Phil Spencer on what the hell is happening in the games industry and why exclusives have become a risky business

Every decision we make is to make Xbox stronger in the long run
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It's ironic that Polygon was created with Xbox money in the first place. Precisely for interviews like this.

'The industry too boo hoo'

No, Phil, it's just your utter incompetence. Sony doesn't spent 80 billion to be dead third on a console market and dwindling brand overall.
 
ResilientBanana said:
I'm not going to lie, my kids dont play xbox or switch, they would rather jam out on their tablets, playing roblox or some other garbage ass game..
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That's right they don't care about these things, but when they grow up, console makers need to attract them, outside of Nintendo they doing a such a poor job, new IPs, new and exciting hardware is what is needed.
 
Generic said:
In the future all first-party games will have a PC version, even Nintendo games.
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Nintendo would rather go bankrupt than put their games on PC. Unlike everyone else, Nintendo makes money on every console sold, putting a first party game on another platform kills one revenue stream (console) and damages another (Steam's 30% cut)
 
SlimySnake said:
Sony did it because everyone else is doing it. most of these companies are making record profits and laying off people. Why? The industry culled a bunch of people to keep shareholders happy. if everyone in the industry is doing it and you dont do it, the shareholders want to know why. And because sony CEO threw PS under the bus, Sony had no choice but to cull 900 employees.

Look at sonys revenues. They are up 3x from 2016. Their profits per year are in the billions. they made $2.5-3 billion in profits the entire PS2 gen.

The only reason why their profits took a hit the last two years is because they are paying off the $3.5 billion bungie purchase. Otherwise their business is very healthy. This is all for show for the shareholders.
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Industry is not growing. If Sony is growing, its at expense of others.

Its just as big a problem for Sony as it is for Xbox. Once competition will come knocking, Sony will be contracting.
 
Is he said for xbox? As for Ninty or even Sony, they are still generating good sums. Xbox is cornered in any angle at this time. And what he said might not affecting other platforms as they are seems generating income more. Especially exclusives like in nintendo.
 
vaibhavpisal said:
Industry is not growing. If Sony is growing, its at expense of others.

Its just as big a problem for Sony as it is for Xbox. Once competition will come knocking, Sony will be contracting.
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If PlayStation's growth is at the expense of Xbox then that is definitely a bigger problem for Xbox than it is for PlayStation.
 
Exclusives will always have a place in the market as long as consoles exist, they are one of the main reasons the videogame industry has thrived so much
 
Because the games they have been making won't sell as well as the better older titles at full price on their own and gamepass users are used to getting them day 1 as part of their subscription and wont pay anywhere near 60 let alone 70 for GP to make up the difference in lost sales.
 
Problem with Phil is, he is only talking this kind of shit cause he has completely fucked up Xbox. Their console sales have been down for a long time so what does he do? Brings in a rental service and training his xbots to NOT buy games! He has completely ruined the once awesome Xbox name and now all he wants to do is claim the industry isn't growing so he can implement the direction HE wants the industry to go in! Guy is a snake oil salesman and many seem to constantly fall for his bullshit.
 
ResilientBanana said:
I'm not going to lie, my kids dont play xbox or switch, they would rather jam out on their tablets, playing roblox or some other garbage ass game..
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My 11 year old is somewhat similar. He largely plays games on tablets, and the majority of YouTube videos he watches are about garbage mobile games.(or Minecraft). The exception is that he really loves the Switch and especially Zelda. The only game he has ever been interested in playing on the PS consoles we own is No Man's Sky.
 
For those worried about Playstation...

GTA VI is basically a PS5 exclusive at this point and Playstation is going to have massive 2025.

With how mainstream Microsoft's new approach is, paired with the fact most peoples main motivation is buying what their friends have....PS5 sales are about to fucking explode.

I don't think people realize how many people are about to buy a new console, just for that fucking game.
 
Mobile gaming: Growing
PC gaming: Growing
Console gaming: Stagnant

Those are the facts and the reason why Microsoft is putting their games on other platforms. Why Sony is putting their games on PC.

Nintendo is the only console maker on solid ground.
 
