Xbox chief reflects on the state of the gaming console in an interview
In the past week, we’ve seen a 30 percent drop in Xbox hardware revenue, followed by Activision Blizzard’s acquisition of Microsoft for $687 billion, and finished up with Redfall’s release earlier this week.
Microsoft fans are asking when they can expect a slew of triple-A games like the Xbox 360 generation, given that 2022 is proving to be a quiet year for Xbox releases.
In an interview with Kinda Funny Games, Xbox chief Phil Spencer states, “We’re not in the business of out console-ing Sony or out console-ing Nintendo.”
In 2019, Spencer said that Microsoft’s gaming strategy focused on Xbox, PC, cloud, and mobile, not just consoles anymore. Spencer doesn’t think that just building great games is enough. He said,
I see the commentary that if you just build great games everything will turn around. It’s just not true that if we go off and build great games all of a sudden you’re going to see console share shift in some dramatic way. We lost the worst generation to lose in the Xbox One generation, where everybody built their digital library of games. We want our Xbox community to feel awesome, but this idea that if we just focused more on great games on our console that somehow we’re going to win the console race doesn’t really lay into the reality of most people. There is no world where Starfield is an 11 out of 10 and people start selling their PS5s, that’s not going to happen.
There is concern among fans about some of Microsoft’s biggest titles that are designed for Xbox fans and Xbox Game Pass subscribers, because of Halo Infinite’s and Redfall’s challenges. Ultimately, Microsoft paid $7.5 billion to Bethesda for “delivering great exclusive games.”
Spencer confesses how “upset’ he is of himself, sharing the Redfall launch with Kinda Funny Games. “The critical response was not what we wanted.” Despite praising the developers at Arkane, Spencer acknowledges that “the team didn’t hit their own internal goals when it launched.”
As Microsoft confirms this week that it will show off new gameplay during its Starfield Direct event on June 11th, all eyes are on Starfield. This summer, Xbox will make it clear to fans whether Starfield will have its own 60fps mode after a controversy involving Redfall’s lack of one.
