Tag: phil spencer

Microsoft Announces 4 Xbox Exclusives for PS5 and Nintendo Switch, Activision Blizzard Titles on Game Pass

Four Microsoft first-party games will launch on Sony’s PlayStation 5 and the Nintendo Switch, the company confirmed late Thursday after weeks of speculation over its exclusive titles releasing on rival platforms. The announcement came on the Official Xbox Podcast from Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, who also shed further light on the reasons behind Xbox’s business decision and confirmed that the next generation of Xbox consoles were in development. Microsoft has not yet revealed the four Xbox exclusives coming to PS5 and Nintendo Switch, but The Verge reported that said games would be Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves and Grounded.

Spencer addressed the rumours about Microsoft first-party titles and the future of Xbox exclusivity head on, confirming that contrary to reports, Triple-A Bethesda releases like Starfield and the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will remain as Xbox and PC exclusives. “We’ve made the decision that we’re going to take four games to the other consoles, just four games,” the Xbox chief on the podcast. He confirmed that Xbox won’t be fundamentally changing its exclusives strategy, explaining the decision to port the four unnamed games over to rival consoles. “We think this is an interesting point in time for us to use what some of the other platforms have right now to help grow our franchises,” he said.

While Spencer refrained from naming the four Xbox exclusive titles slated for launch on PS5 and Nintendo Switch, a report from The Verge, citing sources privy to Microsoft’s plans, claimed that these would be Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of the Thieves and Grounded. The first three of these were previously reported to be coming to Sony and Nintendo’s platforms, too. There are no specific release dates or launch windows for these games, but Spencer said that their respective developers have plans for announcements that are “not too far away.”

Hi-Fi Rush has been rumoured to come to PS5 and Nintendo Switch
Photo Credit: Bethesda

The Xbox chief, however, did elaborate on the process of picking the four yet confirmed games for multi-platform transition. The company considered games released over a year ago that have been on Xbox and PC for a while. Two of the selected games are community-driven games, Spencer said, while the other two are smaller games that weren’t built to be platform exclusives. “As they’ve realised their potential on Xbox and PC, we see an opportunity to utilise the other platforms as a place to just drive more business value out of those games, allowing us to maybe invest in future iterations of those, or sequels to those, or just other games like that in our portfolio,” Spencer said. “And we don’t damage Xbox and we can grow our business using what other platforms have to help us with that. We’re gonna do that.”

Spencer, however, cautioned players on rival platforms that the change in Microsoft’s strategy did not mean that all or several Xbox exclusives going forward would arrive on PS5 and Nintendo Switch. No other games besides the four already confirmed titles are currently being considered for a multi-platform launch.

In the wide-ranging podcast, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty also reiterated that Game Pass would only be available on Xbox on PC. Additionally, Xbox president Sarah Bond also announced that Activision-Blizzard games would soon arrive on Xbox Game Pass, starting with Diablo IV on March 28. Microsoft acquired Call of Duty maker Activision-Blizzard late last year in $69 billion deal after a long running regulatory battle with the US’ Federal Trade Commission and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. Bond also confirmed that Xbox Game Pass had reached 34 million subscribers.

Reports from earlier this month about Microsoft first-party games making their way to PS5 and Nintendo Switch had left the Xbox community unsettled, with many questioning the future of the platform. Major exclusives like Bethesda RPG Starfield and the recently announced Indiana Jones game were reported to be under consideration for a PS5 launch.

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Xbox Chief Phil Spencer Says Company in Talks With Partners to Launch Mobile Store on iOS, Android: Report

Microsoft has reportedly been developing an Xbox mobile storefront that would allow users to bypass Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store and download games off its own application. Earlier this year, Microsoft’s gaming chief Phil Spencer, too, had revealed ahead of the annual Game Developer Conference that the company intended to launch its own app store for both iOS and Android. Now, Xbox is reportedly in talks with partners for the same.

According to a Bloomberg report, Spencer claimed that the Xbox store app on mobile platforms could come out sooner rather than later. “It’s an important part of our strategy and something we are actively working on today not only alone, but talking to other partners who’d also like to see more choice for how they can monetize on the phone,” the report quoted Spencer as saying in an interview at the CCXP comics and entertainment convention in Sao Paolo.

