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Xbox Boss On Microsoft’s Struggles With Game Quality And Efforts To Improve It

Whatever the strengths of the Xbox platform, it’s long lagged behind Nintendo and Sony in terms of homegrown, exclusive video games. There have been highlights in its history and even some stellar games of late, such as last year’s Forza Horizon 4, but the Xbox One era has been rough. There have...

kotaku.com

Whatever the strengths of the Xbox platform, it’s long lagged behind Nintendo and Sony in terms of homegrown, exclusive video games. There have been highlights in its history and even some stellar games of late, such as last year’s Forza Horizon 4, but the Xbox One era has been rough. There have been prominent cancellations, disappointing sequels and games that under-delivered given how long fans were waiting for them.

In recent years there have been hints of a coming turnaround. While Nintendo and Sony have turned out Game Of The Year contenders such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and God of War, Microsoft has slowed its development cycle for Halo games (and possibly Forza as well), and it has nurtured unusual exclusives like the zombie strategy adventure State of Day 2 and multiplayer-centric pirate game Sea Of Thieves with lengthy, game-improving post-release support. It’s also been building and buying game studios, announcing five such additions last E3, two more in the fall and adding longtime indie Double Fine to the mix this month.

With all this in mind, I spent some time at E3 last week asking Xbox boss Phil Spencer about the quality of the platform’s games. What follows is the final part of my E3 interview with Spencer, in which we approach the topic from a few angles and discuss the conditions for the people making those games as well.

Check the link for more.

 

[PuppetMaster]

Talk is cheap. Show us results Phil.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

Talk is cheap. Show us results Phil.

Patience, friend. It's not fair to judge them so soon when they're just putting the building blocks first. Lets see what the results will look like come next gen.

 

[Hendrick's]

Patience, friend. It's not fair to judge them so soon when they're just putting the building blocks first. Lets see what the results will look like come next gen.

Sad fact is that people will continue to beat up Xbox until we do see those results. I have faith in them personally, but many do not and many more just like to troll.

 

[VertigoOA]

I only expect quality from obsidian. And don’t expect to see that result in exclusive software until next gen.

MS sure made a ton of acquisitions but most are small pc studios... don’t care about doublefine.. I always hated psychanuats.

 

[Gavin Stevens]

Quality takes time. And Sony had the games everybody is moist about in the oven for years. The one everybody keeps crying about atm is the last of us 2, yet they forget that this title started development after they finished the first, at the end of the PS3 life cycle. Think how many years it’s been in development. Yet people expect MS to buy a studio and have a game out in a year.

Shit takes time. A lot of time. You won't see any of this stuff on the Xbox One, and you may not even see much on Xbox next at launch even.

It also doesn’t help that Sony have got very lucky with regards to picking their studios. Their first party IP are made by some of the most talented in the industry. Nothing even comes close to how their games look. Sometimes the games may be utter duds gameplay wise, but they usually look utterly incredible. To say otherwise would be idiotic and fanboyish.

I have no doubt MS are moving in the right direction, and given time and talent, could produce titles on par or even exceeding Sonys AAA development.

But this shit... takes time. And I’m not so sure many people will wait for that, sadly.

 

[TeamGhobad]

Talk is cheap. Show us results Phil.

15 studios is not enough? wait til e3 2020.

 

[Psykodad]

Patience, friend. It's not fair to judge them so soon when they're just putting the building blocks first. Lets see what the results will look like come next gen.

Haven't people been patient enough since the end of the first half of last-gen?

MS really needs to step it up, because what they've shown at E3 is mediocre or smokes-n-mirrors and I'm willing to bet that there is a pattern and Scarlett will only have a good start at best.

 

[Hendrick's]

Haven't people been patient enough since the end of the first half of last-gen?

MS really needs to step it up, because what they've shown at E3 is mediocre or smokes-n-mirrors and I'm willing to bet that there is a pattern and Scarlett will only have a good start at best.

God help us all if Scarlett has a good start.

 

[Psykodad]

God help us all if Scarlett has a good start.

It's not about having a good start, it's about keeping the quality going for an entire gen.
MS hasn't exactly proven themselves capable of doing that, compared to Nintendo and Sony who've been raising the bar with their big games continuously throughout each gen.

Funny how you try to twist my words though.

