During Phil Spencer's interview at China Joy 2015, the following was said:

My strategy is more around our own first party franchises, and investing in franchises that we own, and probably fewer exclusive deals for third party content. I want to have strong third party relations, but paying for many third party exclusives *uhm* isn’t our long term strategy. This year, the fact that we’re shipping Halo 5, Gears of War, Fortza 6, Fable, we can only do that and build that best line-up we’ve ever seen really on the back of franchises that we own. It’s great to have Tomb Raider as part of our line-up, but investing in first party, you’ll see more of that at gamescom next week, is really core to our strategy.

I love how he pronounces Forza 6! I look forward to seeing how the first party investment pays of.

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Business as usual on Xbox then.

Evident by E3...

Good for Phillip. I wonder if the Tomb Raider deal was on his watch or happened before he took office, so to speak. Both companies should avoid paying for third-party exclusives that would otherwise be multi-plats. I have no problem with deals where their funding was key in the game getting made in the first place, especially with smaller developers who need the help, or if it was a strategic decision made by the developer/publisher.

He's starting to become what I don't like, too much talk and little action. There's no evidence of a focus on first party when two of your first parties were not given the freedom to work on their new IP's and became a gears/halo factory, and so far apart from forza where have all the first party games been? Not one retail exclusive this year, not one!

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. If there is a shift in focus, you'll probably see the changes over a period of time rather than an overnight transformation.

Indeed.  In the few months that he has been in charge, they should have been able to turn out several AAA blockbusters from scratch.  

Both of these teams have gone on record specifically stating they want to make games in those franchises. It's been done to death. If anything MS is giving the developers too much freedom, after all Phil Spencers edict is "New IP is critical". Curse MS for giving their developers the freedom of choice NOT to work on new ip.

Dominating the latter half of the year. As usual

Well I doubt they're losing much sleep over Forza 6 & Halo 5 vs. MLB The Show '15...oh wait, that's not exclusive.

No point getting all riled about it. It's not really a change in stratgey, MS will still be "buying off" certain games..., the Alan Wakes, The Gears of Wars and Mass Effects and Ninja Gaiden of this generation....they are afterall, the biggest games publisher on Earth. it's just now they'll own the IP for those games from the outset. They've been more aggressive in that since 2012. Bout time too.

Sheeeet last gen Gears and Minecraft were 3rd Party and now they're 1st party. It's the same music, dat MS just changin' the beat. Boombbombooombumbombadooom.

He looks sleepy.. give him some rest.