Xbox's Phil Spencer: 'I'm Upset With Myself' Over Redfall Launch

I like Phil, however, he must surely have been made aware of the unhappiness that Redfall was to launch without 60fps. He may even have been aware of the quality of the game as he tends to play through games prior to launch. That being the case, why didn't he make the decision to pull the games initial release? Delay it, and at least get the 60fps sorted, which must have been the very least he was aware of that may have assuaged at least some of the concern over the game...

He said in the interview that even if Xbox builds great games they can't win the generation because they lost the last generation in which people built huge digital libraries. People won't ditch those libraries no matter what.

I'm not sure I agree with that. There's only so many times a person can play an old game until they get bored. Also who are these people that continuesly play old games? There's barely enough time to play new games.

Phil should hire the Captain Obvious guy for final launch approval of studio games.

@Fiendish-Beaver In the interview he said they've had teams from The Coalition and another studio come up with a 60FPS plan as the the studio behind Redfall aren't as experienced with Unreal Engine 4, but Phil admitted they needed the plan in place last year.

oh phil admiting his in mistake mmm...maybe i will keep my xbox till the end of the year, telling it like it is can do wonders and fans punching back did its effect (instead of those oh gamepass is good xbox is good everything is good that i keep on sying in comment section)

seem like they already know what to do, audit and monitor those studios and only deliver ready games

Then don't continue to try to sell it to that community for $70 a pop. That would be one way to curtail the disappointment.

So apologise. Apologise for releasing it in that state. Apologise for NOT learning after Halo infinite.

Then maybe just maybe, manage your staff?

Because in all honesty Phil ‘the gamer’ Spencer is contributing to Xbox shortcomings. MYbe it’s time to step aside and let someone turn it around.

Sure be upset with yourself but also be upset with the teams under your management that are pumping this sh*t out.

You gave Arkane an extra year to sort Redfall out and this was the best they could do, it’s laughable. Be mad Phil, sort it out for a change.

releasing games in a very buggy state is never ever a good thing to do

why oh why do publishers not understand this

@Kaloudz ‘ points to my belief that 2023 is going to be the start of a new era for Xbox’

I hope you’re right pal I hope you’re right.

That's what I'm always talking about Xbox community. Xbox says nothing people complain. Xbox position themselves and people complain too.

@Chaudy He’s talking bollox with regard to Xbox making great games. If in the next 3 years Xbox released 10 exclusives that were 10/10 across the board, as good as or maybe even better than the likes of TLOU 1 an 2, Uncharted 4, God of War Ragnarok, Spiderman, Days Gone, etc, Xbox sales would shoot up. The only reason Playstation hammers Xbox is because of the consistent AAA, mind blowing quality of their exclusives. Everything else on both consoles are pretty identical.

I really really dislike this guy.

He is all spin and setting the agenda.

It’s nonsense to suggest microsoft can’t compete. Stop playing the underdog. You are Goliath. Not David.

This we can’t compete if we make good games. Give me strength.

They need to sack this guy. You make good games, and make them often and you’ll compete. Fact. People want the best games. They want a console that gives them the best games. The reason the bought Bethesda and Activision is for good popular games. To try and catch up and make money.

I think the issue is Microsoft just want to make money and don’t care how they do it. So they are trying to do it with a strategy that doesn’t include making good games. It includes making games.

It’s so strange.

They don’t make bad games I’m not saying that. They make ok/good games. But that isn’t their main strategy and that’s so weird.

@Dezzy70 nail on head mate. They should pause everything and just focus on GOOD games. Nothing will lead to success more than good games.

You can make money with average games that have addictive and cash grab mechanics….. but it won’t work if you are a console seller. Everyone is chasing fortnite model. Average game that’s addictive.

Same guy who green lighted the halo infinite trailer lol I wonder if his vision is bad that’s why he squints

@Dezzy70 I know Phil turned things around after the xbox one launch disaster but was it really all that impressive? Just creating a subscription service by improving over the existing competitions service, as playstation had a subscription service first so it wasn't exactly revelutionary for the console market.

They need someone in charge similar to the leadership during the 360 gen. They got a lot of great exclusive games out, got the Japanese devs on their side for exclusive content, better marketing, better dashboard.

Phil says they can't compete with Nintendo and Playstation, but during the xbox 360 gen they were competing.

@eduscxbox that isn’t true. The Xbox community is the most forgivable community and fiercely loyal in any commercial arena. They can do no wrong. It’s part of how we are where we are. People lap it up no matter what this guy says and no matter what they do.

I hope all his PR and bluster finally comes true. This is a big month and it’ll either be mind blowing or more of the same…..

Let’s hope it’s a blockbuster, the showcase will set the tone.

He keeps telling us big things are coming. Redfall wasn’t it. Let’s hope it’s just a blip.

@TheArtfulDodger No, that is not the whole picture.

PlayStation higher sales can't be pinned down only to exclusives. Just look at every year PS Store best selling titles at the end of year, it is a top 10 of multiplatform titles. Top 3 Always Call of Duty, FIFA and GTA in no particular order.

Exclusive sells to a small portion of console players, and it is not the sole reason for a console success.

Phil is right. Even if Xbox made 10 consecutive 10/10 games it would not change a thing. As people will not throw away their libraries to move to another platform.

