Ex-Blizzard President On Xbox's Future: 'Xbox Can Find A Path To Great Success'

That's what most of us has been saying.

They need games regardless of their plans, regardless of what studios or companies they buy, they have to make games.

As he says they need to go all in on exclusives and hardware or being a multiformat publisher, they can't do both and trying to do so is... well stupid.

Of course they can be very successful, there is nothing that wrong with some of their strategies.

God knows how many developers they have now and some very good studios.

They just need to make great amazing games.
It doesn’t matter if you selling hardware, game pass or games on multi platforms.
To survive you need to sell them and in the current climate they need to be amazing to sell substantial amounts.

That is not working in the gaming industry at the minute all round. Just look at the UK April month 2024 game charts. All last year’s games and a lot lot lot older in the top ten apart from Helldivers.

It shows there are not new games this year 2024 that have sold on a continuing monthly bases and very old games are out selling the new ones.

That makes the new game development very low in return on investment. Games are not doing much new this year 2024 and quality and performance issues have been very poor, so no wonder they don’t sell.
Then when patched say 6 months later some of us pick them cheaper or second hand which gives the developer no money at all.

They basically all need to buck up their ideas and stop corporate greed and get producing quality games with no bugs and very good performance.
Then we might start buying new games again.

The whole industry strategy so far has been increase the price of games but give us poorer quality and those d*** heads wonder why they are not selling new games like in the old day amounts.

And has for the consoles well overpriced for this time in their life cycle, more corporate greed.

Lots of sense in that interview, free from spin and PR speak.

MS still have the tools to be a strong creative force, but they will only do this if they can learn to manage studios to deliver exceptional product, and thats been a bit of a weakness.
I wonder now if they will see that vision through, as ditching those studios so quickly after purchase is very worrying.

As someone who cares about the gaming buisness, I hope for a strong committed Microsoft no matter where I prefer playing games. The market is better and stronger with three key players, so I hope that situation remains.

@Titntin The market is better and stronger with three key players, so I hope that situation remains.

They are ALL competing for your Time - along with ALL the other Publishers and 'leisure' services. Its competing with Netflix or whatever other way you choose to spend your 'time' doing.

That's why you see 'more and more' live services, Games designed to keep you coming back to spend 'time' in that ecosystem. A 10hr game is only keeping you 'engaged' for 10hrs and after, may go to another 'ecosystem' to spend your time - maybe your money elsewhere too...

Those '3' are not the only players, just the ones with some Hardware. Don't buy 'EA' or 'Square Enix' games and you could lose those Publishers competing for your time and money on ALL platforms. Those with Hardware at least have the added 'income' from 3rd Party Publishers and 'forced' Subscriptions and those releases fill in the gaps between 1st party releases.

Its obvious we care about Gaming but our time and money is limited and many are more casual - prefer to play Fortnite or Minecraft in their spare time than buy 'new' games, maybe pick up the odd game in a sale. So they aren't spending the money or supporting the industry, they are opting to watch Netflix or spend their 'limited' time on games they have instead of spending money...

WB lost millions on Suicide Squad and you have to fear that WB as a Game Publisher making the type of games that we want has gone and could disappear. Ubisoft seemed on course to crash with its NFT's and flops. Lose those, and that's 'less' competition for your time/money - fewer games to buy...

Hellblade isn't 'competing' with Sony or Nintendo - its competing with EVERY Game (new/old) for your time and/or money. If you prefer to spend your time playing Minecraft or watching Netflix, then its not competing for your time or money regardless of what Nintendo/Sony release.

They can find success…as a third party publisher

This confusion in strategy has been frustrating for years, and has also contributed to perceptions of Phil Spencer as being dishonest, since the company often behaves in contradictory ways. I'm happy to see Ybarra speaking plainly and from an informed position, as there's a lot of... gaslighting and self-deception in the Xbox community around issues of console sales, exclusivity, and so on. They need to pick a lane.

Microsoft can thrive in this industry without being part of the generational console manufacturers. That said, they need someone willing to impose limitations, deadlines, and so on to keep their teams in shape and on-track to delivering compelling commercial software products. Spencer's hands-off approach to management clearly hasn't been working. Hopefully there's a shift in leadership soon with the gaming division.

He’s right, Microsoft has to commit to either their Xbox platform, Game Pass and their users, or just drop everything become Microsoft Gaming and be the biggest third-party publisher in the industry.

This in-between isn’t working for anyone, it feels there’s a civil war going on at Xbox right now where Microsoft Gaming is taking over and I must say, after giving Phil and the Xbox team a decade and 80 billion dollars to turn things around and failing it was obvious Microsoft had to step in at some point.

