Phil Spencer Looks to Nintendo When it Comes to Strong First Party Line-up - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 14 August 2015 / 6,815 Views
Xbox boss Phil Spencer looks to Nintendo when it comes to creating a strong first party portfolio.
"On the Wii U, I think people downplay how many units they've sold," Spencer told Eurogamer. "I've got a Wii U, I think there's some great games on there. I think Splatoon's a really nice game and I don't think there's a first-party out there that has the strength of IP that Nintendo has. They're always a beacon to me when I look at what it means to build a first-party portfolio of products, they've done a great job.
"For us, having exclusives, especially on the platform side as we continue to innovate, being able to have studios that push the envelope of what's possible, and partnering them with a platform and the hardware teams, I think it's a magical equation for coming up with things that aren't possible. We sit around, the Xbox leadership team, I've got Kudo, Shannon Loftis and Bonnie with Halo, the whole Xbox platform leadership team and we all think about the opportunities of moving hardware and service and content together."
"Really, the only way to have that in such a tight loop, I think, is to have a strong first-party portfolio to try things to push. It's not only critical from a sales perspective, but also for innovation for what our platform's about. I love sitting at that platform, and the ideas that come out of anywhere and seeing the different franchises grabbing on to something and say yeah, we should try to go do this in Forza, we should try do this in Minecraft. It's a great opportunity. "
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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I miss the days where companies use to rip on each other. Those Crash Bandicoot and Sega commercials during the 16/32 bit wars were epically funny.
I really like Phil Spencer. He seems genuine in what he says.
Even Phil Spencer loves Splatoon!
In terms of selling power, why not? Nintendo has something like 20 franchises that are can consistently go past 1mil and several that consistently go multimillion. And on top of that, most of those franchises are well received critically. And they cover a range of genres. Even if you don't target the same audience, striving to reach those goals is only sensible.
Really hope they bring as much first party games as Nintendo.
They're the best at that so great.
I prefer Sony's offerings over both. But that's just me.
Phil Spencer has VERY good taste. :D
When centuries later pass for the Xbox brand to have a legacy and Phil Spencer keeps this up, he'll be definitely looked upon as one of the greatest Xbox leaders. Calling it now.
Shame how it's gone from companies ripping each other and gamers just enjoying games to gamers causing fan wars and companies showing love for each other lol
wow... Phil Spencer really start to look like Mattrick.. he just want exposure..
No they don't. All of their games signify they follow PC/Sony.
XBOX looks good playing the humbled loser...
More useless talking,but of course Nintendo has better first party than MS.If WiiU was as strong as X1 with a regular controller,myself and many others would own one making X1 the lowest selling console instead.
Well of course he's only going to praise the brand that is selling worse than his brand in the 1st party department. You can afford to be charitable when you're beating the other guy. MS would never be seen praising Nintendo like this in the 7th gen.
Microsoft DID praise Nintendo over a year ago, that was when Nintendo was still ahead of them.
Phil Richard
You guys would have the same if you kept your exclusives and not move them over to the PC.
PC does not compete with consoles. Do you see PC sales on this site? No? That's because for the most part, PC gamers don't sit around wondering whether to build their next rig or get an Xbox One. Microsoft knows this and that's why you see a lot of releases between the two.
And by PC sales, I meant steam machines and pre built gaming machines etc.
