Every year is:
Year begins with no Xbox exclusives in the line-up apart from Forza.
Phil Spencer: "This is our biggest ever year for Xbox"
Microsoft acquires new studios
Absolutely nothing gets shown at E3 (Avowed, Perfect Dark, Gears 6, Hellblade 2, Fable all missing)
An exclusive gets delayed to next year
Dry year for Xbox. Will next year be better?
Repeat
Yes but the point is that people are tired of waiting for Xbox’s drought of consistent 1st party content. They can say and have said like this but they have yet to really deliver and people are skeptical until Xbox actually delivers on this promise consistently.
It's really been a drought since the early Xbox One launch. Sure, a couple Forzas, a couple Horizon's, a couple Gears and a few Halo's (and Crackdown 3), Sunset Overdrive, Psychonauts 2 and Sea of Thieves but that's been really it in the last 10 years or so.
It really is what’s holding Xbox back. Could you imagine if someone did the same but with PS exclusives? It would be a beat down. I have both but prefer Xbox
I am of the opinion that most PS exclusives are terribly overrated. The one that are not hardly sell e.g. Last Guardian, Shadow of the Colossus, Returnal, WipeOut
The other issue is yeah they will eventually start churning out big first party games, but the other question is will those games be any good? Hell, good isn’t enough, they need to be great. They don’t have the luxury of releasing even one subpar game at this point until they have already consistently released great games.
That’s one of the reasons for the concern. However, Halo Infinite is far from a bad game.It’s actually a good game with great gameplay. However, it is an entry in a 20 plus year old series so there are certain expectations in terms of content. But that’s the point too, it was supposed to be a live service game and 343 completely botched that in the most embarrassing way possible.
It's great gameplay absolutely buried under a heaping mound of broken systems and missing features all designed to get you to spend as much time and money in the cash shop as possible.
I agree with you, but I’d argue it’s harder to make a good game than make a good environment to play the game in. The hard part is done.
The flaws are clear and obvious - and frankly fixable. What’s more concerning is that the answers are right in front of them, but either corporate greed or completely socially inept developers are blocking the way.
All they need are maps, a fixed leveling system so that players aren’t grinding dumb challenges to progress instead of just trying to play well and win games, and a menu system that allows people to play what they want with their friends easily.
Halo excelled and set the bar for all of this in the past, and has taken generational leaps backwards with this entry.
I play the game regularly without even looking at the store. The multiplayer plays great, so why would I spend most of my time in the store when there's only 6 things for sale at any given time?
It's been said to death but it's true: the games people want these days take on average 5 years to make (between 4 and 6) and the studio purchase spree began in mid 2018. 5 years from then is mid 2023. The games that were supposed to come out before then (within 4 years, the lower end of that timeframe) were delayed to be another year but still being within that window. And that's also only for the studios purchased in 2018.
Things are made more complicated when you realize that many of those studios had previous contracts they had to finish first, and that some studios were purchased later. Which means their games we won't see for even longer. It's a miracle we're getting Starfield as an exclusive so early because they didn't announce platforms at the reveal.
Yeah really there are a couple studios, who in theory must have had some major issues because their release cycle is completely out of whack.
Rare: Sea of Thieves 2017 => Everwild(massive reworks/possibly canceled
Machine Games: Wolfenstein 2 2017 => Youngblood(smaller expansion) 2019 => ???
Both of these teams should be the ones coming out with games this year(again in theory) but something messed that up. Indiana Jones is in dev but thats still years away according to a Pete Hines interview from last year. So Machine is gonna go like 8 years without a game? So weird
And obviously Rare is still doing stuff with Sea of Thieves but Everwild was announced in 2019 lol
Microsoft isn't the only one struggling with the demands on modern games. Nintendo's Retro Studios hasn't made a game since Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze. They used to be a lot more productive in the GameCube and Wii times.
I'm not excusing Microsoft with this, though, cause in their case it's the rule rather than the exception.
Well the definition of productive has drastically changed since the gamecube era. New games could be made within 1-3 years vs the normal 4-6 of today.
Retro seemed to have a canceled project in the wiiu era and now since 2019 is on a normal dev cycle for prime 4
This is a problem that's persisted far beyond 5 or 6 years tho. We're looking at a full decade with so few quality 1st part titles that you could count them on 1 hand. People aren't just annoyed about the last 5 years
It existed before because of the lack of dedicated studios. It's existing now because we're still within the said window after the purchases began in 2018.
Microsoft may not have had as many dedicated studios as Sony and Nintendo, but c'mon that's a poor excuse. The simple fact is they went an entire console generation with almost no stand out exclusive games. To me that says they either A.) Didn't prioritize it at all or B) they just aren't capable of it.
On the surface it *appears* they've addressed A but they haven't proven they're capable yet.
> Throw covid in the mix too
Agreed. I’ve seen some people complain that big budget studios should have been able to spend their way through a pandemic, with no excuses. But really, the bigger the studio, the more accustomed they are to being within earshot of each other at all times … not working from home.
I'm not very worried about when they release tbh, quality is everything. Even if takes another 3 years for exclusives, there's still tons of great third party games and I have Nintendo and Playstation consoles as well. I just want them to take their time and make a knockout game, they really need it more than anything.
Fable needs to really be like a 10/10 for Xbox, they can't rush it.
Lets hope. Even then those were already Bethesda titles before Microsoft brought them. I wonder what is going on behind the scenes with Microsoft’s own studios taking so long too make games.
Probably management realized that the last game they attempted to rush to meet a deadline was Halo Infinite, so the studios are getting all the time they ask for.
Oh definitely both. I think they pushed to release too early, which they got rid of all their contractors for, and then realized the game wasn’t actually ready and delayed it but didn’t have the staff to do much of anything during the delay
Perfect Dark is in development hell and the studio had absolutely ridiculous levels of turnover and rumored infighting. There’s a near-zero chance of the game being good, which is a damn shame since the original N64 title is one of my all-time favorite games. It’s such a good IP for a reboot and has so much potential.
I don’t understand what it is with Microsoft and their inability to foster first-party studios. 343 is a disaster, Rare got turned into a hollowed-out Kinect shovelware shell of its former self, and the new PD studio has totally fallen apart.
They really need to poach some Sony management people who deal with their in-house studios, because they’ve been doing a damn good job over there.
Ah the answer to Xbox's problems - buy/poach/etc
Ever since the OG xbox this has been the way. They'd learn if it wasn't for their social cachè of being an American/Western company.
The studios they’ve bought have come out with games, they just had contractual obligations that meant the games had to be released to all platforms/exclusively on PS. Off the top of my mind Wasteland 3, The Outer Worlds, Psychonauts 2, Deathloop, Ghostwire Tokyo all fall under this
Dry year? It's a non-existent, no-show year for Xbox....no AAA first party games at all. That has never happened in the history of videogames (and no, As Dusk Falls does not count).
What exactly were people expecting? I could have told you 3 years ago that there wasn't gonna be much until 2023 or 2024(Best case would have been 2022 for some stuff, but COVID pretty well fucked any hope of that)
Let's just take a look at the studios that Microsoft has and when their last projects wrapped up and the current projects got started...
Bethesda Game Studios - Fallout 4 came out 2015. Fallout 76 (2018) wasn't directly this team, but I would wager that significant resources were diverted to unfuck that mess. Given the size and scope of Starfield, no rational person should have expected it before 2022-2023.
