'Story Based Games Don't Have The Same Impact They Used To Have,' Says Phil Spencer

http://wccftech.com/343i-halo-5-mistake-master-chief/

Doubling down on Master Chief story and the amount of focus on him was probably the easiest learning from Halo 5. That was a really simple thing to absorb and embrace.

343's Studio Head Kiki Wolfkill and Franchise Director Frank O’Connor plans to "doubling down" Master Chief's story with Halo 6.

If you are soley on these forums to call people stupid twice in the same sentence, I don't think System Wars is really for you ;)

@Pedro: Oh so you're also mentally deficient and have no idea, kinda what I thought. Thanks for clarifying.

Why is it not a surprise to hear a person who never had his hands deep into development of games other than on the business side of things, talk about numbers and sales and almost "doom" Single player story games.

But i have no problem with Microsoft dropping SP games, Sony and Nintendo and couple of the big 3 publishers/developers is still around and they have no problem focusing on this, not to mention that there are tons of indie devs out there.

@charizard1605: nice one, because you didn't give the whole context, and explain it properly 90% of the forum who can't read properly thinks Phil Spencer dislikes SP games, and doesn't want them on the Xbox...

Sony cleverly started making more open world games for the Playstation. Sony/ Playstation single player experiences are mostly the same thing nowadays. Days Gone, God of War , Horizon are open world.

If Microsoft is moving away from making big single player experiences. You can say the same for Sony, they have moved away from Multiplayer/ Service based experiences, and now just make single player games.

Phil Explains he's position here.

I’ve looked at things like Netflix and HBO, where great content has been created because there’s this subscription model. Shannon Loftis and I are thinking a lot about, well, could we put story-based games into the Xbox Game Pass business model because you have a subscription going? It would mean you wouldn’t have to deliver the whole game in one month; you could develop and deliver the game as it goes.”

We’ve got to understand that if we enjoy those games, the business opportunity has to be there for them. I love story-based games. I just finished [LucasArts-inspired RPG] Thimbleweed Park – I thought it was a fantastic game. Inside was probably my game of last year. As an industry, I want to make sure both narrative-driven single-player games and service-based games have the opportunity to succeed. I think that’s critical for us.”

Spencer feels there are also design issues with a lot of mainstream single-player games. They tend to be part of long legacy franchises, and they rely too much on assumed knowledge about control interfaces and game conventions. “As creators, we’ve got to think about accessibility of the content that we build. Our big narrative story-driven games are in some ways less accessible. They may be the nth iteration of a story that, if you didn’t play the first and minus-one versions you don’t feel connected to. From a mechanics standpoint, they know the core audience has been playing games since PS1, and they just assume you’re a master with a controller.”

“It’s why I really applaud teams like Telltale Games who have taken an interesting approach to narrative-driven games. They pick stories that people already know, like Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, and build a mechanic that’s accessible. From a core standpoint, we may say is, ‘Ah, it’s kind of quick-time events.

Is that a real game?,’ but if you think about broadening the audience, you can’t assume that somebody can left-click down on the stick and hold the right trigger and then hit Y over and over in order to solve some problem. As developers, we need to think about how to broaden our audience.”

lol

So let me guess: SP based Xbox exclusives such as Sunset Overdrive, Quantum Break, Ryse, Dead Rising 3/4, RotTR, etc were commercial and/or critical flops so he assumes there isnt a market for SP based games...

MS being MS. No SP games, no buy for me cause I wont pay for an online service to play MP games. I'll have PC for that

@charizard1605: hilarious since some of the most critically successful games this gen (Uncharted 4, Witcher 3, Zelda, Horizon Zero Dawn, Fallout 4, MGSV) have been single player focused compared to titles like Destiny, The Division, Wildlands, Evolve, etc.

No story based games means no buy for me.

It's not necessarily what I want and I think it's a bad look for Phil and MS to be so up front about it (shit at least feign some interest in the single player story-driven games that some gamers want), but the majority of game sales are from multiplayer driven games.

I think a healthy mix of both is important, but casual gamers aren't picking up Nioh, Zelda or Persona. They're picking up CoD, Madden and Fifa.

Do Nintendo and Sony execs not speak to media?

Serious question.

We get a 'Phil said this' article almost daily across games media.

Not sure how he can say that when PS4 the home of story based games is selling like a treasure trove for Sony. :P

Mass Effect Andromeda even though it selling okay, argubly suffered in sales due to it's shallow writing compared to the first 3 games. :P Story more than ever is a highly important aspect to any game.