TLoU, Uncharted, God of War are good games, but Microsoft don't have to follow sony styles of games. If Microsoft decided to make games the same style sony does why bother to even get an Xbox? I would rather buy a playstation straight away. Nintendo do his own thing, PS do his own thing, but Xbox people want to just imitate PlayStation. Let them do their own thing too.

About someone who commented "You are Goliath not David", maybe it is good to remember Goliath was defeated by David in the end.

@eduscxbox The Xbox community has a right to be angry.

Xbox didn’t learn anything from halo they hyped up redfall phil must of played this game prior to release and said this is fine.

I think the xbox community is fed up of constant disappointments and being hyped and then brought right back down.

Redfall was unacceptable.

When you have PlayStation games coming out and getting amazing reviews and exciting announcements final fantasy 16 silent hill 2 remake.

Nintendo have been hitting it out of the park Zelda coming up a new pikmin.

It’s like xbox don’t care about their community’s.

No one bought a series x with all that power to play pentiment golden eye and age of empires.

People want an amazing halo , fable gameplay to get excited for there nothing.

I think xbox put too much into the activision buy out when they could have been using that money to secure releases with games like silent hill 2.

It’s incredibly underwhelming and disappointing and it’s consistently disappointing.

There’s nothing on xbox at the moment and most of the games can also be bought on PlayStation but over there you get incredible exclusives too !

If Xbox are worried that ps players won’t move due to having games on that ecosystem they should at least be releasing quality games to stop current Xbox users moving to PlayStation

@eduscxbox they don’t have to throw it away, people can own 2/3/4 consoles.

But Xbox aren’t giving people a huge reason to buy an Xbox at the moment.

@TheArtfulDodger absolutely spot on. Sony literally became successful due to great games. People would flock to Xbox in a heartbeat if they started making great games. Games sell systems. It's simple as that. Everything else is secondary.

I think the only reason he said that is because they know they can't compete with Sony level quality. They don't have the talent or experience or even the strategies required to achieve this.

I'm starting to think they make these lame games on purpose. What they really sell is hype.
But when you take a step back and look at what they offer, it's not much. A plain game console with no gyro controllers, no VR, nothing really special.

@GeeEssEff Glad you said something, I was really starting to get confused because I could have swept I already saw articles on this topic. Thought I was losing my mind. 😂

@eduscxbox "If Microsoft decided to make games the same style sony does why bother to even get an Xbox?"

You're spot on with your comment.

Maybe I don't know a thing about anything, but I find it strange that many people want (sometimes, with a passion) MS to go the exact same route as Sony. If we really, really MS to make games in the Sony vein, then what is the point? We should be getting a PS instead and there will be no need for Xbox as a brand.

Xbox has been doing mistakes lately, that is true. But I like the variety of the output from MS owned studios. You can get things like Pentiment one day, and something like Hi Fi Rush the next.

@Kaloudz I’ll hold you to that 😉 if Starfield impresses and they reveal a Gears remaster. I’ll be a happy chappy.

I'm really beginning to think that Phil has taken his eye off the ball being caught up with the ABK saga and has let the day job slip.

@UltimateOtaku91
That is why I always bring the 360 days up.
They were hungry then getting lots of new amazing games great existing ip made even better with sequels and purchased third party made games like mass effect etc.
it’s all about the games as simple as that.

I would not mind so much but to release Redfall as it is, is like suicidal at this moment in time.
I’ve never seen such self destruction of a once amazing brand Xbox.

@Meehanuk_1987 I don't think there is a problem to release games like pentiment on Xbox. The game is great, by the way. They can make games that use the hardware power but they don't need to be creatively constrained by that. Make stylized games, make 2D games, make realistic games.

The problem is that there is always an excuse when subject is Xbox.

Pentiment (but it is 2d)
Flight Sim (but it is a simulator, doesn't count)
Age of Empires (nobody cares)

Last year xbox was criticized because they didn't had a first party AAA title. Sony, so far only released horizon DLC and I don't see the same effort of people calling them out.

Problem is that people always move the goal post. Everything Xbox do is wrong, but if another company do the same is fine, people give it a pass.

I'm sure people will invent a reason so Hi-Fi Rush, Minecraft Legends and Ghostwire doesn't count. Because that is always the case.

Hi-Fi Rush a critically acclaimed succes that had battle again the PS timed-exclusive Forspoken at the timeframe. Then Minecraft Legends in April, with Ghostwire a little earlier. Sony did a Horizon DLC. but still people are here talking how Xbox hasn't released anything good.

@grumpypotato
That made me laugh, especially the fund raising bit.

@Krysus Phil should hire the Captain Obvious guy for final launch approval of studio games.

HAHA good one, Captain Obvious just never get’s it wrong HAHA

@HarmanSmith I agree. I don’t want Xbox games to be the same as PlayStations. PlayStation exclusives have become stale and soulless to me, sequel after sequel. The problem with Xbox is the quality hasn’t been there so far when it really needed to be.

I want something like a Starfield on Xbox, that’s a game Playstation has nothing to rival if they get it right and that excites me.