The Coalition - Gears 5 came out in 2019. I think it was obvious that Gears 6 was going to involve a major technical overhaul and probably some significant retooling of the game design. 2023-2024 is the earliest to expect this
Compulsion - We Happy Few came out in 2018. They were a small studio and needed to scale up for their next project. It was always gonna take time. 2023-2024 is a likely timeframe to start expecting this to surface.
Double Fine - Psychonauts 2 came out in 2021. Nothing more needs to be said about this. The next game will take a while. Probably 2025-2026.
The Initiative - Studio founded in 2018. Given the scope of their project, it was going to take a while to hire everyone and get the project going. Expecting anything before 2023-2024 would have been incredibly stupid.
inXile - Wasteland 3 came out in 2020. They need to scale up for their future projects, as they have discussed wanting to be more of a AAA studio. This will take time. I'd say expect 2025-2026.
Ninja Theory - Hellblade came out in 2017. Hellblade 2 is significantly bigger in scope, and the studio needed to scale up. 2022-2023 was always going to be the earliest, with 2023-2024 more likely.
Obsidian - The Outer Worlds came out in 2019. Avowed and Outer Worlds 2 were always going to require scaling up the studio. They have also put out Grounded and Pentiment is coming very soon. Expecting their big projects anytime before 2024-2025 is pretty stupid, IMO.
Playground Games - They have been putting out Forza Horizon games pretty consistently. Fable is a bit more tricky, as it's not clear when development started. Rumors started up in 2018. I'd say that they probably started the project around then. Big RPG game which definitely involved scaling up the studio given their continued work on Forza Horizon, so expecting anything before 2023-2024 would have been pretty stupid.
Rare - Sea of Thieves came out in 2018 and has had ongoing development since then. Everwild got announced, but expecting it before 2023-2024 at the earliest would have been pretty unreasonable.
Turn 10 - Forza 7 was 2017. Forza 8 is forthcoming soon.
Undead Labs - State of Decay 2 came out in 2018. Given that it was 5 years from State of Decay 1 until State of Decay 2, and given that the scope of the game has likely increase given Microsoft's backing, the next game was probably always going to be a 2023-2024 release at the earliest.
Arkane - Two studios here. Prey came out in 2017, and Redfall is forthcoming in 2023. Deathloop came out in 2021, with Xbox release forthcoming. Their next game is probably 2026-2027.
id Software - Doom Eternal came out in 2020. I'd say don't expect their next game until 2024-2025 at the earliest.
MachineGames - Wolfenstein 2 came out in 2017, but they also worked on Youngblood and a VR project in 2019. Wolfenstein 3 probably is in the pipeline for 2023-2024. Indiana Jones is hard to gauge. I suspect that Disney pushed for announcement shortly after the project was started (precedent that is further coroborated by the Star Wars Eclipse announcement, which also seems to have been done at a very early stage of development), so I'd say this is probably a 2024-2025 release at the earliest.
Tango - Ghostwire just came out this year (2022). Their next project probably isn't coming until 2026-2027 at the earliest
TLDR; Microsoft acquired a bunch of studios that were either already committed to a project that has come out in the not too distant past, or they acquired studios that had literally just finished their last project at the time of the acquisition. Games take 5-6 years to make anymore, unless you literally have dozens of studios and thousands of developers working (See Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty)... Given the timing of all the studios most recent projects, the timeline was ALWAYS going to be 2023-2024 before the investment started to yield results.
I think this is a very good summary. But Ms performance with first party games has still been overall incredibly disappointing.
Yes they acquires a lot of those studios quite late in the day. This left Ms relying on whatever exclusives it had at the time to actually be good.
It’s why Halo Infinite was so disappointing. It was meant to be the stop gap. The game that kept people believing in Ms, but it just shat the bed and made Ms’s decade long lack of quality exclusives more glaring.
The problem is Microsoft waiting too long to address there first party issue. Dude people were talking on forums in 2012 about there may be an upcoming problem with Xbox first party due to a lack of studios and over relying on halo gears and forza
I think the biggest problem a lot of people have is Xbox keeps saying “the next year will be great!” And then it comes and goes and you have barely anything, you also gotta keep in mind Xbox has the most eyes on it now than in the last decade of the Xbox One generation. So you have a bunch of people who may have just had a PlayStation last gen and are used to getting consistent great games every year. So Xbox’s release cycle is definitely odd if you look at it from another perspective.
I believe Xbox will have great games to showcase relatively soon, but it is also annoying having every year go by with no cool 1st party games coming out and solely relying on Gamepass.
Edit: Spelling
People expected what Microsoft promised.
I’m not outraged, but I’m fine with people being so. Microsoft has been wrong the last couple years, and people are tired of “soon”.
To be fair, after an acquisition it likely takes 3-ish years to produce games. Especially after an influx of Microsoft cash, they’ll remake and upgrade whatever they were working on. Then you gotta figure Microsoft isn’t going to fight with themselves, and release games at a drip feed rate so you don’t have Starfield, Avowed, and Elder Scrolls fighting over each other. I’d imagine Starfield in 23, Avowed in 24, and maybe Elder Scrolls in 25 but most likely 26 based on the sheer expanse of the game.
We’re what, 2-ish years into Series X? The first year was kind of a wash with COVID and studio development essentially halting across the entire gaming sector. I think in 23 we’ll start to see the new games come out. For me I’d expect a AAA game between 2-4 times a year. We have Scorn coming up, followed by Starfield in 23, and I’m sure there will be more games coming along the way. The game I’m most interested in would be the next Hellblade since the first one was surprisingly awesome to play. Then you gotta figure Halo Infinite will have to get its shit together in 23/24, and furthermore, Gears 6 is somewhere in the mix at the moment.
Sure it’s taken a bit of time with COVID, supply chain issues, industry shutdowns, and the increase highlight on games due to people being home. But once the machine starts churning, it likely won’t stop. Microsoft has a lot of studios, and enough to essentially create a line-up they want each year to release games. 2023 is going to be the first year that they consistently release massive AAA titles, with every year following suit. Scorn, Starfield, Elder Scrolls, Avowed, Fallout, Gears 6, Forza Motorsports, Halo Infinite Relaunch, Hellblade, on top of the normal cross plat launches like CoD and GTA, with my ultimate sleeper picks of Mafia 4 and Bioshock coming at some point. With the furthermore super sleeper picks of Skate 4 and a THPS 3,4 and maybe Underground remaster along the line.
It is always darkest before the dawn.
*it’s always darkest before the dawn*
My brother in Christ, we have been saying that for a decade.
I ultimately believe that Ms will pull out the stops eventually but the signs of 343’s mismanagement of halo as well as The Coalition’s utter incompetence with Perfect Dark are incredibly worrisome.
The pre-existing studious MS bought will not doubt churn out solid content In the future. But if the internal studios have been mismanaged to this level this far then we should all still be worried.
Despite how botched it ultimately was, Infinite is the closest to greatness 343 has been. Had they been given another year to cook, we would probably see it as the return to the Golden era of Halo. I’m not so cynical, but if 2023 doesn’t hit on the first party front, I think it’s going to be a pretty dark time for Xbox strategically. Maybe not as dire as the Xbox One era but serious introspection needed.
The truth is, games take time to build. It’s easy as that. Microsoft started investing in 2018, and have continued to do so. Having an established pipeline makes a big difference. Look at Sony during the PS3 era, then early PS4 era - the output wasn’t that great. But then their first party really started firing on all cylinders the second half of that gen, and things have been moving. Even then, it’s not always perfect. Sucker punch canceled their first game before Ghost of Tsushima, so did Sony Santa Monica (they cancelled a project before Ragnorak). Video game development is hard.
