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

Sony and Nintendo can rebound from disastrous generations fairly quickly because they have generational fans and iconic brand power.

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Speak for yourself. Idgaf about owning anything

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I already said I don’t speak for everyone. But the sales figures this gen speak for themselves.

The success of the Xbox 360 is also evidence the PS2’s massive market dominance didn’t signify PS2 owners wouldn’t want Xbox consoles when they offer great games & hardware. People can get both.

I also find the ‘digital library’ excuse invalid tbh. I have a PlayStation library & an Xbox library. It’s no issue.

So, you want them to market the console harder instead of Gamepass? I don’t think many will fundamentally disagree with you on that point (You marketing people know who you are :smile:), but the reality is that Gamepass is their killer app at the moment. The “Most powerful console” shtick didn’t really work out and I personaly feel like the vast majority of gamers don’t care.

The only thing, again in my opinion, that will lead to an increase in console market share would be to consistently make and release great games and lower the cost of each console by $100.

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I do as well but that’s not the norm man lol.

It’s a factual statement, not an excuse. The majority of households don’t have 2 home consoles.

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AHEM – A couple of pointers to long running discussions on some of the larger topics I see in here not directly about this interview:

Microsoft Marketing via:

Sales via:

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Late 00s I hated digital gaming with a passion and didn’t want to buy any of it, I was hardcore on ownership and to me digital just meant “renting”

Ever since GP came along I genuinely couldn’t care less, it happened with music, it’s happened with movies and I don’t know why people think games are going to be any different

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Because games are a time commitment. Movies & music are disposable, games are not.

Some games are easy to borrow, consume & move on (someone earlier mentioned borrowing games many decades ago & sure, I did that as a kid on the 90’s), but there’s other stuff I just have to own. Like Resident Evil, Mass Effect, Fallout, Elder Scrolls. The list is massive & includes most of the games I choose to play & spend a lot of time in.

And I’m fine with digital only as well, BTW. I have plenty of digital games I bought back on the 360 & PS3. I’m not a physical absolutist. But i do want access to my favorite games via ownership & not via a recurring monthly fee.

I play most games through the campaign and never come back to them, not all that different from movies. I don’t think I’m alone there. GaaS is obviously different, but single player games absolutely are disposable.

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And… you can still buy them. Gamepass doesn’t stop you from that. :man_shrugging:

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99% of the videos around this interview have seemed to either willfully ignore or flat out not understand why Phil said what he said, fun!

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Sony is the market leader, well leader of the vocal part of the console gamers market. Xbox is just part of the gamer market like mobile, PC, Switch, etc… who aren’t “real gamers”. Because Sony has the numbers on the people who care to follow gaming news, that is who they are going to cater to. Negative Xbox news generates clicks, positive PS news generates clicks, the opposites do not.

TV shows are a huge time commitment as well, majority of people don’t care about owning those anymore either, plus while some games are a commitment the vast majority of people do not replay games, they play them once and move on

It’s true that there will be people that still want to buy or “own” games but over time that will become more and more niche

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I often feel like we’re living in the Biff Tannen timeline from Back to the Future 2. :smile:

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Sure but you need to consider the time commitment, like why am I paying for Game Pass whilst playing games I bought which aren’t on Game Pass? That’s my point. Games can take weeks to complete.

Hence why I’ll sub for a few months during the year & then invariably move on to games I’ve bought because having Game Pass & buying games just makes no sense to me.

And I’m going to take a wild guess that people with low attachment rate (much lower than mine, i.e. I think the average might be ten games per gen or something) will find even less value in Game Pass.

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No one is forcing you to use Gamepass, so your takes on this seem ridiculous. :smile:

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How many CDs and DVDs were people buying compared to how they now consume music and movies?

I know it’s not a perfect analog since games typically are a longer time commitment, but habits can change as a result of having choice available. Personally, having Game Pass has put me on to tons of games and genres that I would not have bought.

Xbox doesn’t win or gain anything when the sales pitch is “no one is forcing you to use Game Pass lololol etc.”.

Especially considering that’s the root of the problem I’ve been trying to talk about, i.e. Xbox as a brand overemphasizing the Game Pass service above its consoles. What I’m saying is consoles have a bigger market than Game Pass does, all Xbox needs to do is tap into that again. It’s right there. Buying PS5’s & attempting to buy Series X’s (although they’re way too hard to get, even in 2023).

Like I said in an earlier post, it’s reductive to paint the value of Xbox as a monthly subscription service for a couple of hundred games. Xbox is way, way more than that.

I too have enjoyed some stuff on GP, specifically when I was unsure whether a game justified a purchase. I loved my time with Guardians of the Galaxy (I got 100% completion in that game, which is rare for me). But then I found Atomic Heart unfinished & not worth a playthrough yet, I didn’t like Wo Long (or more precisely it was too hard for me) & the only other stuff I was interested in was playing the Halo games again. But since I wanted RE4, I unsubbed.

Nothing against Phil but Lulu Cheng would have answered this instead of having Jez Corden do it for you lol

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They aren’t doing this though??? C’mon Phil has said multiple times that Gamepass is just one part of their ecosystem not the whole thing.

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