@Moonglow @Dezzy70 the Thing is and i don’t mean to speak for Dezzy, is he is a big Xbox fan and wants to love the brand, but owns other consoles as do i. It get’s hard to sit back and build faith in Xbox when they trip over their own feet over and over and over again. The Xbox one and launch of Redfall was all self inflicted wounds. Hard to feel bad for a big company that don’t get it right often. I still love my Xbox, it’s still my daily driver, but i am even getting close to getting Diablo 4 on PS5 and just making PS5 my daily driver if Xbox don’t have a great showcase in June and a good 2023 early 2024 roadmap. While i won’t say i agree with everything Dezzy thinks of Xbox, he has said on this site if they didn’t get it right soon he was able to sell his Xbox and take his time and money elsewhere and it’s hard to blame him or others that are tired of seeing Xbox not get it right. Let’s just all make fun of me for actually liking Redfall and having 15 hours play time in it already, underneath all the technical issues it has, i find it to be a fun game with cool art style that i keep pushing past it to kill another vampire. Once they fix the tech issues, AI and get it to 60fps, this will be a cult following game for me. Just wish Xbox and Bethesda would have gotten it right from the start and we might be looking at a 78-82 meta score game.

@Dezzy70 Not just the 360 days, the OG Xbox days were something to behold. They were super hungry to prove themselves and despite being backed by one of the world's largest corporations, they had this punk-rock scrappiness to them. They asked devs and gamers what they wanted and threw it in. Breakaway cords so your controllers or consoles don't get damaged from someone stepping on the cord? In. A hard drive to stream all your music and make your playlists for Tony Hawk 2X? You got it. The deals they signed, the games they put out, the risks they took. All of it just felt so special and wild and felt like a disruptor to gaming.

I kind of feel sad that there's a whole generation of Xbox gamers today that don't remember what it was like when Xbox showed upon the scene and worked to prove all the "the guys who make Office can't make videogames!" naysayers wrong.

Sadly a lot of that spirit is long gone. I guess like a lot of punk rockers themselves, Xbox eventually grew up to become part of the system they once fought against.

@Total_Weirdo I like this game actually, so in my opinion with 15 hours play time, i would say 60fps wouldn’t have helped it’s dumb AI, glitches and tech issues. Once all that is fixed and the core game is running smooth, then hit it with the 60fps patch. Thats my 2 cents for what it’s worth 😀

Well the first step to coming back after a disaster like this is admitting you made a mistake. I applaud his attitude about it. Hopefully they figure out what needs to be done to be absolutely sure Starfield does not repeat the same mistakes made with RedFall.

@Green-Bandit
Thank you spot on, when you have been with the original Xbox days and amazing times with the 360 days and some good with Xbox one especially for me when the Xbox one x was released as well.
It’s so just frustrating to see what is happen to Xbox brand now, especially games wise and also now how the third party developers are starting to treat the series x console performance wise.

Then Xbox keep damaging themselves even more with Redfall type game releases.
There is something seriously wrong at Xbox towers and being an operations project manager I would love to go to Xbox towers and see their processes, management and what the hell is going on.
It’s what I do it’s part of my job.

@Moonglow
You do what you like. I have had Xbox since day one and every Xbox console on day of release.
I’m just so frustrated with them that it gets the better of me. They are sinking what was an amazing gaming brand.

@Moonglow
And my point let those studios get released to freedom.
Meaning Xbox are not any good with them.
Let them go be managed correctly and create amazing games.

@Chaudy Not really, Sony became successful in games by being cheaper for consumers and cheaper/easier for developers than their competitors and the rest fell into place. They reinforced their strength last gen due to severe missteps by competitors. And thus at this point they're pretty cemented in the market. It's not really "the games' that did it. Most of their console buyers don't even buy those games. it's a good look, it does draw attention, but at the end of the day those games are not why the majority of their customers are on their platform.

I do absolutely agree with Phil's assessment. The market is kind of established, even if they cranked out tons of exclusives it wouldn't change the market. Similarly if Sony were in last place right now, the games they're making wouldn't be swinging the market back in their favor. Nintendo manages to do that because they have cultural icon characters, but popular as Sony's games are even their characters don't approach that level of iconic. I think and have always said that gamers are wrong when they say "just make more AAA games and you win", I don't think it can work like that at all. And Phil addressed that here directly. People aren't going to easily switch their platform where all their other games and all their friends are on just to play an extra 2 or 3 games that interest them. Even if they buy the box to play those extra games they won't switch their primary library for that, and that's the only part that matters.

Making it a better/cheaper/more conenient place to play MOST games might swing people. Just being a totally equal alternative that requires updending their existing system won't be it.

I'm personally glad to see Phil acknowledge this all directly. And acknowledging sony's paid third party exclusives basically being an undefinable strategy. If they're going to compete harder by differentiating their platform and increasing the value, price, or convenience of playing 90% of games as a means of differentiation rather than just trying to always counter the latest AAA game with an alternate AAA game, That's a good plan, as long as they see a successful, profitable path through it that does not lose dev support.

I honestly just can't imagine the right solution for the industry is that Sony should be the only power console and everyone else plays PC or mobile. That seems like a dead-end, but I also don't see "if MS just makes Uncharted clones they'll get everyone to sell their PS5 and migrate their library to Xbox." It's not going to happen.

@GeeEssEff Are you new here? This is hookshot.telegraph.co.uk. Always has been. :

@eduscxbox I genuinely just believe Xbox fans that love the platform including myself are just fed up with wait till next year !

It’s sad that the n this site the majority of story’s are about the Activision buyout or the majority is the games being under par and not running well on powerful hardware that we own.

It’s a sad time to be an Xbox fan l.

Star field looks okay but it feels like they’re putting all there eggs in one basket.

I didn’t mind pentiment myself and hi fi rush but there not next gen games and what fans want.