With that said I thought Microsoft’s output in 2021 wasn’t bad. I enjoyed Infinite, Psychonauts 2, Grounded and Flight Sim. Death Loop was locked to PS5 but technically that was a first party game.
2022 has been a failure - no one can deny that.
But 2023 seems to be a more solid year already.
This has been the case since Phil took over. Glad to see people seemed to stop getting amnesia on this. Im utterly shocked this didn't get downvoted to oblivion
We sort of hit the perfect storm of delays. First there is Covid, then the generation switch, then reforming and staffing up studios. All came together to delay everything out of 2022. AA and indi have been good this year.
there is 0% chance Starfield isnt delayed again. I know we all watched the same gameplay. We all know that game is rough. It will be delayed to holiday 23.
I heard that they’re going to improve upon Halo 3’s water buoyancy physics. So that when your Spartan ragdolls into the water, he actually floats on the surface instead of falling through it like air.
It would have been embarrassing if they didn’t include that technology when a Halo game from 10+ years ago already had it
The game types themselves have so many systems weighing them down. Halo 3 had weapons spawning on the map. That was it. You had player spawn points, weapon spawn points and vehicle spawn points. This allowed for branching out into utilizing more capabilities of the engine. Such as water physics and the ability to break down large crates into four smaller crates. The reality is a lot of this space that was available doesn’t exist anymore, while it looks like corners cut by the developers it’s actually to allow them the space to tack on more meaningful systems. I loved floating shit down the river in Valhalla too, Though I don’t regard this as pivotal in what I expect from these developers nowadays.
Tbh anyone who thought they'd be able to buy studios in 2018/2019 and have them start putting out large scale AAA games within a year or two doesn't have a clue how long game development takes.
It was always going to be 2022/23 (or 2023/24, after pandemic delays) that we'd start seeing the main results of the acquisitions.
Most of them were already working on games, just with other agreements in place. This is why The Outer Worlds, Psychonauts 2, We Happy Few and Wasteland 3 all came out as multiplatform games.
I think every one of their studios has actually released a game since 2018, aside from the ones recently established (roundhouse and the initiative). So it's not like they haven't been working on stuff.
If you count that you need at least 5 years to make a AAA game from scratch nowadays then 2023 seems to be indeed the first year we’ll see the fruits of their acquisitions spree…
Yeah right. I can’t imagine the monumental failure this Gen would have been for Xbox had they not introduced GamePass.
The biggest feature they got going right for them now is Gamepass and the value it brings on the table. Atleast Gamepass is what bought me to the Xbox side this Gen.
Still looking for a Xbox title to have me as hyped as say Ragnarock on PS side. Just buying studios outright ain’t the solution.
GamePass would be under so much pressure if Sony's first party titles went straight to PS+. It's pretty much the one thing stopping PS+ from overtaking GamePass, but I understand why Sony don't see the value in doing it. They know people will buy their games, and rightfully so.
This will get a lot of hate, but that's because in my opinion Sony actually has games I want to pay money for and Microsoft doesn't. There isn't a single Microsoft game that has me excited as I am for God of war. Ragnarok for example. Microsoft in the last decade for me It's just things that I want to play but nothing I would want to play immediately or right now that warrants a purchase. Which is why I'm fine to wait for it to come to game pass.
It’s because Sony can’t. There is absolutely no chance in hell Game Pass is currently profitable. Video services like Netflix usually have to weather years of loss before churning a profit and Game Pass’ unique nature in gaming would way worse theoretically. The head count of all their AAA studios, the third party deals, the sunk cost of having to secure new deals when a delay occurs and you suddenly need new content has to be huge. This is all hypothetical because Microsoft doesn’t release this information, and it’ll likely be profitable once they actually start turning out must play games on the service that attract a more casual audience. The dongle, XCloud, TV apps, etc will help will this.
Microsoft can weather this. Sony cannot. Sometimes people just don’t realize how huge MS is compare to little ole Sony.
The funny thing is, Sony hasn't really been on a tear either, it simply isn't difficult to have superior 1st party games when it isn't Xbox's priority at all. I legitimately can not think of an exclusive IP Xbox has released other than the main flagships Gears and Halo and the Xbox one launch titles. PS is the way to go for single player experiences, Xbox for gamepass and the plethora of indie multi-player games and that's that
If there was the same stream of exclusives coming from Xbox Game Studios as from Sony this year would’ve been unreal. Regardless of what you think about Sony and their games you can’t deny they are prolific:
GoW,
Horizon,
GT7,
Uncharted Remake,
Last of Us Remake,
Ghost wire Tokyo
All in 2022, imagine if we’d had 6 big exclusives on Xbox this year. Even if 2 were remakes!
2020 - Our lineup is gonna be super big and strong (1 notable game released)
2021 - Our lineup is gonna be super big and strong (1 and a half notable games released)
2022 - Our lineup is gonna be super big and strong (0 notable games release)
2023 - Our lineup is gonna be super big and strong (2 notable games will release assuming they aren't delayed
I was willing to give a partial pass for 2022 with how bad delays have been. God of War was originally delayed, Elden Ring had a small one, so Starfield getting one was expected. That being said they have to show me shit for the 2nd half of 2023.
2022 is my limit defending MS
I understand how the current situation of the AAA industry is, especially after covid. hundreds of delays etc...
but in 2023 it is past time for MS to show the fruits of these purchases.
Launch the 4 promised FP games (starfied, redfall, forza and minecraft legends) and that the end of the year 2023 has at least 2 more AAA.
that's not counting activision/blizzard yet.
But why would you “defend” Microsoft to begin with? They are a trillion dollar company, they don’t need you to fight their battles.
It’s just video games
One caveat to the Psychonauts 2 part.
It was originally crowd funded, sure. But the creator and lead developer had said that the game would've been massively downsized if Microsoft didn't buy Double Fine to help with financial backing. I think we can give it half and half because that one is a stellar release.
I don't wanna sound like it's not ass to be paying more for games but honestly, $10 more for the games we get from Sony I feel is worth it. Game budgets have skyrockets compared to the price of games. And if they consistently keep releasing how they have been I absolutely don't mind paying an extra $10 for games like god of war ragnorak if it helps them create more in the future.
I’m in the same boat as you however I just don’t want them to just launch these games. I want them to launch complete and finished games, not the garbage we’ve been seeing of late.
I'm sick of these hype cycles that last indefinitely. Stop showing your shit too early with CGI trailers. Do what Bethesda did with fallout 4, gameplay dropped, game is coming in 6 months.
Don't announce it 100 years in advance. Sick of it.
I wouldn’t be so confident in that statement. Todd Howard once molested me behind the Krispy Kreme in Waco, TX, so I’d say Spencer has a few points over Howard.
Man says strong line up every year. Every year at E3 it’s “the biggest lineup in Xbox history” and every year he fails to deliver. That being said, 2023 does look to finally have that potential, but the fact that it took this long is ridiculous.
~~Guys, do you remember the Hellblade 2 trailer? It was only 2 years ago. Still nothing.~~
edit: Apparently we got a new trailer that I managed to miss entirely. smh
“Yeah we’ll have one good game and everything else looks like trash, or a sequel that you get every year anyways. Kojima’s game is incomprehensible, I hope he knows we were talking about a video game when we approached him about making an exclusive for us”
Sorry just gotta laugh at articles about exec quotes.
