Phil Spencer on big first-party triple-A announcements

You had a lot of games, which was great, but where were the big first-party game announcements?

Phil Spencer: So, our first-party game announcements on stage, Forza 7...

Okay, but we knew about Forza. It was a known quantity, that one.

Phil Spencer: Well, it was our announce. You can take it away from me, but it was an announce. Ori, which looked fantastic. Super Lucky's Tale, did you see that?

I'm talking more about...

Phil Spencer: You're not liking my answer, okay. What do you want us to show?

You know what I mean. Triple-A, big Microsoft first-party games.

Phil Spencer: Well, you think of Sea of Thieves as that, right?

Yeah, but that had been announced. I'm talking about big first-party triple-A announcements to get us all really excited for Xbox One X.

Phil Spencer: The focus I had on this show was games you're going to get to play in the next year. We're focusing on Xbox One S and Xbox One X and the games you're going to play. We showed Crackdown, which looks fantastic. It's going to be there at launch day for Xbox One X, which will be a great showcase for the box. Obviously Sea of Thieves. I thought State of Decay showed up really well. Some people played State of Decay 1, but a lot of people missed it. Now we're giving that game time to really hit what we want State of Decay to do, because that will be an important franchise for us. We showed Forza.

Frankly, I loved the fact I didn't have to bring out Gears and Halo just to say, hey. People know we have Gears and Halo in our portfolio, and we're working on other things that aren't on this list...

I was going to ask - what's your assessment of the first-party studio setup you have now? Is there enough there for you to be able to provide the kind of games I'm talking about?

Phil Spencer: I've been in this job three years and focused on hardware innovation and I think we've landed two great consoles in the last two years, with Xbox One S and Xbox One X. I've focused a lot on live innovation and getting our developer platform as much as the consumer side of the platform in shape. I'm spending a lot of time on our first-party right now. I do think we have an opportunity to get better in first-party and to grow. We've got great support from the company to go do that.

We've signed some things we haven't announced. I'm not gonna go stand on-stage - I've lived through announcing things too early and then had to live up to the hype while you're trying to go build the game, and I'm learning. I'm not a big fan of that. So I want to give teams the time.

In case someone was still wondering, or wanted to know why Microsoft didn't show games that will release in late 2018 or 2019.

Full article is also worth the read. Source

Microsoft's first party is a joke.

How long have they been saying "I know we need to do better in this area."?

I will give them a plus for more variety shown this E3, but where are the new first party IP's?

"We showed Crackdown, which looks fantastic."

Lies.

Why doesn't Sea of Thieves count?

lol man, sony fanboys are having a pretty epic meltdown this morning. keep the phil threads coming

I'm fine with this myself. I know that we'll get Halo 6 and Gears 5 and I'm sure we'll get others later on. What they showed was pretty good and I don't really need to see games that are years away.

I thought it was the worst looking game shown at E3 this year other than Monster Hunter.

I got Age of Empires

I am happy :)

@FastRobby: It is a new IP, but it was already known.

They showed new stuff, but not new blockbuster AAA games that will draw the consumers in my opinion.

The XboneX will have the better multiplats, but is is that improved to justify a hundred dollar increase?

Doesn't this topic address exactly your question? Eurogamer literally said exactly the same as you: "Yeah, but that had been announced. I'm talking about big first-party triple-A announcements to get us all really excited for Xbox One X."

I think they're referring to titles first announced this year. We've known about Sea for a long time.

I am fine with this. Games that are announced should be released within a year. If that the direction they are going to take, I am all for it.

Yup

Yeah that's what this topic is all about, right? Spencer addressing this question from gamers

The bias is obvious.

Forza: Well that doesn't count

Crackdown: Yeah but we knew about that

Lucky Tale: That's not AAA

Sea of Thieves: That's not really what I want to see

We showed Crackdown, which looks fantastic.