@HarmanSmith people don’t want PS games on Xbox, is what they want is the the games to be released at the same quality as Sony studios release theirs. Finished etc, Halo released a mess, with promises to learn etc etc, yet the next £70 title releases as a complete mess.

But sadly Quality is not something that is currently associated with Xbox. Perception can change with some good releases.

I would be bored to tears if MS makes the kind of games Sony makes.

@NEStalgia
Well let’s say Xbox went software only would then Sony and Nintendo let game pass and or Xbox game studios games on their respective consoles.

Would that not be a great solution.

@Dezzy70 The only way I could see that happening is if it was for a specific tier that only included Microsoft's own first party games. I can't see Sony allowing a competing service that also offers multiplatform third party games on PlayStation.

@eduscxbox i get wat you’re saying but i’m not saying the exclusives are what bring in all the sales. The reason for that is because Playstation has a far bigger player base than Xbox. There are roughly 155 million PS4 an PS5 owners, there are about 68 million Xbox One an Series owners. Yet the reason for this, the reason Playstation sells more consoles is mainly because of the exclusive games.

@Lup Say what you will about Sony's games, but at least they don't make players wait over half a decade between iterations in major franchises. Gears 6 should be out by now, and the next Halo should be confirmed in-development, and all those IPs that MS bought should have something, ANYTHING in development, ffs.

@Sebatrox
Halo single player campaign was good especially the fps movement and gun control and grappling hook.
It just need to be a bit more environmentally and graphics wise and a bit more diversity biome wise.
But I finished the campaign that I really enjoyed and collected every skull and collectible.

@Kevw2006
Good point I should have said Xbox studio games only of course or they could just make them for the other consoles like a third party developer does and sell them normally.

@Dezzy70 Not that I would encourage it to happen but I do think that Microsoft would have a lot more success as a third party publisher than as a third party publisher than a platform holder. But if that happened you'd effectively be giving Sony (and Nintendo) free reign, and I think that they do need someone else there to keep them in check.

@Dezzy70 No, they wouldn't. Why would they let a competing subscription service siphon funds from their own store and subscriptions? If MS did that it would be PC/Cloud (on Mobile) only, and even that would only be "unofficially" on Apple via browser.

They really do need the consoles to be able to run the ecosystem, and Phil did say here it's still the core of the ecosystem. But it's just one component of what for them is a broader device agnostic platform not an attempt to supplant Sony or Nintnendo. Which I think I've said many times here and Push so it's nice to see it officially stated, and plainly at that.

I saw your updated version of just Xbox studios games, but, no, MS wouldn't really do that either, just like the consoles themselves that's part of a much larger games platform to keep players engaged in it within the sub and making additional purchases via the store due to it, it's not there just to deliver the studio's games cheaply, and Sony/Nintendo wouldn't want that because it allows MS's big new games to cannibalize sales via siphoning interest from the other things they're selling and making more money on.

"Software only" MS would mean PC/cloud-only in any situation, I think, or just becoming a traditional 3rd party and publishing multiplat games. but I don't see them doing that, they're interested in the platform, not unit sales.

@Kevw2006
Yes they probably do need someone to keep them both in check as Sony and Nintendos markets are a bit different.
Perhaps the market purely console wise is a big as it gets. Two leaders selling around 120 million consoles each and a third bringing up the rear on around 50 million. That could be market saturation point.
So it adds up to roughly 290 million in totally and three companies have to do battle over what portion of that total they get.
Of course that then effects game sales, controller sales etc and subscriptions sales which all make money as well.

@NEStalgia
Some very good points there.
So I guess Xbox will always have a console or consoles to sell. I think if they didn’t have the Xbox console brand then they would lose some brand recognition and be further from the general public than they already are, due to reasons this new generation of their own making etc.

So another long empty apology...again. Phil says he is always learning.

At some point accountability has to matter, not long winded interview about the last generation beating and that great games dont matter. It mattered alot for the Xbox 360 back in the day.

With all that money and still cant make a great game.

On a lighter note and in a pleasurable way as we know competition is there between the companies and in a nice way.
I wonder what Sony and Nintendo think of all this goings on and Redfall and Phil apologising and interviews etc. They must have thought and talked to their work colleagues about it.

@Dezzy70 The thing I don't get is people talk about 50 million like it's a small number, it's not. 50 million is a huge install base in its own right. Sure it's not as big as the other two but I don't think Xbox should be seen as a failing brand by any means. There is enough space for PlayStation, Nintendo and Xbox to all be successful in their own right.

@NEStalgia yeah you make a good point about the success being built on the missteps of xbox, but the Exclusives they have still easily sell in the millions, I mean look at how big Ragnarok was last year and in prior years, look at the success of Spiderman, last of us, Uncharted. It does still draw customers to their platform. Perhaps not 100% of the fan base but I still think a large chunk is attracted toward the system because of the quality of Exclusives.

Just for fun some of Phil’s apologetic history

today (May 2023) for poor Redfall reception
in January 2023 for poor 2022
in May 2022 for Bethesda delays (Redfall and Starfield)
in January 2021 about the Xbox Live Gold "drama"
in November 2020 for the Xbox shortages
in August 2020 for the poor reception of the Halo Infinite showcase
in January 2017 for Scalebound cancellation

He must be sick of apology

@Kevw2006
Never said it was totally a failing brand was just trying to see if that was the total market saturation point for consoles about 290 million roughly.