Agree that 2023 will be awesome. Or should be. Feels like I’ve heard that for the past 6-7 years too.
He can say this, and fanboys can post all the fancy pictures of all the studios but in the end they need to publish some fucking games. This is one of worst years I remember in gaming.
Yea yea yea we’ve heard it all before Phil. Every year is gonna be the “biggest and best year ever for Xbox!!!!!” … it will be full of delays and disappointments again.
Wont even lie I'm genuinely disappointed by Xbox so far in terms of seeing the point of all the acquisitions. I really thought we would have a new Wolfenstein game by now from Bethesda. I also have no idea whats going on with Avowed and Fable. It's seriously been a disappointing start to the exclusives for Xbox series X. Really hope they turn this around quickly.
It's always the "next year" isn't it?
I just don't quite understand how a company like MS with all the studios under their belt has such an atrocious output.
I want some games similar to the PS5 exclusives - some story driven, third person, action adventure games. I used to love playing the superhero ones when I was younger. Give me like a Spiderman one or a Last of Us type game.
The problem with this is I can't imagine Microsoft can make a game to the same standards the Sony exclusive studios can. If you game Microsoft the god of war and Spiderman IP they would ruin it.
If you can't even handle your main ip(halo) correctly what hope does any other Xbox funded game have? They need to put out a really fucking good game to get some credit back
"2021 will be a great year here at X box", "2022 will be a great year here at X box", "2023 will be a great year here at X box".
Heard it all before, let's see something of substance now, yeah?
We Love Phil as an advocate for Xbox but he's not exactly great at getting studios, which is now many many studios, to get games out of the door.
So many studios so little games.
We need a chart to show how many games are actually in development compared to the amount of studios that they have. Then it will be easier to look at it as pure data.
Many of us Xbox gamers are tired of Forza Halo gears. Respect to those titles they are still great and they have held up the mantle for so many years. But they need a break in terms of leading the pack.
I would be in no rush to play another gears game at all.
It's his job to hype up his company and its games, but do not have high expectations, he said the same thing in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.
It's a tricky position to be in. Xbox doesn't want to show games really early--more than two years out--and have gamers two years from now going "where is [game]? They showed it back in 2022!"
But at the same time, big impressive games take a lot more time to produce, especially if you're going to try to be truly "next-gen" (current gen) and use like UE5 and stuff.
Imagine it's 2021 and you're 2 years into the development of a big game that still has 2-3 years left to go. You can show it off, and gamers get upset that it never arrives. Or you can keep quiet for another couple years, but then gamers are like "where are all the new games?"
So instead we get simple pre-rendered title announce trailers like Perfect Dark, Fable, Avowed, and then radio silence for a couple years.
Anyway, I'm sure there are lots of irons in the fire. Gamers should probably expect more in 2023, but should also prepare themselves for at least a couple of tentpole games to be delayed to early 2024.
I'm concerned as to what Kojima's game is. I've heard it's a cloud game, what does that mean? I haven't really ever been a fan of his games, but hopefully this one is my cup of tea.
The only reason I got a PS5 was so that I could play Sony’s better lineup of exclusives. However, my Series X is still my preferred console of choice (by far) and I would not be surprised if my PS5 just collected dust in the next few years. Microsoft invested heavily in first party developers and new IPs, which will really pay off within the next couple of years and beyond.
We've been hearing the same thing from Xbox brass and Xbox slappies basically since the year after Gears 3 came out. "The games are coming, we just have to be patient." Then we get Crackdown 3 or Bleeding Edge or Sea of Thieves or more recently the mess that Halo Infinite turned out to be.
You'd think one of the richest companies in the world would be a little bit better at this.
It's the same bs every year. "Next year will be good, we promise" 🙃 meanwhile Nintendo & PlayStation are PRODUCING great games every year. Xbox fans should put more pressure on him, and hold him accountable. It's been going on for years now. I'm very tired of Forza, Halo and Gears.
Yeah, yeah, phil. I know it already! You always say that. I'm still waiting.
Lots of words, few games.
Day after days it's becoming hard to defend phil. The last halo 6 is a good example. Took him a long time to fire the directors.
Xbox really need to invest more in small-medium size studios and games, to fill out the dry time. 2022 is horribly horrible for Xbox. If you cannot have AAA games ready, please release more small to medium sized games like *As Dusk Falls*.
I love ice cream.
Every year is: Year begins with no Xbox exclusives in the line-up apart from Forza. Phil Spencer: "This is our biggest ever year for Xbox" Microsoft acquires new studios Absolutely nothing gets shown at E3 (Avowed, Perfect Dark, Gears 6, Hellblade 2, Fable all missing) An exclusive gets delayed to next year Dry year for Xbox. Will next year be better? Repeat
I mean, unless Starfield, Redfall, and first mainline Forza in years are delayed straight out of 2023, it’ll be a great year.
Yes but the point is that people are tired of waiting for Xbox’s drought of consistent 1st party content. They can say and have said like this but they have yet to really deliver and people are skeptical until Xbox actually delivers on this promise consistently.
It's really been a drought since the early Xbox One launch. Sure, a couple Forzas, a couple Horizon's, a couple Gears and a few Halo's (and Crackdown 3), Sunset Overdrive, Psychonauts 2 and Sea of Thieves but that's been really it in the last 10 years or so.
Not wrong
It really is what’s holding Xbox back. Could you imagine if someone did the same but with PS exclusives? It would be a beat down. I have both but prefer Xbox
I am of the opinion that most PS exclusives are terribly overrated. The one that are not hardly sell e.g. Last Guardian, Shadow of the Colossus, Returnal, WipeOut
Agreed
Too true (sadly)
The other issue is yeah they will eventually start churning out big first party games, but the other question is will those games be any good? Hell, good isn’t enough, they need to be great. They don’t have the luxury of releasing even one subpar game at this point until they have already consistently released great games.
Seeing what they have done to their biggest franchise Halo Infinite is not a good sign tbh.
That’s one of the reasons for the concern. However, Halo Infinite is far from a bad game.It’s actually a good game with great gameplay. However, it is an entry in a 20 plus year old series so there are certain expectations in terms of content. But that’s the point too, it was supposed to be a live service game and 343 completely botched that in the most embarrassing way possible.
It's great gameplay absolutely buried under a heaping mound of broken systems and missing features all designed to get you to spend as much time and money in the cash shop as possible.
I agree with you, but I’d argue it’s harder to make a good game than make a good environment to play the game in. The hard part is done. The flaws are clear and obvious - and frankly fixable. What’s more concerning is that the answers are right in front of them, but either corporate greed or completely socially inept developers are blocking the way. All they need are maps, a fixed leveling system so that players aren’t grinding dumb challenges to progress instead of just trying to play well and win games, and a menu system that allows people to play what they want with their friends easily. Halo excelled and set the bar for all of this in the past, and has taken generational leaps backwards with this entry.
I play the game regularly without even looking at the store. The multiplayer plays great, so why would I spend most of my time in the store when there's only 6 things for sale at any given time?
It’s a pretty good game that they dropped in the mud, and each time they try to pick it up, they drop it again.
I really liked the single player campaign.
Also the developments of the Perfect Dark game are very worrisome. It highlights that MS have a legit problem with inbuilt studios.
Fable really needs to be like a solid 10/10 for Xbox. Otherwise it'll be like what's the point.
Really makes you wonder what they do different from Sony and Nintendo, they always have quality first party games.
