Phil Spencer Says 'It's Been Too Long' Since Xbox Last Released a 'Big First-Party Game' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 November 2022 / 7,561 Views
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in an interview with Same Brain on YouTube admitted it has been too long since Xbox last released a major first-party game and says the 2023 lineup will be far stronger.
"One thing we’ve definitely heard loud and clear is it’s been too long since we’ve shipped what people would say is a big first-party game," said Spencer via VideoGamesChronicle. "We can have our excuses with Covid and other things, but in the end I know people invest in our platform and they want to have great games."
He added, "We’re excited about 2023 and we’ve talked about games that are coming. Those games are tracking well [and] we’re out of what Covid did to the production schedule.
"And as an industry we have fewer games this holiday than we’ve had in a while, when you just think about the launches. Call of Duty is coming, God of War is coming – which is great – Nintendo’s had a good year. But in general I would say we’ve been a little light.
"But I look at 2023 and there’s a great line-up of games coming that I’m excited about. Getting our first real Xbox first-party games out of Bethesda, having them ship with Redfall and Starfield, will be a lot of fun."
Spencer says the Xbox team is working on a big update for the Xbox app on PC in the next few weeks.
It was revealed last week by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the number of PC Game Pass subscribers has grown by 159 percent year-over-year.
Nadella added over 20 million people have used Xbox Cloud Gaming and nearly half of all of Xbox Series S buyers are new to the Xbox ecosystem. Gaming has also seen usage growth on all platforms.
Spencer last week also stated that Xbox Game Pass is profitable and the revenue generated from it accounts for about 15 percent of Microsoft's gaming revenue.
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 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Couldn't agree more Phil. Show us Avowed and Fable asap!
As much fun as Grounded is, getting me into Survival games, and Pentiment releasing in a couple weeks, you have to unveil the curtain on your major titles. That's the reason why many are investing into Xbox, and especially Game Pass, for.
Sony had no problem releasing big 1st party titles. Microsoft dropped the ball. If they "f" up 2023 they won't recover.
Not sure about 2023 being a be-all end-all situation (though I'm not sure what you mean by won't recover). I Agree with the rest. MS was way too slow to bolster there 1st IP capabilities in the 8th gen. It was only 4 years ago they started expanding and their efforts sure are slow to materialize.
Fans were willing to deal with Halo being delayed for a year, and now Redfall and Starfield being a 2023 release, they seem to be patient enough for those. But I'm sure that patience is starting to wear thin. 2023 needs a good run of 1st party releases.
I get what you say, after the 2009-2022 drought though I'm not sure patience is really what's animate me and fans of Xbox or else we would be some sort of embodiment of patience XD. In my case I mostly did not have high expectations from MS during those years, played what they had to offer and completed my gaming needs elsewhere.
For 2023, BOTW 2 certainly will occupy most of my free time for the better part of next year even if Starfield turns out to be a master piece.
Now that the future looks brighter and MS certainly looks like they've taken the right steps to address the root issue. My expectations are starting to rise again. If 2023 turns out not so great, It will probably not change my sentiment on that, just be another year that I rely more on competition/3rd party and 1 year less before it gets better.
So, if I'm somewhat representative of other Xbox enthusiast, not sure if another year of this will change anything at this point except solidifying Xbox 3rd place position this gen even more if that's possible.
I mean, they've been suffering a massive draught basically since 2017 and had been slowing down since 2012. It's time for them to deliver something and 2023 is looking amazing. If they fail again, well, I don't see much brand loyalty keeping people around. but then again I've been saying that since 2017 and people still stand by their side; I guess there's lot to be said about American patriotism.
For me the drought was more 2009 to 2022 except maybe the release year of the Xbox one which was quite good, Other than that it was Kinect 2009-2013(which was not for me to say the least) than third party with occasional nugget in-between. I don't like car games, didn't like halo 5 and didn't play gears other than the first two (so you could imagine how much the drought was for me XD).
Though, I Mostly game on PC and really appreciate MS stance on releasing all to PC. if 2023 is another 2022 it won't change a thing for me and I believe we are already way late for it to have any significant impact on brand loyalty which Microsoft have to rebuild anyway (in regards to 1st party lineup that is).
Now if we speak of gamer that solely plays on Xbox and not anything else and 2023 actually is another 2022, maybe , that'll depend on how good third party games are in 2023, how good the competition attract them.
They’ve released tons of titles since 2017 and won publisher of the year at Metacritic last year. I understand 2022 has sucked because of delays but what is this “massive drought since 2017” nonsense ?
I think it feels that way for a lot of people because MS hasn't released a must play game in a long time. I remember the first time I saw Gears of War I said I have to play this game and I got a 360. I can't remember the last time MS has come close to doing that again.
