But in all honesty, as an xbox fan that thought xbox needs to step up their first party and thought so for years, this isn't the kind of statement you want to make or the type of thing you want to communicate. I think Microsoft's communication has been so flawless up to this point for series x, and everytime you think there's a glitch somewhere, it tends to involve matt booty seemingly clueless to the impact of his words. Even when it's seemingly innocent or expected, he just finds the worst way imaginable to say that thing to feed perfectly into whatever the most negative perception or concern is about buying an xbox.
Note to xbox, stop letting this guy talk. He's not doing a good job when he communicates. He most likely means well, but he appears either ignorant of how the things he says comes off, or knows and doesn't care, which is even worse. And that's coming from someone who is a big xbox fan. If I was Sony and I wanted to pay a top xbox guy right now to say exactly the thing I hoped or needed them to say, the drafted statement would sound almost near identical to what matt booty just said.
Know what I think about this now? I know playground will kill, I have full faith in Obsidian, I have high hopes in Ninja Theory, and there's other talent there also, but this statement worded as is makes you think like they may not necessarily have the freedom we thought they did. This sounded more like they're all being directed towards making smaller titles. And if I as a hardcore xbox fan now have less hope in the new acquisitions and have now more or less taken a mindset where it's like "alright then, let's go 343, let's go coalition, initiative, turn 10, rare etc" since I guess we expect THEM to make big titles right? How might some others view it? I'm an optimistic fellow, but this sounds to me like those teams don't have the freedom I thought they did, which is the perfect message you want to be sending right now I'm sure!
So, yea, I thought it wasn't that bad till i listened to it.