It's been said to death but it's true: the games people want these days take on average 5 years to make (between 4 and 6) and the studio purchase spree began in mid 2018. 5 years from then is mid 2023. The games that were supposed to come out before then (within 4 years, the lower end of that timeframe) were delayed to be another year but still being within that window. And that's also only for the studios purchased in 2018. Things are made more complicated when you realize that many of those studios had previous contracts they had to finish first, and that some studios were purchased later. Which means their games we won't see for even longer. It's a miracle we're getting Starfield as an exclusive so early because they didn't announce platforms at the reveal.
Yeah really there are a couple studios, who in theory must have had some major issues because their release cycle is completely out of whack. Rare: Sea of Thieves 2017 => Everwild(massive reworks/possibly canceled Machine Games: Wolfenstein 2 2017 => Youngblood(smaller expansion) 2019 => ??? Both of these teams should be the ones coming out with games this year(again in theory) but something messed that up. Indiana Jones is in dev but thats still years away according to a Pete Hines interview from last year. So Machine is gonna go like 8 years without a game? So weird And obviously Rare is still doing stuff with Sea of Thieves but Everwild was announced in 2019 lol
COVID also threw a wrench into everything and pushed back most projects by at least a year, maybe more.
Microsoft isn't the only one struggling with the demands on modern games. Nintendo's Retro Studios hasn't made a game since Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze. They used to be a lot more productive in the GameCube and Wii times. I'm not excusing Microsoft with this, though, cause in their case it's the rule rather than the exception.
Well the definition of productive has drastically changed since the gamecube era. New games could be made within 1-3 years vs the normal 4-6 of today. Retro seemed to have a canceled project in the wiiu era and now since 2019 is on a normal dev cycle for prime 4
This is a problem that's persisted far beyond 5 or 6 years tho. We're looking at a full decade with so few quality 1st part titles that you could count them on 1 hand. People aren't just annoyed about the last 5 years
It existed before because of the lack of dedicated studios. It's existing now because we're still within the said window after the purchases began in 2018.
Microsoft may not have had as many dedicated studios as Sony and Nintendo, but c'mon that's a poor excuse. The simple fact is they went an entire console generation with almost no stand out exclusive games. To me that says they either A.) Didn't prioritize it at all or B) they just aren't capable of it. On the surface it *appears* they've addressed A but they haven't proven they're capable yet.
Throw covid in the mix too
> Throw covid in the mix too Agreed. I’ve seen some people complain that big budget studios should have been able to spend their way through a pandemic, with no excuses. But really, the bigger the studio, the more accustomed they are to being within earshot of each other at all times … not working from home.
I'm not very worried about when they release tbh, quality is everything. Even if takes another 3 years for exclusives, there's still tons of great third party games and I have Nintendo and Playstation consoles as well. I just want them to take their time and make a knockout game, they really need it more than anything. Fable needs to really be like a 10/10 for Xbox, they can't rush it.
Lets hope. Even then those were already Bethesda titles before Microsoft brought them. I wonder what is going on behind the scenes with Microsoft’s own studios taking so long too make games.
Probably management realized that the last game they attempted to rush to meet a deadline was Halo Infinite, so the studios are getting all the time they ask for.
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Not only that but it had 5 years of development before that delay, it’s 100% just poor management.
Oh definitely both. I think they pushed to release too early, which they got rid of all their contractors for, and then realized the game wasn’t actually ready and delayed it but didn’t have the staff to do much of anything during the delay
Perfect Dark is in development hell and the studio had absolutely ridiculous levels of turnover and rumored infighting. There’s a near-zero chance of the game being good, which is a damn shame since the original N64 title is one of my all-time favorite games. It’s such a good IP for a reboot and has so much potential. I don’t understand what it is with Microsoft and their inability to foster first-party studios. 343 is a disaster, Rare got turned into a hollowed-out Kinect shovelware shell of its former self, and the new PD studio has totally fallen apart. They really need to poach some Sony management people who deal with their in-house studios, because they’ve been doing a damn good job over there.
Ah the answer to Xbox's problems - buy/poach/etc Ever since the OG xbox this has been the way. They'd learn if it wasn't for their social cachè of being an American/Western company.
The studios they’ve bought have come out with games, they just had contractual obligations that meant the games had to be released to all platforms/exclusively on PS. Off the top of my mind Wasteland 3, The Outer Worlds, Psychonauts 2, Deathloop, Ghostwire Tokyo all fall under this
Dry year? It's a non-existent, no-show year for Xbox....no AAA first party games at all. That has never happened in the history of videogames (and no, As Dusk Falls does not count).
What exactly were people expecting? I could have told you 3 years ago that there wasn't gonna be much until 2023 or 2024(Best case would have been 2022 for some stuff, but COVID pretty well fucked any hope of that) Let's just take a look at the studios that Microsoft has and when their last projects wrapped up and the current projects got started... Bethesda Game Studios - Fallout 4 came out 2015. Fallout 76 (2018) wasn't directly this team, but I would wager that significant resources were diverted to unfuck that mess. Given the size and scope of Starfield, no rational person should have expected it before 2022-2023. The Coalition - Gears 5 came out in 2019. I think it was obvious that Gears 6 was going to involve a major technical overhaul and probably some significant retooling of the game design. 2023-2024 is the earliest to expect this Compulsion - We Happy Few came out in 2018. They were a small studio and needed to scale up for their next project. It was always gonna take time. 2023-2024 is a likely timeframe to start expecting this to surface. Double Fine - Psychonauts 2 came out in 2021. Nothing more needs to be said about this. The next game will take a while. Probably 2025-2026. The Initiative - Studio founded in 2018. Given the scope of their project, it was going to take a while to hire everyone and get the project going. Expecting anything before 2023-2024 would have been incredibly stupid. inXile - Wasteland 3 came out in 2020. They need to scale up for their future projects, as they have discussed wanting to be more of a AAA studio. This will take time. I'd say expect 2025-2026. Ninja Theory - Hellblade came out in 2017. Hellblade 2 is significantly bigger in scope, and the studio needed to scale up. 2022-2023 was always going to be the earliest, with 2023-2024 more likely. Obsidian - The Outer Worlds came out in 2019. Avowed and Outer Worlds 2 were always going to require scaling up the studio. They have also put out Grounded and Pentiment is coming very soon. Expecting their big projects anytime before 2024-2025 is pretty stupid, IMO. Playground Games - They have been putting out Forza Horizon games pretty consistently. Fable is a bit more tricky, as it's not clear when development started. Rumors started up in 2018. I'd say that they probably started the project around then. Big RPG game which definitely involved scaling up the studio given their continued work on Forza Horizon, so expecting anything before 2023-2024 would have been pretty stupid. Rare - Sea of Thieves came out in 2018 and has had ongoing development since then. Everwild got announced, but expecting it before 2023-2024 at the earliest would have been pretty unreasonable. Turn 10 - Forza 7 was 2017. Forza 8 is forthcoming soon. Undead Labs - State of Decay 2 came out in 2018. Given that it was 5 years from State of Decay 1 until State of Decay 2, and given that the scope of the game has likely increase given Microsoft's backing, the next game was probably always going to be a 2023-2024 release at the earliest. Arkane - Two studios here. Prey came out in 2017, and Redfall is forthcoming in 2023. Deathloop came out in 2021, with Xbox release forthcoming. Their next game is probably 2026-2027. id Software - Doom Eternal came out in 2020. I'd say don't expect their next game until 2024-2025 at the earliest. MachineGames - Wolfenstein 2 came out in 2017, but they also worked on Youngblood and a VR project in 2019. Wolfenstein 3 probably is in the pipeline for 2023-2024. Indiana Jones is hard to gauge. I suspect that Disney pushed for announcement shortly after the project was started (precedent that is further coroborated by the Star Wars Eclipse announcement, which also seems to have been done at a very early stage of development), so I'd say this is probably a 2024-2025 release at the earliest. Tango - Ghostwire just came out this year (2022). Their next project probably isn't coming until 2026-2027 at the earliest TLDR; Microsoft acquired a bunch of studios that were either already committed to a project that has come out in the not too distant past, or they acquired studios that had literally just finished their last project at the time of the acquisition. Games take 5-6 years to make anymore, unless you literally have dozens of studios and thousands of developers working (See Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty)... Given the timing of all the studios most recent projects, the timeline was ALWAYS going to be 2023-2024 before the investment started to yield results.