Further, when was the last time people were actively TALKING about Microsoft games in a positive light (In terms of games that have actually come out)? Like, I've heard more chatter and talk about Stray (in terms of social media activity and love) than any microsoft game in years.
Even among Xbox youtubers all I ever hear about Halo Infinite was how bad it looked prior to launch and how bad the progression system is and how bad it is that the splitscreen was taken away.
Even though it was a lot of drama, when was the last time any Xbox game had the same online discourse as The Last of Us Part II?
They just aren't drumming up interest in games. Concepts and power, sure, but they just haven't been good at delivering games for a while and even Phil Spencer acknowledges this. That's why they NEED Activision and Bethesda, etc. They need it becuase it's clearly the only way they can generate interest and news. Because they've been failing to maintain positive momentum.
There’s a large difference between something entirely subjective like “a lack of must play games” versus complete nonsense like “a drought since 2017”.
2017: Forza Motorsport 7, Halo Wars 2
2018: Forza Horizon 4
2019: Gears 5
2020: Gears Tactics, Tell me why
2021: Forza Horizon 5, Microsoft Flight simulator, Halo Infinite
2022: Rogue Legacy 2, Grounded
That's EVERY single Xbox exclusive (as in, on Xbox consoles but not on either Nintendo or Sony consoles with 75+ On Metacritic (Agreed to be 'good') and with 20+ reviews (High-enough profile).
That's 11 games in 6 years. less than 2 a year on average. That is the very definition of a dearth. Edit And on top of that, 7 of those 11 games are from the holy trinity. the need to do better. Sadly, that just means buying up games instead of making new ones or trying new things.
Comparatively, Nintendo just this year alone has:
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Bayonetta 3
Neon White
Monster Hunter Rise: sunbreak
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope
Kirby and the Forgotten Lands
Splatoon 3
Pokemon Legends Arceus
Triangle Strategy
Live A Live
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes
By applying the exact same rules as 75 or higher on Meta with 20 or more reviews to ensure the games are both well reviewed and high enough profile (As in, games people are buying and games that move consoles), Nintendo has already done the same amount in 2022 alone than Microsoft has since 2017. And that's not even including games like Pokemon Scarlet/Violet, HArvestella, and Dragon Quest Treasures due this month and next.
Similarly, This has been a weak year for Sony and we already have:
The Last of Us Remastered
Horizon: Forbidden West
Gran Turismo 7
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection
Stray
Rollerdrome
DNF Duel
With God of War Ragnarok on the horizon and GhostWire Tokyo technically still an exclusive at the time of writing.
How could anyone pretend this isn't a gloriously one-sided fight? Phil Spencer admitted they're behind and need to catch up - a fact the numbers clearly support - and yet some of you are still pretending 'everything's fine; this is fine'. Like, dude, seriously...
My bad, I forgot there’s no middle ground or leeway anywhere between a drought for the last five years and “this is fine”.
Again, what you posted was nonsense, and I don’t give a crap about any hand selected and biased list wars you want to try to make to try (and fail) to prove your point ?
"Hand-Selected" I used the same critera for all three brands. It's not my fault that Xbox can't compete.
Maybe you don’t understand what biased or hand selected mean ?♂️ Applying it to all three consoles is irrelevant when the entire point was to dismiss games on Xbox. Maybe you don’t know what drought is, either.
So we’ve gone from a complete drought for five years, to only however many games that meet your made up criteria. It also ignores games released by MS studios because they’re multiplat, which is the dumbest part of all.
I was able to play amazing games through GamePass on day one like Wasteland 3, Psychonauts 2, Ori, Deathloop, etc but apparently they don’t count, even though they came from Microsoft, because they are on other platforms. Again, silly.
I don't think comparing MS to the competition serve any purpose here. Drought is relatives to the ecosystem of were it happens. In case of MS I won't compare them to competition but MS to themselves to define what drought means. From 2009 to 2022 there were never a complete absence of great games for Xbox but compare those to the golden years of 2005-2009 years were MS went all in and you can see a clear gap emerge.
This is the most "water is wet" statement of the year right here. Clearly, they're not releasing enough big games.
I think to have a healthy ecosystem they need at least two, preferably three AAA games per year, then a handful of A and AA things, from first and second party studios. There needs to be something to look forward to from Xbox Game Studios every quarter. It looks like they will be at that level soon. But, they have to actually make it happen. They've been talking about it for a few years now. It's time to see the results.
He is right, you should never have a 1+ year gap between AAA exclusives on a platform. Thankfully after 2022 it is looking like we should never have another year like this, as they already have 3 AAA exclusives announced for 2023, and they have already announced multiple other AAA exclusives without dates/windows (Hellblade 2, Perfect Dark, State of Decay 3, Elder Scrolls 6, Outer Worlds 2, Avowed, Fable, Indiana Jones, Contraband), plus they have multiple other AAA studios working on games which haven't been announced yet, so 2024, 2025, 2026 and beyond should be covered quite well also. They own too many studios now for a year like 2022 to ever happen again, and if they do somehow let that happen again with that many studios, they must have really screwed up somewhere along the way in both development and planning.