Well, MS does lack in first party titles. But I do agree that it's weird to dismiss those games. Not everyone wants cinematic games like Uncharted, Detroid or the new apporoach GOW takes (I already hate his kid). Hell even Spiderman seems to be way to cinematic with way too many QTEs

Sorry, what do you mean?

Why are they pushing a 4K console with that lineup though? Forza is the only graphical showcase.

I bought a PS4 pro today. I spend 400 Euros, but got a deal with Horizon. MS conference was crap. Before this conference i was only buying the xbox one x. I just going to wait till next E3 and see what games MS has before i buy a new xbox.

You had a lot of games, which was great, but where were the big first-party game announcements?

Phil Spencer: So, our first-party game announcements on stage, Forza 7...

HAHAHAHAGAFAHAHAGAGAGAHAHAHA

That people were saying: "Microsoft why don't you show us a big new IP that would showcase the power of the OneX". And that that question is answered by Phil in that interview. Namely that he only wanted to show games that were coming out in the following months, instead of a game that we would see again next E3.

Oh ya, I agree then. he did answer it and I'm down with that. That's the constant negative with Sony conferences: they show shit that won't be released for years.

Although the idea of showing only what will be released within a year is fine, many times do we see such a commitment not followed through. Am I really supposed to believe everything presented in the MS presentation will be available within 365 (363 right now) days?

That turned me right off. I wanted to see what games they had coming for the future.

They have given up this generation.

I've been saying it for weeks before E3 but everyone was like "no"

I've talked to the people, I know what they're going to do.

And I'm all for that, clearly you noticed this from Sony from last E3 they show these awesome games with no release dates or "TBD". Only for this E3 to be almost the same copy and paste format of last year with the exception of some VR titles & a remake. I'm all for God of War & Days Gone...but we just have to keep on waiting...

I'm glad that I saw Microsoft's E3 and saw games that I know are coming out this year...I can play State of Decay II in a few months, Crackdown 3 in a few months, Forza Motorsports 7 in a few months...

Good interview thanks for posting

@loe12k said:

I bought a PS4 pro today. I spend 400 Euros, but got a deal with Horizon. MS conference was crap. Before this conference i was only buying the xbox one x. I just going to wait till next E3 and see what games MS has before i buy a new xbox.

You'll notice when you appreciate other platforms and start to focus on games, you'll enjoy your time more as a gamer.

The PS4 has way too many games to not own this gen. (Unless you have a PC)

problem is that what they showed for coming this year wasn't very convincing

@loe12k said:

I bought a PS4 pro today. I spend 400 Euros, but got a deal with Horizon. MS conference was crap. Before this conference i was only buying the xbox one x. I just going to wait till next E3 and see what games MS has before i buy a new xbox.

Be sure to play Yakuza 0 man. One of the best games ever made imo.

@Star67 said:

@loe12k said:

I bought a PS4 pro today. I spend 400 Euros, but got a deal with Horizon. MS conference was crap. Before this conference i was only buying the xbox one x. I just going to wait till next E3 and see what games MS has before i buy a new xbox.

You'll notice when you appreciate other platforms and start to focus on games, you'll enjoy your time more as a gamer.

The PS4 has way too many games to not own this gen. (Unless you have a PC)

I have a xbox one, high end PC, PS4 pro now. I play Horizon later just waiting on my dinner, to be ready. I agree looking forward to playing the Last of US too.

@loe12k: I think you made the right move. Not because "da PS4 is da bezt!" but because you've diversified the games available to you! Now you can play both the MS and the Sony stuff as it rolls out

*edit* - word of warning about Horizon: I think it started off too easy, so I bumped the difficulty. Then it got real hard and I had to bump the difficulty back down. Granted, this was with aim assist set to "Off", but the point is don't be surprised if you want to tweak the difficulty a bit a couple of times

@NathanDrakeSwag said:

@loe12k said:

I bought a PS4 pro today. I spend 400 Euros, but got a deal with Horizon. MS conference was crap. Before this conference i was only buying the xbox one x. I just going to wait till next E3 and see what games MS has before i buy a new xbox.