 

[nowhat]

15 studios is not enough? wait til e3 2020.

Development takes time, sure. I'm not sure we'll be seeing that much next year (in terms of releases, not announcements) either.

But "wait until E3 $CURRENT_YEAR+1" is really becoming a meme with Microsoft (fans). We were supposed to see some really mindblowing shit this year too.

 

[nush]

Haven't people been patient enough since the end of the first half of last-gen?

MS really needs to step it up, because what they've shown at E3 is mediocre or smokes-n-mirrors and I'm willing to bet that there is a pattern and Scarlett will only have a good start at best.

After a poor start out the gate msft have turned things around but fact of the matter is no killer game would have shifted hardware in any way that would have moved the needle (See Wii U). Instead they have used the gen to regroup and explore new strategies while playing it safe. The next Xbox will show the results from that strategy. Hopefully.

 

[Hendrick's]

It's not about having a good start, it's about keeping the quality going for an entire gen.
MS hasn't exactlt proven themselves capable of doing that, compared to Nintendo and Sony who've been raising the bar with their big games continuously throughout each gen.

Funny how you try to twist my words, btw.

I didn't twist your words, just pointed out how silly they were. Xbox as it is today is completely restructured and under new management. What happened in the past means very little imo.

 

[VAL0R]

I think Sony's IP "advantage" is so overblown. Nobody was saying this during the 360 era, that I can recall. Xbox One was mismanaged with a content dry spell. Microsoft has the greater IP, without question, in my mind.

 

[Psykodad]

After a poor start out the gate msft have turned things around but fact of the matter is no killer game would have shifted hardware in any way that would have moved the needle (See Wii U). Instead they have used the gen to regroup and explore new strategies while playing it safe. The next Xbox will show the results from that strategy. Hopefully.

How exactly did they turn things around? Because apart from buying studios and slowly taking away reasons to own their consoles, they haven't really done anything worthwhile, imo.

I didn't twist your words, just pointed out how silly they were. Xbox as it is today is completely restructured and under new management. What happened in the past means very little imo.

What is silly about facts?
MS output during the second half of last-gen was pisspoor and their output this second half has been pisspoor.

That's not even debateable.


All I'm saying is that if they want to stay relevant as a competitor to Sony and Nintendo, they need to step it up.
No need to act so defensively.

 

[JustP_Gaming]

Talk is cheap. Show us results Phil.

Truthfully as an Xbox fan, proof will be in the pudding as some might say. I agree with " Show us the results" at this point. I wont bash or congratulate until the good or bad games arrive.

 

[TeamGhobad]

Development takes time, sure. I'm not sure we'll be seeing that much next year (in terms of releases, not announcements) either.

But "wait until E3 $CURRENT_YEAR+1" is really becoming a meme with Microsoft (fans). We were supposed to see some really mindblowing shit this year too.

2020 will be all about trailers. ofc they wont come out. but we get to see what all those studios are working on.

 

[Wimbledon]

sorry in advance if this is to image heavy

I thought of Sea Of Thieves and Sunset Overdrive was a step in the right direction. More of this would be good.

I hope one of the studios is doing a space opera RPG maybe like a mass effect or a witcher where we role-play a defined character, with space travel that would be nice. I just need more sci-fi in my veins.

I'd like a unique plat-former. I know the chances are slim but i miss titles like Blinx from the old Xbox. MS probably won't invest in a platformer and put the resources into it ala mario , not without mixing the genre with something else but still i would like a big platform from them. (HOPEFULLY DOUBLE FINE IS THAT STUDIO)

I also said that i wanted Fable back but i wanted them to do a reboot on the series. To me it needs to be different it can still have the dark humor but it needs to be a darker title. I'm sure if MS is working on a fable title there definitely following the trend of GoT and adding that to it. If not fable than have some action RPG in the works.



If Microsoft can do any of the above then i'm happy.

 

[BlackTron]

Ok, I'm not saying I predict MS will fail, but I don't see how anyone can predict at this point they will succeed either.

They've been failing since the tail end of 360 with the kinect stuff, and now they have to prove something. The fact that they are trying a different strategy isn't proof of anything.

MS has a bad tendency to ruin studios that they buy up. I can't see the future so I can't predict it will keep happening, but all the people acting like everything will be great now, apparently, can't see the past.