You and the other posters can't read and comprehend if you are coming to that asinine conclusion from the article. Its not good to brag about your ineptness.

Can't say I agree. I want more games like The Witcher 3, TES, The Last of Us and so forth. These kinds of games always deliver the most enjoyment for me.

The clickbaity title also was also glorious.

People didnt read the article and the cows stampede.

Mod level troll.

Its just MS trying their best to stay relevant

I think I've shared with you how much I love Zelda but no way. You gotta be a real social awkward to want to sit and play Zelda games over and over rather than the unpredictability of PvP in a great MP game. That sounds like some weirdo shit, bro.

@lrdfancypants: MS has their backs to a wall with the Switch taking off the way it has. Phil will talk to any microphone handed to him at least until they get scorpio on shelves.

@FastRobby: You're right, how dare Char not interperet the undisciplined ramblings of a ceo who just gave Scalebound the axe the way YOU want to comfortably digest it! The outrage!

Phil is right.

U4, Nioh, bloode borne, ect I don't hear about these games anymore, they virtually left 0 impact in the industry.

Single player games are niche.. you need that MP component.. like GTA V.

Not really, before Quantum Break went multiplat, I actually enjoy the single player and I thought it was good for a MS game in a very long time but the execution was it's own problem to some who have played it but other then that, Quantum Break was really fun for it's single player if you ask me.

Sadly, I don't see MS going for another single player like Quantum Break offer.

@davillain-: I think they need to keep trying to make single player games and accept that they are going to have some failures but down the line it will eventually pay off when they get a hit. Sony seems willing to do that anyway and it's working for them. I think Microsoft is short sighted and just wants the quick easy money. It's like they want to make sure they get the maximum profit from the most minimal effort. But there is a reason why I am just a forum poster and not CEO.

Here is the actual quote about any potential aversion to large story-based games:

“The audience for those big story-driven games... I won’t say it isn’t as large, but they’re not as consistent,” says Spencer. “You’ll have things like Zelda or Horizon Zero Dawn that’ll come out, and they’ll do really well, but they don’t have the same impact that they used to have, because the big service-based games are capturing such a large amount of the audience. Sony’s first-party studios do a lot of these games, and they’re good at them, but outside of that, it’s difficult – they’re become more rare; it’s a difficult business decision for those teams, you’re fighting into more headwind.”

He's not wrong and I can understand why, Zelda is a guaranteed seller, so is anything by Naughty Dog. Beyond that, it is a huge risk, and there are countless failed examples, Prey probably being the next one but I'm hope I'm wrong cause I see Prey has potential.

Urg Scalebound again? Really? The dev sucked, they didn't meet deadlines, and it was already over budget. That's just business. And here he's not quoted properly, and context hasn't been given. As if Spencer is going to say that he doesn't want story driven SP anymore for Xbox, doesn't make any sense since he's indeed the leader of Xbox so he likes EVERY game. That's practically his job.

And this is why I no longer take anything Phil says seriously. At this point I believe he's just a con-man who was just given his position to clear up bad images Mattrick left while doing nothing.

At this point MS is better off just getting outta the console market. How can someone who claims they're a "gamer" say something this ridiculous??? Telltale games alone debunks this crap.

Edit: At this point the Switch>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>The Scorpio.

Exclusives shouldn't be in the most commerical genres, becuase third partys will make those anyway. Exclusives should be of the "can't get this anywhere else" -kind. Multiplayer focused shooter in a service package like the Division, Destiny etc are clearly money making monsters, but what's the point of MS making another game like that?

Yep...

This is why NO ONE takes the Xbox fanbase seriously when it comes to gaming.

Phil spencer is in full DC mode, all his single player games flopped liek ryse and sunset overdrive so hes pissed

Well hearing what Phil had to say pretty much explains why Xb1 is a failure and most of their AAA exclusives had flopped (GEOW, QB, RECORE and HALO)

Just seeing this. Give me a break. It may be true that the hugest cash cows are mp games with dlc goodies slowly iv dripped over a few years. But if that is the vast majority of your portfolio your game business may remain solvent but it certainly won't inspire the loyalty from a broad consumer base that having those titles PLUS deep (mechanically or narratively or both) sp games would. Any argument against having a diverse portfolio catering to different types of gamers and even different moment to moment moods for a given customer has to just be damage control. It can't be a serious pitch to us as consumers

I wonder how many people in here actually read the article and not just the misleading snippet in the OP

2. The answer is 2 people. (I'm not one of them)

Judging from the responses a select few. The majority are just spewing nonsense.

