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Veknoid_Outcast on 05 August 2015
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Goatseye said:
Veknoid_Outcast said:

Phil Spencer is a likable guy, but I'm starting to feel that he's simply paying lip service to Xbox fans.

He says his strategy is more about "first party franchises, and investing in franchises we own" and "we should be pushing harder on genre and control" but I see very little evidence of these strategies.

Halo Wars 2 is a step in the right direction, but I want to see Spencer and company follow through more completely on these ideas.

The 1st party games and deals were made under his watch. He was the head of first party studios since 2010(+/-) until 2014.

ReCore is MS's, so is Scalebound, Ori, Screamride, QB, etc... all new ambitious IPs investment.

Killer Instinct was brought back, Crackdown and Gears is being given a proper budget and staff to be worked on.

In a year a half span, we gonna have a galore of AAA games owned by MS gracing Xbox Ones, which is more than what Nintendo produced for WiiU. The biggest 1st party producer according to most.

Yeah, but Microsoft picked up Ori a year into development. Scalebound and ReCore are published by Microsoft but developed by Platinum and Comcept/Armature, respectively. These aren't really homegrown properties. Even Gears 4, which is technically developed by a subsidiary studio, is based on a franchise Microsoft purchased instead of one that was developed internally. Bringing Killer Instinct back after 17 years was a nice gesture, but employing a free-to-play/season pass model hardly does the series justice.

For me, it's not just about publishing exclusive games. It's about taking advantage of the resources at Microsoft's disposal, specifically its stable of IPs and its studios. Taking Black Tusk/The Coalition away from "the next Halo" to build another Gears of War may have been a good business decision, but I'd much rather see what that studio can make from scratch.

Don't get my wrong: creating deals with independent studios for exclusive content is great. I'm looking forward to ReCore and Scalebound, and games like Cuphead and Below. But I also want to see Microsoft build up its subsidiaries, dust off its old IPs, and allow its internal studios more creative freedom.