God Of War Creator Slams Xbox Boss's Response To Bethesda Delays

I have to agree with the guy but that's because I already despise Phil and his hypocrisy and have mentioned it many times before.

But, this is absolutely un called for and a man in his position should not be saying those things on twitter just stirring up more console war nonsense to be spread. He should keep quiet and make sure God of war Ragnarok releases on time, otherwise he's going to look like a d**k

@UltimateOtaku91 he's nothing to do with ragnorak so wouldn't be anything to do with him

And he’s spot on! And this is what I was saying…Phil Spencer is a great figure head. He comes across as relatable, and having a genuine love for gaming. Does anybody here really honestly think he comes across as somebody who can be savage when making decisions to do with hiring and firing and managing the right team for the job. You can’t be everybody’s friend. You have to not only have the ability to recognise somethings not working…you have to be capable of doing something about it. What has Phil Spencer shown that suggests he’s capable of getting all the parts of his team working well?

Not many Xbox fans will like what Jaffa is saying. But we should all be thankful that somebody with some sort of voice that actually does have a chance to be heard by him is saying it. Because most of us have known there’s a problem with the management and keeping things on track over at Xbox. Phil need to start listening instead of just hearing.

@UltimateOtaku91 He has nothing to do with god of war now. His game is YouTube now.

Is this the guy that Sony fired because they said he was impossible to work with and has been spending his days insulting people on the internet ever since?

He is correct. I'm sorry, no fanboy glasses here. He is correct. Xbox's #1 problem for MANY years has been the inability to get games to market, and it's gotten ridiculous.

@Widey85 ....lol if he has people below him, that would make him a........................?

Honestly, whilst he may of worded things abrasively I 100% agree with him. Phil is too passive when it comes to managing studios. He's a great director of brand but not suited to manage games. The fact he hasn't removed Bonnie ross as head of 343 after almost a decade of failure and mismanagement says it all on it's own and that's without the plethora of issues coming from undead labs, fable, everwild and all the flops like crackdown 3 and cancelled projects last gen. In 2 years of series consoles being out there will of been only one finished triple AAA game released on gamepass...

That guy is only doing it for his YouTube channel. He is known to stir up Console wars. Phil Spencer isn't really the one to blame for this.

Xbox game studios has its own leadership. Head of Xbox Game Studios is Matt Booty. Its quite obvious that Matt Booty doesn't show up to work anymore. For years under his leadership studios have been in various problems. What Xbox needs is a change in leadership, again I ask the question why does Playstation not have these problems with its own studios? Year on year we see outstanding games from them. It's because Herman Hulst who is the Head of Playstation studios actually knows what he is doing.

@ShadowofTwilight22 It’s needed. Imagine if ign asked him what is he doing to ensure consistency?…we’d all be thankful for that. But they would never ask anything probing a statement of acknowledgment…and acknowledging you need to do better is worthless if you can’t back it up.
So you have to take things on how they stand today - and today we’ve seen Xbox’s two biggest titles this gen so far not hit release dates.
We saw a console release with no big exclusive.
We saw halo get delayed a year and released still incomplete.
We say them buy 23 studios? Like 5 years ago and not had any releases from them or, bar hellblade 2 last year, seen any gameplay from them.
We’ve seen them continue to use cg trailers for games at the very least 2 years away…that ultimately end up getting delayed.
We saw a whole generation with very few first party support, delayed titles, and maybe 1 new ip?

They’re selling a subscription…they need a steady stream of first party support. They need consistency. I’d love somebody to ask what they’re doing to ensure consistency…as we all know that that’s a management problem. Something isn’t working within team Xbox as of today.
Maybe after their showcase Phil will prove he’s on the ball. But right now, today, he hasn’t when it comes to managing his teams. And emotional blue ticks on twitter seem to be the only ones willing to ask questions about that.

@Chaudy dude Phil is responsible for Matt booty. The blame lands on the person who’s not ensuring things are running well…that’s Phil Spencer. He needs to show he can do something…otherwise what incentive does anybody over at Xbox have to do their jobs correctly? They still get paid regardless

What has therapy got to do with management?

and this is very incendiary to scold a manager who has just been given two extra publishers and another half dozen studios for what could turn out to be teething problems.

Curious, has Jaffe addressed Nintendo of America and Jim Ryan for their behaviour lately?. Because honestly, between delayed games and treading on staff's rights and lives, the latter is a little more scandal worthy.

@Bleachedsmiles you can't blame phil Spencer for everything. He is the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, theres a whole hierarchy below him. He isn't really the one to blame for each and every studios problems. Studios directly report to Matt Booty, its his job to ensure projects are managed with milestones, regular meetings, realistic deadlines, resource and asset management, Phil Spencer doesn't do that stuff. Matt Booty is directly in charge of studio management and he reports directly to Phil Spencer. Its clear that problems arise in the chain and later get communicated with Phil.

Hardly diplomatic, but he never was.

Diplomatic or not - I do believe he has identified the issue.
He's clearly happy enough at the direction MS are taking, he's simply saying they need to hire a Dev manager who can schedule better and ensure teams stay on track as far as possible.
Lets face it, its not very good as is, so its clearly needed...

@Richnj It’s for shock value. Attention. And, yes it’s crass…but look what it’s getting?…attention. The message is sound. And all Xbox players benefit from Xbox hearing this message.

Jim Ryan has the opposite problem. His public relations image is poor. But His management skills have lead to ps5 getting 5 first party games and 2 Bethesda games so far? With possible god of war hitting at the end of this year. There’s many decisions Jim Ryan makes that you can question. Ensuring games are on track is nowhere near the issue over at Sony as it is on Xbox though. There’s no getting away from that.

@Chaudy that’s not how things work. Decisions get made from the top. If you can recognise Matt Booty is a problem at Xbox and not doing his job correctly…you expect Phil not to recognise that too? And if he doesn’t recognise it, yet you do, isn’t it safe to assume that Phil isn’t doing his own job correctly?
And if Phil does recognise what you see…and is in the position to do something about it…then surely it falls on the responsibility of Phil Spencer to do something about it?