@Chaudy i ditcvhed the playstation library while owning a ps4pro for xbox 1x.....never looked back he is just wrong there... thats the attitude of a loser......its like eh i wont win this game i mine as well drop all my gear and run naked into the wall of bullets.... its the same damn thing... you have bethesda for ***** sake, get them to pump out exclusive elder scrolls, youll get gamers back, their problem is their is no real incentive to own a xbox these days, i honestly would have been better off getting a ps5 and rebuilding my pc for xbox games... and that is their problem the xbox has 0 true exclusives NONE ZERO NADA there is always another place you can play those games be it pc or elsewhere.....only 1 place to play games like god of war and last of us 2 hell even nintendo has figured this out... but ms is being naive in thinking having their games else where will help sell xboxs which is why this is probably my last xbox series x that is... seems like they really dont wanna do hardware and are trying to speed up the streaming age to get out of consoles.

@Chaudy
I play only big high production mainly top of the game AAA exclusives.
That’s why I have all three consoles for that.
Of course that’s why Sony and Nintendo get played the most and me series x has not really been touched since January 2023.
My next game is of course TOTK.
Doesn’t matter what console it is in or who makes the game, it’s a big top end production AAA game, the games I love to play if they suit my gaming tastes.
Now to finalise if I had to choose only two consoles it’s easy PS5 and Switch, just one would be hard decision.
Now those that can only have one console general public wise go PS5 or Switch and that is why it is all about the games.
Of Xbox made TOTK or GOWR then I would be playing them on the series x and others that can only have one console would get a series x.
Phil and the team really need to get that simple process into their brain cells.

@Dezzy70 Apologies, that was more of a general comment. I wasn't saying that's what you were suggesting.

@Blessed_Koz 100% spot on, I also think it's a defeatist way of looking at things. Everyone on Pure xbox or Push Square got into gaming because they wanted to play great games. It's always been about that for us since day 1. I don't think anything else matters. I get there are factors but I still believe that great games sell consoles. Nobody likes missing out on great games.

@Kevw2006
That’s cool. Xbox only has one competitor at the moment and it seems to be their own self, doing the damage to themselves.

The others don’t really need to try that hard.
I mean Sony haven’t done loads so far this year but of course the console is selling very well now on last years games and brand recognition etc.
and we all know what Spider-Man 2 will do for Sony.

The Switch is hybrid and does its thing
But they are backing it well with TOTK so far this year big AAA wise.

@Dezzy70 yeah there's a quite a few people out there who only play the big production games mainly. There's many reasons for that e.g. personal preference, lack of time, gaming budget etc. So naturally some Xbox fans will be a bit disappointed by the comments made but hopefully it's upwards from here for Xbox. Still got quite a few games lined up and let's be honest if Starfield scores well then no one is going to remember Redfall. So all is not lost.

@Chaudy
Spot on it’s all about the great games for me.
And if you don’t supply them you don’t get played on your console or game pass and the brand loses momentum and support.

@Chaudy It certainly does draw some customers but when you look at even the combined sales of all of their exclusives and put them together against their total customer install base.....it's actually a pretty small portion of their platform customers that are buying their exclusives.

Nintendo...they're another story. Especially in Japan where they dominate and "Nintendo customers only buy Nintendo games" still holds true, where almost every owner is buying mostly/exclusively first party games, but third party games can sell anemically even compared to on the much smaller installed base (Japan) of PS.

@Dezzy70 Exactly. They're not going to be selling as many consoles as the others, they know that, but they still need a console as an anchor for the brand, which is why he's talking about that still being the core of their brand, even though it's in a distant third place. It may change shape, become more of a PC, but I think they really need an xbox console sitting there to run Xbox Store/Game Pass games as a sort of legitimizing halo product surrounding their whole ecosystem. Sort of why Surface exists. It'll never sell the amount of laptops Dell or HP will, but it legitimizes the MS platform on the shelf across from the all in one Apple platform with first party hardware, even if it's an anemic seller, it keeps the ecosystem anchored.

@NEStalgia yeah again you make some good points. It's "a" factor but not "the" factor. Its perhaps not as straightforward, it will certainly help push them up the ladder but like you say there will be other factors at the end of the day.

@NEStalgia
I really believe Xbox could sell as many consoles or be up there like the 360 days.
They just need the games that make general public go wow. Like the 360 Halo, gears of war, Forza M and H etc. Some third party timed or full exclusives.
Some amazing PR and advertising etc.
they can do to with the right team and top management.

@Dezzy70 I’ll play anything, from indie to triple A but I realise most people or ‘casuals’ want mainly blockbuster triple A games which Xbox have had a serious issue getting out of the door. If they think they can grow their brand without those big games they’re insane and they’ll continue to fail.

At the same time they’re going after COD, which is one of the biggest triple A’s out there, the sad thing is they have the studios to make others but are garbage at managing them so we keep getting duds.

@Fenbops Ah that would be golden, especially if Gears was remastered in Unreal Engine 5!

@NEStalgia
Back in the Xbox360 days when Xbox had the amazing AAA games third party exclusives and better looking and running third party games on 360 than in PS3 I didn’t look much at PS3.

It was only when Xbox took their foot off the peddle and Sony realised first party big AAA games can sell our PS3 that I wondered over to see what the PS3 was about. The rest is history with PS4 etc.

