I put a C. I like Phil, I think he’s really done a good job bringing the Xbox brand back from the Xbox one generation which was horrendous.
But as far as releasing games, under his tenure, it’s been awful. 20 + studios and we still can’t get games on a regular basis. And when we do, we end up getting Halo Infinite.
As far as game releases, he’s been horrible.
Everyone should stop focusing on the next 12 months or first half of 2023 because that literally doesn’t apply to Redfall and Starfield. I just rewatched the trailers from the June 2022 showcase and BOTH games say “coming 2023” at the end. You can’t miss it.
The 12 months were for all the games after Redfall (which started the show) and before Starfield (which ended the show). This isn’t speculation or bullshit. It’s literally right there at the end of the trailers. Them saying first half of 2023 when both were delayed was a mistake because why put a time frame on the games when they don’t know for sure when they’re getting released?
Redfall should be first half because I believe the game will be ready within the first half of 2023 but a lot of people expecting Starfield too, I just don’t see happening especially if the expense is an empty second half of 2023.
Remains to be seen when they actually release but im thinking Spring for Redfall (which includes March) and November for Starfield. If they’re sooner, great as that would be a pleasant surprise but if not, im already prepared for it.
We also end up getting Forza Horizon 5, Pentiment, Psychonauts 2, Wasteland 3, Grounded, etc. lol. If you’re gonna acknowledge the “bad” also acknowledge the good.
What does ‘unacceptable’ mean? You going to fire Phil Spencer or what
lol, they never do.
A solid B.
I think Phil has done a great job turning Microsoft’s interest in gaming completely around and investing in major areas the Xbox brand has struggled in.
The big issues arise from what we’ve had released, overall transparency, and accommodating for certain problem areas.
While Phil might not be directly at fault for any of these, it does ultimately end up being a problem for him to solve for the long term.
I’m happy Phil is there, but obviously improvement is needed at the brand still, and that’s up to him (or his successor) to figure out.
A solid B.
Are you forgetting an 18 month pandemic forcing game devs to work from home?
You just don’t throw a AAA budgeted game out in a couple of years.
I think some people just want MS to rush the games out in whatever state so they can have something to pad their online list wars or whatever. Why else would they be so against delaying games until they’re ready. I’m not even sure what they’re on about at this point to be honest. Bitching isn’t going to make the games come any faster, and it’s been well established that : AAA big budget games take long to make , MS just started rebuilding their first party in 2018, there was a major global pandemic and yes it affected EVERYONE. Not just MS , they were far from the only publisher with delays.
Phil Spencer inherited a shitshow and now he has to steer the ship and it’s going to be a while. Don’t like it, get mad at Mattrick and former leadership for betting the farm on Kinect and relying too much on third party instead of strengthening their first party during the 360 era when they were at their most successful. Or Meyerson for not allocating enough budget to the division to really do anything significant during the XB1 gen before Phil took over.
SONY done a better job of it. I get that with games like Fable you’re setting up a new line with completely new staff but what’s happened to the likes of RARE and Everwild? SONY studio’s had to handle the issues of lockdown too.
The handling of the studios and the PR just isn’t good enough. Phil done an amazing job. My issue is with the likes of Aaron Greenberg. He’s seems and comes across as a lovely guy, but Xbox PR is a joke and just not good enough and giving too many open goals for SONY.
I’m sick of being told as an Xbox fan,…how Team Xbox is learning and it be better soon or ‘next year’. I think the game awards are a wast of time, but after setting the precedent of 1st showing off the Series X at the game awards and then shoiwng off gameplay of Hellblade 2 last year. To have nothing this years is terrible PR given XBox fans would be expecting somthing. That is just basic PR.
I love Team XBox and the Series X, but the PR is almost has bad as SEGA America in the Saturn days. Its a shame too, becasue the Series X is such a better console and exeprince than the PSV IMO.
I also don’t like how the BC team seem to have given up, what’s happened there. Or were team only energized to try and get some ground back on the PS4, with the weak Xbox One spec and MS/Team XBox knew they had to somthing to counter?
Sonys games were further along the pipeline of development before COVID struck.
Starfield, Redfall, Avowed etc are completely new IPs.
Redfall and Starfield are new IP’s with either Co-Op or a massive universe to traverse.
They’ll be ready when they are ready. Theirs to much invested by gamers in AAA exclusives… plenty of 3rd party games to play in the meantime.
Unless you were involved in developing the games you can’t say that with authority. Starfield has been in production for years, so as Hellblade 2 and the likes of Returnal was a new IP.
Its always excuses for Xbox, its getting boring now
They made every game they could bc. From what I understand licencing and ip rights are big factors. They supposedly have to get agreement for every bc game.
AAA development takes easily 5 years nowadays. The majority of xboxs studios didn’t exist 5 years ago and when they did, had prior commitments to fulfill first.
It’s not an excuse, it’s just what it is. The true criticism lies in their failure to build up their 1P prior to 2018
I think there’s more to it myself. It seemed to me they worked their butts off becasue it was a good think on the XBox One, but now the Series X is a match over better than the PS5 on a technical level. It’s like the team don’t have to try anymore.
Its very disappointing
There isn’t more to it:
“While we continue to stay focused on preserving and enhancing the art form of games, we have reached the limit of our ability to bring new games to the catalog from the past due to licensing, legal and technical constraints.”
It is a excuse, when it’s the same for SONY. Halo was in development for GOD knows how long and it still wasn’t finished, when released. Almost all the Xbox studios did exist, they just weren’t owned by MS but they were hardly new start up studios.
I get why Fable isn’t ready, a brand new team/line being added to Playground games and I get why Perfect Dark isn’t ready, given its a brand new studio. Hellblade 2 was the 1st game were got to see running on the next gen, its nowhere to be seen now, Everwild was shown off years ago and still nothing.
Its not good enough IMO. SONY on day one had a next gen game ready on the PSV (ok it was remake) and been able to pump out quite a few big AAA games on the PS4/5. We basically got Flight Sim, Forza Hor 5, psychonauts and Halo from MS over 2 years in and they had nothing to show at the Game Awards. Having the new Forza running on an actual Series X would have been something or even a new trailer and a date for Redfall would have been something… SONY win yet again.
Having the better tech or a ton of studios doesn’t mean you win, you also have to win the PR battle and MS is utterly hopeless at PR. On TV I’m seeing adverts from SONY thanks to the deals it done with EA and Activision, Nintendo is pushing hard and we get sod all from MS and the likes of Aaron Greenberg thinks that having a photo of him with an XBox fridge makes it’s all ok.
Its not, MS XBox PR divsion is beyond hopless
I don’t have it in me to explain timelines and why we are where we are anymore, lol.
I honestly think some people would calm down a bit if Microsoft/Xbox just communicated well.
The silence baffles me sometimes.
People probably still be upset that the games were announced 3-5 years before release lol. But yeah, if they showed more it’d soften the blow.
I mean its not just the games. We still haven’t even gotten an update on XCloud for our game libraries (was suppose to happen in 2020, was re-announced in January to happen this year), not giving advanced noticed that the Xbox showcase was encompassing the next 12 months only, weird marketing decisions for certain games, etc.
Its not just the game releases themselves that need work. Transparency and consistency would ease at least some concerns.