Xbox ran out of time and now Microsoft will get their money back even if that utterly destroys the brand which is already happening, and there’s no going back, I really do feel this is it for Xbox.

On the subject of 'Hands-off' or 'Hands-on' from a Publisher, we have seen 'MANY' examples of Publishers pushing their developers to make certain games, make them a certain way (live Service), stifle creativity, release games too soon etc etc.

Arkane Austin came out and stated they never wanted to make a Live Service game, weren't set up for or had the experience to make their 'style' of games as a Live Service but Zenimax, as the Publisher, owner and funding that Studio insisted.

Do you really want 'MS' going to Ninja Theory and telling them they now have to make Hellblade 3 but now it needs some online Live Service element with Cosmetics sold as MTX or tell Bethesda to make a Starfield online game to go alongside F76/ESO instead of ES6/F5.

In a 'Hands-off' situation, you are letting the Studio Manager manage that Studio, decide what Game they as a Team will make next, manage that team and Deadlines, Seek help and/or support if/when problems arise, keep their 'Bosses' in the loop. It shouldn't be 'Phil', it should be the Studio manager if a Game fails, isn't ready on time etc - that was 'their' job to manage and to keep their Publisher in the 'loop', let them know if they need more help/support and/or if things aren't going to plan.

MS's role should be to help that Studio, get the Staff in if needed, facilitate training and/or a support network so Devs can create the games they want. Having an 'expert' in UE5 or Animations or networking etc to help Studios achieve their ambition.

That's why I think that Hands Off is not necessarily a BAD thing but Studio managers are not managing 'their' studio's or being honest with their bosses. You can't say 343i have 'managed' Halo or their Studio well - and that should be their 'responsibility'. 343i should be telling MS its not ready or they need help/time, not waiting until its nearly expecting to release and then the whole world sees how 'bad' it is. MS gave them 'more' time, more support to get it out at all.

In a Hands-Off system, the Managers of individual studios are 'responsible' for those. They may have to answer to a 'group' manager (maybe Head of Xbox Studios or Head of Zenimax) who has to report to 'head' of ALL gaming Studios. Phil is 'head' of Microsoft Gaming (not just Studios, but of Hardware, of Marketing/events).

I don't really want Phil telling Double Fine they have to make a Live Service game instead of facilitating the Game that Studio wants to create and if that flops, the Studio get thrown under the bus. I'd rather Double Fine make the game they want facilitated by MS and if that Flops, its a reflection of that Studio, the manager etc because they had the 'full' support of MS to 'deliver' and the Manager failed...

Sarah Bond talked about 'transition', so I understand they are moving from the classic home console manufacturer to a ubiquitous system ("every screen is an Xbox"). Still, they want to keep being the Xbox brand, so the install base is becoming alienated.

'Great games' mean something different to dedicated players and sales departments. Yes, It seems Microsoft wants to be Andréi Tarkovski and Michael Bay at the same time.

@BAMozzy You brought to mind a quote that I can't remember exactly, but it was something along the lines of, "Our job is to help the studios make their games, not to force them to make ours."

There have been so, so many times that- like you said- publishers and bosses have not lived by this, choosing to force their people/companies to do things they're not good at, instead of harnessing their passions and skills.

It's with some irony that while he's being positive, ultimately Even from outside now he's basically raising the very thing most of us are saying. MS has to go all in on being another Sony, full stop, or give up console and do 3rd party.

And the problem we all have is we have no idea which one they're going to pick. They won't tell us. They haven't even decided yet and are using our sales numbers to figure it out. And then one day they'll decide or just keep going half way until they do.

For those of us who are customers we're stuck figuring out if we keep investing knowing they may just decide to go the 3rd party route, or jump to ps and hope Ms sticks with it so that ps doesn't become junk in their absence, or just go all in on PC so you get the "real" Xbox vision either way and hope you didn't end up overpaying and end up with keyboard and power shell hell just to play games while Xbox ends up having been ok after all

Though we have Satyas statement during the abk hearing that he doesn't like exclusives. If you can trust what he says, that tells you what direction he wants. If you can't trust what he says then we return to go and start the confusion all over again.

He really highlighted it here. And that's the question MS has no intention and the one we add customers making commitments need to answer.

"ask for clarity on what the path forward is for the brand and product."

Us: "What's the future of the Xbox platform?"

Microsoft: "yes."

What's unique about xbox tho? I've seen a lot of common games so far and nothing unique or interesting for me.

