Ask Phil Spencer

Gaming
1

Hi Xbox Era members!

Since Phil Spencer will officially be a guest on the next Xbox Era podcast airing this saturday on 3pm pacific time and 6pm eastern time, what question would you ask him if you were on the podcast ?

I’m not speaking on behalf of Jon and Nick or the rest of the Xbox Era crew but your questions may inspire them.

Keep it gaming!

2

I’d ask him why Elden Ring wasn’t on GamePass day 1.

I’d also ask him if he approves of Nick being a “leaker”

3

I think they already recorded it, since they are showing screenshots.

4

I want updates on the achievment system. I will keep asking till we get answers. Also for updates. Will they update the Xbox controller?. Will any of the studios they own try to make a soulsbourne game?

5

I’d ask him the most important question of all: Are you a fan of the TV show Friends?

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6

I’d love to hear about how he views game release cycles and how Microsoft can help devs optimize the release cycle while keeping the creativity flowing.

7

I’d also ask why Halo Infinite as a flagship F2P GaaS game is getting so few maps this long after launch

8

Because the devs have decided that’s what they can do in the allotted time while maintaining a healthy work environment.

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9

MS is a huge company. They could have outsourced maps to any number of teams or companies while keeping 343s “healthy work environment”.

10

It’s that easy, huh?

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11

Before any questions I would just thank him so much for the Japanese games. These hadn’t been here for Xbox if it hadn’t been for him. He listened.

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12

I know these are questions that could only be answered in a casual setting over a couple of beers, never publicly, honestly and on record, but as an Xbox centric gamer, I’d love to be able to get some real views from Phil and his team on the following topics;

  1. What’s being done to improve tools and developer relations; what we’re seeing is that in many (most?) instances, Multiplatform games are performing better on the competitors (in theory) weaker consoles. Even first party releases aren’t making best use of the available hardware. We are ~16 months past release of the Series consoles and it still feels like the technology can’t be harnessed effectively and as a consequence the competition keeps drinking Xbox’s milkshake. Is this going to improve?

1.a. Does Xbox have technology experts they can airdrop into third party developers to assist with optimisation? Elden Ring is a clear example where From just clearly did not care to - OR - lacked the capability to optimise the game for the PC and Xbox platforms. What a missed opportunity not to have the best playing version of what for many was one of the most anticipated games of the year.

1.b. What’s with the focus on higher resolution at the expense of performance? Cross platform comparisons usually see Xbox cede performance for the sake of (mostly) invisibly resolution gains. Is there a develop relations team saying “hey, maybe allow DRS to go a little lower?” or whatever (sure, I have a VRR set, but apparently amongst current gen games I hear this is still niche technology?).

1.c. What hardware advantage does the Xbox have over the completion that is worth developers dedicating time and effort to utilise?

  1. Does Phil and his leadership team acknowledge how poor the PC Xbox App and Store experience is; it’s 50/50 whether a title will: Install, Launch, Not become Corrupt or Update. It’s so embarrassingly bad I can scarcely believe it’s a real product. Is anyone on the team responsible and incentivised to fix this? It’s been absolute dogs** for a year or more.

  2. Publisher relations; what are Phil and the team doing to try and disincentivise paid exclusives? The competition keeps punching his platform in the d**k with timed or exclusive content; it would be nice to hear that this is seen as problematic for Xbox anda problem they’d like to address.

  3. What in-development titles (if any) are utilising Hardware Accelerated Machine Learning capability (and indeed any of the hardware features unique to Xbox)?

13

Good morning everyone and Chadspencer. I would like to thank the staff John and Nick and the rest.

My question is very simple Mr. Phil Spencer, is it difficult or impossible to see new sequels to Lost Odyssey, Ryse, Otogi?

14

Guys the podcast has already been done lol

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15

Ask him to buy Sega next.

16

They don’t want to outsource and fill the game with ok maps, they want to add a few “great” ones each season.

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17

We recorded the chat on Tuesday btw, we got the questions approved… a month ago?

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18

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I’m sure those questions could be forwarded regardless. Those are very good questions and what gamers and members has to say is really valuable in my opinion. I’ll look into those questions and I’ll answer some myself if no one answer them. :slightly_smiling_face:

19

Yes it’s a live podcast with pre-recorded segments as detailed in the synopsis of the live stream.

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