Phil Spencer Interview: Redfall Reviews, Activision Deal - Kinda Funny Xcast Ep. 137
- Thread starter Shortbread
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Is Xbox platform way ahead of the competitors? The Xbox app on my pc is terrible. I'm not going to get into it, but I'm 100% ready to abandon anything Microsoft. Xbox Live was way ahead in the PS360 era. Now? I'd say you basically just need matchmaking plus Discord. I'm not aware of any areas where Sony is seriously behind. Microsoft squandered their lead (in online services), and they've honestly gotten less competitive in games. There were great arguments that Microsoft was competitive with their 360 library, but the games dried up a long time ago.
Sounds like a long way to say, ‘making games is too hard!’.
You talk about reductive reasoning but, essentially, your complicating a scenario that many companies around the world manage, without the resources MS has at hand.
Whether you like it or not, as well as all the stuff you mentioned, they’re also in the videogame business. They really should get on with that. I don’t think that’s too much for Xbox gamers to ask.
I hate Jim Ryan but if he was performing like Phil in terms of releasing quality product, he’d be gone(and I would dance a drunken jig).
You talk about reductive reasoning but, essentially, your complicating a scenario that many companies around the world manage, without the resources MS has at hand.
Whether you like it or not, as well as all the stuff you mentioned, they’re also in the videogame business. They really should get on with that. I don’t think that’s too much for Xbox gamers to ask.
I hate Jim Ryan but if he was performing like Phil in terms of releasing quality product, he’d be gone(and I would dance a drunken jig).
Inuhanyou
Veteran
Phil saying starfield being 11 out of 10 is not gonna convince someone to sell their PS5 and buy Xbox is absolutely ridiculous.
No one is saying Xbox has to do the impossible and force people to buy Xbox while disregarding playstation. This is what people against the acquisitions are actually against.
Xbox fans at this point, and old Xbox fans like myself, just want Xbox itself to be a platform that also has good games and is worth owning along with PlayStation and Nintendo. Give us a reason to have all 3 systems.
You primarily do that by getting your first party studios in order and maintaining basic quality and release standards like the others.
I'm already getting a series S soon because there are a lot of backwards compatible titles I want to carry on from my old Xbox days now that I am selling my 360. If they could do that but with new games that would be amazing.
No one is saying Xbox has to do the impossible and force people to buy Xbox while disregarding playstation. This is what people against the acquisitions are actually against.
Xbox fans at this point, and old Xbox fans like myself, just want Xbox itself to be a platform that also has good games and is worth owning along with PlayStation and Nintendo. Give us a reason to have all 3 systems.
You primarily do that by getting your first party studios in order and maintaining basic quality and release standards like the others.
I'm already getting a series S soon because there are a lot of backwards compatible titles I want to carry on from my old Xbox days now that I am selling my 360. If they could do that but with new games that would be amazing.
And the greatest minds in the world know how to create the best video games? I think not. If the formula for making the bestest video games were so simple, it would have been solved already.
Supply chain. You're asking why they aren't big outside of USA. They're not this international electronics consumer goods company that has 40+ years of shipping electronics goods everywhere. This isn't what they want to be or ever become.
When did technical know become the only requirement to build a successful game here? Every single developer if they ever go through a revisioning or rework of a game will go through developer hell to make up that time if the game design turns out poorly. Not many companies are able to recover from restart and still deliver on time. That would be the exception, not the normal case. The challenge is making a game that gamers expect first party to output - great graphics, great single player, great multiplayer, great story and great fun. Quite frankly, few studios are capable of this. This isn't _just_ an Xbox problem. It's just not easy to do. And many Sony first party games remove things like multiplayer to simplify the stack.
See the point above.
Sony has been in the business of talent spotting and creative works significantly longer than MS has. In a gaming industry that has quickly evolved towards 'epic cinematic' games, this has been a benefit to them, you don't see Sony pushing multiplayer platforms games.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. MS cloud division is super healthy, but that doesn't mean Xbox division is super healthy.
Admirable, honestly. But very few have the money or time to afford that. If it was as simple as everyone owning all three consoles, the gaming industry would be much larger than it is.
Unknown Soldier
Veteran
Problem is Minecraft was already established. Buying studios and getting them to create new IP is something else. I don't remember the other none Minecraft games from Mojang being successful. Although I could be wrong with that.
It's like Starfield. I believe it's built on an old engine. If they have gone UE4/5 like Phil said in the video then I hope it does good. If it's built on an updated version of the 20 year plus old OG Elder Scrolls game engine like Fallout 76 was, then they going to have trouble imo. Phil did mention that they are throwing people at it but how much better can it get if it's using the updated Fallout 76 engine? That game was atrocious.
Okay.
Please tell me another enterprise solution company that is currently competing in the video game category in which they must produce hardware to sell in stores and software titles in said stores. Who else is doing this? Is Netflix and Amazon selling hardware? Does Apple TV have AAA titles? What exactly do we mean here?
I'm not giving them an excuse that they can't do better, but everyone wants them to compete a very specific way, and I have to ask the obvious question as to why? Other than its a way you do not approve of.
Starfield is using Bethesda's creation engine, not Unreal.
