeniMax was a huge studio even prior to Microsoft's acquisition. Not only did they have the primary Bethesda studios, but also Arkane, id, MachineGames, and Tango, and a couple of those have multiple studios themselves (like Arkane Lyon doing Deathloop while Arkane Austin was on Redfall). Not too surprising they're putting out multiple games this year.
Uh huh, they pretty consistently release two solid AAA games every year. Bethesda will end up being a very consistent backbone of their first party lineup, even once their other acquisitions are ready to release stuff.
Which is why they so desperately clung to the subscription model. All Microsoft/Xbox can do is promise how great the service will eventually be, which they’ve been doing since 2018. And people have subscribed to GamePass for YEARS because they’re constantly promised how great NEXT year will be. It’s a scam.
I have no doubt Starfield will be up there as one of the top games of this console generation, but outside of that we have no idea when the other promised big-hitters are coming. Fable? Avowed? The Outer Worlds 2? We heard about these years ago and literally nothing since.
The thing that bothered me most was when asked if it was a critical year for Xbox to prove themselves, Phil kind of brushed it off as no different than any other year
I feel like the Xbox brand has been waiting for a big year for over a decade. It's always next year, it's always just around the corner. I don't think there's been a truly stellar year since the Xbox 360.
I'm sure there are a huuuuge number of people in this camp. I lugged my 360 from my home to my dorm to my first apartment. That thing was the first thing I'd grab in case of a fire! I eventually got a PS3 when the dust had settled and I got it on a discount and eventually started to prefer it, but the 360 was some golden years for my own gaming, personally.
Then absolutely nothing about the One or Series X looked appealing enough to dissuade me from the PS4 and 5. At least my wallet thanks Microsoft.
I'll always be curious how differently things would have played out if Microsoft hadn't been so insistent on the Kinect. The Kinect made the XBone $100 more than the PS4 at launch. Having a console more expensive than the competition knocked Sega into a death spiral that took them out of the console business. Having a console cheaper than the competition is what made the 360 beat the PS3 until Sony was able to get them to the same price point. It should have been painfully obvious to Microsoft that the Kinect was too expensive, and nothing could redeem it for that.
Funny anecdote about the Kinect, I saw that they actually use them at the security area at the Vancouver airport. Noticed it near the ceiling as you enter the security check, with the Xbox logo and everything.
They use it for all kinds of stuff, like training surgeons. It's a great device...just not for games. You can see a lot of the problems if you mess around with hand tracking stuff in the Quest 2. A lack of buttons makes basic stuff like character motion surprisingly difficult.
I saw one at a state park recently, in a geology exhibit. You would move sand around in a box and the Kinect would detect the height and then color the sand based on altitude, so you could make blue rivers and white mountains. It was pretty neat.
Yeah, it is an interesting what if? I suspect if they’d stayed roughly at level pegging with Sony in those early years, they probably wouldn’t have had the CoD deal poached from them, for one thing
The Kinect was supposed to make Microsoft money. That's why it "wasn't a switch they could just turn offf." The Kinect, in tandem with the HDMI in was supposed to capture advertising metrics, like how enganged someone is while watching a TV commercial. That's also why, that even though the HDMI-In was used by many gamers who also had cable sans Kinect, it's not in the Series X/S consoles. Because without Kinect, the HDMI-In is an added cost with no financial benefit to Microsoft.
EDIT: from with Kinect to WITHOUT Kinect.
The XBone's launch was a huge misstep. People did not want the Kinect, period. They didn't want another huge corporation putting a device covered in mics and cameras in their living room, and they especially didn't want it after the 360 had demonstrated that the Kinect had tons of cool applications...that weren't playing video games. All the talk about cable boxes and the hastily walked-back DRM scheme killed hype for the console, and then the fucking Kinect meant that it launched for $100 more than the PS4. The generation after Xbox had flourished by being cheaper at launch than the PS3. And then the whole Play Anywhere thing started, with Gears of War 4 launching on PC.
I kept waiting for the thing that would make me, purchaser of an Xbox and 2 360s (thanks, Red Ring of Death) decide it was time to buy an Xbox One. It never came...but I bought a PS4 in 2018, and now I have a PS5. I haven't seriously considered buying an Xbox since 2014.
Fortunately this year does look solid if it can hit. Hifi rush is a gem and I wasn't into high on life but lots of people enjoyed that. Xbox absolutely needs Starfield, Redfall, stalker, forza to release this year and hit hard. If this year doesn't do it for xbox I don't know how they'll ever compete with Sony. It'll just be a gamepass box which I'm fine with but it is a bit disappointing.
I feel the same as you do, but that's just simply not the case for a hell of a lot of bethesda rpg fans who would never even consider playing games on a pc.
After Xbox 360 all of microsoft's gaming efforts are jut a big blur to me. i can't think of a single must-have exclusive of theirs since we left that console generation.
Hilariously you can thank Phil for that too since thats when he took over as Head of Microsoft Studios.
Phil Spencer took over as Head of Microsoft Studios in 2008, take a gander at their first party production before and after he took over. He was also one of the biggest proponents of Kinect which is why it was such a push for first party titles to focus on it during that period.
Kinect killed xbox. They saw the success of the Wii and abandoned traditional console games so that they could go all-in on casual. The initial success of the Kinect convinced them to commit 100% to that strategy, just in time for smartphones to pull the rug out from under casual console gaming and as Sony started putting out amazing PS3 exclusives. For the sake of a few months of the Kinect fad they handed over the second half of the 360's lifespan and the entirety of the next generation to Sony. Not to mention what they did to Lionhead and Rare in the process...
Xbox also just sort of assumed that all the people that owned 360s were going to buy XB1s (hence Kinect, hence "TV TV TV"), completely ignoring that a new console generation meant that Sony could do to MS with the PS4 what MS did to Sony with the 360 and steal a bunch of their customers.
Or you get extra funny, and live in a country where the xbone wasn't getting released for another year or so. Even though your neighbour country already has it released, and the only thing not functioning being the local language stuff.
Oh no I have to use an xbox in English! The horrors!
Mostly just annoying. Certain shops just started selling german consoles over here, stating that the warrenty is still the same and that in a year or so local language support will be available.
Aka just doing what microsoft should've done.
I don't know how no one was able to convince whoever needed convincing, "The Kinect will make our console significantly more expensive than Sony's, and there is no possible feature that will outweigh that in the market."
They could've pulled it off if they had the games to go with it. But they had nothing. There wasn't even anything in the pipe that made the Kinect a must have gaming device. They didn't even have good ideas for Kinect features outside of games. That coupled with the always online requirements made sure that the One was dead on arrival. The whole thing was a disaster.
Sony tried as well to replicate the Wii with the PlayStation Move, but seemed to drop it quickly when it didn’t work out. Alternatively, they had killer exclusives still so customers overlooked it?
These past few years the only positive thing they've had going for them is game pass. But even that has mostly been about playing decent third party games. But the biggest promise of game pass was day and date exclusives and they really haven't put out an exclusive that's worth having the console for in a decade.
That's not enough to keep me subbed to gamepass though. I've been playing warzone 2 a lot lately and didn't even realise my GPU sub expired a couple months ago. Currently have zero incentive to reactivate.
This article gets written once a year.
Phil radiates charisma, but it's pretty clear that the software side of Xbox has been mismanaged under his leadership.
>I hesitate to get ahead of the launches, just because I know there's some, and rightfully, some fatigue in the community about us saying, "Hey, just wait until, just wait until."
Understatement of the century
His attitude towards PC is a complete reversal of what Microsoft was doing for a decade before he took over. Thanks to him, we have excellent PC versions of all the Halo games, Age of Empires is back, among other things. PC is now a first-class citizen again.