Be sure to play Yakuza 0 man. One of the best games ever made imo.

Japanese games not really for me!

Phil doesn't believe in generations. He introduced the new post generation paradigm last E3.

Good for you. I didn't, because I already own an Xbox. I'm happy that they showed the games that will be released in the following months so that I know what I want to buy

@loe12k: If you have all of that then you are set to game! Welcome to the Manticore Club!

no vr for the xbox x was a major letdown for me, the rest was good enough, it's not like I'm waiting for a game like horizon zero dawn that gets stale after a couple of hours.

I like playing games at hard difficulty levels, we see.

@loe12k: give it a go! I'm not great with shooting on controllers, and as I mentioned I did turn the aim assist off, so that wasn't helping me either

MS should learn to play the Sony E3 game where you show titles at least twice and try and aim for 3 or 4 times :P

I mean how many more times will we see Detroit before it releases?

@commander: I feel like Horizon started off a wee bit stale and actually got less stale as you get out and the world opens up. But to each their own

@loe12k said:

I bought a PS4 pro today. I spend 400 Euros, but got a deal with Horizon. MS conference was crap. Before this conference i was only buying the xbox one x. I just going to wait till next E3 and see what games MS has before i buy a new xbox.

Welcome, so many exclusives I don't even know what to start recommending....

That was hilarious!

I still wanna say the intent is to get some first party games rolling. I think all the games shown off were 2017/2018. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if a big game like Anthem or Metro get pushed back. Also, he's clearly not gonna knock on his own first party games (even though Crackdown looks fucking brutal).

I knew that was going to happen. After Scalebound, MS isnt going to announce anymore new IPs too far ahead of time. Which is a good idea to me. This E3 was about the new hardware and having a bunch of games for it.

Its the same ol circular cow argument. Cows gripe about Forza/Halo/Gears. They make different games cows gripe about the games not being something they like and say Xbox has no games. So they go out and get a bunch of games. Cows gripe about them not being exclusives.

Spencer is doing the right thing. Stop caring what Sony fans think, listen to the actual Xbox fans. Get the new console established, get the IPs you already announced released. Use the preview program to find out what titles people like and develop those into new big IPs. PS4 had no new IPs for 2 years. If they really are serious about 'resetting', he's doing the right thing. New IPs will come in time.

It doesnt matter if Sony has more consoles sold, you arent going to win the diehard Sony fans.

MS' 1st party has always been garbage. The only original AAA IP they've created since the original Xbox is what......Forza?? Grabbed by the Ghoulies??

TLHBO

Yet where are the release dates for the PS4 exclusives?

Gotta wait until next year AGAIN

This in a nut shell.

Cows just hate that Mattrick is gone and Phil is kicking butt with killing Kinect, killing the wall between Windows and Xbox, putting out superior hardware again, putting out diverse software and focusing on being for the gamer (BC for the last 3 gens).

@kuu2: And to be fair, Phil said that they actually do have some other new IPs in the works they just havent revealed them.

The non racing Turn 10 IP has been in the works for a year. And Halo 6 isnt a new game but its also deep in development. After playing the Halo Wars 2 expansion last night I'm actually excited for Halo 6. Both the Banished and the Flood will be in the FPS now since they merged the timelines of HW2 and Halo.

I get some people are disappointed, with no new IPs (even though having played Super Luckys Tale its actually a pretty good quality platformer), but I dont think people realize how big a disaster Scalebound was for MS. They are taking it slow and methodical now as far as new games go.

I'd rather them keep pushing out proven good PC titles like Player Unknown and Path of the Exile while they actually work and polish new IPs.

("blah blah" just buy a PC then" No. I dont want to game on PC so moot argument)

Them pushing SoT and SoD2 back is a good sign. I've been playing the alpha and while SoT is a fun game and has a solid foundation, its not ready for launch it needs more content. And I think SoD1 was a great game so if they need to polish up 2 thats cool too.