Xbox’s Missing Blockbuster Games

Xbox fans – do you still have faith in Microsoft?

Phil Spencer has accomplished a lot of great things during his nine-plus years as Head of Xbox. Under his leadership, Xbox has made incredible strides in:

• Accessibility: Xbox is arguably the industry leader in this area, excelling both on the software and hardware sides.
• Game preservation: Backwards compatibility was one of Spencer’s first major initiatives, and its success has made it a standard across the industry.
• Hardware power and reliability: The Xbox One S, One X, Series X, and Series S have all been powerful and reliable consoles, leaving the Xbox 360’s Red Ring of Death and the Xbox One’s underpowered launch unit in the past.
• Value proposition: Xbox Game Pass, regardless of how you analyze it, has been a huge success for gamers.
• Cloud gaming: The xCloud initiative, now bundled within Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, allows you to play Xbox games from any device in any location.
• DEI and culture: Microsoft and its studios have made significant strides towards diversity, with more women and people of color in leadership roles and on development teams.

However, Spencer’s legacy has a notable blemish: exclusive blockbuster games. Xbox has consistently disappointed in this crucial area for the past decade. The current generation was supposed to be a fresh start for Microsoft, a chance to win back Xbox 360 customers who had migrated to Sony and the PS4.

With the acquisition of numerous first-party studios, the gamer-first Smart Delivery feature, and backwards compatibility and Xbox Game Pass initiatives, the groundwork seemed to be laid for success. But despite all this, the lack of compelling exclusives remains a major concern.

Is Phil Spencer the problem?

It’s difficult to pin the blame solely on Spencer. The video game industry is complex and success is measured in numerous ways, many of which are not publicly visible. However, it is fair to evaluate leadership based on their track record and what others say about them. Anecdotally, everyone who has spoken about Phil Spencer expresses nothing but praise and admiration. If he isn’t the problem, then what is?

Is he surrounded by “yes men” who are afraid to disagree with him? Is Spencer himself too nice to fire anyone who isn’t delivering results? While these are possibilities, what is certain is that the ultimate responsibility rests with Spencer. He has held the position longer than any of his predecessors, who built Xbox from the ground up into a major player in the video game industry. Spencer played a key role in that foundational success, working his way up before taking over Xbox Game Studios in 2008. He earned his position and, by all accounts, is a genuinely nice person who worked his way up the ranks. He is also a hardcore gamer, something that can’t be said for the heads of other console makers.

The persistent problem of blockbuster exclusives

Despite his strengths, the lack of big blockbuster exclusives continues to be a problem. In the Spencer era, we have seen the following:

• Lionhead Studios, after a failed attempt to turn Fable into a 4v1 multiplayer game, was shut down, putting a pillar Xbox franchise into hibernation.
• The resurrection of Crackdown was a flop.
• Scalebound suffered a highly publicized cancellation.
• 343 Industries has been plagued by inconsistency and inefficiency, causing Halo Infinite to miss its launch alongside the Xbox Series X and S consoles.
• The Initiative, five years old, still hasn’t released its Perfect Dark reboot, and the project has reportedly been plagued by development issues.
• Xbox gamers have been excluded from major third-party games like Street Fighter V, Final Fantasy 16, and Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
• Physical first-party releases for the many gamers who still purchase their games that way are scarce.

Now, with the disappointing launch of Redfall, a promising new property from Arkane, a studio with a strong track record, the situation has reached a boiling point. Redfall was delayed almost a year, and Spencer himself acknowledged the pressure to deliver quality and consistency.

Despite his commitment to transparency, Redfall’s launch is even more disappointing considering Spencer’s past statements. He took full responsibility for the game’s failure, admitting that iGV was misled regarding the gameplay video that generated negative reactions.

Redfall might be just one game, but for many Xbox gamers, it is the final straw. It has eroded any remaining patience and goodwill, putting an immense burden on Starfield. Whether it’s fair or not, everything now hinges on Starfield. If it falters or fails to meet expectations, it could permanently damage Xbox’s reputation. The downstream effect of Redfall’s stumble might even shake Xbox gamers’ confidence in Starfield and any future big Xbox games, making it even harder for Starfield to deliver the desperately needed success.

What’s causing this pattern of missteps?

Why do these mistakes keep happening to Xbox, but not Sony or Nintendo? Is it a lack of talent? Seemingly not, as there have been few high-profile departures from Xbox studios. Is it a lack of resources? Again, the answer seems to be no. Double Fine, 343, Rare, and Bethesda Game Studios have all received ample funding and development time. Microsoft is a trillion-dollar company that isn’t pinching pennies on its projects.

Could it be complacency or timing?

Perhaps complacency has set in after big Microsoft paydays? Playground, acquired by Microsoft in 2018, raised the bar again with Forza Horizon 5, winning iGV’s Game of the Year award for 2021. Tango’s surprise hit Hi-Fi Rush also suggests that not all studios are simply going through the motions.

Could it be that the timeline associated with making great games is misaligned with expectations? Perhaps Xbox leadership saw Redfall’s potential issues early on and decided to cut bait so Arkane Austin could move on to a new project. Maybe they felt pressured to release something, anything, to appease increasingly frustrated fans.

Ultimately, it’s probably not Spencer’s head that should be on the chopping block, or any single person’s for that matter. The collective Xbox team needs to improve. Xbox fans, who have invested heavily in the Xbox ecosystem and have been incredibly patient, are tired of being told that the great games are coming. They deserve better than what the Xbox Series generation has delivered so far.