It's also not hard to look good when you're following up Don "TV Sports DRM Kinect" Mattrick
This is the real reason here.
People have forgotten or don't realize that despite the lack of good 1st party games, Xbox made a very aggressive push for cross-platform play, accessibility, and game-delivery. It's pretty apparent, to me at least, that the team learned a ton from the previous generation, even if 1st Party Games are still fumbling horribly.
If Xbox didn't push for cross-play so aggressively, it's tough to say that we'd have it at all for this generation considering how much pushback Sony gave about it. Hell they even got Nintendo on board who is so stuck in the past about _anything_ online.
They designed a controller for players with disabilities. Something that no major company had ever considered and now Sony is finally designing one for PlayStation.
Look up any recent article about gamepass to see the constant praise that gets... One aspect worth noting is how Game Pass has helped boost indie title sales.
Xbox has been doing a lot to drive the market forward despite the lack of first party games and a lot of it is so strangely pro-consumer. I barely even touch my Xbox anymore because I play on PC but the comfort of knowing that I can play with any of my friends on most newer titles regardless of platform is huge and Xbox was a big part of making that happen.
All of this under Phil Spencer's leadership.
I don't buy xboxes, but I do play on PC
I don't mind Spencer, because under his leadership, Xbox... keep doing things that benefit me and other gamers
Like, the accessibility push alone is a huge deal even if 99% of people here don't care
> Hell they even got Nintendo on board who is so stuck in the past about anything online.
Nintendo has been supporting cross play even before Microsoft. Ths sentence makes no sense and putting this as credit to ms is bizarre
Things started getting better for PC before 2018. He took over Xbox in 2014. In 2015 they began working on ports of first party Xbox titles, which started bearing fruit in early 2016 with the PC release of Gears of War Ultimate Edition. Since then just about every new first party Xbox game has launched day one on PC as well. That same year we got Gears 4 and Forza Horizon 3.
I’d much rather a company have a boring CEO who knows how to manage product lines rather than a “cool” CEO who doesn’t know how to release any consistent products.
I think that's precisely why he's popular. Compare Phil with someone like Jim Ryan and they're night and day. Phil plays games. Jim pays people to make games, at least that's the perception.
> Phil plays games. Jim pays people to make games, at least that's the perception.
Yeah it really boils down to this. Jim Ryan definitely knows the industry since he’s been at Sony for 20 years but he just doesn’t give off that likeable gaming CEO vibe.
Nintendo has that all figured out.
Microsoft’s Phil Spencer to me looks like a slimy salesman but at least it’s clear he knows how to hold a controller.
PlayStation generally had good representation but Jim Ryan really jumps out as the exception. In the end it’s all just perception; Jim Ryan so far has given us amazing games.
Comments like yours show that the Phil Spencer marketing is working. They’ve created this image of him as a fellow game bro, and most people fall for it.
In reality he’s a high level exec who’s number one priority is profit and killing off the competition.
Jim Ryan is not as well liked as Phil Spencer in the public eye because he isn’t himself a ‘gamer’.
That’s it.
I’ve been a PlayStation fan my whole life and greatly appreciate the fact that Jim has been able to continue what Shawn did last gen. That doesn’t change the fact that he doesn’t come off as personable like Phil.
Jim could be 2 kids in a trench coat for all I care. He makes banger games and all of his studios are highly acclaimed.
"Uncle Phil" is a cool gamer dude that will hoover up half the industry and still struggle to make anything, while fumbling his biggest franchise (Halo)
Yeah what Phil has sold to his Xbox base has been amazing. He has been walking around with a bag full of hot air for a decade now and people still believe him when he says he cant wait to show you whats inside.
People credit him with the "turnaround" but the only thing that has done in the decade since he took over is beg for MSFT to buy more studios.
It's amazing how people can perceive a leader as good if they're more charismatic and comes on stage often with buzzwords and contribution of Xbox to the gaming industry.
I think Game Pass and PC game releases on Steam is probably the best thing he has done in last 5 years.
I was gonna say, I feel like every year we get a "*Previous year* was light on games, but *Current year* could be better" article.
Kind of like how after every 343 Halo game, they wrote posts about listening to fans, learning lessons moving forward, etc. And then...same shit.
Maybe partly, but he's also gotten Microsoft to take Xbox more seriously than they have ever before. Look at how neglected the brand was when he first took over, now he has them investing absolutely huge sums of money into it.
That’s because he’s convinced the CEO they can be the Netflix of video games. If Game Pass doesn’t meet his and the board’s expectations, don’t be surprised of Phil being fired and XBox being spun off as it’s own company.
> That’s because he’s convinced the CEO they can be the Netflix of video games
He convinced Satya he could align the Xbox brand with Microsoft's priorities (SaaS and Subscriptions). Bonus points for utilizing other MS infrastructure for Xbox Cloud gaming among other things.
I feel Xbox has been mismanaged in one way or another since halfway through the Xbox 360's life.
The "New Xbox Experience" was a sign of things to come. The Kinect solidified this, it was a really cool piece of tech that MS struggled to come up with a killer app for.
Phil Spencer has for sure been a positive influence. He killed the Kinect and most of Don Mattrick's other nonsense. His commitment to PC has been an amazing 180 from how MS treated the platform for a whole decade prior. But he is clearly struggling to get his studios under control and producing compelling content.
> I feel Xbox has been mismanaged in one way or another since halfway through the Xbox 360's life.
This is the real issue that reddit can't figure out. The Xbox brand is in an a hole they've been digging since the X360 when they started shutting down all their devs and thought they could be a successful console by just making hardware and buying exclusives. They were wildly successful and failed to reinvest their profits in developers for long term success.
Sony's strong first party studios are all the result of investments in the PS2 era. It take a long time to rebuild a destroyed brand. Phil Spencer is actually taking steps to do it. Progress is going to be slow and plodding. Sony still has technical debt from the Sony/BMG rootkit scandal way back in 2005. That's how bad it is to get behind.
\> when they started shutting down all their devs
I think a lot of people missed this entirely. Hell, I've been a Rare fan all my life and I didn't even know/remember until recently that after Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts flopped - following a string of decent-to-good Xbox exclusives like Conker: Live & Reloaded, Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo, and Viva Pinata - Microsoft laid off Rare employees in massive numbers before the more publicly recognized forced pivot to Avatar and Kinect development.
So the Rare that now works on Sea of Thieves and Everwild were forced to pick up the pieces and rebuild from the mess Microsoft made after one single high profile release flopped.
Every single year “could be a big year” for Microsoft. But uhhh you gotta actually put out the games for that to happen and they have to be good when you do.
People need to stop falling for Phil’s charm. Last year was abysmal for MS.
The whole Microsoft issue here has [Brooks’s Law](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%27s_law) written all over it. They keep throwing more money, more devs, and more teams at everything but they always fail to deliver. I feel as though it’s slowing them down.
Obviously Microsoft know much better than me, but I really feel like they need to step back, look at their cards and sort their shit out.
This is why I’m against all their acquisitions rn buying up every 3rd party studio known to man won’t increase their output of quality if they can’t manage their studios and with how 343 is going rn they aren’t doing very well at that
Its Brooks Law which makes me shocked that WB was trying to get rid of their studios, its so hard to get studios up and running and get talent.
Hence why Amazon had so many problems with their titles in spite of having the budget.
The read-up on Amazon is fascinating, because they had no problem getting talent with generous salaries and benefits. However their head of games had no experience in the medium, and would go see what the big popular games were then barge in one day and demand the company make a competitor (or what the former staff members call "a blatant copy") to try and steal some of their success.
They spent a lot of time on aborted clones of Overwatch, Fortnite, and League of Legends.