It’s not rocket science.

@Bleachedsmiles
By your logic, the fault lies with satya nadella because you recognise phil spencer is the problem but somehow satya nadella doesnt recognise it?

Phil obviously does recognise it, but it's not his direct fault as you are suggesting. Every single decision isn't made at the top. He doesn't run around checking on Studio progress day to day. That responsibility is delegated to the people below him. When you have an IT firm working on projects you don't blame the failure of a project or problems in a specific project on the CEO of the company, you blame it on the project head or the programme head. In this case the head is matt booty, the only fault Phil has in this is that he hasn't replaced matt booty yet for doing an awful job.

It's not difficult to understand how a hierarchy works.

I watched the David Jaffe podcast when he said this. I agree with him, Phil Spencer can't do managment. Microsoft are terrible at managing talent, developers, studios etc.

While I agree that MS needs to strategize and be more mindful of release dates and rotating quality releases, he’s an absolute douchebag for invoking mental health that way.

@Bleachedsmiles The gamer mantra of "It's ok as long as I get my games" doesn't really fly with me though.

@ShadowofTwilight22 Thanks for that.

I'm glad he mentioned it, but yeah, he spent 30 mins talking about Phil and Xbox, and 5 on Jim Ryan and his email, and while he clearly didn't agree with Ryan he refused to go in on him because of "politics".

I'm all for holding poor management accountable, but priorities and outraged seems to be really misplaced here.

Big fan of Jaffe, he has a point, but personally I would direct this issue at Matt Booty more than Phil Spencer. And if Matt Booty cannot fix it, then Phil needs to find someone else who can

Anybody here play Jaffe's last game? It was awful, tried to get by on being edgy and vulgar and came across like it was designed by an 11 year old.

What a horrible overreaction to Phil basically regurgitating part of Xbox's mission statment, which should always be about quality and consistency.

@Chaudy And would you say this is a new problem for xbox? Because it’s really not. So at what point does the blame lay on Phil Spencer who is being paid to manage these people?
I understand how hierarchy works. But also we all know the only thing consistent with Xbox has been management problems. Keeping these games on track. Again it’s not a new problem, and Will likely be a continuing problem until Phil looks at his team and makes changes - so the responsibility is on Phil. Right????

@Bleachedsmiles I agree with you that its a management problem but I think there's multiple people here like Phil, Matt, basically I would say the entire leadership at Xbox is bad.

If it wasn't for game pass, I wouldn't even be touching my Xbox right now. It's kind of sad that 2 years in they have almost nothing to show other than some great hardware and some cool software tricks.

Jaffe’s an idiot. I’d take Phil any day of the week over Jim Ryan. Phil has done so much for the Xbox brand. People need to understand that we’re still coming out of Covid. Almost every game has been delayed. Xbox, Sony, Nintendo, third party… it’s all been affected.

Xbox sales are up tremendously. GamePass is still phenomenal. Phil as a whole has turned Xbox around. I’m happy with the job he’s doing. If he saw Bethesda wasn’t ready, I’m fine with that. I want Xbox to be known for amazing games. Not broken ones released too early.

And I’ve been with MS since the very first Xbox (as well as PlayStation since the PS2). So I have seen the pain. But we also just came out of a stellar year with Microsoft being the top dev on Metacritic. The only games PlayStation released so far this year are ones that were delayed from last year.

Being an operations project manager myself
It is a tough one to call, you have your fans and your critics.
Perhaps Phil is a great visionary and front man, I think he is, he has that about him for sure.
Can he manage down to the lower ranks and produce, at the moment I’m not sure, on current goings on, if they are to be true, then maybe not.

You can have some amazing dedicated employees full of drive and motivation, but it doesn’t make them a naturally good leader.

He’s not wrong in a way I think Xbox studio’s do need to be managed better. I’m just not sure taking aim at Spencer the way he has done makes any sense.

Phil is paid the big money and holds the top position. He's not responsible for every decision made by lower members of staff but he is accountable for the success of the gaming division and therefore responsible for when that division fails. I disagree with the way this has been presented but it's a good point of conversation.

Whether he has a point or not, I just don't see the purpose of putting people's name in your mouth, especially in such a public manner. Comes off attention-seeking, obnoxious and unnecessary. Stop trying to stir drama and mind your own business.

Jaffe is an ass anyway

@Chaudy
You maybe right, not sure what Matt Booty does.
But at the end of the day it is Phil’s job to sort him out and this out.
If I have to micro manage for a while, whilst creating a better fit structure, then that is what you have to do.

Maybe a bit over the top (Jaffe has always been that way. The man has no filter.) but perhaps there is some truth to his words. There's no doubt Xbox has struggled to get 1st party software out in a timely fashion. That said though I don't think the blame lies solely on upper management.

I think the reason Playstation and Nintendo don't seem to have this problem just comes down to their studios being really good at what they do and their development studios have worked with their publishers for many years now and are comfortable in that environment. Most of Xbox's studios are new to the Xbox 1st party ecosystem so I'm not too surprised there have been some growing pains.

Plus to be fair this is Bethesda we are talking about. Perhaps the game simply looked too much like a typical Bethesda bugfest and so Phil decided to delay it. Bethesda really needs to prove themselves with Starfield to many folks and releasing it in buggy fashion is the worst way to go. It needs to be polished!

@Dezzy70 yes that's very true

Guy sounds bipolar. He is the one that needs some therapy.

This whole thing has been blown out of proportion. All the devs or publishers have to do is stop announcing release dates so early. Wait until development is in the final stages (eg squashing bugs etc) and then commit to a release window.

To all those saying that Phil is not managing properly, who is it that likely made the final decision to delay these games? The poor decision would have been to release them in an unfinished/buggy state. It takes tremendous courage to delay a game like Starfield knowing how that delay will be received by both the Blue and Green teams.