You don't say.
I'd rather games not relese at all, than games releasing that become disappointing (Crackdown 3, etc), as long as they're aware of the issues. Which means they're working on the quality, and that can take time.
Not just big, but they have to be good as well. The last 3 where halo forza and flight sim if you count that as a game. Halo was the worst in the series. Forza is another forza. And flight sim is not even a game. So they are missing qantity and quality.
Halo Infinite the campaign and sandbox gameplay was very good. Best since Halo 3. It's just been stupid light on content lol. Forza Horizon 5 was the best in that series though. You don't hear "Gran Turismo is another Gran Turismo." Forza Motorsport releasing next year is looking to be the best in that series too. For the most part, the quality is there but you're also forgetting about Psychonauts 2 and Age of Empires IV. Both really good games. A good variety of genres you can play from.
Quantity needs to drastically increase for sure. Grounded has been a fantastic Survival game with deeper than expected RPG mechanics. Pentiment releasing in a couple weeks being a passion project from Josh Sawyer. Quantity needs to increase, but you still don't want to discredit the fantastic games that have been released. Quality and variety is there.
I never said forza was bad. But its a sim, they are all as good as the previous as its impossible to screw up a sim. Unless your gt and monetize like crazzy.
You can say halo has a decent part but the overall consensus is the game was not ready and untill today its still not ready.
Why are you mentioning all these smaller games? The article is clearly about big games. Wich this year they had zero and the last was halo and forza.
Horizon is not a sim and Flight Sim very much is a video game.
I don't like Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo or any racing game that takes itself seriously. But there have been 8 GT in 25 years vs 13 Forza games in 16 years. To me it's just another GT or just another Forza.
Have you played Halo Infinite? Also Flight Sim is just as much of a game as Gran Turismo is a game.
Oh dont worry i consider them both garbage. I consider every sim in existence garbage including sony made ones. My principle reason is that they are basicly a scam and a slight res bump of the last one. Its the epitomy of dev lazzynes.
Whats a scam? Simulators?
Yes. All of them.
Cant speak for GT7 as i havnt played it. But how is Flight Sim a simple res increase when we only just got a game which is decades apart from its predecessors..?
It is a repeat of Xbox one days...
Not a lot of exclusives after launch...
One dry ass year puts the pressure on devs cooking for 2023 to be an outstanding year is a recipe for disaster!
Probably why Game Pass numbers didn't impress in the latest quarter. Gotta bring those first party games to the service.
the xbox one gen had hardly any they are way ahead this time
While Xbox is admittingly third in my heart of the consoles, Starfield is my 3rd most looked forward to game of 2023 after Zelda and Resident Evil 4 remake.
Seem like everyone forgetting about Xbox one generation. It really doesn't matter if you keep release big first party game and it sucks. You need great games and these will take time. There is so many thing in the oven right now that the future for Microsoft Games is better than it's ever been. At least Microsoft as GamePass to hold us over until their next big release. Would of been nice to get Redfall or Starfield this year but eventually all of these games will drop to make one massive year for Microsoft.
Even for Xbox, 2022 was a really dry year. Game Pass has really kept Xbox afloat this year. Next year is looking to be their best in a long time. The first half is probably the best they have had since the early 360 days. I think most have given Xbox the benefit of the doubt this year because they know the games are coming soon with all the studios they have now. But still, they can't have another year like this going forward if they want to see significant growth on the Xbox platform.
I agree about 2023 being a great year. However, it's all theoretical right now. The games have to actually release, and they have to actually be good.
More important, too long since we had a new Crackdown.
Have they released one this year? Last one I recall is Halo infinite and that seems to have constant problems. Several features still haven't released almost a year later.
I assume that is why they spent over 100 billion buying studios. Like starfield.
Then again first party doesn't mean everything. I'm more interested in Harvestella than Bayonetta, and Star ocean 6 than GOW.
Other than supporting their current live-service games like Halo Infinite (ugh) Sea of Thieves, and expansions for Forza Horizon 5 and the entire Age of Empires franchise, Xbox has been very limited in releases this year. Xbox published As Dusk Falls back in July, Grounded got its full 1.0 release last month, which has been great btw, and Pentiment releases in 2 weeks.
Grounded and Pentiment are from Obsidian, so Obsidian is putting in the work for Xbox while still working on their own major AAA releases with Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2.
Wow Phil!!! You’re a friggin genius! No wonder you’re the face of Xbox!!!?
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