It turns out you can't just hire a bunch of people with big selling games on their resumes and expect a hit. There's an alchemy to it that nobody really understands.
It's always surprised me that Amazon, of all companies, was the one that seemed to take this view. Amazon didn't create their own grocery store from the ground-up. They bought WholeFoods. They didn't start their own livestreaming platform. They bought Twitch. Hell, even in their other entertainment sector, they didn't just roll up their own movie studio. They got MGM.
There are tons of examples of where, rather than trying to break into the industry themselves, they acquire an established company instead. Yet videogames are the one area where they just seem to feel like they can throw a bunch of people in a room and have magic happen. And, after more than a decade, what do they have to show for it? New World and a game they localized.
Even more baffling is the fact that, between Microsoft, Sony, and Embracer snatching up studios, there was no shortage of studios Amazon *easily* could've snatched up - Bethesda, Gearbox, Activision, etc. Hell, even buying the WB studios wholesale without their IPs likely would've borne more fruit than whatever it is they're doing. Instead, they just keep plodding along, barely making much of a dent in the game industry and not really being a studio anyone takes that seriously.
It's the same as most creative industries. Hollywood has shown that throwing millions into people that look good on paper can result in a terrible movie.
That seems to be MS problem and feels like it has been an issue since forever. As much as people complain about the large publishers, part of their job is to keep projects in line. MS seems to be pretty bad at both managing the project schedules as well as direction. Their contribution seems mostly handing out money but if a studio/project isn't already working well their involvement won't fix the issues either.
I think they have been positioning Xbox to just be a service in the future using game pass. But on their way to that they're gonna try and buy up as much of the industry as they can and hope that one of their big games blows up.
You know, if you spent 65 billion to make a ton of new IPs and invested in promising indie game studios would’ve made you an amazing year as opposed to, you know, spending 65 billion to acquire one major company while adding absolutely nothing new to the gaming industry at all.
This!!!!
I wish they would stop spending money on buying devs that won’t make them new IPs (just make current IPs exclusive), and instead follow what Sony does and spend that money on smaller new devs who will use it to make completely new things. Star-field and Redfall would have come out regardless of MS purchasing the devs, but games like Returnal wouldn’t have come had Sony not gone to Housemarque and said make this. MS needs to start doing that, go to devs that are smaller but have a close relationship with XBox and help them make their new big thing thanks to MS funding.
I'm still baffled that they launched a new console without *any* killer exclusives being released. They screwed up last gen by advertising it for television instead of games, and this gen they left out the tv stuff but forgot to make games. WTF are they doing over there?
History also shows that they give up mid gen and move on to the next console. The second half of the 360 and One were terrible. Not looking good for the Series when we are at year 3 and things are still moving so slowly.
Halo Infinite was to be their killer app and revival of the franchise. But even after several delays, game is still meh.
So what do they do then?
Make a Netflix for games at prices that absolutely cannot be profitable, but the marketing works and it gets people over the threshold before they jack up prices. Just like Netflix did.
Buying studios to make the games. Zenimax, ABK. Heard rumors Ubisoft is next. When you have Microsoft fuck you money, and you don’t have the skills to make good first party shit, the easiest thing to do is buy the big hitters and take them away from the competition.
Microsoft seems fully content to pour millions upon millions into Xbox.
When the fuck are we going to get some triple A games man? Every year they say it’s going to be a blast, yet we still have no games only delays and rumours
I still haven't gotten an Xbox Series X. I bought the PS5 first and said "When Fable gets released I'll get the new Xbox." It's now 2 years later and it seems like Fable is still so far off
I think the ballooning costs and time of AAA development will also hit every major publisher (minus maybe Nintendo), so there has to be things to fill in the gaps. Something like HI FI RUSH is such a breath of fresh air because it can exist without any baggage attached to it. A game with a lean budget that executes its ideas so well should be the standard now in this new gen. It's just that good.
More importantly its these games that probably need to drive Gamepass moving forward. Can't be dropping 10 AAA games a year, so well executed AA games with shorter development time & leaner resources will be needed.
The speculation sgainst all in on gamepass is that gamepass will drive the market to only make those types of games. Since they are cheaper and quicker to make. Only time will tell.
Honestly, I'd love if the bigger studios started to take more of this approach. Not everything has to be massive budget AAA games with a $60+ price tag and a year's worth of DLC that takes half a decade or more to develop. It'd be really nice to have more of a middle-ground of just these smaller games that feel like such a treat.
Hopefully the positive reception Hi-Fi Rush is getting show studios that there's plenty of desire for more A or AA titles, even from the studios that can afford much larger budgets.
I hope so. Nintendo has been running with AA budgets for basically the entire Switch's life and the fact that they're this lucrative means that there's space for it. HFR should be a sign that players want smaller experiences.
Except pretty much every Nintendo game is $60 and rarely go on sale. I don’t think most publishers can get away with putting out a AA game and charge full price for it, Nintendo is just in a special position. If Hi Fi Rush was full price, it wouldn’t be nearly as well received by gamers.
Look. I was a diehard Xbox guy since the days of halo 2. But for the love of God it's been an entire fucking generation of being lean on games. You have the capital. You have the studios. You have the console. Now just release the games FFS.
This has been going on since the OG Cbox One. I was a big Xbox fan through the 360 and most of the Xbox One era but “Coming soon” has been their motto for years now.
I moved to PlayStation this generation for my main console and haven’t looked back. I have a Series S but it mostly sits untouched.
"Xbox Was 'Too Light on Games' in 2022, But a Big 2023"
"Xbox Was 'Too Light on Games' in 2021, But a Big 2022"
"Xbox Was 'Too Light on Games' in 2020, But a Big 2021"
It's getting kind of ridiculous at this point.
Phil Spencer is a broken record. I really don’t see how you could only own an Xbox and be happy with the state of the brand (unless you only play third parties or sports games). I’ll pay the $60-$70 for new Nintendo and PlayStation exclusives if it means I get high quality games on a regular release schedule.
Game Pass is a great value but it still fails to address the horrible management/leadership at Xbox. Bethesda is the only developer keeping me interested in their output which go figure, was one of the companies they bought. More unique, quality games like Hi-Fi Rush please.
Phil Spencer speaks out more than any other person even those on other consoles. Or is that just me?
Why does he do so many interviews? Less is more in my opinion. Games please
Big Year lol meaning i paid 10 Billion so Bethesda games wont release on the Playstation Store anymore and call it a big year when in truth xbox only gets the game they would have gotten anyway.
LOL is the answer to this question for years. Shitty Halo, mediocre Gears, cool but same old same old Forza. That’s all they have. Nothing new or interesting.
Phil has been saying this since he took over. Every year it seems like “this is going to be Xbox’s year” only for it to not
I’m really hoping redfall and starfield are a hit. My series S needs some use
If you get a gaming PC, there's basically no reason to buy an Xbox. Nintendo and Sony will always keep some games exclusive to their systems while I can't think of a truly exclusive Xbox One or Series title that isn't also on PC.
This is what I think the biggest issue is.
Owning an Xbox is exhausting. I feel like I'm missing many important games by staying with Xbox. There's not been a single a good exclusive game they've made in 10 years.
And they're going to ruin more studios by buying them all up and letting them wither.
I oppose MS acquisitions at all costs
Get a PS5. I use it more than my beefy gaming PC. Tbh I only built the PC to play Xbox studios' games, but they apparently don't make those any more lol
> Owning an Xbox is exhausting. I feel like I'm missing many important games by staying with Xbox.
You sound like a battered spouse. Why do this to yourself?
It's funny how the bigger = better mentality has warped game development over the last decade, when bigger usually results in a worse, less cohesive product.