Anyone who knows anything about management knows that the very top table has little knowledge of what is occurring right at the bottom. That's why we all have Line Managers; people that assess our progress. That's not to say that there isn't a problem somewhere. There clearly is. However, it may not be quite as drastic as some here would have you believe. Yes, Xbox now has a lot of Studios, but when they were taken on, some will have been deep into development, others will have started development since joining, and others are likely to have had the games they were working on cancelled. Game development takes time, and it is unlikely that many of the Studios recently acquired would have had games ready to release. If games take on average 3-7 years to develop, then it is next year that we can realistically hold Xbox to account for the games in development.

Ultimately, I've said this many times, but release dates for games should effectively only be announced once the game has gone gold. To announce the release date whilst still working on the game is just asking for trouble, and then the masses dive in to give the Developers or Bosses a kicking.

Publisher of the year twice in a row, lets go!

@Kooky_Daisuke

The next showcase won't be make or break. People kept saying that with xbox one year after year after year and they're still here, only with halo gears and forza as their exclusive offerings. Xbox is lucky there's no stock for both consoles. I bet PS5 would be at 40m when gow releases if stock wasn't an issue.

There will always be loyal fans that buy xbox.

@Widey85 my god how long has Microsoft been playing "just wait til next year!"? the games are ALWAYS coming next year, just you wait, they'll be so good next year! here's a CG trailer! this game will be amazing next year! I'm not even solely blaming Phil. this is an Xbox problem, has been for a LONG time. but if Phil doesn't get it fixed, if games don't start making their release dates, if we don't start getting more than CG trailers and promises, you know who's going to get blamed. as the head of Xbox, this constant issue falls on him, ultimately.

This is true - because games have never been delayed... games have never needed massive day one patches, games have never sucked cause they were released too early as a result of corporate heads pushing product out.

A Sony develop s**t stirring the console wars, shocker. Typical response from a Sony team member. I suggest he shuts up gets back to making his own ‘delayed’ cross gen game…

Xbox definitely has a content problem... it's a fine ecosystem and Game Pass is great, but at the end of the day we choose a console for the games, and Xbox is simply not delivering. Spencer really needs to get his house in order.

@GuyinPA75

Jaffe is on therapy lol.

@Fiendish-Beaver Very true, Halo Infinite was delayed and when launched (campaign mode) was a really decent game! And looks fantastic. But their does now seem to be a large void this year for Xbox that they will need to fill.

While he does make a good point it's just so poorly done and is just for clicks and once again shows just what a nasty and bitter man he is, just hates everyone and everything

But Microsoft do need to manage the developers they have a lot better and get more exclusives out, they have plenty developers now but still a lack of exclusives .

How quickly since MS buyout of Bethesda everyone is jumping on a bandwagon of bashing on MS/Spencer in general for delays everyone should know Bethesda is well known for Skyrim/Fallout etc.

Just because MS bought the studio doesn't magically make Bethesda work harder or better or faster. Every single big game like this they put out is slathered in delays. Sitting in your designer gaming chair and gum flapping about a position you know little about is something a lot of people do or like to do I guess. It's astonishingly easy to sit upon high passing down judgement when you have no skin in the game.

Delays have almost always resulted in better day 1 releases and their reception. Just in this past year or 2 look at some the torrential flops that hit far to earlier and then there's an expectation of well we will make it right just stick with us! EA BF42, PCF Outriders, CDPR Cyberpunk. It would be by this statement and a lot of the reaction of this kind of thing is what people want?! No thank you.

In this day and age of instant gratification and disposable everything no one is going to be happy no matter what these companies do. They put it out far to early, get the pitchforks! They delay it ,Get the pitchforks! Everyone hit youtube and leave your "opinion" for everyone to hold up over their heads as "facts" this has-been guy.

Everyone has a backlog of games, get in there enjoy the thousands of games readily available and let these guys do what they gotta do.

Well said, @omegared74.

Surely it stands to reason that as games become longer and more complicated, they will take longer to produce and to iron out the creases. The days of knocking out a game in a couple of weeks and releasing it in whatever state it arrived in, with no capability to fix it, are long gone (and believe me, that is quite literally what used to happen). I would far rather have a finished and polished product, rather than an early release that I regretted buying...

Ok it maybe my fault starfield was delayed ...it was only the day before I said I wasn't too excited for starfield ...sorry lol

Jokes aside
I know the delays are messed up but we all get a better game for it hopefully and yeh they messing up managing all them studios but lets face it it's a lot of studios and it will take some fine tuning but I hope eventually they get there and hopefully soon

In about a month the showcase will b on and hopefully they announce some great games like Goldeneye that will b released on the day or at least close and/or some great GP games added over the months left of this year

As for jaffe has he ran that amount of studios at once? No ...he was great back in the day but now he just sits and slag off everyone , and most of his career he churned out lots of twisted metal games and to be fair he's known for God of war and that is great but it's not them years anymore or he wouldn't have to rely on yt to get ppl to know who he is

I have nobody to blame but myself for reading his rambling.

Uncalled for, especially with the language used. But it does not make it completely false (there is obviously a management problem at MS Studios, and it most likely isn't Phil, but it still needs to be resolved quickly, preferably with few "future endeavors").

Who is this nobody and how can I make sure I never hear his nonsense ever again? I can’t believe how many trolls in this comment sections share his mindset…. Xbox has been clear Bethesda is practically autonomous, Todd Howard is the one doing the high end management in Bethesda (and direct management in this game.)

@omegared74 best comment so far. Glad someone gets it!

Halo being delayed in the 12th hour and now this. We're 6 month's out so definitely better than Halo but they've been hyping it up a lot recently so it's poor messaging IF they knew it was going to be delayed. Said it many times now but there is definitely a management issue somewhere in the chain and it needs to be fixed. They are making the correct and tough decisions, but they seem knee jerk. It honestly looks like they just made the decision during this visit to Bethesda.... so when was their last check in? Phil is high up and away from the day to day details as he said he was excited to see what everyone is working on....so who underneath is dropping the ball? Who's at fault here and what's being done to prevent it in the future? If they need a further 6 month's clearly they knew this a while ago no?

Again they are making a correct call and giving us notice this time, just the hyping of the game from the official accounts a month ago and now a delay seems like a disconnect in the company.