It's all talk until the actual games materialize.

 

[-MD-]

15 studios is not enough? wait til e3 2020.

I've been hearing "wait until next year" when it comes to Xbox for over a decade straight, nothing ever happens.

 

[TeamGhobad]

I've been hearing "wait until next year" when it comes to Xbox for over a decade straight, nothing ever happens.

true but 2020 is the date. all those studios are working on nexgen games. we will see their trailers trust me.

 

[-MD-]

true but 2020 is the date. all those studios are working on nexgen games. we will see their trailers trust me.

We'll see, I'd like to see them actually be competitive again in the software space. Ever since the kinect era their quality and output has been abysmal.

 

[wipeout364]

I blame Don Mattrick and Steve Balmer. Mattrick for gutting microsoft studios, focusing on Kinect and putting the focus on games as service before everything else, ie development by monetization design first then game second.

But most of all I blame Steve Balmer who is an idiot, who as head of a technology company had vision and direction that extended as far as the end of his nose which was most of the time stuck in his wallet.

Balmer basically let google, Sony and apple make them look like total idiots. Sony gave them the generation with the PS3 launch and Mattrick and Balmer still made a mess out of it.

 

[TeamGhobad]

We'll see, I'd like to see them actually be competitive again in the software space. Ever since the kinect era their quality and output has been abysmal.

500 millon dollar Halo, The Initiative game, Obsidians next game. These are the AAA games

Then we have about 12 studios creating AA and indie games.

 

[-MD-]

500 millon dollar Halo, The Initiative Game, Obsidians next game.

Someone needs to ask somebody over at MS why they're sitting on Perfect Dark, that'd be a nice IP to bring back.

 

[DanielsM]

I blame Don Mattrick and Steve Balmer. Mattrick for gutting microsoft studios, focusing on Kinect and putting the focus on games as service before everything else, ie development by monetization design first then game second.

But most of all I blame Steve Balmer who is an idiot, who as head of a technology company had vision and direction that extended as far as the end of his nose which was most of the time stuck in his wallet.

Balmer basically let google, Sony and apple make them look like total idiots. Sony gave them the generation with the PS3 launch and Mattrick and Balmer still made a mess out of it.

Hm. Satya Nadella was the chief cloud guy back in those days, he convinced Balmer to refocus the company into cloud services. So, out of the fry pan, right into the fire as they say. Donny was told what to do i.e services just like Phil is being told what do to do... services.

Where do you think all these services came from?

 

[Vawn]

Xbox gave up on Japanese studios too quickly imo. It will probably never sway the Japanese market to get Xbox, but there are millions of fans for those games outside of Japan.

Xbox 360 was used about 50/50 alongside my PS3 and a big part of that were some of the Japanese exclusives such as Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon. This generation Xbox just seemed to throw in the towel on that market.

It's now at the point where even games that aren't exclusive are choosing just to put their games on PS4, Switch and PC.

 

[thelastword]

I think they should just make a game called "Promises by Phil" where Spencer is the director...He would hit that game out the park...….The final boss would be "Deliver the games", but perhaps it would be the hardest boss in that game or in any game ever.....Mike Tyson in punch-out would look like a push over in comparison....



----------
In one of the quotes in the OP, they listed Goty candidates, but there were many more GOTY contenders by Sony;......Bloodborne, UC4, Astrobot and Tetris Effects VR...... and even TLG got some Goty nominations too...…..Just a bevy of high quality content against Phil's efforts....

 

[Dabaus]

Buddy has done an interview everyday since E3, most of it spin or damage control. Maybe if he focused on running xbox instead of seeking media attention theyd be in a better place?

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Ok, I'm not saying I predict MS will fail, but I don't see how anyone can predict at this point they will succeed either.

They've been failing since the tail end of 360 with the kinect stuff, and now they have to prove something. The fact that they are trying a different strategy isn't proof of anything.

MS has a bad tendency to ruin studios that they buy up. I can't see the future so I can't predict it will keep happening, but all the people acting like everything will be great now, apparently, can't see the past.

It's all talk until the actual games materialize.