The Xbox chief did not provide a specific launch date for the launch of the storefront but hinted at release window in the not-too-distant future. “I don’t think this is multiple years away, I think this is sooner than that,” he said.

A report in March had claimed that the Xbox mobile store was expected to go live by March 2024, once Microsoft’s $69 billion (roughly Rs. 5,68,094 crore) acquisition of Activision Blizzard was finalised. That happened in October as Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which had earlier blocked the deal, stepped aside and gave approval for the acquisition to go through. The CMA, which held concerns over Microsoft’s cloud streaming dominance in the market, greenlit the deal when Microsoft announced that Call of Duty maker Activision would sell its non-European streaming rights to Ubisoft Entertainment to pacify British regulators.

Now that the deal is closed, it seems the plan to launch the Xbox store app on iOS and Android can go through. Apple and Google maintain strict storefront rules and do not allow app developers to host their applications on a third-party storefront, charging them a cut on every transaction made via the App Store and the Play Store, respectively. The companies’ stringent store policy has, however, come under regulatory scanner. Developers like Epic Games have initiated antitrust proceedings against the two tech giants and the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which intends to prevent tech giants from abusing their market position, is set to allow other app and game developers to introduce their own app stores on mobile platforms. Tech companies have until March 2024 to comply with all the rules laid out in the DMA.

Last month, Microsoft announced that it was partnering Inworld AI to create game development tools for the Xbox platform, enabling developers to create characters, generate entire scripts and quests, and more. Earlier this year, Xbox also hiked the prices of its popular subscription service, Xbox Game Pass, and its flagship current-gen console, the Xbox Series X.

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Xbox Game Pass Will Not Include Activision Games Like Call of Duty Until 2024, Phil Spencer Explains Why

Call of Duty and other Activision Blizzard games won’t appear on Xbox Game Pass until next year. On the Official Xbox Podcast, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer claimed that players wouldn’t be seeing a big drop of those titles immediately, due to the lengthy regulatory challenges the company faced in its buyout attempt. Since it was uncertain whether the acquisition would be approved by Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) until recently, Xbox wasn’t able to do the groundwork for adding the catalogue to their gaming subscription service. Ahead of the deal’s closure, Activision Blizzard confirmed on Twitter that the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and newly-launched Diablo IV won’t be coming to Game Pass soon, but Spencer’s statement covers older titles as well.

This is in stark contrast from Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax Media, where just two days after the buyout, 20 Bethesda back catalogue games, including franchises like Fallout, DOOM, Dishonored, and more were flooded onto Game Pass — free to play for members. “So now that the deal is closed, we’re starting that work. But there is work,” Spencer said on the podcast, attesting that Activision Blizzard’s tweet is ‘accurate’ in terms of the 2024 timeline. He further assured that there’s no ‘secret celebration drop’ coming in the next few weeks, while acknowledging that fans have the right to be disappointed about it. It’s a long-term acquisition though, granting Xbox a lot of time to experiment with the average gamer’s ever-growing needs, and to that effect, Phil states that he’s excited about the future.

The elephant in the room, of course, is Call of Duty. Spencer reiterated on the same podcast that the franchise will maintain ‘100 percent parity’ across all platforms, including PlayStation for a 10-year duration. The acquisition shouldn’t cause other players to miss out on exclusive content or timing, which is something the Blue team took advantage of by granting early access to multiplayer beta and an exclusive operator called Lockpick this time. The bundle will be available only to those who pre-order Modern Warfare 3 on PS4 and PS5 for a year, until November 9, 2024. That said, Spencer said that there could be some performance and resolution changes depending on the platform. Baldur’s Gate 3’s Xbox port is an example, where the developers are unable to include split-screen coop on the lower-end Xbox Series S due to technical limitations. However, the in-game content is expected to remain the same (at the time of writing).

“We have no goal of somehow trying to use Call of Duty to get you to buy an Xbox console,” he said, adding that he doesn’t think making platform exclusive beta weekends helps players. The regulatory process for Activision Blizzard acquisition took more than a year, thanks to the US FTC stepping in to express concerns that Microsoft’s $69 billion (about Rs. 5,74,528 crore) deal was anti-competitive and that it had plans to make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox. During those court proceedings, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan also claimed that a bunch of video game publishers he’d been speaking to unanimously agreed that Xbox Game Pass was ‘value destructive.’