It's better for the developers to delay the game than launch it full of bugs and glitches. The PS fanboys commenting here and agreeing with Jaffe had a different tune when Sony delayed HFW.

@BrainHacker don’t forget that Ragnarok was also originally revealed to be targeting 2021, so it’s not just HFW that got the delay. We still have to see if Ragnarok does make it in this year. Ratchet and Clank also got a delay. It’s been all over, it’s the pandemic flipping the whole industry on its head.

Edit: oh, GT7 was also delayed from its original announcement date.

@ShadowofTwilight22
Are you joking? The game got delayed to ensure it's quality. How is that mismanagement?

Only PS fanboys will jump on the Xbox hate bandwagon when they delay the launch of their games. Because, if you're really a fan of their gaming studios, you'll understand why they will need to delay it. Just like how PS fanboys supported Guerrilla Games decision to delay HFW.

@ShadowofTwilight22
What do you want them to do? Launch the game when it's not ready, So people can complain that they should have delayed it.

There's plenty of games to play for the rest of the year, exclusive or not. I don't know why people need to whine and complain because one or two games got delayed. Right now, I even have 5 or 6 games I haven't finish yet.

Homeboy should figure out how to complete the first 15 minutes of Metroid Dread before he tells anyone in the gaming world that they suck at anything.

Totally unprofessional! Jaffe is a fool, who says stuff like this just to get his own name in the press.

@Microbius Oh they've been busy alright. Quite sad really. But when you have idiot spiteful adults like David Jaffe throwing fuel on the console war fire, what do you expect I guess? And I suspect he's had a lot more clicks on his You Tube video as a result.

He has some valid points, but the guy goes with these headlines because that's what gets him views and money.
He's just a Twitch/Youtuber these days and well out of touch with game development.

@ShadowofTwilight22
The only people complaining here are the PS fanboys. It's great that you mentioned Sony, just look at the games they were able to release at the end of the PS4 lifespan. Their gaming studios might have taken longer developmental time but it paid off in the end.

Jaffe is a failure in the industry and is trying to gain clout to bulk up his YouTube paid subscriptions. Utter failure compared to Spencer and most other kings of the industry. He's likely jealous that Cory Barlog actually did a good job while his games crashed and burned.

@ShadowofTwilight22
Calling them out for what? It's not like complaining will help them develop their games faster.

@omegared74 Very true, I've got several back log games to finish. I think they'll show Starfield gameplay at their E3 showcase and everyone's jaws will be in the floor, but they do have a big hole now at Xbox for new games. Although Atomic Heart on Game Pass is one to look out for, unless it's delayed.

@ShadowofTwilight22
Nope. Complaining will not help them to manage their studios to be better either. Whining and complaining about longer game development time accomplishes nothing.

@ShadowofTwilight22
Good. Because you know complaining about longer game development time doesn't do anything.

The games are not even out yet and we still get people in here complaining how developers should do their jobs. Much less PS fanboys who couldn't care less about Xbox games and just wants to fuel the "console war" by pretending to be a concern gamer.

He’s not wrong.

I love how people get super triggered about crunch and long working hours and when a company tries to meet deadlines without massive overtime and crunch in general, people goes wild and bully them for not meeting the deadlines.

Also the problem with huge AAA-games today is the sheer scope of them due to a massive leap in graphic fidelity and raw CPU power. Needs so much resources and the more complex worlds is creating almost endless of possible bugs and problems.

Part of the problem might be less then stellar management, but that is hard for us to know...

What I read: All the ponies attacked me for saying GOW Looked like a DLC so I had to say something about Phil Spencer so that all the ponies will like me again.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😭🤮 This guy so salty! He's mad the company he works for is falling behind and Spencer's is on top. He's also mad he's not the President of Sony...faaaar from it. Burnt out and forgotten, all he can do is troll those in the spotlight. LOSER!

@UltimateOtaku91 I'll add it's a console war Jaffe is on the losing side of, and badly. Playstation is on the receiving end of the pendulum swing and Karma's a bits!

"...But if he can't get out of his own way and hire someone who knows how to manage development..."

He did, his name is Matt Booty ,Head of Xbox Game Studios.

He just want the spotlight, had nothing better to say so blamed Phil for something has nothing to do with him. Phil Manages all Microsoft Gaming Division, not studios, this is Matt Booty responsibility.

@Bleachedsmiles this guys can say all he wants, he's frankly not important enough to matter. He's just a salty burnout and a hater, jealous he chose the wrong side, envious of Microsoft's success. It's so lame the things he said and nothing good or meaningful will come from it other than us pointing and laughing at his face. If he wants ES6 so badly, why doesn't he just release a better game sooner? Hm? He can't because he's a nobody now. Bye bye!

@Jesterface84 exactly. He thinks he's trolling like Musk, but when it's coming from such an irrelevant person, it's not even worthy of being called trolling. It's more like whining and nagging. He is only humiliating himself while we all rofl at his lame A$5!

@armondo36 lmao yes you are! You're a sony fan that needs to troll on an xbox site. Captain obvious over here lol. no no no... awesome games get delayed and have problems at launch, and need patches after launch. What planet are you from? Please go back to your POS forum so you can be around people with lower intelligence. Your brain doesn't qualify to talk with the big boys. Now shew! Shewshewshew!

@Sveakungen outrage culture gonna outrage

Jaffe, is a jack@$$.

If this were anyone else this would have been outrageous. But if the headline says David Jaffe or Hideki Kamiya....this is pretty much just expected, isn't it?

The guy uses his former-Sony-creator status as credentials to be a shock jock in gaming media. That's really his full time career now. He had the "joke" of drinking from the bottle while doing the...was it the Squeenix or the IGN show a year or two ago at E3, but that kind of thing is his M.O. and I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't much of a joke...

MS does have management problems, but considering the size of the organization why would anyone assume Phil is personally responsible for the levels of management invovled? If anything the problem is he's too disconnected from the layers of management involved in the day to day and isn't aware of what's going on. It probably doesn't hurt that the mismanagers, like Bonny at 343 are more or less equal levels as VPs in the parent organization and are hard to hold to task for anyone but Nadella. Are we not calling for Nadella's head in this, too, then?

