wraggster
November 11th, 2020, 19:04
With its pending acquisition of Bethesda, Microsoft is preparing to bring its Xbox Game Studios roster to 23 -- but the company appears to be far from done.
Speaking to GameReactor (https://www.gamereactor.eu/phil-spencer-on-exclusivity-monetisation-and-game-development/), Xbox boss Phil Spencer acknowledged that during the early Xbox One and late Xbox 360 years, the company did not invest enough in its studios' creative capabilities to its long-term detriment -- but that change has been in the works for some time now.
"Now, the thing with game production is that it takes a lot of time, so if you underinvest it actually doesn't show up next year or even in the next two years. It's maybe three, four, or five years down the road.
"I had this feeling or belief that we were underinvesting and I was head of first-party, so I felt it directly. I wanted to invest more, and we weren't able to. So when I got into this job, I needed to put the business in a good space while getting the support of the company. And then we built a business model that prioritized investing in content knowing that we would have to invest early and wait a while for those investments to pay off."
Spencer added later in the discussion that he feels the "chink in the armor" in the current line-up of Xbox first-party content is a lack of E-rated content, or "casual content with a broad appeal," saying that filling that gap is at the forefront of his mind when considering expanding the company's current offerings.
Spencer also was asked about Game Pass' potential expansion onto other platforms, and while rumors of Game Pass coming to Switch (https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-02-22-game-pass-xbox-exclusive-games-reportedly-heading-to-switch) have been floated for some time now, Spencer said that other console platforms weren't the top priority for expansion of the subscription.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-10-26-xbox-wants-more-e-rated-content-to-strengthen-its-portfolio
Speaking to GameReactor (https://www.gamereactor.eu/phil-spencer-on-exclusivity-monetisation-and-game-development/), Xbox boss Phil Spencer acknowledged that during the early Xbox One and late Xbox 360 years, the company did not invest enough in its studios' creative capabilities to its long-term detriment -- but that change has been in the works for some time now.
"Now, the thing with game production is that it takes a lot of time, so if you underinvest it actually doesn't show up next year or even in the next two years. It's maybe three, four, or five years down the road.
"I had this feeling or belief that we were underinvesting and I was head of first-party, so I felt it directly. I wanted to invest more, and we weren't able to. So when I got into this job, I needed to put the business in a good space while getting the support of the company. And then we built a business model that prioritized investing in content knowing that we would have to invest early and wait a while for those investments to pay off."
Spencer added later in the discussion that he feels the "chink in the armor" in the current line-up of Xbox first-party content is a lack of E-rated content, or "casual content with a broad appeal," saying that filling that gap is at the forefront of his mind when considering expanding the company's current offerings.
Spencer also was asked about Game Pass' potential expansion onto other platforms, and while rumors of Game Pass coming to Switch (https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-02-22-game-pass-xbox-exclusive-games-reportedly-heading-to-switch) have been floated for some time now, Spencer said that other console platforms weren't the top priority for expansion of the subscription.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-10-26-xbox-wants-more-e-rated-content-to-strengthen-its-portfolio