Phil Spencer interview - Discusses Redfall disappointing, CMA, Hellblade II, quarterly releases, and more

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The obvious company is square but i’m wondering who else?

Phil: “The truth of the matter is… when you’re third place… in the console marketplace. And the top two players are as strong as they are and have in certain cases very, just, discrete focus on doing deals and other things that will, that kind of make being Xbox hard for us as a team - that’s on us not on anybody else…”

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Phil is speaking facts. Especially about the, even if Starfield gets 11/10, PS Gamer ain’t switching.

I hope people know that Xbox is paying by a different game. So stop asking them to lock down 3rd party exclusive. It don’t work like that anymore.

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So Avowed and Hellblade 2 are coming soon?

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Yeah

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Mihoyo I guess. There was that article about MS “regretting” missing out on Genshin Impact which kind of says they aren’t able to get it.

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The graphic that they released is definitely for Avowed

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It think it will be Starfield and Forza in Sep and Oct/Nov

Then HB2 Q1 and Avowed Q2

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Phil basically says they need to be more hands on earlier in dev cycles for acquired studios

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Avowed time at E3, that much has to be clear now, very excited to see what it looks like. If Hellblade 2 actually could be this year, that would be amazing. But I don’t need it to be perse, Starfield and I’m GOOD!

New announcements and gameplay updates, it sounds good to me!!

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Not even the Switch is getting their games.

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i think he meant stuff like Hogwart Legacy. still a multiplat game but competitor wasn’t allowed to put trailers on their channel or even mentioning the game.

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I think the whole approach started with Mojang. Iirc even Satya said that they learned a lot from Mojang by being hands off and it’s paid off.

But some studios like whole Zenimax need support. ESO has still annoying bugs, Skyrim Anniversary edition had game breaking bugs, Ghostwire Tokyo runs worse on Xbox than PS and now Redfall.

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I don’t always listen to podcasts and interviews and stuff but that was a genuinely good and interesting listen. Brilliant questions asked from the hosts, a lot of questions that Xbox fans have been asking and Phil in turn pretty much facing up and answering a lot of them honestly. So while there was a lot of “we’ll do better next time” it was delivered in a way with a lot of honest self criticism that felt sincere and more than just “PR talk” he gets accused of. With Redfall it sounds like if the player base is there Arkane will stick with it. We’ve seen Sea of Thieves, State of Decay, Grounded all develop a following, so if Redfall does the same and Arkane stick with it, it’ll be interesting to see how the game improves over time (ongoing and evolving development is how things are these days for better or worse).

You definitely get the feeling that Hellblade 2 could be next on the list of games to get its proper blowout. It would be brilliant if the latter part of the year was Forza, Starfield, Hellblade 2 and maybe even Avowed early part of 2024. A lineup like that would play into what he said about Xbox getting to the point of more regular releases per quarter.

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I think many of us have been asking for years for more transparency from the brand and we’re finally getting some of it.

Glad to see Phil being around to answer some non-positive stuff and willing to take the heat. I hope they have (or will) find the long term solution they need.

They’ve got amazing talent over there, but clearly they’ve ran into roadblocks (both their own fault and not).

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Hellblade 2 as holiday game would be awesome. But at the same time we’ve seen so very little of it, more than Avowed but it’s still not a lot. But I guess late this year or early next year is not impossible. What do we know about Hellblade 2 so far? I mean especially scope, are they going for something similar to the first one, or has the scope/scale definitely increased? We know the budget certainly has.

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I think Redfall is a fine enough game, but the onus should be on the leadership of Arkane to reach out if they feel they need help and support. Especially in a humongous org like Xbox/Bethesda. You’re not going to get help unless you ask as with any job.

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Phil has been very transparent though??? lol

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Capcom. Street Fighter 5 and now 6 locking out XBox One users is problematic.

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He made it pretty clear that they weren’t with Redfall and that they have plenty to work on with that front. Come on now.