While Sony has released more games total than MS recently, they also had years of head-start working on their titles than MS did post-Matrick, and the delayed games in question were started by a third party company before they were part of Microsoft. And, of Sony's recently released or soon to release titles - GoW: Ragnarok, HFW, GT7, R&C: Rift, Returnal, how many of these were NOT delayed? Exactly one. Returnal. Which was not even a Sony studio game at the time of release.

In fact the only company of the 3 console makers that has not delayed essentially all of their games is Nintendo, who delayed BotW2, and then shaddow dropped XC3 launching EARLY. Jaffe may want to talk to his successor, Corey, who was shielding his staff from death threats upon delaying GoW:R.

@JaffeGaffe If there’s truth in what you say and he’s a nobody and not important enough to matter then I have to ask you two questions… and they’re simple ones.

1) why are we talking about his post?

2) why did you feel the need to create an account just to say he’s a nobody who’s not important enough to matter?

@JaffeGaffe so, in order to be a true Xbox fan, i have to agree with everything they do, never call out their (many) screw-ups, and worship at the altar of Phil Spencer?

i'm not saying game development is easy, but i WILL say that Nintendo and Sony seem to get it done. Microsoft seems to delay or cancel more games than they get to market. if they don't turn it around, Phil will get blamed, sooner or later.

When will people learn owning a game console is not the same as supporting a sports team. Some people are too easily triggered and want to constantly make everything a console war. It’s old and dull.

As a GPU subscriber I am obviously an Xbox fan and I’m invested in them. I’m disappointed how the studios are run. Xbox now own a lot of studios and nothing is slated this year. Last year was hearlded as a bumper year…. I didn’t see it that way. Halo was an 8 hour campaign and no Co-op. Flight sim isn’t for me. Pyschonaughts isn’t a AAA+ game but was very good and Forza H was a monster and brilliant. It was a decent year… just hoped this year would build on it.

Some at Xbox isn’t doing a good job of managing output. Maybe this showcase we will get 2/3 games this year - we can’t praise the quality and standard of GPU and the exclusives and then say - 2022 has no releases.

I’d hammer nintendo and Sony just the same but if Ninty or Sony delay games they don’t get my money until they release.

Netflix couldn’t go a year with none of their own content and just content from other studios that have been mostly released for a while.

These are facts of a sub model. I get some of you love Xbox but even the most ardent Xbox only must see Xbox exclusives need to be dropping regularly on GPU.

Think this guy needs to lay off the drink

@armondo36 No fanboy glasses....one quick glance at your comment history paints a diff story

Maybe Jaffe should get some current relevance before telling anybody anything.

@StylesT glance away. i said what i said.

@armondo36 Yeah well I remembered your name from numerous other articles where you was being a blatant fanboy ..so amusing you coming out with basically I'm not a fanboy before shock horror agreeing with the guy trashing phil

@Bleachedsmiles
1) It's solely my choice to share an opinion on the topic in this forum. Doing so doesn't indicate a contradiction to my original statement. There's your answer

2) It pleasures me to talk about things that don't matter. You have your thing and I have mine. And your ability to critically think is infantile. You'll need to do some heavy lifting to dismantle my argument. Sorry try again. Get wrecked.

@armondo36 hey. I don't particularly like Phil Spencer myself. Seriously. His recent press releases have been a nothing sandwich time and time again. But you fail to see the big picture and somehow think it's logical to blame the success or failure of hundreds of studios and development teams on one president. He actually has absolutely nothing to do with the games' development actually. And this Gaffe guy just needs to move on. He doesn't have enough reputation to be throwing stones at this point. Yes I double down. Just because he worked on God of War and Twisted Metal doesn't make his blubbering have any validity. Cmon man! He's a fool and a has-been.

@StylesT i'm an xbox owner who is sick of Xbox's *****. but by all means, tell me i'm wrong. tell me Microsoft has done an amazing job of announcing, making, and releasing great software, on time and in great shape? let's have a list?we haven't seen ONE second of gameplay on virtually ANY of the games they've announced, outside of a Hellblade 2 teaser(which actually looked amazing). nothing on EverWild (they apparently don't know what EverWild is ABOUT!!!!!!!!), NOTHING on EITHER of the games Bethesda pushed back (how often do you see a game get delayed before a gameplay trailer even comes out?) State of Decay? Nothing. Perfect Dark? NOTHING. Forza? nada. This is on the heels, remember, of Halo getting pushed back by a WHOLE YEAR. Forza Horizon 5 is the ONE big exclusive they've delivered, because Playground is an amazing studio. If calling them out makes me a fanboy, again, i said what i said. this showcase in June better be good, or we're right back where we were in 2014. there is a basic management problem at Xbox, has been for years, and it's on Phil to get it fixed, period.

@Stocksy It’s about a sense of belonging to a community. Being accepted by like minded people. Offering you a sense of self worth and value…that you have a collective voice. There is no difference between supporting a bit of plastic, or supporting a collection of people kicking a ball. Sports, religion, cults, one direction fan clubs, pony’s, Xbots, it’s all the same… and when you’re part of something you see common ground in, and feel accepted, feel part of a family, you defend it no matter what. You wear it’s branding. You preach it’s positives and see any negatives as an attack. When you’re in deep it’s your life.

Last year was a good year for Xbox…but also the only exclusives Xbox studios put out where the tried and tested Forza and halo. And we lived on a diet of Forza halo and gears for a whole generation. Halo was also delayed a year and is still incomplete today.

This year was supposed to break the mould… but that’s relying on Bethesda. What’s Xbox studios bringing? Forza? I think what many aren’t getting is that delaying a game to ensure quality nobody is angry about. It’s the fact that Xbox studios don’t seemingly have anything to fill the gaps. All those new studios and not one exclusive release? And only seen gameplay from one of them. When they came aboard 2018? That’s what is frustrating people.
Of course the fact that 12 months ago starfield committed to a date and now it’s looking like we’ll end up waiting 2 years since that date was announced to play the game…clearly showing some Microsoft influence there…doesn’t reflect well.