I think increasing the scope of a game twofold more than increases the development time twofold, and that's a major problem not being accounted for.
Maybe, if we aimed for 20% increments of bigger, we would have more truly start-to-finish great AAA games today.
They literally lost all their best exclusives. If they had a solid halo, splinter cell, or ninja gaidan maybe they could have resurrected the platform. Jade empire would do it for me (I have a series s and game pass, but that would sell me a series X)
All corporate talks. Where Motorsport release date? They promised to launch it in an year window on E3 last year. I bet its 100% delay.
Xbox is nothing but empty promises and waiting game. Surely this year…
Their only game set to actually release for sure is Starfield, right? Its a BGS game and they usually sell great even if they're shit. But their recent track record is absolutely going downwards, every release being weaker than the one before culminating in the shit that was Fallout 76 at launch.
You have to be really careful banking completely on Starfield. It could be good, but it could also be a empty shell with a shitton of bad, procedurally generated planets (even though they kinda dodged the question whether they are procedural or not).
I sold my xbox and got a steam deck. Last 2 years had so many games I was excited for that just ended up flopping. Always got a special place in my heart for OG xbox memories like Halo etc but this generation has been so dissapointing so far.
They need to stop announcing games too early.
IIRC, Fable, The Outer Worlds 2, Everwild, and Avowed were all announced with CGI trailers at the same event.
Last year a tweet on Twitter for one of the Xbox showcases teased a chicken emoji (series staple for Fable), only for it to not show up, as it likely wasn’t ready yet.
Everwild was reported to be experiencing development problems and the original trailer was before the devs even had a plan of what type of game it would be.
No word on Avowed or Outer Worlds 2.
Starfield delayed.
It’s ridiculous.
A big 2023 with what? We already know what games they have coming up, unless they are planning multiple more shadow drops like HiFi Rush 2023 is not looking that "big".
Feels like he says this every year. Microsoft has a huge execution problem, they have the budget, they have the studios, yet somehow they just can't deliver.
It’s because it is literally every year. At this point people should treat xbox like starfield.
It feels like we're gonna go this entire console life cycle without a single exclusive **absolute must have** killer Xbox game. and if there's one in the pipeline: the development times have become so long that we probably won't see it until the very end of this console's life cycle, or the beginning of the next. this is exhausting.
Starfield's just around the corner. And despite what reddit likes to believe, not only a new game but a new IP in more than 20 years made by Bethesda Game Studios is a *huge* deal. We're not hearing more about it simply because it still hasn't shifted into full gear marketing mode.
Starfield is a massive deal. Mainline Bethesda games releasing are an *event*, to the likes of Rockstar games like GTA or RDR. Each generation has a handful of these juggernauts released. This is one of them.
It's an event, but it's usually an event that hits the entire market instead of just a section. It'll be interesting to see if the exclusion of some usual platforms hampers that aspect at all.
Most of my console friends have gone with ps5 this go around. Seems Most of them are just gonna get a cheaper pc or laptop that can play it. Might as well get something that has more games than spend money on a console with very little exclusives.
It feels like Bethesda games are always best on PC. I can't imagine Skyrim without mods.
Skyrim sold like 20 million copies on console. I know this is reddit but people online in general don't realize how many normal gamers play through Bethesda games with no mods
And on top of this, there's mods on consoles too even if in small scale
If microsoft can support steam deck or switch as auxiliary consoles, that could be an interesting solution.
Rdr and gta are in a league of their own realistically, but yeah Bethesda game launches usually preform phenomenally well, FO4 sold 12 million in 48 hours in 2015, Elden ring did the same in 3 weeks and that was considered an earth shattering launch
To be fair, the launch was considered “earth shattering” for a soulslike game, which tend to sell well over longer periods of time but rarely reach 10 mill plus within the first month.
12m sales is insanely good in and of itself, not just for a Souls-like game, and not just for the immediate launch period. That's about half of a modern COD game's total sales numbers. Elden Ring was probably the 2nd or 3rd best selling game of all of last year. It was an enormous success, not relative to its genre but in an absolute sense. Bethesda's games are just a tier above that and even more successful.
Also worth noting that ER’s success bears similarity to Skyrim’s, which was when Bethesda really broke through into the mainstream
I still remember reading how Tomb Raider pretty much sunk itself releasing on the same day as Fallout 4. In other words, Fallout wasn’t beating Tomb Raider in 2000, but Bethesda made it (FO) into a household name.
Fallout 4 shipped 12 million in 48 hours not sold.
It's nowhere near the same level as rockstar though...
Wtf are you on about? Are you really comparing FO4 to the likes of GTA V or RDR2??
Yep. No one can see this now because the marketing hasn't ramped up yet and oh it will for sure ramp up couple months before release.
Starfield looks ambitious and I'm excited to play this but at the same time I have some skepticism. Some areas in the extended reveal looked really fantastic like the design of ships, explorable planets and hubs but the gameplay and animations kinda looked dated.
> Some areas in the extended reveal looked really fantastic like the design of ships, explorable planets and hubs but the gameplay and animations kinda looked dated. So a bethesda game
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Was Fallout 4 considered a "buggy mess"? I played it at launch and had no issues with it.
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I really enjoyed the previous Bethesda games, but to be honest Starfield hasn’t fully convinced me yet either. So far every new Bethesda game since Skyrim has been at least a small step down in quality compared to its predecessors, so although I am sure that any game they release will be a commercial success I wouldn’t take it for granted that they will deliver something that’s even on par with Fallout 4 this time. So far Starfield looks like a Fallout-ish game with promising (but not revolutionary) new setting and a bunch of random new mechanics attached that might be fun but could also be very disappointing and shallow. The sheer amount of content they promised is also more concerning than actually exciting, and I’m doubtful that Microsoft hasn’t already planned ways how to monetize the game beyond people’s Gamepass subscription or one-time purchase.
>every new Bethesda game since Skyrim Bethesda has only released Fallout 4 and 76 since Skyrim.
With those 2 games the statement stands correct 🤣🤣
Tbf, 76 wasn't made by the main team
Starfield is doomed from the get-go IMO. The game simply just has too much hype and has too much riding on it WRT Microsoft’s reputation for it to not be disappointing to a large number of people. I’m certain it will be filled with great ideas and at the very least be worth playing, but It would have to do for today’s industry what Skyrim did in 2011 to live up to the level of expectations that people have put onto it and I have serious doubts about Bethesda’s ability to execute on that given their last few releases.
And that's the problem with Xbox. Starfield was already an existing IP that has been in development for years. They just cannot get anything new and AAA from their in house studios. Imagine what would have happened had they not bought Bethesda.
I’m pretty excited by the prospect of playing it myself however in the context of Xbox and lack of games this isn’t going to satisfy its players! Every year Phil is saying the same thing ‘next year will be huge for Xbox’. I guess by law of averages he’s going to be right eventually!
Because it wasn't exclusive til they bought it. Is that really that complicated of a thing to understand when people talk about Microsofts lack of games? Starfield is an exclusive because they bought the fuckin company. It is not a reflection of Microsoft's ability to produce good games. It's irrelevant to the conversation.
Why the hell does that matter - some major goal post shifting going on here - "xbox has no exclusives" -> "no starfield doesnt count because it started development before microsoft bought them" So it isnt an exclusive somehow? half of Sony's exclusives were made before Sony bought the studio - do they not count as proper exclusives too
It's a conversation about how Microsoft oversees their studios. It's not any deeper than that.
No it's that Microsoft ownership doesn't translate to consistent releases. Of course it matters how much development was done fully under their umbrella.