I now see xbox as just boring platform and whatever I can do on there, I can do better on pc.

Except quick resume. That's nice and all, but I never really used that on the xbox, as I fully shut down the console from the socket. And when I turn it back on, quick resume isn't there.

With what’s going on now, after I played through Hellblade 2, I will be selling my Xbox, cancelling Xbox game pass, and buy gears 6 on PC.

Xbox is just becoming less and less attractive, and I also got a PS5 and switch. I almost get the feeling we all might end up with Nintendo again and have come full circle, back to the roots where gaming was more fun. It seems Nintendo are the only ones who focus on making fun games instead of following toxic trends.

@IOI here’s the thing with that. MS knew what condition Xbox was in in the state of the industry before writing the check. They also knew the moment the ink dried on the paper to own ABK. 5 games weren’t in the pipeline to be ready and come out. Thats not how game development works. MS still wants to see more games come out and see what happens, hence they are well under way on work on a rumored handheld and console. Now i agree if those big hitters come out and don’t move the needle any or their future hardware bombs then plan B of being a 3rd party publisher kicks in. But i think we are years off from seeing if that happens. One thing i know about gamers is they will follow great games if in fact they are great and MS needs some great ones and they need to be on Xbox Hardware only as was said in this article. If gamers think they can just wait on these to come to PS, then MS is hurting Xbox and why even support it. I would be lying tho if i didn’t say PC is starting to look better and better to me if we are in fact watching the end of Xbox.

@tatsumi if the rumors are true and the Switch 2 docked is as powerful as a Series S. Then it could become some players go to only. That is powerful enough to get some nice games on it for a while. The only issue i have with Nintendo is they hold onto the console to long when it’s already underpowered. 7 years with switch is just to long and showing it’s limits in year 4. So for 3 years Switch has been rough in performance as devs have done all they can with that tech. Now if Switch 3 came out say 5 years after switch 2 to gain some more power. I could see Switch like you said coming back into play with a lot of gamers that don’t care about power. The Nintendo is doomed talk always made me laugh, they are to good at their craft and knowing the business of gaming to be dead. Exactly what Xbox is showing they are bad at and thats the business side of gaming and consoles.

@CutchuSlow Yeah that's the thing it's not unique. It's not really trying to be. That's the good and bad. It's a utilitarian appliance that plays PC games well with no hassle and it's way more performance for the money than a PC. That's a really USEFUL product.. but it's not sexy. It's a Volvo for gaming.

You could say that PS5 does all the same things. It does technically. But in using both it's the little things in his digital is managed, quick resume which I dearly love, the way remote play is handled (Portal is a joke if a popular joke) .... It's honestly just nicer than using PS for your general purpose semi PC. And waaay less hassle than messing with PC and way way way cheaper.

But.... That assumes they don't mess that up. And right now we have a 50/50 dice roll if they do. I don't mind a good value easy to use Xbox as a mid range tiny gaming PC. But that doesn't help it move numbers.

Question is, am I willing to dump $1000 on a "slightly better xsx" pc build when ps5 pro will probably run circles around that build for 25% less and Xbox handled is around the corner? And mess with a keyboard and mouse on my gaming box to configure it all the time?

Edit. Quick resume should be there if you power off. Make sure You're in power saver mode and actually turn the console off and give it enough time to actually save in the background before cutting the power. I leave mine standby because I use remote play but qr definitely should be working for you if you give it time to do it

@NEStalgia oh on PC you don't need to configure something all the time. The only time I use mouse is to log in, update stuff when needed, open steam or the game and use the browser. Oh I do use an app to mess with the fan and led settings, but that's optional, don't have to mess with it and just leave as it is.

So for anyone that just wants to play games only, they could set steam up to launch in big picture mode on start up. So whenever you log in, just grab a controller and then select the game you want to play. And you can also turn off the PC from there too.

The only time you would configure stuff and download everything you need would be at the initial setup, when you first get your pc. Won't need to mess around with the settings after that. Just a one time thing.

Growth is more than just having great games.

@HonestHick While I agree that the switch is (and feels) underpowered now and for the past few years, I had way more fun playing zelda TOTK than any game on ps5 or xbox. Sure, the game struggled to run at 30fps and wasn't as pretty, but damn it was fun to build rafts and other gadgets to get through some of the puzzles in the game.

@fabio1 oh yeah Nintendo is never lacking in fun. I love their games. So much so i wish they had more power to get 3rd party titles more and i would use my Switch even more. It’s a great console and i always support Nintendo as much as i can.

@CutchuSlow that can be said for every console