Phil Spencer on Exclusivity: 'There's No Reason for Me to Put a Ring Fence Around Any Game' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 27 January 2025 / 2,489 Views
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer speaking with Destin Legarie (and reported by Eurogamer) was asked if Xbox games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Starfield would continue to have "exclusivity windows" on Xbox console and he said "no."
"There's no reason for me to put a ring fence around any game and say this game will not go to a place where it would find players, where it would have business success for us," said Spencer. "Our strategy is to allow our games to be available."
He added, "Game Pass is an important component of playing the games on our platform, but to keep games off other platforms? We don't think is the path… that's not a path for us. It doesn't work for us."
Phil Spencer on Starfield exclusivity
Destin: "Can you solidify that Starfield is staying put for the time being?"
Spencer: "No."
Source: www.patreon.com/posts/phil-s...
— Destin (@destinlegarie.bsky.social) January 25, 2025 at 3:38 PM
[image or embed]
"What we're doing now we think really enables us to build the best platform for the world's best games. 'Cos the world's biggest games are available in multiple places, and more and more creators are asking us, how do we stay connected when our game might be playable in all these different places, and we want Xbox to be absolutely the platform that enables that.
"We think that makes us unique. Most of the other platforms out there are single platform on single device, whether that's PC, whether that's mobile, whether it's a console. And we want Xbox to be a platform that enables creators across any screen that people want to play on."
Spencer was asked that the change in strategy for Xbox would mean it may lose its identity.
"I hear them. I'm pretty active in our playerbase, and I'm active in the community," he said. "I listen. I think our identity will continue to evolve, which, frankly, it always has. But when I hear concerns, I hear concerns about is: my library of games safe. Am I still going to be able to play the games. And I think over the years, I'm proud of the commitment we've shown to respecting purchases on our platform through back compat, through cross entitlement, Xbox Play Anywhere, through crossplay. Things that we've done to enable people to continue to play, so I hear that.
"I see the investments we're making in platform and how we want Xbox to show up in multiple places, and your library to be available there. When I think about buy-to-stream - so when if I buy a game, I'll be able to stream it to devices - this is all about making sure that your library of games that you own on Xbox are playable in multiple places, so I'd say it's in evolution of our identity. But I believe it's an identity that this industry needs.
"When you think about where this industry is now and you see the challenges, the business challenges that are out there for many companies, I think us making games more accessible to more people has just gotta be front and centre for us as an industry so we continue to see great games that we've seen over the years."
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 Bluesky.
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If Xbox was the market leader, me thinks he would be singing a WHOLE different tune.
"There's no reason for me to put a ring fence around any game"
So why have Halo, Forza, Gears and Flight Sim never been ported to Playstation?
Why were Playstation's version of Redfall, Starfield, Hellblade 2 cancelled and Indiana Jones put timed exclusive?
Why were they internally deciding to go and make a future TES6 exclusive to Xbox in 2020?
I mean - we all know the answer.
And he knows, too.
In a way, Xbox's version of Redfall was kinda cancelled as well.
Touché.
But before release, we couldn't possibly know Redfall would tank.
The vampire genre drew quite a bit of attention.
And it was a little sour taste once we knew Spencer went into the office and ordered them to stop working on the PS5 version.
The same with Starfield.
Of course today, we now know Playstation hardly missed a thing.
"So why have Halo, Forza, Gears and Flight Sim never been ported to Playstation?"
I actually know the answer to that. Microsoft will make its big third party debut at the Nintendo Switch 2 unveiling. The games will come to both Switch and PlayStation but doing it at the Switch 2 annoucement will lead to the best cause outcome for all parties.
With every statement recently Xbox is making it more and more clear they are going to stop producing hardware and just become a major third party while also operating Game Pass as their primary service.
I think we'll see one more gen of Xbox hardware, as no doubt that hardware is already well into development, but then it'll be all Game Pass and third party for the Xbox brand.
That has been clear for several years now. And, really, it fits Microsoft well. They've always been a software company, and they only produce hardware to the extent necessary to sell their software. If they can sell software without being in money losing or break even hardware business, of course they're going to take that route.
Then there is no reason for me to buy the next Xbox...
GamePass and a more comfortable controller are not enough to keep me in your ecosystem
I'm happy to wait until the few Xbox games I want are on a competitor and on sale for less than $20
I think Microsoft would like to just sell game pass and controllers to users of other systems. That seems to be the direction they are going, and that should work best for everybody, really.
He'd be singing a different tune if Xbox wasn't tanking so badly in sales. He's trying to save his own neck. He knows that he'd better be able to show profits to the brass. Dude actually makes Don Mattrick look less incompetent.
sure now that sales suck! time for Phil to go!
The beginning of the end.
Exclusives are a sign of competition. No exclusives = no competition -> stagnation and decay take its place.
beginning of the end was the Xbone launch. That couldn't have gone any worse for them.
Beginning of the end was their focus on Kinect in the 360 era. It did give 360 sales a boost, but it came back to bite them when Sony started fighting back.
It was during the one ara. Kinect outsold move.