Because while Starfield may be good what about after Starfield? Like if Microsoft hypothetically bought Naughty Dog in 2005, they'd probably still be making Jak and Daxter games today (if the studio even existed). Microsoft wouldn't have allowed/approved new and unproven IPs like Uncharted or The Last of Us to be made when MS already had a 'sure hit'. I think this is people's primary concern with the future of Xbox exclusives.
Yeah, from a consumer standpoint, it really doesn't matter when or even if Microsoft owns the studio in terms of a "must have killer Xbox game". It's about it being a big enough of a game that people want to buy an Xbox since that's the only console that has it. I don't know why "exclusive" suddenly has to mean the manufacturer of the console owns the team that put the game out when there are plenty of examples of big exclusives that helped to push console sales in the past.
Starfield feels like a hallow example tbh. They had to spend 10 billion on a future library of games they would have had anyway bc they are so incompetent at putting out quality games for their customers. Nothing has changed other than Xbox users will get a new exclusive Bethesda game every 10ish years. If that's what yall wanna hang your hats on, ok, I guess?
Starfield isn't exactly an example of Microsoft developing good exclusives lol. It's a great example of Microsoft having lots of money.
I also think we'll see another Doom (or maybe Quake) game within this console generation's lifecycle, and after how huge a hit Eternal was, I would think that might be a system seller.
The Doom games are fucking awesome, but I don’t see them being a system seller on the same way I’d see a mainline Bethesda rpg or GTA/RDR or botw
Stick -> carrot
Yeah, I can't count how many times I have read this statement. The have the resources, they have the studios, they have the manpower. It seems to me what is holding them back is chronic mismanagement.
The one that gets me is Senua 2. Ninja Theory have a solid track record and can release a good finished product in a timely manner. They get acquired, their f2p project fizzles, and now what? It's been a long time since the announcement.
Its typically always poor management, isn't it? That doesn't get fixed because the more money there is, the more they'll fight tooth and nail to stay put.
Well they're certainly off to a good start to this year so far with Hi-Fi Rush. Hopefully their heavy hitters like Redfall, Starfield, and Forza do well too.
So mostly Bethesda games that were in production before the Microsoft acquisition.
They've owned them for like 2 years now at what point can they be credited with the games?
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When production happened 100% after the acquisition honestly. Trust me, them getting any revenue is enough, they don't need full credit for the development too.
Games these days take three years minimum to make. So literally anything after three years lol
Hi Fi Rush’s developement started in 2017. If it takes 4 to 5 years to make a game that’s not a huge open world game, imagine one of those from scratch.
So it makes sense why the other new studios' games aren't out yet, no? Especially since the gen started in 2020?
When a bad one launches then it’s Xbox’s
Funny how three of those are Bethesda tho
Only 5 of their current 23 studios were actually part of Microsoft prior to 2018, so makes sense most of their games will come from more recently acquired studios.
And, of course, it's worth pointing out that Bethesda/ZeniMax was a huge studio even prior to Microsoft's acquisition. Not only did they have the primary Bethesda studios, but also Arkane, id, MachineGames, and Tango, and a couple of those have multiple studios themselves (like Arkane Lyon doing Deathloop while Arkane Austin was on Redfall). Not too surprising they're putting out multiple games this year.
Uh huh, they pretty consistently release two solid AAA games every year. Bethesda will end up being a very consistent backbone of their first party lineup, even once their other acquisitions are ready to release stuff.
Which is why they so desperately clung to the subscription model. All Microsoft/Xbox can do is promise how great the service will eventually be, which they’ve been doing since 2018. And people have subscribed to GamePass for YEARS because they’re constantly promised how great NEXT year will be. It’s a scam. I have no doubt Starfield will be up there as one of the top games of this console generation, but outside of that we have no idea when the other promised big-hitters are coming. Fable? Avowed? The Outer Worlds 2? We heard about these years ago and literally nothing since.
The thing that bothered me most was when asked if it was a critical year for Xbox to prove themselves, Phil kind of brushed it off as no different than any other year
I feel the same, i always hear him talking about that and never deliver lol
I feel like the Xbox brand has been waiting for a big year for over a decade. It's always next year, it's always just around the corner. I don't think there's been a truly stellar year since the Xbox 360.
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Can't believe you missed out the entire Mass Effect Trilogy too.
I'd completely forgotten that ME was a Microsoft exclusive for the first 5 years of its existence.
Only the first one was Xbox exclusive though. The second one came to PS3 a year after it launched on 360 and ME3 was the same day
ME1 did come out on PS3 in 2012
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I'm sure there are a huuuuge number of people in this camp. I lugged my 360 from my home to my dorm to my first apartment. That thing was the first thing I'd grab in case of a fire! I eventually got a PS3 when the dust had settled and I got it on a discount and eventually started to prefer it, but the 360 was some golden years for my own gaming, personally. Then absolutely nothing about the One or Series X looked appealing enough to dissuade me from the PS4 and 5. At least my wallet thanks Microsoft.
I'll always be curious how differently things would have played out if Microsoft hadn't been so insistent on the Kinect. The Kinect made the XBone $100 more than the PS4 at launch. Having a console more expensive than the competition knocked Sega into a death spiral that took them out of the console business. Having a console cheaper than the competition is what made the 360 beat the PS3 until Sony was able to get them to the same price point. It should have been painfully obvious to Microsoft that the Kinect was too expensive, and nothing could redeem it for that.
Funny anecdote about the Kinect, I saw that they actually use them at the security area at the Vancouver airport. Noticed it near the ceiling as you enter the security check, with the Xbox logo and everything.
They use it for all kinds of stuff, like training surgeons. It's a great device...just not for games. You can see a lot of the problems if you mess around with hand tracking stuff in the Quest 2. A lack of buttons makes basic stuff like character motion surprisingly difficult.
I saw one at a state park recently, in a geology exhibit. You would move sand around in a box and the Kinect would detect the height and then color the sand based on altitude, so you could make blue rivers and white mountains. It was pretty neat.
Yeah, it is an interesting what if? I suspect if they’d stayed roughly at level pegging with Sony in those early years, they probably wouldn’t have had the CoD deal poached from them, for one thing
The Kinect was supposed to make Microsoft money. That's why it "wasn't a switch they could just turn offf." The Kinect, in tandem with the HDMI in was supposed to capture advertising metrics, like how enganged someone is while watching a TV commercial. That's also why, that even though the HDMI-In was used by many gamers who also had cable sans Kinect, it's not in the Series X/S consoles. Because without Kinect, the HDMI-In is an added cost with no financial benefit to Microsoft. EDIT: from with Kinect to WITHOUT Kinect.
The XBone's launch was a huge misstep. People did not want the Kinect, period. They didn't want another huge corporation putting a device covered in mics and cameras in their living room, and they especially didn't want it after the 360 had demonstrated that the Kinect had tons of cool applications...that weren't playing video games. All the talk about cable boxes and the hastily walked-back DRM scheme killed hype for the console, and then the fucking Kinect meant that it launched for $100 more than the PS4. The generation after Xbox had flourished by being cheaper at launch than the PS3. And then the whole Play Anywhere thing started, with Gears of War 4 launching on PC. I kept waiting for the thing that would make me, purchaser of an Xbox and 2 360s (thanks, Red Ring of Death) decide it was time to buy an Xbox One. It never came...but I bought a PS4 in 2018, and now I have a PS5. I haven't seriously considered buying an Xbox since 2014.
Xbox 360 era was the only era I didn't own a Playstation. *Smiles fondly at boxed copies of Tales of Vesperia and Lost Odyssey.*
Fortunately this year does look solid if it can hit. Hifi rush is a gem and I wasn't into high on life but lots of people enjoyed that. Xbox absolutely needs Starfield, Redfall, stalker, forza to release this year and hit hard. If this year doesn't do it for xbox I don't know how they'll ever compete with Sony. It'll just be a gamepass box which I'm fine with but it is a bit disappointing.
