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[IGN Interview] Phil Spencer says Xbox Was 'Too Light on Games' in 2022, But a Big 2023 Could Await

greg fitzsimmons laughing GIF by Patrick Smith
Becareful, I got banned on the Activision merger thread for posting a cartoon star fish laughing.
 

The thing about 2017 is they hyped up scorpio so hard, they even gave out T-shirts at the reveal about how the audience saw the most powerful thing ever, and were talking about and hyping games, but then people freaked out when the games shown during the conference had a narrator shouting "console launch exclusive" and the internet had one of the most hilarious meltdowns I've yet to see again.

Technically, they launched the Xbox One X (scropio) without any major games, and they were overhyping stuff like Super Luckys tale.
 

Fess

Member
He needs to stop talking. Just do another event, for Starfield, then Fable, then Hellblade 2, then Perfect Dark, then show glimpses of future stuff from devs not talked about so much.
For certain games even a logo is enough. Like if we’d know a new Killer Instinct is being made, or another Ori, or a Viva Pinata UE5 remake (please do it!)
 
Like if we’d know a new Killer Instinct is being made

Unless they got people to make it in-house, that's going to be a problem because all the TP fighting game studios that can make a high-production are all scooped up or closed right now. Or are working on their own big games.

There's pretty much no one available to make it. If they want a series like that to keep going they would have to stop contracting out and go internal, but none of the studios they brought were involved with fighting games so that would be years of testing, concepts, and development.
 

Fess

Member
Unless they got people to make it in-house, that's going to be a problem because all the TP fighting game studios that can make a high-production are all scooped up or closed right now. Or are working on their own big games.

There's pretty much no one available to make it. If they want a series like that to keep going they would have to stop contracting out and go internal, but none of the studios they brought were involved with fighting games so that would be years of testing, concepts, and development.
Yeah I know the problems but they can hire a third party dev to do one. Is there a new Soul Calibur coming? If not then that team could do it. Or they could hire Itagaki’s new studio and pump in a big pile of money, he used to like Xbox.
 
Yeah I know the problems but they can hire a third party dev to do one. Is there a new Soul Calibur coming? If not then that team could do it. Or they could hire Itagaki’s new studio and pump in a big pile of money, he used to like Xbox.

No they can't, there's no third-party team they can make a KI game that isn't dead, scooped up, or working on something. Soul Calibur team is likely not sitting around doing nothing, and isn't really a team that can make a KI game. In fact, I think they are helping with the new Tekken and other things.

SC is a different type of games. Them trying to make something like KI would be a big change and would take a long time even if MS though of the idea two years ago. Microsoft is also not going to overspend since KI while successful with millions of players, wasn't a big cashcow.
 

Fess

Member
No they can't, there's no third-party team they can make a KI game that isn't dead, scooped up, or working on something. Soul Calibur team is likely not sitting around doing nothing, and isn't really a team that can make a KI game. In fact, I think they are helping with the new Tekken and other things.

SC is a different type of games. Them trying to make something like KI would be a big change and would take a long time even if MS though of the idea two years ago. Microsoft is also not going to overspend since KI while successful with millions of players, wasn't a big cashcow.
Bandai Namco made Smash, they could do KI justice as well, and the IP is still popular. Could go leftfield and make a beat’em up or open world adventure or just about anything else with the IP too, can’t just bury it.
 

Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
I used to defend Xbox's lacklustre release schedule due to the impact that covid had on game development, but this is starting to approach a joke. It's made worse by how radio silent they are over the games we know are coming. Over 3 years since Hellblade II was announced and we've only had a couple of trailers. Avowed revealed before the Series launch and nothing since. Same with Fable and State of Decay 3. Perfect Dark reveal was over 2 years ago now. Also 2 years since Indiana Jones and all we have is a 30 second trailer showing artwork. Where's Gears? Compulsion's game? Double Fine used to churn out multiple games per year and only made Psychonauts 2 in 2021, what else are they doing?
Bruh, you're talking about marque titles. Essentially frontrunner bangers with huge expectations throughout the gaming community! Regardless if we like it or not, these Kats ain't gonna just show shit just to prove something to the masses. It's better just to keep it on the DL and keep working on them, regardless if gamers are annoyed by it, than to show something that isn't ready!

Y'all don't like to think ahead. Xbox hasnt released a lot of first party games, but the ones they have released, have been very polished, and most, very successful. If I'm Ninja Theory (for example) I'm not showing Jack shit until my game lives up to the new standards set by other XGS titles that has seen successful releases. Fucking HIFI is another one!

If I can't at least show my vision in a near flawless state as my XGS brethren, I don't care what the community wants. I'm going to make sure my game shines. Not some half baked attempt just to quiet gamers from asking questions or becoming frustrated for news. Y'all MFs will get over it. When the game is ready, it's ready. Non negotiable.

That's my thinking.
 