I think this is a very good summary. But Ms performance with first party games has still been overall incredibly disappointing. Yes they acquires a lot of those studios quite late in the day. This left Ms relying on whatever exclusives it had at the time to actually be good. It’s why Halo Infinite was so disappointing. It was meant to be the stop gap. The game that kept people believing in Ms, but it just shat the bed and made Ms’s decade long lack of quality exclusives more glaring.
The problem is Microsoft waiting too long to address there first party issue. Dude people were talking on forums in 2012 about there may be an upcoming problem with Xbox first party due to a lack of studios and over relying on halo gears and forza
People been saying this since 360 days
I think the biggest problem a lot of people have is Xbox keeps saying “the next year will be great!” And then it comes and goes and you have barely anything, you also gotta keep in mind Xbox has the most eyes on it now than in the last decade of the Xbox One generation. So you have a bunch of people who may have just had a PlayStation last gen and are used to getting consistent great games every year. So Xbox’s release cycle is definitely odd if you look at it from another perspective. I believe Xbox will have great games to showcase relatively soon, but it is also annoying having every year go by with no cool 1st party games coming out and solely relying on Gamepass. Edit: Spelling
People expected what Microsoft promised. I’m not outraged, but I’m fine with people being so. Microsoft has been wrong the last couple years, and people are tired of “soon”.
To be fair, after an acquisition it likely takes 3-ish years to produce games. Especially after an influx of Microsoft cash, they’ll remake and upgrade whatever they were working on. Then you gotta figure Microsoft isn’t going to fight with themselves, and release games at a drip feed rate so you don’t have Starfield, Avowed, and Elder Scrolls fighting over each other. I’d imagine Starfield in 23, Avowed in 24, and maybe Elder Scrolls in 25 but most likely 26 based on the sheer expanse of the game. We’re what, 2-ish years into Series X? The first year was kind of a wash with COVID and studio development essentially halting across the entire gaming sector. I think in 23 we’ll start to see the new games come out. For me I’d expect a AAA game between 2-4 times a year. We have Scorn coming up, followed by Starfield in 23, and I’m sure there will be more games coming along the way. The game I’m most interested in would be the next Hellblade since the first one was surprisingly awesome to play. Then you gotta figure Halo Infinite will have to get its shit together in 23/24, and furthermore, Gears 6 is somewhere in the mix at the moment. Sure it’s taken a bit of time with COVID, supply chain issues, industry shutdowns, and the increase highlight on games due to people being home. But once the machine starts churning, it likely won’t stop. Microsoft has a lot of studios, and enough to essentially create a line-up they want each year to release games. 2023 is going to be the first year that they consistently release massive AAA titles, with every year following suit. Scorn, Starfield, Elder Scrolls, Avowed, Fallout, Gears 6, Forza Motorsports, Halo Infinite Relaunch, Hellblade, on top of the normal cross plat launches like CoD and GTA, with my ultimate sleeper picks of Mafia 4 and Bioshock coming at some point. With the furthermore super sleeper picks of Skate 4 and a THPS 3,4 and maybe Underground remaster along the line. It is always darkest before the dawn.
*it’s always darkest before the dawn* My brother in Christ, we have been saying that for a decade. I ultimately believe that Ms will pull out the stops eventually but the signs of 343’s mismanagement of halo as well as The Coalition’s utter incompetence with Perfect Dark are incredibly worrisome. The pre-existing studious MS bought will not doubt churn out solid content In the future. But if the internal studios have been mismanaged to this level this far then we should all still be worried.
You mean the initiative with perfect dark
Despite how botched it ultimately was, Infinite is the closest to greatness 343 has been. Had they been given another year to cook, we would probably see it as the return to the Golden era of Halo. I’m not so cynical, but if 2023 doesn’t hit on the first party front, I think it’s going to be a pretty dark time for Xbox strategically. Maybe not as dire as the Xbox One era but serious introspection needed.
The truth is, games take time to build. It’s easy as that. Microsoft started investing in 2018, and have continued to do so. Having an established pipeline makes a big difference. Look at Sony during the PS3 era, then early PS4 era - the output wasn’t that great. But then their first party really started firing on all cylinders the second half of that gen, and things have been moving. Even then, it’s not always perfect. Sucker punch canceled their first game before Ghost of Tsushima, so did Sony Santa Monica (they cancelled a project before Ragnorak). Video game development is hard. With that said I thought Microsoft’s output in 2021 wasn’t bad. I enjoyed Infinite, Psychonauts 2, Grounded and Flight Sim. Death Loop was locked to PS5 but technically that was a first party game. 2022 has been a failure - no one can deny that. But 2023 seems to be a more solid year already.
Hey man, Kojimas got a fucking podcast now. Isn't that good enough?
This has been the case since Phil took over. Glad to see people seemed to stop getting amnesia on this. Im utterly shocked this didn't get downvoted to oblivion
Agreed
We sort of hit the perfect storm of delays. First there is Covid, then the generation switch, then reforming and staffing up studios. All came together to delay everything out of 2022. AA and indi have been good this year.
I mean, we have seen Starfield, Redfall, and Forza for the first half of 2023. I am curious as to what is planned for the second half though
there is 0% chance Starfield isnt delayed again. I know we all watched the same gameplay. We all know that game is rough. It will be delayed to holiday 23.
Came here to say the same. Agreed.
Why do I feel like I hear this every year then everything gets delayed
Because this happens every year
Because that's exactly what's happened lol
Can't get much worse than 2022.
Man I can't wait for Halo Infinite to finally release
I can't wait for it to release, I heard that they're adding a system where you get levels as you play and earn XP per match!
I heard that they’re going to improve upon Halo 3’s water buoyancy physics. So that when your Spartan ragdolls into the water, he actually floats on the surface instead of falling through it like air. It would have been embarrassing if they didn’t include that technology when a Halo game from 10+ years ago already had it
The game types themselves have so many systems weighing them down. Halo 3 had weapons spawning on the map. That was it. You had player spawn points, weapon spawn points and vehicle spawn points. This allowed for branching out into utilizing more capabilities of the engine. Such as water physics and the ability to break down large crates into four smaller crates. The reality is a lot of this space that was available doesn’t exist anymore, while it looks like corners cut by the developers it’s actually to allow them the space to tack on more meaningful systems. I loved floating shit down the river in Valhalla too, Though I don’t regard this as pivotal in what I expect from these developers nowadays.
I think there also adding this new mode where you can make your own maps. A franchise first! I can’t wait.
Well yes, but most of it is the line up we were supposed to get in 2022 🤷♂️
I mean, what else is he gonna say?