I can see the past beyond the xbox one, which apparently a lot of people can't. People are still stuck on the xbox one and using it as the sole reason they think MS will do bad next gen, while ignoring many of the reasons that resulted in the xbox one doing so poorly this gen. Microsoft didn't do well with kinect on the xbox one, which was a big focus at the start of this gen, and a big reason that, hardware-wise, the xbox one was pretty sad. I agree. But I don't see kinect being mentioned anywhere for next gen. Maybe that in itself is one reason to be optimistic for next gen? You talk about the 360 failing when it was the most successful gen MS has ever had. How do you consider that failing? It also goes both ways. You can't fault MS for the end of the last generation while giving other companies a pass at the start of a generation. The PS3 did not fare so well initially and the Wii U was a flop. Phil has also gone on record stating that they are giving these new studios the freedom to develop stuff that they want to develop.

Buddy has done an interview everyday since E3, most of it spin or damage control. Maybe if he focused on running xbox instead of seeking media attention theyd be in a better place?

Lol as if you care. Thanks for your contribution though.

 

[Breakage]

Microsoft's distinct lack of investment in Japanese game development suggests that they haven't really taken anything onboard. A big part of the reason why the 360 was an interesting console during the first half of its life was because of the Japanese exclusives.

 

[Hendrick's]

Buddy has done an interview everyday since E3, most of it spin or damage control. Maybe if he focused on running xbox instead of seeking media attention theyd be in a better place?

That's what you do during E3.

 

[Dabaus]

That's what you do during E3.

Spin and damage control is what you do when your e3 is a letdown. We're 3 weeks past e3.

 

[Hendrick's]

Spin and damage control is what you do when your e3 is a letdown. We're 3 weeks past e3.

I don't see any spin or damage control. He is just doing interviews and answering questions. If they wanted to do damage control, not that they have a reason to, they would not use Phil to do so. I mean, even in this specific interview, his own PR guy is trying to shut him up.

 

[wipeout364]

Hm. Satya Nadella was the chief cloud guy back in those days, he convinced Balmer to refocus the company into cloud services. So, out of the fry pan, right into the fire as they say. Donny was told what to do i.e services just like Phil is being told what do to do... services.

Where do you think all these services came from?

Actually the focus on cloud is extremely forward thinking and evidence of Nadella’s leadership which proves my point rather than argues it. The lack of focus on this by Sony and Nintendo will be an Achilles heal going forward. Microsoft and Amazon are the two main players going forward for cloud infrastructure even Apple is trying to catch up.
I can’t believe you can’t see the change in Microsoft since Balmer is gone. Balmer was all about the quick dollar which is why MS basically lost 10 years of innovation under his watch. Microsoft today is about the long game.

 

[bumleforce]

When I think of future xbox game studio games

Hellblade 2
Enslaved 2
Waistland 4
Pillars 3
Outerworlds 2
Halo
Gears 6
State of decay 3
Psyconauts 3
We happy few 2
New Forza
Fable
Perfect dark
Anything made by rare
Inititive game
Age of empires
Minecraft stuff.

Future is looking good

These are assumption btw

 

[Varteras]

I think Sony's IP "advantage" is so overblown. Nobody was saying this during the 360 era, that I can recall. Xbox One was mismanaged with a content dry spell. Microsoft has the greater IP, without question, in my mind.

They were saying that but it started later in the generation. PlayStation 3 had a rough start with content whereas Xbox 360 was good from the go. Things changed over time. It didn't start with Xbox One. It started with Xbox 360 a decade ago. Microsoft shifted focus from core titles to Kinect games. The comeback of PlayStation 3 meant fewer third-party games went exclusive to Xbox 360 like they had early on so Microsoft's first-party studios needed to step it up. Sony's own offerings post-2009, outside of motion gaming, were more numerous and of higher critical reception. The number of Sony published titles sitting at an 80 or higher was at least double that of what Microsoft was pushing out. A majority of those titles from Microsoft were of the same four franchises. This is on top of the fact that Sony busted ass to catch up with Microsoft in content and by 2009 had largely succeeded in doing so. Microsoft completely dropped the ball on first-party offerings this gen while Sony continued to push out the goods. The "Sony IP advantage" you hear about today is a result of a decade of hard work from Sony while Microsoft continuously stumbled and made bad calls.

 

[pr0cs]

But most of all I blame Steve Balmer who is an idiot, who as head of a technology company had vision and direction that extended as far as the end of his nose which was most of the time stuck in his wallet.