Bandai Namco made Smash, they could do KI justice as well, and the IP is still popular. Could go leftfield and make a beat’em up or open world adventure or just about anything else with the IP too, can’t just bury it.

For some reason you think not only is Smash similar to a traditional fighting game, and that the team is currently doing nothing right now (huh?), but also for some reason believe they can make KI, a completely different game with a completely different concept, which will require more complexity to design. That would require a long dev time to get up to speed and take advantage of a new budget which may not be a risk MS will take given how that's backfired on them a few times.

KI isn't in a position right now for a major spin-off, it needs another good release first for the mindshare before MS will invest money in things like that. The original has millions of players (6 or 7 I believe) but there was a gap in between switching devs, and now they have no dev.
 
Same excuse being made over and over.
”There’s not much he can do” Does he have a gun pointed at him to do these
”interviews”. Also these are not real interviews with hard questions, this is just a fluff piece. Not a singel hard question being asked here.

For example:

”Why do you keep promising and underdelivering for so long?

”Why did you let Halo be mistreated by 343i, you clearly knew about it and did nothing?

”You made it clear that you’re against exlusive deals. So why are you buying up pubs to take away games from other platforms and make them exclusive”

”Why do you keep on lying every time you open your mouth” 🤣

Etc.
Excuse? He is answering the question. I mean, you can't be more honest than saying "yeah, we failed our customers, and as the head of the company that's on me".
To try and make a mountain out of that is ridiculous.

As regards to questions asked, I'm not sure a Sony fanboys questions are worthy of asking.
Same goes for if Jim Ryan is interviewed and he isn't asked

"Why did you lie about Sony believing in generations?"
"Why are you a hypocrite by trying to stop MS getting exclusive content when you spend hundreds of millions to take content away from Xbox gamers?"

Leave the hot fanboy takes for twitter replies.

People should be happy that Phil has turned around Xbox. Competition breeds innovation. It makes each company more driven to do better.
And hey, at the end of the day if that means Sony has 30 exclusive games you really want to play, and Xbox has 30 games you really want to play, buy both consoles and you will have 60 good games to play.
 

FeralEcho

Member
I'll take 100 AA games on par with High on Life, Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, Psychonauts 2 over 1 AAA game and call it a colossal victory. These AA games are the foundation upon which the future of gaming will be built, while a studio that pumps out some airline food AAA blockbuster every five years just absolutely kills all the momentum.
Tell us where the AAA game touched you ...

Sad Season 2 GIF by Friends
 

kyussman

Member
I think they need to buy some more studios......then they can make sure they've always got stuff coming out,lol.
 
If these idiots release Starfield in the first half of 2023, all is forgotten and forgiven. I want this damn game!

Them surprising us at a showcase that Starfield is coming out before summer, would be quite the surpirse, assuming it's before May and doesn't share the same month at Redfall.

Problem is one MS guy (or leaker?) Said Starfield releases after Redfall.

But if the rumor that the game is finished and playable tot he end is true, which I assume was probably the case last year before they decided to delay ahead of time, it really depends on how long it will take them to polish it before going gold. By polish I mean debug.
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
At some point someone is going to point back to these “it’s on me” “our team” “our/my plan” and see the pattern lol.

The humble man approach is so fake here haha. This dude lost most of his good favor the last 3 years.

I’m looking forward to more gamepass goodness this year though . Thanks for saving me money Phil.
 
The real tragedy of this, is that Xbox game development must have been in an abysmal state before the Bethesda purchase.

Thier biggest franchise, Halo, is at an all time low in terms of public perception. The studio couldn't handle the IP and now they've just suffered huge layoffs, which will likely make things worse. Outside of Forza, which although very high quality is super niche, 2023 is literally the Bethesda and Mojang show.

Without their recent purchases Xbox would be going into 2023 with literally nothing to show other than Forza. Thier lack of clarity regarding the year as a whole, further proves they lack confidence in the projects planned for this year. They are desperately hoping the ActiBlizz deal goes through so they can give themselves a huge PR swing and game release boost.
 

azertydu91

Hard to Kill
The real tragedy of this, is that Xbox game development must have been in an abysmal state before the Bethesda purchase.

Thier biggest franchise, Halo, is at an all time low in terms of public perception. The studio couldn't handle the IP and now they've just suffered huge layoffs, which will likely make things worse. Outside of Forza, which although very high quality is super niche, 2023 is literally the Bethesda and Mojang show.

Without their recent purchases Xbox would be going into 2023 with literally nothing to show other than Forza. Thier lack of clarity regarding the year as a whole, further proves they lack confidence in the projects planned for this year. They are desperately hoping the ActiBlizz deal goes through so they can give themselves a huge PR swing and game release boost.
Even worse they barely had any involvment in said games (except for mojang ofc) considering how recent the ZEN/Beth aquisition finalised, we'll see how they will managed these studios in their upcoming games after Starfield etc...
 
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