It’s just purely games. And big AAA ones at that.
I haven’t got a Switch for mobile gaming mine is always docked. And definitely not for graphics etc.
it’s for Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart, BOTW, Metroid prime etc.
Just amazing AAA games that count.

@S1ayeR74 yeah, one of my favourite gaming trilogies and gears was genre defining, people forget. It’s also from a time when it was okay to have strong male characters who could have decent banter and a sense of brotherhood, but that’s a whole different discussion.

@Fenbops
And that is why their brand has stated to slow in 2023 and also after shock from 2022.
Did you know just console wise in March 2023 worldwide Xbox series consoles sold about 343 thousand less than in March 2022.
And it keeps spiralling down. That is not good game pass or no game pass.

@Dezzy70 I know hardware sales were down 30%? So that was 343’000 down from the same month last year? Ooof.

@Fenbops
Please all take this lightly but every time I see Phil’s face pop up on here.
I wanna scream at him. What the ducking hell are you doing Phil”
That’s the polite version as well 😂😂😂

I'll give him credit for taking responsibility. I'll also give Redfall credit for at least trying to be an original idea. I was likely not going to play it even if it was a 10 as multiplayer shooters just aren't my thing, but I do like seeing new ideas get thrown into the market, even if they end up tanking. I just hope they're able to come back from this, I'd be afraid of what Sony and Nintendo might try to get away with if they have less competition.

@Fenbops
Yep compared to March 2022 to March 2023.
Ok the Switch is down a bit as well but it had along way to fall and is in its sixth year.
But still doubled Xbox sales, worldwide in March 2023.
So far April is looking exactly the same and it won’t change at all for series consoles all this year 2023. Maybe a little uptick at Christmas with some good bargain prices and a top end AAA Starfield might help a little bit.
There’s are no games the general public want on series console compared to the other two, mass public wise.
Of course it helps the other two have masses of momentum and public awareness as well. And gaming characters well known and a Mario movie etc.
A bit like Halo and gears of war used to be known back in the day.

@Dezzy70 I think it's fair to say that both MS and Sony have been distracted by the ABK deal this past year and both have perhaps held things back to hel their case there. Although Sony did also release the PSVR2 this year and, while it's a bit of a niche product at the moment, they may have wanted to give it a clear window where there were no other big first party releases competing with it to maximise sales.

@Kevw2006
I take this ABK deal as excuses on either side really. That will be lawyers etc dealing mainly with that not game development studios and game management personnel.
Sorry to sound abrupt but to me it’s just an excuse banded about. I mean take Redfall and Arkane. Arkane we’re not dealing with the ABK deal.

Well he's taking accountability. Let's see what he fixes from this.

@Dezzy70 I was meaning in regards to games that they have in development that are maybe nearing release, I think they both may have been holding back in that regards to try and make themselves look 'weaker' to support their case.

@Kevw2006
Ok I see, well hopefully we will found out very soon what they both have to offer.

Phill is all talk he has no authority

Unexperienced developpers with UE 4 trying to do an open world multiplayer shooter , they have the wrong engine and lack of expérience with it, it resulted in this mess of a game, just like Gotham Knights earlier this year. It will take a lot of tweeking and hard work to optimise this thing.

Don't mind Redfall personally...it reminds me of game of old like fallout 3...the poor ai and all lol....find it pretty chill to play in small sessions

What does AAA means these days, Awful, Atrocious,Abominable.

Oh stop, Phil. Let's get something out of the way here. Microsoft has known for at LEAST a year that this game wasn't coming together. That's why they delayed it, that's why actual game play was rarely shown, that's especially why there was a review embargo. It was a trash game and Phil and everyone knew it. Maybe Arkane was hellbent on releasing it, who knows, but this pretending you didn't know what was happening is ridiculous. You released the game because you could see the game wasn't getting any better, you wanted to at least recoup some of your investment, and you were ready to have Arkane move on to Dishonored 3. Just say that.

@Dezzy70 Yeah but most consumers are not you..... They don't keep wandering from brand to brand and sell it off and rebuy as their whims go . They just buy one once and stick with it for the rest of their life unless there's a major reason to consider switching. Price hikes, incredible value elsewhere etc. Games alone just aren't it if the major games are there.

@mousieone if persona 6 is ps locked you know you're buying one

@grumpypotato You won the internet today. I genuinely laughed at this. 😂

@NEStalgia I hope Persona 6 is an iPad exclusive, because Atlus hasn't made any bewildering decisions lately. We're long overdue.

@SplooshDmg funniest thing is… in a way Grumpy isn’t wrong 🤣

Also I like ACG’s channel and his reviews, but somethings been bugging me, a while ago he did this video:
https://youtu.be/7FHXKslSTXg

In the description it says both Redfall and Starfield look to be excellent 🤣 paid advertisement I wonder? 🤔

@Fenbops Oh, without a doubt. This video had to be a paid promotion. I think Colt Eastwood has gotten raked over the coals pretty bad too. Probably for taking some cash to promote it on Twitter. But really, I mean, in a lot of the previews game did look somewhere between okay and maybe decent. Nothing beat SkillUp's review about the IGN guy, though. "We all need to apologize to that person at IGN, making fun of him for being bad at that game. When in reality, the game is actually just terrible." Lolol

@SplooshDmg @grumpypotato If you ask Africans though, Bill Gates develops and spreads ebola for Africa. So he's still best I guess?