QFT, a suit who knew fuck all about technology or software development

 

[nowhat]

QFT, a suit who knew fuck all about technology or software development

In all honesty, he did know about developers though. And developers developers. And developers developers developers developers.

 

[jshackles]

QFT, a suit who knew fuck all about technology or software development

 

[ethomaz]

It is already a decade with the same talk

Seems like E3 was not good to uncle Phil.

 

[Xenon]

People seem to be forgetting that at the start of the gen Microsoft was the only one with quality exclusives. Ryse was actually a great game sadly like most of Microsoft exclusives Sony fanboys did everything they could to tear it down. As well as completely ignoring the fact that Microsoft has owned the driving genre pretty much the entire gen. Also don't forget that Sony was all about Indie Indie Indie because they had nothing offer from a first-party.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

What MS needs are some first party SP kinds of games to go toe to toe with Sony.

MS already has much better exclusive games than Sony in other genres.... Halo/Gears (shooting), Forza/FH (racing), Killer Instinct (fighting). Even trashy MP games like Sea of Thieves and CD3 are bette than Sony's. But what Sony has is a staple of games meant for solo play..... UC, GoW, R&C and newer games like Horizon and Spidey.

Sony gave up on all the first party MP types of games they tried hard last gen. Sony doesn't even make a shooter anymore as the last one that came out was KZ: Shadowfall in 2013. Sony's strategy for first party games is SP focus. Third parties handle the MP games, where Sony does partnership deals with timed exclusive content.

MS' strategy for first party is MP focus like last gen. And when it comes to third party support, there aren't enough SP games to fill the void. The most popular MP games are multiplatform and third party too, so Halo and Gears probably don't even break the top 10 Xbox MP usage.

 

[ethomaz]

People seem to be forgetting that at the start of the gen Microsoft was the only one with quality exclusives. Ryse was actually a great game sadly like most of Microsoft exclusives Sony fanboys did everything they could to tear it down. As well as completely ignoring the fact that Microsoft has owned the driving genre pretty much the entire gen. Also don't forget that Sony was all about Indie Indie Indie because they had nothing offer from a first-party.

Ryse was mediocre before and continue being today.
Same for Killzone and Knack.

Launch games where really low quality... even the already established franchise had a big set back with Forza 5 being way inferior to Forza 4.

 

[Nikana]

Spin and damage control is what you do when your e3 is a letdown. We're 3 weeks past e3.

Because Microsoft went to Kotaku and said hey let's do an interview?

Edit: this is Kotaku milking one interview for different headlines. Not the other way around.

 

[-MD-]

Xbox gave up on Japanese studios too quickly imo. It will probably never sway the Japanese market to get Xbox, but there are millions of fans for those games outside of Japan.

Xbox 360 was used about 50/50 alongside my PS3 and a big part of that were some of the Japanese exclusives such as Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon. This generation Xbox just seemed to throw in the towel on that market.

It's now at the point where even games that aren't exclusive are choosing just to put their games on PS4, Switch and PC.

I agree, I even bought FF XIII for 360 knowing it was a lesser version because I preferred it over my PS3 at the time.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Ryse was mediocre before and continue being today.
Same for Killzone and Knack.

Launch games where really low quality... even the already established franchise had a big set back with Forza 5 being way inferior to Forza 4.

2013 has got to be the generation with the worst launch games ever. And it's not like they didn't have time to make good ones. The 360/PS3 gen was the longest ever at 7-8 years, so devs had time to make good launch games.

 

[ethomaz]

2013 has got to be the generation with the worst launch games ever. And it's not like they didn't have time to make good ones. The 360/PS3 geb was the longest ever at 7-8 years, so devs had time to make good launch games.

Looking at the past generation...
Yeap I agree with that.

 

[Silent Viper]

Patience, friend. It's not fair to judge them so soon when they're just putting the building blocks first. Lets see what the results will look like come next gen.

Most people not mature enough to understand your post. They love to talk shit and it's not gonna stop

 

[Silent Viper]

Buddy has done an interview everyday since E3, most of it spin or damage control. Maybe if he focused on running xbox instead of seeking media attention theyd be in a better place?

Think before posting.


Interview was conducted when he was at e3. Its not like he going after every media channel begging for interview. I bet kotaku requested him for interview .