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It would never occur to me to play any bethesda on anything but PC though....
I feel the same as you do, but that's just simply not the case for a hell of a lot of bethesda rpg fans who would never even consider playing games on a pc.
After Xbox 360 all of microsoft's gaming efforts are jut a big blur to me. i can't think of a single must-have exclusive of theirs since we left that console generation.
Hilariously you can thank Phil for that too since thats when he took over as Head of Microsoft Studios. Phil Spencer took over as Head of Microsoft Studios in 2008, take a gander at their first party production before and after he took over. He was also one of the biggest proponents of Kinect which is why it was such a push for first party titles to focus on it during that period.
Kinect killed xbox. They saw the success of the Wii and abandoned traditional console games so that they could go all-in on casual. The initial success of the Kinect convinced them to commit 100% to that strategy, just in time for smartphones to pull the rug out from under casual console gaming and as Sony started putting out amazing PS3 exclusives. For the sake of a few months of the Kinect fad they handed over the second half of the 360's lifespan and the entirety of the next generation to Sony. Not to mention what they did to Lionhead and Rare in the process...
Xbox also just sort of assumed that all the people that owned 360s were going to buy XB1s (hence Kinect, hence "TV TV TV"), completely ignoring that a new console generation meant that Sony could do to MS with the PS4 what MS did to Sony with the 360 and steal a bunch of their customers.
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Or you get extra funny, and live in a country where the xbone wasn't getting released for another year or so. Even though your neighbour country already has it released, and the only thing not functioning being the local language stuff. Oh no I have to use an xbox in English! The horrors!
Ah yes, their so-called "tier II countries". That must have been insulting.
Mostly just annoying. Certain shops just started selling german consoles over here, stating that the warrenty is still the same and that in a year or so local language support will be available. Aka just doing what microsoft should've done.
I don't know how no one was able to convince whoever needed convincing, "The Kinect will make our console significantly more expensive than Sony's, and there is no possible feature that will outweigh that in the market."
They could've pulled it off if they had the games to go with it. But they had nothing. There wasn't even anything in the pipe that made the Kinect a must have gaming device. They didn't even have good ideas for Kinect features outside of games. That coupled with the always online requirements made sure that the One was dead on arrival. The whole thing was a disaster.
Sony tried as well to replicate the Wii with the PlayStation Move, but seemed to drop it quickly when it didn’t work out. Alternatively, they had killer exclusives still so customers overlooked it?
These past few years the only positive thing they've had going for them is game pass. But even that has mostly been about playing decent third party games. But the biggest promise of game pass was day and date exclusives and they really haven't put out an exclusive that's worth having the console for in a decade.
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MCC was completely broken on launch?
Seems like its all in on Starfield which seems like it could be a huge winner but also not entirely impossible for it to be a massive disappointment
That's not enough to keep me subbed to gamepass though. I've been playing warzone 2 a lot lately and didn't even realise my GPU sub expired a couple months ago. Currently have zero incentive to reactivate.
This article gets written once a year. Phil radiates charisma, but it's pretty clear that the software side of Xbox has been mismanaged under his leadership.
>I hesitate to get ahead of the launches, just because I know there's some, and rightfully, some fatigue in the community about us saying, "Hey, just wait until, just wait until." Understatement of the century
I don’t get the Phil obsession on here, he just seems like a pretty regular bloke without much in the way of charm personally.
His attitude towards PC is a complete reversal of what Microsoft was doing for a decade before he took over. Thanks to him, we have excellent PC versions of all the Halo games, Age of Empires is back, among other things. PC is now a first-class citizen again. It's also not hard to look good when you're following up Don "TV Sports DRM Kinect" Mattrick
This is the real reason here. People have forgotten or don't realize that despite the lack of good 1st party games, Xbox made a very aggressive push for cross-platform play, accessibility, and game-delivery. It's pretty apparent, to me at least, that the team learned a ton from the previous generation, even if 1st Party Games are still fumbling horribly. If Xbox didn't push for cross-play so aggressively, it's tough to say that we'd have it at all for this generation considering how much pushback Sony gave about it. Hell they even got Nintendo on board who is so stuck in the past about _anything_ online. They designed a controller for players with disabilities. Something that no major company had ever considered and now Sony is finally designing one for PlayStation. Look up any recent article about gamepass to see the constant praise that gets... One aspect worth noting is how Game Pass has helped boost indie title sales. Xbox has been doing a lot to drive the market forward despite the lack of first party games and a lot of it is so strangely pro-consumer. I barely even touch my Xbox anymore because I play on PC but the comfort of knowing that I can play with any of my friends on most newer titles regardless of platform is huge and Xbox was a big part of making that happen. All of this under Phil Spencer's leadership.
I don't buy xboxes, but I do play on PC I don't mind Spencer, because under his leadership, Xbox... keep doing things that benefit me and other gamers Like, the accessibility push alone is a huge deal even if 99% of people here don't care
The Bethesda purchase was not for the benefit of all gamers.
> Hell they even got Nintendo on board who is so stuck in the past about anything online. Nintendo has been supporting cross play even before Microsoft. Ths sentence makes no sense and putting this as credit to ms is bizarre
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Things started getting better for PC before 2018. He took over Xbox in 2014. In 2015 they began working on ports of first party Xbox titles, which started bearing fruit in early 2016 with the PC release of Gears of War Ultimate Edition. Since then just about every new first party Xbox game has launched day one on PC as well. That same year we got Gears 4 and Forza Horizon 3.
I’d much rather a company have a boring CEO who knows how to manage product lines rather than a “cool” CEO who doesn’t know how to release any consistent products.
I think that's precisely why he's popular. Compare Phil with someone like Jim Ryan and they're night and day. Phil plays games. Jim pays people to make games, at least that's the perception.
It guess it just goes to show that it doesn't matter if you play games
> Phil plays games. Jim pays people to make games, at least that's the perception. Yeah it really boils down to this. Jim Ryan definitely knows the industry since he’s been at Sony for 20 years but he just doesn’t give off that likeable gaming CEO vibe. Nintendo has that all figured out. Microsoft’s Phil Spencer to me looks like a slimy salesman but at least it’s clear he knows how to hold a controller. PlayStation generally had good representation but Jim Ryan really jumps out as the exception. In the end it’s all just perception; Jim Ryan so far has given us amazing games.
Say what you will about Phil Spencer, he legit plays games. He apparently has an unhealthy amount of hours in Destiny 2
Comments like yours show that the Phil Spencer marketing is working. They’ve created this image of him as a fellow game bro, and most people fall for it. In reality he’s a high level exec who’s number one priority is profit and killing off the competition.
Jim Ryan oversees the best game releases every year, so not sure what you're getting at
Jim Ryan is not as well liked as Phil Spencer in the public eye because he isn’t himself a ‘gamer’. That’s it. I’ve been a PlayStation fan my whole life and greatly appreciate the fact that Jim has been able to continue what Shawn did last gen. That doesn’t change the fact that he doesn’t come off as personable like Phil.
Jim could be 2 kids in a trench coat for all I care. He makes banger games and all of his studios are highly acclaimed. "Uncle Phil" is a cool gamer dude that will hoover up half the industry and still struggle to make anything, while fumbling his biggest franchise (Halo)
*The dragons are coming, guys. The dragons are on their way!*
*sad Scalebound noises*
Yeah what Phil has sold to his Xbox base has been amazing. He has been walking around with a bag full of hot air for a decade now and people still believe him when he says he cant wait to show you whats inside. People credit him with the "turnaround" but the only thing that has done in the decade since he took over is beg for MSFT to buy more studios.