@NEStalgia I mean, apparently back in the day, Bill Gates was absolutely brutal. I kinda miss 90s Microsoft.

@SplooshDmg I don't. Gates is a grade A dirtball that makes Bobby like like a teddy bear.

@NEStalgia That was the potato's joke, or maybe he was being serious. I'm not sure. Bill Gates was a dirt bag, but maybe what we need is a dirt bag. Now Bill just pretends like he isn't a dirt bag. I'm not sure if that's as effective in practice as coming by it honest, like Bobby.

@SplooshDmg I already have a console run by a dirt bag. No need for two

@NEStalgia Okay, what if at the June showcase, Phil announces that he is retiring and is excited to introduce you to the new head of Xbox... He calmly asks the audience if their body is ready... Then Reggie takes the stage. Would that be better?

@SplooshDmg Actually that doesn't sound like an unrealistic event.... Reggie already hosted the Xbox anniversary series. He's got one foot in the door and he likes saying things randomly whenever true or not. Sure, why not?

If Starfield fails (god i hope not) and the Activision deal fails i think Phil is gone. He's all talk and PR but never actually delivers, yes he gave us Gamepass but even that is starting to show its downsides now i feel.

Been reading his interviews all day and jesus christ its depressing. I wouldn't be shocked if Gamepass and MS go 3rd party after this Gen and MS goes the Sega route as Xbox feels like its at its end.

Did anyone actually watch the whole podcast before commenting? Many of your answers lie there beyond this snapshot article.

@Chaudy I hardly ever play new games.

@eduscxbox 100% accurate dude. Xbox was having a great year before this one flop. Hifi rush, Aoe2, Minecraft Legends. Ive been playing Valheim non stop. The"xbox community" is just concern trolling clowns. Look at them on this site, most of them dont even change their profile pic from nintendo ***** or make their whole shtick about owning all 3 consoles. They just flock to xbox message boards to concern troll.

@TheArtfulDodger tell that to kaloudz who think gamepass is the way and AAA isnt important.... Xbox is suffering for a reason and AAA goodness is the reason why, pentiment is great but that wont let a single gamer in the entire 1 billion gamers in the world buy xbox to play it or sub to gamepass

@SplooshDmg @jonnybuck84 I don’t know, I thought the previews looked garbage. I just thought ACG’s whole thing was no sponsored bullcrap.

@NEStalgia
Sorry, didn’t understand your last sentence meaning
“ Games alone just aren't it if the major games are there.”

@Fenbops true i dont want xbox games to be like PS but iwant similar quality and pulishing but in the IPS and genre i love
I didnt buy Xbox for cinematic games neither for pentiment and indie games yes i like indies but its something i play whenvi want to chill or clear my head, but when i feel like gaming ita not the games i like to play

I bought xbox hoping for some huge single player FPS and open world RPG i bought it fpr tge first AAAA experience with initiative i bought it thinking im ganna have some games that makes me excited for games once again

If starfield is what it looks like im ganna be happy once again... Tell then im heavily disappointed

@Fenbops It is THE game that is making me consider keeping my Series X. Best game series on Xbox by far, for me. It was the game that made me get an Xbox 360 all those years ago.

@S1ayeR74 same. My favourite Xbox franchise.

Just all round bad look. Either Phil didn’t know the problems with the game AFTER delaying it a year…because his teams so hands off and useless at managing studios.
Or he decided to put out an unfinished product, and priced it at 70, because having something on gamepass this month is worth more than quality control - and there’s probably truth in that…as we’re already of the mindset of ‘atleast it’s free with gamepass’

@WallyWest if the Activision Blizzard deal fails I'd expect Microsoft to partner with Sega more. It has a rich back catalogue both console & arcade that would do well in Games Pass. They just recently acquired Rovio so would be a start in there Xbox mobile app store.

@Bleachedsmiles but Phil is such a big gamer I reckon he has a try before things ship.

@Fenbops I mean, I'm being somewhat nice when I say it looked 'okay'. Like, I never expected it to be awesome, but I was also pretty surprised by what we actually got. Lol
And yeah, ACG might have that policy, I'm honestly not sure.

"what can we learn?" You just dont buddy, you dont learn. You get lazy and produce garbage. You think people like us in the gamer community are sheep and will play any old crap you throw at us....well we wont, produce some quality stuff before the ship sinks mate.

Apparently they are buying studios to avoid paying tax 😆

@Sebatrox meanwhile reality is theres what 4 maybe 5 total ps games outside of playstation eccosytem? you showed me 3 examples, ill show you EVERY XBOX 1ST PARTY TITLE ON PC.. and day 1 not YEARS later as a money grab....thats my point if you wanna play the newest sony made game you HAVE TO HAVE A PS5.... thats the truth of the story you dont need a xbox to play a single MS 1st party title, you do need a PS5 or a switch to play the competitors 1st party title by and large....

I'm seven hours into Redfall and I'm having a lot of fun with it. It's definitely not a triple A title. I would give it a seven. But, way more fun than I expected. Only two glitches so far - two vampires completely ignored me when I approached them. But, definitely not a four like IGN and Gamespot gave it.