Suicide move for MS! If I created a console, i'd have real console exclusives that are not on other consoles or PC! I would outsell the Xbox even with rubbish marketing!🤣😂
They tried to compete against PS for over 20 years, but it's one of those things where there can only be one winner and it was PlayStation. I think lasting over 20 years was a good effort
If you spend ~$85bn.... and have more studios with upkeep costs, not turning a profit on your own console alone.... what would you do? accept years and years of losses to try and get hardware sales up? or just start porting things to other systems to help with the upkeep, and turn profit instead?
No, you simply dont spend those 85 billion in the first place.
Short answer: Yes!! I would keep my face. If i kept games exclusive and not go with this game pass insanity i'd be absolutley fine!! I'd continue where i stopped with the 360. Making loss at the beginning? Ok MS has a lot more areas than Xbox that make a profit. Just take money from there. Me in charge and there would be a lot more Xboxes out there in the wild. Sperate PC and consoles: "Games for windows" (white color) and "Xbox" (green color) both get exclusive games. PC and console. Its justice. Strategy games, simulation... for PC, Shooters, RPGs multi, Fighters, plattformers, kinect for consoles. So if you want to play these games you have to decide. If you want to play all you have to get both, a console and a PC!! And i would do nothing like a charity pass. I would prefere sending this money to poor children before i give away my games for free only because some crying teenies with low pocket money cannot afford everything day 1. Then we could keep the 60$/ 70€ pricetag as well. More people buy our console because it offers the value of real exclusives that are not promised so only for the promise to be broken a year after wasting my game on PC again, also the other way around with PC games. Keep physical PC games to offer some value for PC gamers as well. More people buy games, MAKE GAMING GREAT AGAIN!! Stop this multiplattform insanity. If we sell too less, more DLC and some day we make money! Thats the way you make it. Stop this digital only crazyness! Thats what i would do!!
Xbox is done
Been done a while if you look at sales numbers. Funny they spent 100billion+ on acquisitions, development, marketing and whatnot and still lost the war.
Software is where they make money
Hardware they lose money so it's a no brainer move from Xbox/Microsoft but it's the end of a war
I agree with Phil! In the medium and long term we will see if this strategy will be good for the company, but for the players this is great.
I don't know what Phil is referencing, because I remember seeing their fiscal reports showing they are generating less money following the ActBlizz purchase. Without ActiBlizz, they were down even more. Going third party is not the answer and Game Pass seems to have plateaued
Next xbox system sales will be funny to look at. Which console it might compete with, vita, wii u, saturn ? They should ditch hardware at this point, they're telling everyone not to buy their consoles.... And it's not even rumored timed exclusives, it's said... Why even bother producing consoles at this point ?
I hope that means the Oblivion remaster and Fable comes to PS5 day one. Also, you could argue that there is a reason to ring-fence games. It forces people to buy your console. So, there is a good reason, just not a good reason for them to do so
It's like Phil said their focus is on games first. Hardware is second at best. Fable I think is reported to be far to deep into development to come day 1.
But MS became open minded to multiplatform back in 2023 when tango + others were working to bring their games to Playstation. It will be about 2 years after that, when fable 2 launches. That's plenty of time
Depends really because that studio really isn't setup for MP releases. So even if they know if they don't have the resources to dedicate a team to PS porting and testing then they have to wait.
Fairground games doesn't have the resources? They are by far MS's most successful studio. The last Forza Horizon game had over 40 million players
Maybe the resources but not the experience? They've never worked with PS at all from what I know.
Wishful thinking if you have hopes for day one releases.
would outer worlds 2, Ninja gaiden 4, doom dark ages would be wishful thinking too? cos they're coming day one.
Yeah, from the usual publishers who always published multiplatform games.
Starfield and Doom both published by Bethesda. Starfield is currently exclusive. OW2 and Avowed both developed by Obsidian. Avowed is currently exclusive. They're not all multiplatform publishers
is this what they tell the shareholders?
And so he shouldn't. Everyone deserves to play any game.
I am looking forward to all the trash talkers hating this game to be pleasantly suprised and liking it.
Starfield is a great game.
Great at some moments, but overall a flawed , hyped game that didn't live up to its full potential. I believe that's the general consensus.
it's terrible and the people on here know it.
Whats your experience with the game?
Throught so.
I mean it has mixed on Steam. Why would PC players lie? They have no steak in this console war nonsense.
It's not about who reviews it badly. The game was heavily misunderstood because it isn't side by side exactly like Elder Scrolls. Starfield is its own game. The sooner people stop judging the game because it doesn't play like another game, the sooner they will actually enjoy it.
Man this is a weird way of thinking. The game was played and reviewed by a ton of people on Steam. Your answer is "Well there's something wrong with the players". I mean do you think it's at all possible that you simply enjoyed a game that most people didn't like for very valid reasons?
I hated the Witcher 3 I thought it was horrible and IMO the Witcher 2 is much better. You know what I don't do? Go around saying everyone else is doing it wrong and my opinion is the right one.
I thought Thief 2014 was an amazing stealth game. It reviewed horribly with everyone. I accept that I just liked a game that most people hated.
You also know with mixed reviews that means usually half like or love the game. So why do the negative reviews overshadow the good reviews?
The game isn't for everyone, rightfully so, but plenty of people were judging the game based on another previous game.
But if Starfield gets ported, let's see that narrative change and I won't be suprised if reviewers have a slight change of heart also.
I'll be honest, andreja saved the game. If not for her, the game is a 5 out of 10. She elevated it to a 7.
She's pretty awesome
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