Microsoft to Start Focusing on Triple-A Games for Xbox One
Between Backwards Compatibility, Game Pass, and Kodi, Microsoft has been doing well in supporting its hardware. That was further cemented with the release of the Xbox One X. But, many are still asking, where are the Xbox One exclusives?
Despite great game output, many fans still note that the hardware is lacking triple-A, first-party titles. Unfortunately, that didn’t change this E3. With the exception of Forza Motorsport 7 and Crackdown 3, the great Xbox One exclusives seem so few and far between. Phil Spencer aims to change that, however.
According to Spencer, head of Xbox, the company recently signed exclusives that won’t be ready for 2-3 years. He explained as much in an interview with VICE’s Waypoint. While they could have shown these games at Xbox E3, it wouldn’t have made sense.
“When I started this job three years ago, hardware was a real focus for us because I thought we had more work to do there,” said Spencer. “Xbox One S shipped last year, the X is shipping this year, I love our hardware line. Xbox Live was something I wanted to focus, coming on Android, iOS, Windows PC because I really want people to play games on the place they want to go play.”
And so it seems Microsoft’s first priority was securing hardware and make software available on all fronts. Well, it looks like they can check that off their list.
“Our first party is a critical part of that equation,” Spencer continued. “Yesterday, I know people want to see what we’re investing in new.
“We are investing in new things, we signed things just recently that I thought, ‘Hey, from a PR standpoint it would be really easy for me to put a trailer on screen’, but then I know the game is not coming for another two and a half or three years, so I didn’t want to do that.
“I understand some people would say, ‘Hey, that would give me confidence in the future of Xbox’…
“This is a cheesy line, but I’ll just say, trust that this is important to us as a platform. From the top CEO of the company down, if you talked to Satya [Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO] he would say ‘I understand, we need to invest in content in the gaming space’.
“That is important and we are going to invest. We have Sea of Thieves, Crackdown 3, State of Decay 2, Lucky’s Tale, Ori and the Will of the Wisps…But I know what you’re asking about. Big, triple-A console games, I hear that and I’m committed to that. Today I wanted to talk about things that if you’re going to buy the console you will be able to play, but I’ll continue to work to deliver games. We did on hardware, we did on platform and [backward] compatibility and we will do this on first-party as well. It is critically important.
While Spencer definitely could have previewed or teased some major games, Scalebound probably taught the company a lesson. Now that the Xbox One X has been announced, maybe well see the focus on games instead of hardware? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.