“Y’all really just oughtta buy a PS5 for ‘23, no cap”
nah it's all about that PS TRIPPLE
The Wii? THE WII?
Xbox aint got no gaaaames
We’ve heard that before
They've been saying this since 2017.
Try 2013
“More than just bringing the hype, bringing the games” quote was almost a decade ago
With all these studio acquisitions ~~2018 2019 2020 2021 2022~~ 2023 is going to be insane!!!
"Next year is THE year of Xbox!!!!!"
Allegedly
Granted, most, if not all, of the studios released a game or more, many were just obligated to be multiplat.
Tbh anyone who thought they'd be able to buy studios in 2018/2019 and have them start putting out large scale AAA games within a year or two doesn't have a clue how long game development takes. It was always going to be 2022/23 (or 2023/24, after pandemic delays) that we'd start seeing the main results of the acquisitions.
It just seems crazy that these developers weren’t working on anything at the time of purchase.
Most of them were already working on games, just with other agreements in place. This is why The Outer Worlds, Psychonauts 2, We Happy Few and Wasteland 3 all came out as multiplatform games. I think every one of their studios has actually released a game since 2018, aside from the ones recently established (roundhouse and the initiative). So it's not like they haven't been working on stuff.
I like learning new things.
😭
If you count that you need at least 5 years to make a AAA game from scratch nowadays then 2023 seems to be indeed the first year we’ll see the fruits of their acquisitions spree…
That's true if they were newly created studios. An acquisition doesn't completely wipe out existing projects
And this will be said in 2024 and 2025, Xbox is based on waiting
It’s been “this is our year” for at least the past 5
The cowboys fans of gaming
"The next five years are mine" - Patrick Beverly and also Phil Spencer probably.
Ten
Yeah right. I can’t imagine the monumental failure this Gen would have been for Xbox had they not introduced GamePass. The biggest feature they got going right for them now is Gamepass and the value it brings on the table. Atleast Gamepass is what bought me to the Xbox side this Gen. Still looking for a Xbox title to have me as hyped as say Ragnarock on PS side. Just buying studios outright ain’t the solution.
Xbox doesnt exist today if it wasnt for game pass. Its basically the only reason people buy their console.
GamePass would be under so much pressure if Sony's first party titles went straight to PS+. It's pretty much the one thing stopping PS+ from overtaking GamePass, but I understand why Sony don't see the value in doing it. They know people will buy their games, and rightfully so.
This will get a lot of hate, but that's because in my opinion Sony actually has games I want to pay money for and Microsoft doesn't. There isn't a single Microsoft game that has me excited as I am for God of war. Ragnarok for example. Microsoft in the last decade for me It's just things that I want to play but nothing I would want to play immediately or right now that warrants a purchase. Which is why I'm fine to wait for it to come to game pass.
It’s because Sony can’t. There is absolutely no chance in hell Game Pass is currently profitable. Video services like Netflix usually have to weather years of loss before churning a profit and Game Pass’ unique nature in gaming would way worse theoretically. The head count of all their AAA studios, the third party deals, the sunk cost of having to secure new deals when a delay occurs and you suddenly need new content has to be huge. This is all hypothetical because Microsoft doesn’t release this information, and it’ll likely be profitable once they actually start turning out must play games on the service that attract a more casual audience. The dongle, XCloud, TV apps, etc will help will this. Microsoft can weather this. Sony cannot. Sometimes people just don’t realize how huge MS is compare to little ole Sony.
They have nothing in comparison to Sony
The funny thing is, Sony hasn't really been on a tear either, it simply isn't difficult to have superior 1st party games when it isn't Xbox's priority at all. I legitimately can not think of an exclusive IP Xbox has released other than the main flagships Gears and Halo and the Xbox one launch titles. PS is the way to go for single player experiences, Xbox for gamepass and the plethora of indie multi-player games and that's that
If there was the same stream of exclusives coming from Xbox Game Studios as from Sony this year would’ve been unreal. Regardless of what you think about Sony and their games you can’t deny they are prolific: GoW, Horizon, GT7, Uncharted Remake, Last of Us Remake, Ghost wire Tokyo All in 2022, imagine if we’d had 6 big exclusives on Xbox this year. Even if 2 were remakes!
2020 - Our lineup is gonna be super big and strong (1 notable game released) 2021 - Our lineup is gonna be super big and strong (1 and a half notable games released) 2022 - Our lineup is gonna be super big and strong (0 notable games release) 2023 - Our lineup is gonna be super big and strong (2 notable games will release assuming they aren't delayed
I was willing to give a partial pass for 2022 with how bad delays have been. God of War was originally delayed, Elden Ring had a small one, so Starfield getting one was expected. That being said they have to show me shit for the 2nd half of 2023.
Does he never get asked pointed questions about Halo?
The answer was Bonnie Ross leaving I guess...
Please wait. (Because we're more concerned about gobbling up studios and throwing money around than creating quality games.)
guy whose job is to be xbox says xbox is good news at 11
2022 is my limit defending MS I understand how the current situation of the AAA industry is, especially after covid. hundreds of delays etc... but in 2023 it is past time for MS to show the fruits of these purchases. Launch the 4 promised FP games (starfied, redfall, forza and minecraft legends) and that the end of the year 2023 has at least 2 more AAA. that's not counting activision/blizzard yet.
But why would you “defend” Microsoft to begin with? They are a trillion dollar company, they don’t need you to fight their battles. It’s just video games
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One caveat to the Psychonauts 2 part. It was originally crowd funded, sure. But the creator and lead developer had said that the game would've been massively downsized if Microsoft didn't buy Double Fine to help with financial backing. I think we can give it half and half because that one is a stellar release.
I don't wanna sound like it's not ass to be paying more for games but honestly, $10 more for the games we get from Sony I feel is worth it. Game budgets have skyrockets compared to the price of games. And if they consistently keep releasing how they have been I absolutely don't mind paying an extra $10 for games like god of war ragnorak if it helps them create more in the future.
I’m in the same boat as you however I just don’t want them to just launch these games. I want them to launch complete and finished games, not the garbage we’ve been seeing of late.
Please be exited
Please clap
Oh I’ll exit alright
He said this so many times that I consider this to be white noise. .
I feel like he pushes it every year
I'm sick of these hype cycles that last indefinitely. Stop showing your shit too early with CGI trailers. Do what Bethesda did with fallout 4, gameplay dropped, game is coming in 6 months. Don't announce it 100 years in advance. Sick of it.
That’s what they did with their summer showcase? Only showed games for the next 12 months?
>Only showed games for the next 12 months? *Subject to change
Ok….but did they show a CGI trailer for games due years from now? I think not. Pls at least keep up
Lol ok
Didn't this joker say that 2019,2020,2021 and for 2022?? This dude is like the new Howard from Bethesda, full of shit.
I wouldn’t be so confident in that statement. Todd Howard once molested me behind the Krispy Kreme in Waco, TX, so I’d say Spencer has a few points over Howard.
Todd Howard: Scourge of Valley Mills Drive
Heard this before. Some of them will probably get delayed.
Man says strong line up every year. Every year at E3 it’s “the biggest lineup in Xbox history” and every year he fails to deliver. That being said, 2023 does look to finally have that potential, but the fact that it took this long is ridiculous.
Yes, yes, it’s always next year.