Complete BC back to Xbox Classic with upgrades
Dolby Vision and Atmos support, VRR, and ALLM much earlier
Licensing for upgrades
XCloud is actual Streaming to Mobile
Game Pass
EA Play
Ubisoft +
They pushed for cross platform multiplayer and cross progression and succeeded in that
Xbox App allows for decent features, remote installation, pre-release installations
I think these are all great features.
Any market they want to access, they hire the best. It all comes to management. Proof is every gaming studio that manages to make a good game. Pretending that Sony and Nintendo have less challenges in making great games is a stretch.
Do you have a link that shows that THIS is the problem and NOT lower demand? Nintendo surely doesnt have such a problem and they are neither a manufacturing company NOR do they have the resources MS has. So whats they deal bro?
That can count for every studio. Even Sony's and Nintendo's. Its all about management. So your argument points to that.
A good product is the amalgamation of software, hardware and technical knowledge on how software and hardware work together. MS has access to all and they are the ones that created Direct X and are experts in tool creation (or atleast they should).
MS is an old company with experience in software, graphics and computing, and they own studios with amplitude and decades of history.
MS has been in the business of finding the best talents as well. Movies and music are completely irrelevant proven by the fact that gaming studios that are NOT Sony owned nor Sony produce both great games, cinematic or not.
That answer has no relation to the part you quoted
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Unknown Soldier
Veteran
True, no one with a PS5 at this point in time will sell the console for an XboxSX, not with Spider-man 2, FFXVI, Wolverine etc. coming in the next 2 years. Phil said one thing that I agree with. The digital library people have built up will have them living on that platform for years.
Where Xbox gamers go after over a decade of neglect, is a different matter.
Agreed. And I feel Phil Spencer is to blame for the reason the first party studios are in such a bad shape. Examples given in the interview was them flooding Starfield with programmers to help it along and ignoring Redfall. All the studios should have attention on them at this point in time to help make them all successful. The games test reviewers should all be fired immediately and they should get new test reviewers.
Phil should have had a hand in reviewing the Redfall before it got released. It looks like he didn't or his opinions of current games that Xbox Gamers want is way off. Imo.
He should be fired! Imo.
Has this yet been revealed how many they do from the FTC investigation?
This is not the role of Phil but Matt Booty.
No this is not supposed to be public. But They have exclusvity of all numbered final fantasy(FF7 Remake, FF16, FF7 Rebirth, FF14), They have the GTA marketing deals maybe something huge on GTA 6 side maybe they will succeed to do like Hogwarts Legacy and have a period of temporary exclusivity for DLC content or something linked to the next GTA online. It seems they have the permanent exclusivity of Silent Hill 2 Remake.
Unknown Soldier
Veteran
That's what I understood as well.
That's very assumptious.
I'm sure lower demand also plays a role here, but not providing supply doesn't help either. Nintendo has been around since 1980 and were the only survivor of the console crash.
No it's not, I disagree firmly on this.
A good video game has great game design and everything is secondary to that. Good game design seldom has little care about software or hardware technical knowledge, nor does it have to work together.
Our best and most coveted titles of the last 10 years have largely been indie, because that's where great game design sits. It's when people start expecting more from games than just solid game design, do many games start falling apart.
I mean seriously, don't talk about how you know about making games if you've never made one, or been part of a development team. If you're not aware of the challenges and difficulties or know someone who is actively under pressure to deliver AAA, I don't think you should really be speaking on this. The scope and size of games are massive, and the amount of time and money required to release a polished product up to gamers expectations of what 'AAA' is, is pure insanity and it's largely unsustainable. I have family that work at Ubisoft, and I know PRECISELY why shit falls apart. And none of it have to do with their programmers not knowing how to maximize the hardware.
When you spend over a year or two making a game and it gets to a point to be play tested and it sucks because it isn't fun, and you have to restart to square one and remake the same product in half the time, that's what causes projects to fall apart.
Like why do you seriously think they are STILL making Skull and Bones. After all these years, do you really think it's going to release as an incredible game?
These studios spend all these years making a game, and by the time the game is released, the audience has moved on already.
Why do you think story and RPG based games started becoming so dominant? The story is the main selling point, no one cares that its got dated design as long as the graphics and story are good.
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Unknown Soldier
Veteran
Calling for people to be fired has no part for discussions.
Well then Matt should be fired. That said, Phil is Matt's boss isn't he?
Phil, 'In terms of lessons learnt. I'll even go back to the Redfall videos on IGN running at 60fps on PC, at the point knowing that the game was going to be 30fps at launch on consoles. We have to be transparent about what we are showing, what we are showing is representative of what our console customers, committed customers to our brand, financially committed. That they are going to see what they are going to play, that transparency just has to get better. And I am not pointing at anybody but myself.'
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It's Todd Vaughn's job at Bethesda.
Booty's job is within XGS
Inuhanyou
Veteran
Whoever is responsible should be replaced immediately. We are not just talking about a recent thing but a problem that has been festering for over 10 years now, ever since all the old xbox top brass left and Xbox fully moved it's focus to kinect and markets outside of gaming. Their studios seem to have just been left to rot there with the same mismanagement. It feels like the only studios consistently putting out good products are turn 10 and coalition.
Without their smaller acquisitions from around 2018 they would be in an even worse state than now. And this is when they already had around 20 gaming studios! What have they all been doing?