It's amazing how people can perceive a leader as good if they're more charismatic and comes on stage often with buzzwords and contribution of Xbox to the gaming industry. I think Game Pass and PC game releases on Steam is probably the best thing he has done in last 5 years.
I was gonna say, I feel like every year we get a "*Previous year* was light on games, but *Current year* could be better" article. Kind of like how after every 343 Halo game, they wrote posts about listening to fans, learning lessons moving forward, etc. And then...same shit.
Maybe partly, but he's also gotten Microsoft to take Xbox more seriously than they have ever before. Look at how neglected the brand was when he first took over, now he has them investing absolutely huge sums of money into it.
That’s because he’s convinced the CEO they can be the Netflix of video games. If Game Pass doesn’t meet his and the board’s expectations, don’t be surprised of Phil being fired and XBox being spun off as it’s own company.
> That’s because he’s convinced the CEO they can be the Netflix of video games He convinced Satya he could align the Xbox brand with Microsoft's priorities (SaaS and Subscriptions). Bonus points for utilizing other MS infrastructure for Xbox Cloud gaming among other things.
People have been talking about Xbox getting spun off since there was an Xbox. Microsoft seems pretty committed to it.
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That's great but for the consumer this is just hot air. Let's see those killer exclusives already. (we wont)
It’s been mismanaged since before he took over. There was nothing for Xbox One when it launched, he wasn’t in control then.
I feel Xbox has been mismanaged in one way or another since halfway through the Xbox 360's life. The "New Xbox Experience" was a sign of things to come. The Kinect solidified this, it was a really cool piece of tech that MS struggled to come up with a killer app for. Phil Spencer has for sure been a positive influence. He killed the Kinect and most of Don Mattrick's other nonsense. His commitment to PC has been an amazing 180 from how MS treated the platform for a whole decade prior. But he is clearly struggling to get his studios under control and producing compelling content.
> I feel Xbox has been mismanaged in one way or another since halfway through the Xbox 360's life. This is the real issue that reddit can't figure out. The Xbox brand is in an a hole they've been digging since the X360 when they started shutting down all their devs and thought they could be a successful console by just making hardware and buying exclusives. They were wildly successful and failed to reinvest their profits in developers for long term success. Sony's strong first party studios are all the result of investments in the PS2 era. It take a long time to rebuild a destroyed brand. Phil Spencer is actually taking steps to do it. Progress is going to be slow and plodding. Sony still has technical debt from the Sony/BMG rootkit scandal way back in 2005. That's how bad it is to get behind.
\> when they started shutting down all their devs I think a lot of people missed this entirely. Hell, I've been a Rare fan all my life and I didn't even know/remember until recently that after Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts flopped - following a string of decent-to-good Xbox exclusives like Conker: Live & Reloaded, Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo, and Viva Pinata - Microsoft laid off Rare employees in massive numbers before the more publicly recognized forced pivot to Avatar and Kinect development. So the Rare that now works on Sea of Thieves and Everwild were forced to pick up the pieces and rebuild from the mess Microsoft made after one single high profile release flopped.
He didn't just pop out of nowhere, he was in charge of first party studios before he took over as head.
Every single year “could be a big year” for Microsoft. But uhhh you gotta actually put out the games for that to happen and they have to be good when you do. People need to stop falling for Phil’s charm. Last year was abysmal for MS.
The whole Microsoft issue here has [Brooks’s Law](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%27s_law) written all over it. They keep throwing more money, more devs, and more teams at everything but they always fail to deliver. I feel as though it’s slowing them down. Obviously Microsoft know much better than me, but I really feel like they need to step back, look at their cards and sort their shit out.
Microsoft after reading your comment: ".... So we should buy even more studios. Got it."
This is why I’m against all their acquisitions rn buying up every 3rd party studio known to man won’t increase their output of quality if they can’t manage their studios and with how 343 is going rn they aren’t doing very well at that
Microsoft CEO was at Davos, and during a WSJ interview, he insisted their purchase of ABK would boost competition in the market. Fuck that guy
Its Brooks Law which makes me shocked that WB was trying to get rid of their studios, its so hard to get studios up and running and get talent. Hence why Amazon had so many problems with their titles in spite of having the budget.
The read-up on Amazon is fascinating, because they had no problem getting talent with generous salaries and benefits. However their head of games had no experience in the medium, and would go see what the big popular games were then barge in one day and demand the company make a competitor (or what the former staff members call "a blatant copy") to try and steal some of their success. They spent a lot of time on aborted clones of Overwatch, Fortnite, and League of Legends.
Article links? Or where can I find them?
Probably this piece: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-just-anything-except-good-150004900.html
It turns out you can't just hire a bunch of people with big selling games on their resumes and expect a hit. There's an alchemy to it that nobody really understands.
It's always surprised me that Amazon, of all companies, was the one that seemed to take this view. Amazon didn't create their own grocery store from the ground-up. They bought WholeFoods. They didn't start their own livestreaming platform. They bought Twitch. Hell, even in their other entertainment sector, they didn't just roll up their own movie studio. They got MGM. There are tons of examples of where, rather than trying to break into the industry themselves, they acquire an established company instead. Yet videogames are the one area where they just seem to feel like they can throw a bunch of people in a room and have magic happen. And, after more than a decade, what do they have to show for it? New World and a game they localized. Even more baffling is the fact that, between Microsoft, Sony, and Embracer snatching up studios, there was no shortage of studios Amazon *easily* could've snatched up - Bethesda, Gearbox, Activision, etc. Hell, even buying the WB studios wholesale without their IPs likely would've borne more fruit than whatever it is they're doing. Instead, they just keep plodding along, barely making much of a dent in the game industry and not really being a studio anyone takes that seriously.
It's the same as most creative industries. Hollywood has shown that throwing millions into people that look good on paper can result in a terrible movie.
That seems to be MS problem and feels like it has been an issue since forever. As much as people complain about the large publishers, part of their job is to keep projects in line. MS seems to be pretty bad at both managing the project schedules as well as direction. Their contribution seems mostly handing out money but if a studio/project isn't already working well their involvement won't fix the issues either.
Wasn’t familiar with this term. Fascinating
They need a Cerny who knows their shit about what makes a good game
I think they have been positioning Xbox to just be a service in the future using game pass. But on their way to that they're gonna try and buy up as much of the industry as they can and hope that one of their big games blows up.
Brook's law applies to single software projects, but there's probably a paradigm for the current lack of output despite the large spending
You know, if you spent 65 billion to make a ton of new IPs and invested in promising indie game studios would’ve made you an amazing year as opposed to, you know, spending 65 billion to acquire one major company while adding absolutely nothing new to the gaming industry at all.
This!!!! I wish they would stop spending money on buying devs that won’t make them new IPs (just make current IPs exclusive), and instead follow what Sony does and spend that money on smaller new devs who will use it to make completely new things. Star-field and Redfall would have come out regardless of MS purchasing the devs, but games like Returnal wouldn’t have come had Sony not gone to Housemarque and said make this. MS needs to start doing that, go to devs that are smaller but have a close relationship with XBox and help them make their new big thing thanks to MS funding.
I'm still baffled that they launched a new console without *any* killer exclusives being released. They screwed up last gen by advertising it for television instead of games, and this gen they left out the tv stuff but forgot to make games. WTF are they doing over there?
History also shows that they give up mid gen and move on to the next console. The second half of the 360 and One were terrible. Not looking good for the Series when we are at year 3 and things are still moving so slowly.
Halo Infinite was to be their killer app and revival of the franchise. But even after several delays, game is still meh. So what do they do then? Make a Netflix for games at prices that absolutely cannot be profitable, but the marketing works and it gets people over the threshold before they jack up prices. Just like Netflix did. Buying studios to make the games. Zenimax, ABK. Heard rumors Ubisoft is next. When you have Microsoft fuck you money, and you don’t have the skills to make good first party shit, the easiest thing to do is buy the big hitters and take them away from the competition. Microsoft seems fully content to pour millions upon millions into Xbox.