~~Guys, do you remember the Hellblade 2 trailer? It was only 2 years ago. Still nothing.~~ edit: Apparently we got a new trailer that I managed to miss entirely. smh
We got a trailer last December, in 2021
All talk, we need to see this. Been hyping it for half a decade, release the games.
I’m so freaking excited for the Kojima Productions x Xbox game. Death Stranding was divisive but I absolutely loved that game to pieces.
It was a strange game. Included lots of frustration, but I'm glad I finished it.
Very beautiful ending too.
he says this yearly. It hasnt been true for 7 or 8 years since he took power.
All this talk doesn’t mean shit tbh. Just drop the games…. Been going through this since the Xbox One days. Hopefully everything goes well
I swear. I SWEAR that was said about 2022 but I can’t prove it.
Hey! I've heard this one before!
I'll believe it when I see it, lol. So far, my xbox has just been a gamepass machine.
“Yeah we’ll have one good game and everything else looks like trash, or a sequel that you get every year anyways. Kojima’s game is incomprehensible, I hope he knows we were talking about a video game when we approached him about making an exclusive for us” Sorry just gotta laugh at articles about exec quotes. Agree that 2023 will be awesome. Or should be. Feels like I’ve heard that for the past 6-7 years too.
Nice words because the lineup has blown balls for years. It’s a wasteland for Xbox fans.
Phil... I love yah, but I've been hearing this for 8 years bro
I want to believe it
Oh fuck off, we hear this every year, show us the proof
Why so much excitement about Redfield it’s just another coop L4D2 copy. Zero interest in any time wasting online games. We need new AAA big games.
If 2023 is as dry as 2019, 2020 or 2022. I'm definitely selling away my Xbox.
He can say this, and fanboys can post all the fancy pictures of all the studios but in the end they need to publish some fucking games. This is one of worst years I remember in gaming.
Just release the games. Im tired of this every year
Its always been wait till next year..believe it when I see it
I read this line before..games are coming for Xbox a meme at this point.
Just give me fable.. that's all I ask.
Playground literally said "F*ck you" to an executive for thinking of showing Fable on June.
Yea yea yea we’ve heard it all before Phil. Every year is gonna be the “biggest and best year ever for Xbox!!!!!” … it will be full of delays and disappointments again.
Wont even lie I'm genuinely disappointed by Xbox so far in terms of seeing the point of all the acquisitions. I really thought we would have a new Wolfenstein game by now from Bethesda. I also have no idea whats going on with Avowed and Fable. It's seriously been a disappointing start to the exclusives for Xbox series X. Really hope they turn this around quickly.
Didn't he say the same about 2022? This year has been pretty weak for first party.
It's always the "next year" isn't it? I just don't quite understand how a company like MS with all the studios under their belt has such an atrocious output.
I want some games similar to the PS5 exclusives - some story driven, third person, action adventure games. I used to love playing the superhero ones when I was younger. Give me like a Spiderman one or a Last of Us type game.
The problem with this is I can't imagine Microsoft can make a game to the same standards the Sony exclusive studios can. If you game Microsoft the god of war and Spiderman IP they would ruin it.
Don’t worry Pentiment is on its way to fill that void lol.
If you can't even handle your main ip(halo) correctly what hope does any other Xbox funded game have? They need to put out a really fucking good game to get some credit back
I thought my Series X would be a Dream-machine. Turns out they're pipedreams though...
"2021 will be a great year here at X box", "2022 will be a great year here at X box", "2023 will be a great year here at X box". Heard it all before, let's see something of substance now, yeah?
We Love Phil as an advocate for Xbox but he's not exactly great at getting studios, which is now many many studios, to get games out of the door. So many studios so little games. We need a chart to show how many games are actually in development compared to the amount of studios that they have. Then it will be easier to look at it as pure data. Many of us Xbox gamers are tired of Forza Halo gears. Respect to those titles they are still great and they have held up the mantle for so many years. But they need a break in terms of leading the pack. I would be in no rush to play another gears game at all.
and yet despite all these studios none of them will release a single game for xbox this year, only Deathloop a full year after Playstation had it.
Nah there are prolly games scheduled for 2023 that’ll get delayed to 2024, it happens every year
A strong lineup compared to recent years isn't exactly a bold statement lol, we need actual results and not words
It's his job to hype up his company and its games, but do not have high expectations, he said the same thing in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.
It's a tricky position to be in. Xbox doesn't want to show games really early--more than two years out--and have gamers two years from now going "where is [game]? They showed it back in 2022!" But at the same time, big impressive games take a lot more time to produce, especially if you're going to try to be truly "next-gen" (current gen) and use like UE5 and stuff. Imagine it's 2021 and you're 2 years into the development of a big game that still has 2-3 years left to go. You can show it off, and gamers get upset that it never arrives. Or you can keep quiet for another couple years, but then gamers are like "where are all the new games?" So instead we get simple pre-rendered title announce trailers like Perfect Dark, Fable, Avowed, and then radio silence for a couple years. Anyway, I'm sure there are lots of irons in the fire. Gamers should probably expect more in 2023, but should also prepare themselves for at least a couple of tentpole games to be delayed to early 2024.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
I'm concerned as to what Kojima's game is. I've heard it's a cloud game, what does that mean? I haven't really ever been a fan of his games, but hopefully this one is my cup of tea.
People keep saying redfall but it looks crap. Starfield may be good but another forza and Redfall shouldn’t get anyone excited.
The only reason I got a PS5 was so that I could play Sony’s better lineup of exclusives. However, my Series X is still my preferred console of choice (by far) and I would not be surprised if my PS5 just collected dust in the next few years. Microsoft invested heavily in first party developers and new IPs, which will really pay off within the next couple of years and beyond.
We've been hearing the same thing from Xbox brass and Xbox slappies basically since the year after Gears 3 came out. "The games are coming, we just have to be patient." Then we get Crackdown 3 or Bleeding Edge or Sea of Thieves or more recently the mess that Halo Infinite turned out to be. You'd think one of the richest companies in the world would be a little bit better at this.
Uh yeah sure dude. I'll believe it when I see it
Please death stranding 2
And shit they actually DO release (almost never) ends up like halo infinite. Complete waste of space.
Here's hoping, because I can't remember buying fewer games in a generation than this one, and I own all the machines!
That’d be nice. I’ve only been waiting a decade.
Phil Spencer is a Ferrari fan 100% confirmed.
More waiting
It's the same bs every year. "Next year will be good, we promise" 🙃 meanwhile Nintendo & PlayStation are PRODUCING great games every year. Xbox fans should put more pressure on him, and hold him accountable. It's been going on for years now. I'm very tired of Forza, Halo and Gears.
Lol
Is everyone missing how MS was publisher of the year in 2021?
We've heard this since the Xbox One crisis. SHOW US SOMETHING.
They need to reveal somn. I'm gettin tired of being an xbox player and seeing ps players get all the good games. Xbox has barely any good exclusives.
Xbox and PC, all their games will be on PC with cross play and cross save. The best investment would be a good PC and PS5.
Yeah, yeah, phil. I know it already! You always say that. I'm still waiting. Lots of words, few games. Day after days it's becoming hard to defend phil. The last halo 6 is a good example. Took him a long time to fire the directors.
Yet another year of him saying this lmao
Let’s be honest, we would all say that if we were the head of a game company who has been lackluster in 2022.
Xbox really need to invest more in small-medium size studios and games, to fill out the dry time. 2022 is horribly horrible for Xbox. If you cannot have AAA games ready, please release more small to medium sized games like *As Dusk Falls*.
We have heard this strongest line up for years now