And that’s the other thing people have to remember. Xbox wants to be seen as a subscription service above anything else. A subscription service needs to run differently. It needs consistency in releases. There’s a reason why MS is investing in so many studios and publishers. First party exclusive day 1 releases adds a lot of value to gamepass. But they have to be consistent in that. It can’t be just one title a year…and that title being yet another Forza, halo, or gears. The investment in all these studios has to pay off at some point. And you can’t just keep saying “next year will be the year” with a subscription model that people weigh the value of month to month.

@JaffeGaffe Phil is going to get blamed eventually, and it IS unfortunate. Xbox has serious management issues, and despite Jaffe's overly-strong language, he's not wrong. whether anyone LIKES Jaffe....has he delivered top-tier AAA games?

@Bleachedsmiles main reason being....what if the ONE game you manage to get out....doesn't COME out? Phil and Xbox owe us more than a press release. maybe at the showcase they need to stand in front of us and lay out some concrete progress reports and release dates.

@JaffeGaffe ouch…I definitely feel like I got wrecked. You got me good friend.

Only, you’re not the only one talking about jaffe’s post. This isn’t the only site talking about his post. This isn’t the only platform talking about his post. Agree with him or not his post has gained attention, stirred emotions, got people talking. And regardless of the console war fuel it will initially add to the fire, it’s a subject that should be talked about. It benefits you and I it being talked about.

Lastly. Remind yourself that Phil Spencer himself has acknowledged there’s a problem.
Things like this just add pressure for him to actually do something about that problem.

@armondo36 If you get that angry and annoyed...maybe re-evaluate ayour life, find another hobby? Majority of Xbox owners have more games than there are time to play with gamepass....also it was only the back end of last year they released halo and Forza horizon...but if you for some reason can only find value with the big exclusives....get a ps5 because apparently they have so many....funny that seing as I have a ps5 and the only true exclusive of note that's released in recent memory is horizon and it's so overrated..nothing more than a 7 out of 10 game ...oh and grand turismo but I don't really do racing games myself ...and what's next god of war which is most likely going to be delayed ...and nothing else of note

@armondo36 They need to do something. It’s not enough anymore to show cg trailers and promise us if we renew our subs we’ll get these games…when there’s no gameplay attached. It’s not enough to rely on third party deals - those haven’t planned out this year either.
Last June they showed a month by month release plan for the rest of the year. It got loads of praise and showed the confidence this new Xbox has. It had games like back 4 blood on it…which came to fruition. But then it also had games like Scorn being their big hitter for one month…which obviously still isn’t out.
They need to do something similar but have first party Xbox studio games filling in each and every month. But as we’ve seen no gameplay from anything other than hellblade 2, I can’t see that happening this year.
Maybe Bethesda had some of their studio games ready to go to save the day. Maybe we’ll see a new quake in there. Or something not yet announced. Hopefully MS influence of announcing things two years early only reached as far as starfield and redfall

Lot of people in here aren’t in agreement with what he said, but I believe it’s harsh criticism that is needed at this point to wake up Microsoft and Phil Spencer about the current state of its unreleased games and the turmoil that seems to be going on within its studios. Look, I don’t care who’s to blame within Microsoft, I just know it’s more that one person and the fact that this has been going on longer than we care to acknowledge is troubling. I actually like Phil, but Jaffe is right, he’s not the right man in charge to get something done on the managerial side and speak up when the situation warrants.

I’m glad I don’t get this upset over delayed games. Being negative and constantly criticizing things that don’t really affect your livelihood isn’t good for you. Some of our thoughts deserve to just be our thought. Constantly sharing and getting positive reinforcement for your negative attitude isn’t helping anyone involved.
I have an itch to play starfield but it can wait.

@NEStalgia

In fact the only company of the 3 console makers that has not delayed essentially all of their games is Nintendo, who delayed BotW2

I would not call that a delay, though. They never even give us a target year, it was just rumors that it was targeted for 2022 and also rumors that that internal projection shifted. That is, however, something Nintendo is very good at: they don't give us dates until they are certain of those dates.

Also, I would not call Xenogears 3 a shadow drop. Shadow drops are when a game are announced and launched the same day. They did accelerate its release, though, and I think that is a hint at how Nintendo operates: they meet their dates because they announce the dates when games are practically ready to ship, and set those dates based on how their release calendar looks. There are some high rumors that they have the Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime 1 remakes ready for a while now, and been just waiting for a fitting window to release them.

@armondo36 ok Armando I'll be real with you. Xbox has been spot on on all the forza games at lauch, halo's never been day1-crashy. There's a lot of xbox IPs out there that has had success and hit the ground running. And to be even more real with you playstation games and their exclusives are top tier. That being said, I believe the negative experience and overall expectation at this point is due to a lot of the recent acquisitions that xbox made. Believe, me; EverWild? Xbox and Phil Spencer have ownership of Blizzard? Diablo? Overwatch? COD, etc etc etc etc.? All these great games are in this dude's hands. It's almost as if he's the Trump of North Amercian video games at this point. And it is painful (and sweet FU71NG revenge) when a video game titan like Playstation suddenly may need to wait 1 to 2 years and pay a hefty markup to play games that are "timed exclusives" for xbox COUGH (COUGH!!!), when we used to be able to enjoy them on Playstation without a care...I think the pendulum swinging just sucled Sony into the equation. They have always been heavily vocal about their hateful and hostile nature with their competition. So while I get where you're coming from, F-PLAYSTATION. And yeah I AM a fanboy because XBOX F-ING ROCKS. They got the best of all aspects except for VR. Jist be honest. You like Playstation more than Xbox. And admit that you are mad that xbox got the hookup now. Also. Download Star Citizen for PC.

WTH? Pure Xbox readers just came alive. Never seen this many comments for any other article on this site. Didn't think there were that many of you out there!

@Bleachedsmiles so he should fite todd howard one of the best rpg developers out there. You people realize this is Bethesda and they are always slow at putting out games plus this is a whole new engine to develop on.