@Pedro: I didn't come to any conclusions, I was asking you what yours was since you stated you were the only one smart enough to get it. After your last two post I see that's 100% clearly not the case, again thanks for clarifying that.

You guys are missing the point entirely. All those single player games you mention did chart for what a month tops maybe. Look at how long GTA V has been charting. Single player with decent MP. Guarantee RDR 2 will have similar MP. Those single player games wish they had numbers like Overwatch, Destiny, COd, battlefield, wild lands, rb6.

This is why I play on Xbox one it caters to what I like and play

There is no conclusion to be drawn. What the interview states and what is being said by most posters don't coincide. I know, its a struggle but if anyone is going to comment on the article the very least they should do is read it.

lol wut?

I can give you Nioh isnt much talked about nowadays (and that still means sh*t) but I see U4 and Bloodborne being mentioned PLENTY especially when there ares "favorite games this gen" threads

so stfu, you know sh*t wtf you're talking about. You know what is rarely mentioned? Halo 5 and Gears 4, two MP focused games, thats what...

It's hard to deny that MP has become the go-to for a lot of gamers since the release of the 360. I'm not hugely into MP except for a few games, so SP is my jam.

Well, in terms of popularity and which games are now the biggest in the industry? hes right...

@charizard1605: You missed facts again. The games that you claim that dominate sales are the flashes in the pan. They are here one week and gone the rest. He is talking about games that are there for months and even years these get sales from MP. Minecrat, GTA V, etc.

Even if Quauntum Break sold a couple million it has no long-term profit plan.

Halo 3, Bioshock, mass Effect, etc. from last gen where SP or had significant SP campaign that actually mattered to the masses and charted for months and had great legs.

Tons of SP games these days will do ok or very well initially and then kind of sell very slowly or hit a wall. Which is a high risk if you spend XXX millions on the development of said games. So what Phil is saying is NOT that there won't be SP games but that its a risky model.

Re6 despite doing a couple million still had to sell a bit more than double that for a comfortable profit. Best selling square enix games were called under performers because they didn't reach the minimum goal. Quantum break likely has sold over 1 million now but how much money was lost on that game? It clearly hasn't made much back. Even if its considered a "success" in one way it fails in the part where the money comes in.

Not saying there shouldn't be more SP games i', just simplifying what Phils message is.

Its not exciting to make a thread about the entirety of what the man said. This was click bait from the get go. char is my friend but thats what I see. People claim they are "seeing red" after reading the OP. Why not read the entire interview because TC left out important quotes that refute what the thread title is trying to mislead.

Also on twitter Spencer addressed this because people take one statement and run with it.

Because what he said has been editied away from the entirety of the article. 90% of the forum is too lazy to read the entire thing and are just going on what charizard's OP said. Spencer himself isnt a MP gamer. He prefers SP games and says further in that same article they are an integral part of the Xbox. But that was all conveniently left out of the OP. Click bait ftw.

To Team Butyoudidntactuallyreadithelovesallgamesseriously:

Cut this interview that way if you want to, but there is very clearly some perspective or framework he is building from in this. You guys come across like those guys who want to take politicians LITERALLY when they give a double answer and it is 100% pathetic. You are selling yourselves out and immune to reason.

It's obvious as hell to everyone that when someone speaks out of two sides of their mouth, you go back to looking at their actions. The XBox is the only system not to have a AAAAE this generation. Singleplayer games can deliver that experience. Meanwhile, games have been put on the chopping block left and right the past couple of years and we even have the original developers of one of those games out and out telling us that MS changed the entire scope of what they wanted from them in this very capacity. Adding a cherry on top for the Scalebound developer saying the exact same thing.

So, please understand, Lemming Nation. You can exist in your echo chamber where Platinum Games is a crappy developer that doesn't know how to finish a project. You can stay in your hole where GH Bush never raised taxes, too. What you won't do is convince anyone else that this nonsense is going to fly.

Overwatch has 30 million players and it's Multiplayer game. Phil was right. Sony knows this too but they are edging their bets story based games will sell better for them and they do! Sony games don't have Multiplayer. Only for third party the PS4 would have hardly any online games.

Microsoft knows what sell best on their plattform. Xbox will have a mix of both single player+ multiplayer games.

If that was actually true and single-player games were on the brink of extinction, I wouldn't have much incentive to play video games anymore. Multiplayer has never held my excitement.