@Dezzy70 Whoops, I meant a few big exclusive games aren't what's going to move the needle if all the major games are otherwise on the other platform people already have or are is most popular. For PS those big exclusives are mostly a marketing gimmick. The games sell well individually for single platform games, but the combined total sales of all their exclusives is still a fraction of the install base of the platform. Worse when you consider a lot of the people buying them are the same people buying multiple. Bottom line is the majority of customers on the platform don't buy the platform for the exclusives or even buy the exclusives at all. Even if Microsoft simply bought Sony's actual exclusives from them and took them off PlayStation entirely and put them on Xbox, Uncharted and God of Ware become Xbox exclusives and leave PS, the console market share would still not shift seismically as a result. At least not until a new generation of kids starts up on Xbox because of it then ages into it, so you're looking at a 15-20 year turn-around until that really takes hold, just as Sony shifted Nintendo's former market to themselves over generations. Sure some people buy a second console just to get the exclusives, but that's not actually putting much money in their wallet. That's why PS3 failed so hard for Sony. Lots of people bought a second console late in the generation just to play a few PS exclusives, but while that gives them numbers in hardware sales, it doesn't benefit them financially. The point of exclusives is to get people buying everything ELSE on your console. Customers that just buy the exclusives might as well not be customers, especially if they're not subscribing to anything. You make a tiny margin on them, but not much at all.

Nintendo, again, is the exception where the majority of their customers are buying only for their exclusives, but they're a unique example of Disney-level iconic content and the stuff of childhood memories. No other company will be duplicating that in our lifetime.

Though I may be the exception to the rule, but I'm kind of....excited? About Phil's comments here. He acknowledged what many of us have already believed, and confirmed that they're not in a bubble unaware of it. And kind of confirmed that XB isn't trying to win a console race and is trying to do its own thing in this sort of PC-adjacent space. That's, technically what I thought they were trying to do back in 2018 which is why I bought back into XB to begin with with 1X. I was a little disappointed when XSXS was announced and seemed like they were trying to do the console race again because I wanted them to do a thing that sort of bridged PC and console into a more similar ecosystem. If they're making money, not giving up, and doing more to bridge console with PC, I think it's still a preferable platform for 3rd party games, harmed only by the fact it misses some key ones. I have a PS5, I don't need a PS5 imitator sitting next to it. I'd rather the XB did something differently rather than be a green Playstation with a dozen alternate games.

The other reason it's exciting/interesting is....what Phil's saying here is eerily reminiscent of Satoru Iwata's position. He was very aware that Game Cube could not compete toe to to with Sony, even despite being more capable. Sony's marketing engine is nigh unbeatable, and their hardware components access almost unmatched unless Apple or Samsung joins the fray. He knew that Game Cube 2 would not compete with Sony directly either. He came up with the famous "blue ocean" strategy of competing where there's no competition instead of fighting "red oceans" where everyone's fighting to the death. That's what sent them off on the Wii experiment that became the WiiU experiment that became the Switch experiment. A focused intention to NOT compete with Sony and do something different. If MS is going for a "blue ocean" strategy, it means like Nintendo they may find their niche that makes them a unique part of the market rather than just green v blue battling over exclusives on their mini-PC twins. Maybe it's GP, maybe it's cloud (until Brexitistan tells them they're not allowed to operate in blue oceans, that's a monopoly, they're restricted to red oceans only.........) but I'd much rather see them keep trying to forge a unique path than just try to win a green v blue war. It worked wonders for Nintendo who would certainly have been out of business/third party had they just tried to keep outgunning Sony since 2000.

@Sifi there's was a great game behind all the bugs of days gone ,redfall doesn't have that luxury

Makes me wonder, if ms didn't have game pass to fall back on ,would they have released redfall in this state.

@eduscxbox those aren’t proper Xbox exclusives tho. They’re games that Microsoft simply bought.

@TheArtfulDodger By that logic we shouldn't criticize Redfall. Since it is not proper exclusive, as they acquired Arkane.

When Xbox release a good game from studios they acquired it is not proper, but when it is a bad game it is Xbox Game Studios fault?!

That don't add up.

@eduscxbox i haven’t criticised Redfall because it’s an Xbox game, that’s not the point. Minecraft was a game long before MS came along. An Xbox dev didn’t make Minecraft. Redfall is a new ip, made by an Xbox dev, like TLOU, Uncharted, Spiderman, Days Gone, etc were all new ip’s from Sony owned devs.

@TheArtfulDodger besides minecraft I've mentioned Age of Empires, Hi-Fi Rush, Flight Simulator and Pentiment. All new and old ips made by Microsoft devs, and all of them to great score and reception.

Also, Minecraft was a game before MS acquire Mojang, but the game I've mentioned, Minecraft Legends was created by Xbox Game Studios, since this is a post-acquisition title.

Age of Empires is old, Flight Sim is a PC game since the 80’s, HiFi Rush is ok. Not a Minecraft fan but kids love it. Whilst geeat none of those games come close to PS AAA exclusives.

@Fenbops It is one of the reasons why for now, despite my moaning of Phil Spencer, I won’t be selling my Series X. Plus State Of Decay. I have my OG PS4 and am playing Stray on that, it is on the PSN Plus Premium service I subbed to as I wanted to see what it had on it, and I’ve got to say, for me at least I’m not interested in any of the games on the service. I’ve played most of them or their predecessors and didn’t like the games, Sonys story simulators got stale for me.
The only ones I really like are Uncharted and The Last Of Us 1, and 2 was alright bar the stupid plot line and killing the main character in the first 5 mins.

But when I look at Game Pass, it has so many games I will dabble in and play.
I think when a new Uncharted game comes out I’ll grab a PS5 Slim or something.