@Chaudy but matt booty has nothing to do with Bethesda its still ran as it did before purchase

@Bleachedsmiles Jim Ryan really has no nothing to do with the ps5 getting 5 first party games and 2 Bethesda games so far. Jim Ryan is still riding on the groundwork left by Andrew House, Shawn Layden and their team as those games was in development before Jim Ryan would have taken over. The little we've seen of Jim Ryan Era playstation have been a complete mess masked by the overwhelming and run away successful of the PS4.

@Bleachedsmiles I agree with 90% of that. I do think being part of a community and defending everything all of the time and feeling personally attacked if anyone says anything negative is ridiculous. Sports fans are usually the opposite. The most vocal in criticism of their own team and by nature a sport is all about being competitive. The games take place.

Being a consumer of music, film or game is different. You don’t have fans of Warner Bros music arguing that Sony music havent put any good CDs out in ages… or fans of Paramount movies saying Movie from 20th century fox suck.

It’s a media created war that started 30 plus years ago that the console companies loved because it sold units. People have just been brainwashed into thinking it’s a good thing to act as gatekeepers for their chosen brand.

For me I treat games like I treat other media. I’ll buy and play what I like and ignore what I don’t.

It’s why we have moved to a sub service on Xbox side I’m far more critical of Xbox than the other two. They don’t release they don’t get my money. Xbox have and are taking my money for a service and I expect a constant stream of games I like to justify it and right now and for the last two years plus on average they haven’t delivered. The back end of last year excluded.

It’s fine for others that love GPU and the older games and smaller games that get added and I have dipped in and out of those. But I already had a large collection of Xb1 and 360 games.

I’m not livid or angry. Just think that with all these studios and investment if it was managed correctly we should be seeing far more regular games and updates. Tbh the target of 1 and quarter IMHO is too little. I’d wager at least 1 of those won’t be for me. So that’s max 3 games a year - for £120 - about the price you’d pay for boxed versions. Yes their is value added from other games but for me a console and its services live and die on exclusives- 3rd party stuff I can get on a single console that gives me the best exclusives if need be. - I kid myself here as I will always buy both consoles - I’m luckily enough to be able to afford that.

@Deathshead2gold You seriously created this profile just to miss the point? This isn’t about a Bethesda game being delayed…it’s about Phil Spencer seemingly not planning for the possibility. It’s about Phil Spencer giving the image of not being capable of ensuring a steady consistent stream on first party support to Xbox console…but, where it’s more important, to a monthly subscription service.
It’s a tweet designed to play on the very real frustrations with management over at Xbox…that’s come out of the yearly question “why announce games so soon when you’ve not even gameplay to show”. Or highlights a reminder that Xbox put all their eggs into the halo basket and that got delayed a year also…and that delay didn’t result in ensuring the very best quality - the game still is incomplete.
It’s a tweet that reflects the questions most of us have had…they’ve had 23 studios since 2018…when exactly are we going to start benefitting from that? We’ve had no exclusive releases from any of them. More worrying we’ve only seen gameplay from one single game as of today.
Jaffes tweet is designed to play into all these frustrations. To play into the fact that regardless of all this investment, the only thing Microsoft’s 23 studios will have offered us in 5 years is yet more halo and Forza as way of exclusive. At what point does that change. How long are they asking us to wait when we’re being charged monthly for a subscription service these games are promised to add value to with much promoted day 1 releases.

Phil Spencer understands this. He knows it’s not about delaying a game to ensure quality. It’s about Xbox being consistent in their game offerings - meaning not relying on just one game. So far xbox has showed they’re not capable of offering consistency. - hence the tweet.

@Floki Maybe not. But it’s about image perception. PlayStations having a strong year gamewise. Xbox now seemly is not. I’m not here to defend Jim Ryan - I think all the choices he’s made are bad for me as a customer. I’ve not benefitted from raising the prices of games…or charging £10 to upgrade. And I feel like hitting my head against the wall when I regularly see PlayStation gamers defending these moves due to Sony praying on their fears about quality assurance.
But, far as I’m aware…PlayStation is making money year on year.

None of that concerns me though. Regardless of Jim Ryan’s public image. Regardless of him riding the coat tails still of the previous guy. PlayStation doesn’t have the same consistency problems when it comes to releasing games as Xbox does. When it comes to games they don’t have this image of incompetence - dates rarely get announced too early and then games delayed by years from when they first slapped a date on the game. Games rarely get released unfinished. They usually have a level of quality to them. They’re usually always in the conversation for game of the year.

@Stocksy The key their is they’re critical of their own team. Any body that supports another team attacks them, regardless of truth within the attack, they don’t rationally agree do they?

I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if there are people out their having a war over which is better; splash on VHS or splash on dvd. There’s fans of every little thing you can imagine on the internet. You just have to be in the right circles to see it.

Look this is going to be a crappy year for xbox and its gamers especially those that don't also game on playstation/Nintendo as well. But one crappy year doesn't make it a failure for xbox this generation, this crappy year is just going to make next year a banger. Already starfield and BoTW 2 for next year and I'm looking forward to 2023, and even without xbox exclusives there's still so many great games coming this year to enjoy and so many unannounced games from everyone even Microsoft that will come this year.

So every one chill, it's the weekend.

Enjoy some games

I really don't get how people can say a console is going to have a crap year because the expected 1 or 2 first party exclusives might not be there lol....they make up how much time of your gaming in a year?

My issue is that YouTubers and podcasters of all kind - including former professional studio workers & creators like him - are implicitly doing their "broadcasting" with so much focus because THEY have issues they probably still need to work through. I can't even begin to name all the commentators out there who rant because they have not successfully reconciled their hangups and baggage.

I am a series s owner for almost a year now and I did not buy this console to play Xbox exclusive , I played a lot of forza horizon 5 because it’s a really good game, and halo infinite for the campaign but it was my first halo game , I bought this console for gamepass and to play all the games that my switch can’t run or run badly and I love it this far . So it’s dull to see games pushed back but with gamepass I already have a ton of games to play so I will wait and play something else. Developers should not give release date they should work on games and deliver them when they are ready.

