Some did a write up on ResetEra.
First question was an update about the CMA stuff --
We've gotten 9 approvals and working on 14 more, we've been working with CMA all year long and we plan to still appeal to make it happen
Second question: Why didn't they delay Redfall?
TLDR was that when it comes to delaying stuff there's multiple questions that need to get answered before them agreeing on delaying games
Third question: What do you mean that you're *disappointed* in Redfall? And what extend do you hope that you can make Redfall better down the road? --
On the review scores, we do mock reviews and Redfall got double digits from our mock reviews so the reviews it actually got are much lower. We never thought it'd review in the low 60s. Redfall is much lower than our internal metrics. Arkane is taking the internal feedback and committing to getting the 60fps out along with working on the game in general. I acknowledge and take responsibility for needing to launching the game cause it needs to be great since its 70 dollars. I understand people calling for my firing since I get way overpaid, we're committed though to working on Redfall. We want to support the team, the creative ambitions of the team and committed to the players
Fourth question: What is the balance of you showing something that you know is going to be years down the road and providing updates of that, what are the lessons learned from the last Showcase?
We have to be transparent of what we're showing so people committed to our platform know what they're getting and it has to get better. I'm not pointing at anybody but myself. Transparency in what we're building, what it's gonna look like and what our future is gonna be, and it drives me crazy when our communication is sometimes confusing or misleading regarding what our products are gonna be. That being said, and this is when it comes to the showcases, I'm very enthusiastic about it. We're announcing things people haven't seen, we're giving updates on things people have seen and what gets me excited is that things are finally lining up after some of the slowdowns from COVID. I can now see games are coming every quarter that surprising and will delight our customers. We still have to deliver on the quality. We're not trying to deliver one game to rule them all, so not every game will be for everyone. The diversity of what we build will hopefully be a strength and we have to deliver on the quality by showing gameplay and putting great games in the hands of our players.
Fifth comment/response: We're tired of hearing "we have to wait for next year for Xbox to succeed"
Phil comments on this year starting well with Hi-Fi Rush, Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition and Minecraft Legends doing well in Japan. He specifically states though that he's happy with the builds he's been seeing for Starfield, Avowed, Hellblade 2 but he gets it and understands people's frustrations. Until we're smiling from playing their games, he totally gets that people won't be excited or happy when it comes to Xbox games
Sixth Question: What is the formal process of when something like Redfall doesn't land? What is the "what went wrong" post mortem process?
When we acquire studios, there's games that are in development and then there's things that are early in development and I think we need to approve on engaging on games that are midway through production when they become a part of Xbox. And I think there's different expectations when teams become First Party and there's a different perception when these teams become First Parties. We didn't a good job early on when it comes to really helping them understand what it means to become apart of Xbox, use some of our internal resources and kind of help them. We kind of left them to work on that game, they're a talented team and we love that team, I still do, and I'd totally bet on them to make another great game. I think we can engage earlier with our different studios. It's different when a creative is committed already on a game but thinking of our process regarding assistance, we can do a better job. We've done a better job with Starfield since it was earlier on in production, so that made it easier for us to make sure we're shipping a quality experience. We've should've been there earlier. It's an Unreal game and we have a bunch of teams who have worked on Unreal, and we were a little late on getting them to help. We didn't do that, it's not an excuse. So when the 60fps issue came up, we had people diving in such as The Coalition, but that was a plan that had to be in last Fall. I take that as learning as painful as that is.
Seventh Question: Do you think you've put too much focus on the PC side and not given the console side of things as much love as it deserves?
We're still focused on making the console focus better. I will say, we have a different vision, Parris talked about it. We want Xbox to be something that people who buy our consoles can feel like members of a full ecosystem. We're fully committed to that. We're not in the business of "out-consoling Sony or Nintendo", there's not a win or solution for us. I know that will upset people but that's the truth. When you're 3rd place and your competition is as strong as they are, our vision is that anybody who's on our console is invested in our platform and feels like a member of a massive ecosystem. It's not true that if we go up and build great games, that you'll see console shares go up massively. We lost the biggest console generation there is to lose so when we build on Xbox, we want it to feel awesome. So if we focused on great games, that doesn't mean we'll win the console race. When people walk into a store, they're already in 1 out of the 3 ecosystems, the continuity from generation to generation is so strong that there is no world where something like Starfield is a 11/10 and it'll lead people selling their consoles. People want to play with their friends regardless of where they are. We'll stay focused on making our console experience awesome. I know people want us to be a better green version of the blue guys, we have to do our thing with how we build our games, GamePass and XCloud.
