Xbox CEO Says The Last of US HBO Series is 'Fantastic' and the Team Has Done a 'Great Job' - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 February 2023 / 3,492 Views

The Last of Us HBO TV series has been a huge hit with the first episode having 4.7 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max in its premiere night, while the second episode saw an increase of 22 percent to 5.7 million viewers.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in an interview with IGN said the show is "fantastic" and Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann working on the TV series himself is "great for the team."

"They've done a great job with an adaptation of a fantastic game on the television screen, and kudos to the team, all the teams that worked on it," said Spencer.

Xbox CEO Says The Last of US HBO Series is 'Fantastic' and the Team Has Done a 'Great Job'

"Obviously, the foundation of that is the work that Naughty Dog did in building the franchise. And I also think that — and he probably won't like it that I call him out on this — but the fact that Neil himself has played a role obviously in the creation of the game and the franchise, but see him applying his creative talents in the TV space...I think is really great. It's great for him, it's great for the team.

"But I'll also say as an industry, where maybe — and everybody won't agree with me — but sometimes I think we've looked at other media in an envious way as gaming that we felt that we were kind of outside or maybe even lesser in some ways. I've never felt that, but I could sense it.

"The fact that you take one of the greatest creators from our industry and you can have success in creating in another medium, I just think it shows that in the games industry, you have some amazing storytellers, amazing creators across all third-party, first-party. I think it's just a great moment to see the success that they're having with the franchise, and congrats to all of them."

Xbox CEO Says The Last of US HBO Series is 'Fantastic' and the Team Has Done a 'Great Job'

Spencer added he wants the best for everything the Xbox team works on, including the Halo TV series.

"I want the best for everything that we work on, Halo television series included, "said Spencer. "I think there's some differences there, but I don't think that the point of the question of, "Hey, Last of Us is out there, setting an incredibly high bar. Should we all aspire to reach that same bar with the work that we do in television?" Absolutely. I could say the same thing in video games.

"Every time I play a great game from somebody, it inspires us to do the best work that we can, to hope that next time we show up, we're showing up with our best creative, our best ideas, and finding people who either love watching, in the case of the Halo television show, or playing, in the case of things like Hi-Fi Rush and the games that are coming out this year. We're always getting inspired by the work around us, absolutely."

HBO earlier today announced The Last of Us TV series for a second season.

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.

24 Comments

TheLegendaryBigBoss (on 27 January 2023)

It's a shame this can't be said for the Halo show.

KratosLives TheLegendaryBigBoss (on 28 January 2023)

Has it even released yet?

-6

TheLegendaryBigBoss KratosLives (on 28 January 2023)

Yeah, its almost been a year.

Soonerman TheLegendaryBigBoss (on 29 January 2023)

Iactually enjoyed the Halo tv show even tho some of it looked cheesy

VAMatt Soonerman (on 29 January 2023)

It is a decent, mid-budget show. The problem with the Halo show, like everything Halo, is that it is compared to the early games which were absolute entertainment masterpieces. That standard is super hard to reach with games, movies, shows, or anything else.

Dante9 VAMatt (on 30 January 2023)

The problem with the show is that they didn't even try to make an actual Halo show. They just took the name and did the usual modern nonsense.

VAMatt Dante9 (on 30 January 2023)

I get what you're saying, and kinda agree. But, it's important to keep in mind that the Halo universe is a lot bigger than the games. They definitely did not make a show that is a retelling of the games. But, I do think it is reasonably grounded in the Halo universe.

EpicRandy Dante9 (on 30 January 2023)

think the same, It's like they used it's non-canon setting to inject things nobody wanted. You want to see a show filled with action scenes and deep lore we give you Master chief about to cry at people playing violin. -_-

scrapking VAMatt (on 02 February 2023)

Call me a contrarian, but my favourite Halo content are the side games: the two RTS Halo Wars games, and the two twin-stick shooters (Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike). I'd love for both those series to be continued.