@Bleachedsmiles I never said that Playstation had those issues. Even tho they've had plenty of time where they've shown massive incompetence (Vita, studio Japan... etc). Sony is quick to shut studios down or completely bury their issues, and act they never happened in the first place.

I'm just saying stating Playstation success has nothing to do with Jim Ryan, so to have mentioned him in the first place was pointless.

Unfortunately, Xbox issues are issues they've had since day 1, and are so ingrained in the company. They would have completely burn everything and start from scratch, and you can't just simply get rid of the current management. Once you're that high on the corporate leader. You can't just be simply fired.

Really rude and unprofessional to launch such a personal attack on Phil in public.

David Jaffe certainly got that backwards. he the one that needs the therapy. and furthermore, David Jaffe he should have more understanding about the true stresses and time constraints involved with developing and releasing games. David Jaffe really has no idea what stresses are involved holding down Phil spencer's Job managing Xbox and it 23 game studios. so, before someone of his level in the gaming industry decides to blatantly attack someone like Phil spencer David Jaffe really needs to think first.

@Floki ok… well regardless of how much input Jim Ryan has had releasing PlayStation games over the last two years he’s certainly not shown he’s hampered consistency in PlayStations out put, has he?

And if changes need to be made to management of course ms has the means to make them…regardless of how high up a person is. Ask Mattrick. But I don’t think Phil Spencer should be fired. I think he clearly needs help managing his teams though and should get it. And if that doesn’t work then ultimately the stockholders will decide his fate.

@Bleachedsmiles Again, he hasn't truly been given the chance to royaly mess up. We won't start see Jim Ryan's games until after God of War Ragnarok, so we'll see if the quality continues. But with his interest is live services game, and releasing 10 live service games before 2026. You could argue that Playstation consistently in quality probably won't continue.

Don Mattrick wasn't exactly high up. He was in charge of a division inside of division inside of a division, and had several people he reported to before his opinion was even heard by the Microsoft CEO. Unlike with Phil who reports directly to the CEO, and with Xbox being it entirely own division now.

But Don Mattrick also left on his own accord due Microsoft reorganizing, and put him charge of hardware when he wanted a gaming CEO position.

EDIT: The shareholders don't excatly care if the games are poorly managed. They only care if Xbox continues to bring profit, and so far that what Phil has managed to do. So to them, Phil is doing a fantastic job.

Stop giving clowns attention they crave smh :/

let us all remember this is the guy who got so angry at fake walls in metroid dread.

This guy should never be taken seriously at face level.

@JaffeGaffe.....what?

@Bleachedsmiles it's insane. I get that there's a pandemic, but Nintendo is getting their games out; Sony is getting their games out. Besides this issue goes back over a decade. This is my other issue: if Microsoft hadn't bought Bethesda, would they just literally have had NOTHING coming out at all? What has Microsoft Game Studios been DOING? If Phil ISN'T responsible for the current mess, then he's just a figurehead lol because wasn't he brought in to do something about this?

@StylesT you're friends with the majority of xbox owners? Neat!

I fit into that category. I have an extensive backlog to work through, but I'm pretty sure you understand that that isn't my point at all. Microsoft has for a very long time, had an unusual amount of trouble getting their 1st party stuff onto the shelf. Between delays and outright cancelations, there ALWAYS seems to be a problem. Three of their last 4 big releases have now seen delays, and during the xbox one Era they seemed to cancel more games than actually came out. I love my Series x, but xbox is not a well managed company, PERIOD. Thanks for the suggestion, but I think I will keep my hobby, AND continue to call out Microsoft if I see fit.

@armondo36 Don't know if you didn't notice but Nintendo and ps delay there games alot aswell as do 3rd party developers ...so if Xbox are badly mannaged so are the rest in that regard...you say ps get there games out but just a quick look and both there most recent big releases where Horizon and Gran Turismo and they both got delayed

@armondo36 Yeah when you really think about it it is pretty crazy that a company like MS worth trillions…throwing billions about…can’t ensure any of these new teams get a game out in the nearly 5 years they’ve been part of Xbox game studios. That we’ve so far only seen 5 minutes? Of gameplay from one single game from these studios? That’s a trillion dollar company can’t release a new game alongside new hardware??? Somethings definitely wrong… especially when you look at the output from a Nintendo or Sony.

@Bleachedsmiles this showcase had better be good lol. There will be calls for Phil's job otherwise. He won't deserve it but...there will be.

@Widey85
Games have been constantly delayed for the past few years. GT was delayed, Halo Infinite delayed, Horizon was delayed, Elden Ring was delayed, even God of War was delayed. This guys is just smoking to much whacky weed.

Delays are everywhere for almost all AAA games. And games that don't get delayed like Battlefield, Cyberpunk, etc turn out to be garbage. (LOL Cyberpunk was even delayed a couple of times but still shipped as garbage).

@armondo36 The show will be great. It usually is. I just hope there’s more gameplay than cg trailers shown. They could really do with a surprise announcement of a decent looking game coming before the end of the year though…I’m not expecting anything from the new Xbox studios. We know Forza and a gears collection is pretty much in the bag. A surprise reveal of something out of Bethesda beyond Deathloop would go a long way though…ID releasing Quake back end of the year could be decent.

That's a pretty big leap Jaffe is taking for a Corpo-speak response from Phil.

Lots of people with blinkered eyes in here.. probably from the other site…

@dsar9012 Guess if Xbox don't have any exclusives people will somehow just have to live with the hundreds of multiplatform releases...it will be hard but I'm sure they can do it....and then all that means is 2023 will be well more stocked with exclusives .....really don't get the mindset of people who merit the the worth of the console on the 1 or 2 exclusives in-between 100s off others games that get released each year

I would much prefer games to be delayed as long as needed over a broken or mediocre game

@Bleachedsmiles nah. What happened here is someone who was known for a number of notable works said some really stupid stuff. This means while he "was" relevant at a time, he no longer is. So when someone who's renown has faded thinks he can "call out" people who are way bigger and more relevant than himself says something really stupid, the whole world comes down on that person, in an orthodoxy attempt to usher him forward into irrelevance. It's because he's a has-been, not because he's important.