I do think their lost console market share / failure to capture more console market share is a self-inflicted wound. But I have to respect what looks (to me) like a very well planned out strategy to get the influencers to preach whatever the company line is. It can't be easy to get them to change their tune from HAHA - no more exclusives for non-Xbox gamers, to HAHA - your console sucks because it's not selling games on other platforms. But son of a bitch, it appears he figured out a way.
 
Rather than finding how to be profitable in a saturated market, let's find ways to continue growing. Because of course growth will be infinite !

:messenger_expressionless:
 
MisterXDTV said:
Sure,

Sony, Nintendo and Valve have much trouble selling hardware and software, just like Xbox does


Get Down Wtf GIF
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I'm not talking about just Xbox, but the market as a whole. Just last week there was a thread about Japanese developers making similar observations to what Phil Spencer said here.

If you can't take Xbox out of your mouth that's your problem.
 
Phil needs to give it a rest. Just because your console is failing doesn't mean every other console is failing. PlayStation and Nintendo are living proof of that.
 
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Very tempted to buy gears / halo on disc and cancel gamepass. Put that money aside for a ps5 / steam deck. I just wanted a 2020s xbox 360 and it feels like I have given my money to join some weird gameless cult.
 
RCU005 said:
Of course for Xbox exclusivity is risky. They don't have a big market share.

Look at Nintendo, out of those 100M Switch consoles, their biggest games sale 20% 30%. All other games could sell between 5% and 10%.

If you have a market share of 30M, your biggest game could only sell 10M max.

Phil is looking to keep themselves in the gaming industry by removing the console, but how many times do they have to tell him that is called "Third Party"?

IMO, Microsoft could rearrange their entire business to become third party and I believe it could work. They would have to change entire managements in order to coordinate different studios to make great games, but if they were smart about it, they have franchises that could sell 20M+ between Nintendo and PlayStation, plus making new great IPs.

However, it's Microsoft, and they don't want to do things to succeed, they want to do things to make others fail.
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I don't see how MS has any other moves other than 3rd party. I really don't. Nothing they have tried has put any sort of dent in their marketshare. had they had Halo Infinite ready to go when the XSX launched, maybe they would be in a better position.
 
vaibhavpisal said:
Why not?

He even had to clarify they are a business in the interview.

Ridiculous.
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Phil Spencer wants Xbox to grow regardless of whether the industry grows or not. His job isn't to grow the industry. His job is to make money for Microsoft stockholders.

So no, don't buy that line one bit.
 
SlimySnake said:
Thats your fault lmao.

I started my kid on my 3ds playing zelda link between worlds. took him a year to get it and make progress. by the time he was six, he was able to beat some dungeons. Got him a switch and raised him on Mario, Luigi and more zelda games. When he went to trash like minecraft and robolox a couple of years later, he just didnt find them fulfilling enough. Now he plays robolox with his friends to socialize every now and then but would rather play street fighter, spiderman, botw, totk, and other AAA games.

apparently all his friends are playing fortnite too but im not letting him play that trash. you control the trash they play.
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Fortnite is fuckin great, just don't let them buy all the skins and stuff.

The core game itself is a ton of fun.
 
StereoVsn said:
Yep, did everyone suddenly forget the emails about driving Sony out of business and buying Nintendo?
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Did I miss the part where he said buying Nintendo would be great for the industry? No....I didn't. He said that would be a "career moment".

That's when I realized Phil Spencer is full of shit when talks about doing whatever on behalf of the industry. 100% bullshit.
 
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Phils narrative will change when he realises games can sell if 1. (probs most importanly) you don't give them away on your shitty service, and 2. You make good games.
 
The amount of money ms has and the amount of bullshit they come up with is mindbogling.
Here's a metric Phil how many 90+critic games were exclusive to Xbox in the last 4 5 years .
U made a mediocre halo at launch u fucked Forza in the ass keep making mediocre games and then blaming everything else
 
Little Chicken said:
What he's saying will be the popular mantra here in 5 years when some panicking Sony exec parrots the same thing.
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Perhaps, but then it will actually mean something. Hearing this from the guy whose console has been sucking wind in sales for ten years ain't that impressive.
 
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