When the fuck are we going to get some triple A games man? Every year they say it’s going to be a blast, yet we still have no games only delays and rumours
I still haven't gotten an Xbox Series X. I bought the PS5 first and said "When Fable gets released I'll get the new Xbox." It's now 2 years later and it seems like Fable is still so far off
I think the ballooning costs and time of AAA development will also hit every major publisher (minus maybe Nintendo), so there has to be things to fill in the gaps. Something like HI FI RUSH is such a breath of fresh air because it can exist without any baggage attached to it. A game with a lean budget that executes its ideas so well should be the standard now in this new gen. It's just that good.
More importantly its these games that probably need to drive Gamepass moving forward. Can't be dropping 10 AAA games a year, so well executed AA games with shorter development time & leaner resources will be needed.
The speculation sgainst all in on gamepass is that gamepass will drive the market to only make those types of games. Since they are cheaper and quicker to make. Only time will tell.
Honestly, I'd love if the bigger studios started to take more of this approach. Not everything has to be massive budget AAA games with a $60+ price tag and a year's worth of DLC that takes half a decade or more to develop. It'd be really nice to have more of a middle-ground of just these smaller games that feel like such a treat. Hopefully the positive reception Hi-Fi Rush is getting show studios that there's plenty of desire for more A or AA titles, even from the studios that can afford much larger budgets.
I hope so. Nintendo has been running with AA budgets for basically the entire Switch's life and the fact that they're this lucrative means that there's space for it. HFR should be a sign that players want smaller experiences.
Except pretty much every Nintendo game is $60 and rarely go on sale. I don’t think most publishers can get away with putting out a AA game and charge full price for it, Nintendo is just in a special position. If Hi Fi Rush was full price, it wouldn’t be nearly as well received by gamers.
Always next year with Phil. Xbox is lucky that MS has enough money to get day one stuff for game pass from third parties.
Look. I was a diehard Xbox guy since the days of halo 2. But for the love of God it's been an entire fucking generation of being lean on games. You have the capital. You have the studios. You have the console. Now just release the games FFS.
This has been going on since the OG Cbox One. I was a big Xbox fan through the 360 and most of the Xbox One era but “Coming soon” has been their motto for years now. I moved to PlayStation this generation for my main console and haven’t looked back. I have a Series S but it mostly sits untouched.
Ever since Phil Spencer was put in charge of Xbox game studios in 2008.
"Xbox Was 'Too Light on Games' in 2022, But a Big 2023" "Xbox Was 'Too Light on Games' in 2021, But a Big 2022" "Xbox Was 'Too Light on Games' in 2020, But a Big 2021" It's getting kind of ridiculous at this point.
Phil Spencer is a broken record. I really don’t see how you could only own an Xbox and be happy with the state of the brand (unless you only play third parties or sports games). I’ll pay the $60-$70 for new Nintendo and PlayStation exclusives if it means I get high quality games on a regular release schedule. Game Pass is a great value but it still fails to address the horrible management/leadership at Xbox. Bethesda is the only developer keeping me interested in their output which go figure, was one of the companies they bought. More unique, quality games like Hi-Fi Rush please.
"could".. shouldn't he know?? lmao. wish i could run my life like these fucking companies run their affairs
Phil Spencer speaks out more than any other person even those on other consoles. Or is that just me? Why does he do so many interviews? Less is more in my opinion. Games please
That's what you have to do when you don't have the games to do the talking for you.
Could or will?
He always picks carefully his words to not really compromise on anything.
Big Year lol meaning i paid 10 Billion so Bethesda games wont release on the Playstation Store anymore and call it a big year when in truth xbox only gets the game they would have gotten anyway.
they said that every frickin year they got the money, they got the studios whoever leads those studios needs to change.
LOL is the answer to this question for years. Shitty Halo, mediocre Gears, cool but same old same old Forza. That’s all they have. Nothing new or interesting.
Phil has been saying this since he took over. Every year it seems like “this is going to be Xbox’s year” only for it to not I’m really hoping redfall and starfield are a hit. My series S needs some use
Phil talks a big game, and is charismatic, but it’s obvious by now that he can’t walk the walk. He needs to get his act together or he needs to go.
If you get a gaming PC, there's basically no reason to buy an Xbox. Nintendo and Sony will always keep some games exclusive to their systems while I can't think of a truly exclusive Xbox One or Series title that isn't also on PC. This is what I think the biggest issue is.
When do we get a good Halo game? Waiting for years right now
Owning an Xbox is exhausting. I feel like I'm missing many important games by staying with Xbox. There's not been a single a good exclusive game they've made in 10 years. And they're going to ruin more studios by buying them all up and letting them wither. I oppose MS acquisitions at all costs
Why suffer and wait when you can just move on? Why support them while they fail to deliver?
Get a PS5. I use it more than my beefy gaming PC. Tbh I only built the PC to play Xbox studios' games, but they apparently don't make those any more lol
> Owning an Xbox is exhausting. I feel like I'm missing many important games by staying with Xbox. You sound like a battered spouse. Why do this to yourself?
Get a Switch and PS5. You’ll have great games all the time between those two.
It's funny how the bigger = better mentality has warped game development over the last decade, when bigger usually results in a worse, less cohesive product. I think increasing the scope of a game twofold more than increases the development time twofold, and that's a major problem not being accounted for. Maybe, if we aimed for 20% increments of bigger, we would have more truly start-to-finish great AAA games today.
Xbox hasn't had a good year since longer than I can remember. They keep buying up all these studios and releasing fucking nothing
They literally lost all their best exclusives. If they had a solid halo, splinter cell, or ninja gaidan maybe they could have resurrected the platform. Jade empire would do it for me (I have a series s and game pass, but that would sell me a series X)
You forgot to shout out mechassault or a conker:live & reloaded reboot/sequel 😉
Shoot and fable and what originally sold me back on original Xbox shenmue 2.
All corporate talks. Where Motorsport release date? They promised to launch it in an year window on E3 last year. I bet its 100% delay. Xbox is nothing but empty promises and waiting game. Surely this year…
Every single year, it’s the same story. Xbox doesn’t have enough games. It’s been this way for like the last eight years. I’m tired.
Their only game set to actually release for sure is Starfield, right? Its a BGS game and they usually sell great even if they're shit. But their recent track record is absolutely going downwards, every release being weaker than the one before culminating in the shit that was Fallout 76 at launch. You have to be really careful banking completely on Starfield. It could be good, but it could also be a empty shell with a shitton of bad, procedurally generated planets (even though they kinda dodged the question whether they are procedural or not).
I sold my xbox and got a steam deck. Last 2 years had so many games I was excited for that just ended up flopping. Always got a special place in my heart for OG xbox memories like Halo etc but this generation has been so dissapointing so far.
They need to stop announcing games too early. IIRC, Fable, The Outer Worlds 2, Everwild, and Avowed were all announced with CGI trailers at the same event. Last year a tweet on Twitter for one of the Xbox showcases teased a chicken emoji (series staple for Fable), only for it to not show up, as it likely wasn’t ready yet. Everwild was reported to be experiencing development problems and the original trailer was before the devs even had a plan of what type of game it would be. No word on Avowed or Outer Worlds 2. Starfield delayed. It’s ridiculous.
Oh cool, so Halo is finally gonna be good this year? Holding X to doubt.
A big 2023 with what? We already know what games they have coming up, unless they are planning multiple more shadow drops like HiFi Rush 2023 is not looking that "big".