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Microsoft Considered Buying Nintendo at One Point, Court Documents Reveal; Unannounced Bethesda Games Leaked

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer considered buying Nintendo at one point, a leaked 2020 email revealed. Multiple documents from Microsoft’s trial with the US FTC were leaked Tuesday, with one showing a casual discussion about buying the Mario maker, where Spencer called it a “career moment” and implied that a collaboration would be a ‘good move’ for either company. It’s worth highlighting that this conversation happened in August 2020, before Microsoft acquired Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion (about Rs. 62,431 crore). The leaks also disclosed Bethesda’s release schedule, alongside details for Microsoft’s planned mid-generation console refresh.

“I’ve had numerous conversations with the LT of Nintendo about tighter collaboration and feel like if any US company would have a chance with Nintendo, we are probably in the best position,” Spencer responded to Microsoft executives Chris Capossela and Takeshi Numoto in the email (via The Verge). He then went on to list some hurdles in the acquisition, starting with Nintendo happily sitting on a ‘big pile of cash,’ which makes any hostile buyout moves futile. He claimed that it’s taking a long time for Nintendo to realise that their games would flourish better if they weren’t just exclusive to their own platform. In the same email, Spencer also touched upon acquiring Valve Corporation — whose president Gabe Newell previously worked at Microsoft — noting that Microsoft’s board of directors would be fully supportive if some positive actions arise.

In addition to ZeniMax, it would seem that Microsoft was actively engaged in buyout discussions with Warner Bros. Interactive, which published Hogwarts Legacy, earlier this year. However, that interaction raised issues about IP ownership — as in, Microsoft wouldn’t hold the rights to DC Comics characters and such, in turn hurting “long-term flexibility.” Meanwhile, with ZeniMax, the issue was more money-based, in the sense of what its founders were expecting from the acquisition.

The leaked documents also revealed a list of unannounced Bethesda games, which include remasters for Fallout 3 and the Cyrodiil-set open-world RPG The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The chart of planned titles was put together in July 2020, and as such, there are several changes in the launch timelines. The Oblivion remaster was originally slated to release in 2022, but the only update we’ve heard so far stemmed from a rumour claiming that Virtuous Games was working on it. That studio is currently co-developing the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake with Konami. The Fallout 3 remaster was planned for next year, and the list obviously mentions a Starfield DLC for 2022. Of course, the game got delayed and so the timelines drastically differ now.

According to the chart, the long-gestating Elder Scrolls VI was initially eyeing a 2024 launch. But it just recently entered the early development phase and isn’t expected to release until 2026 on PC and Xbox. Other major releases on the horizon include the Indiana Jones game from MachineGames, a Ghostwire: Tokyo sequel, and Dishonored 3, marking Arkane’s return to the stealth franchise following Deathloop and the poorly-received Redfall.

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Xbox Leak: Microsoft Is Planning Xbox Series X and Series S Refreshes in 2024, New Controller With Gyro

Microsoft is planning a mid-gen refresh for its Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, eyeing a release in 2024. A series of leaked court documents from the Microsoft vs. US FTC trial revealed a roadmap and concept images for its upcoming set of gaming systems, which also includes a new controller with gyro and haptic feedback. Codenamed ‘Brooklin,’ the all-digital Xbox Series X boasts the same horsepower as the existing version, albeit lacking a disc drive. The console is cylindrically shaped and comes with a generous 2TB storage — up from 1TB — which I’m guessing is an SSD. It’ll bear the same price tag of $499/ Rs. 54,990 and is slated to drop in late October, next year.

The leaked slides also promise faster Wi-Fi 6E for low latency and reduced power consumption by 15 percent. Last month, Xbox boss Phil Spencer claimed in an interview that the company had no plans for a mid-gen refresh and that it was largely focused on increasing the storage on the Xbox Series S, which currently stands at 512GB. Now we know that ‘Ellewood,’ a refresh for the less-expensive Xbox Series S is planned for August 2024, priced at $299/ Rs. 34,990 and a 1TB internal storage. The form factor and other hardware capabilities, however, remain the same with 10GB of RAM, which has recently been causing issues for developers. Larian Studios previously stated that the technical limitations of the Xbox Series S are preventing them from adding split-screen co-op in Baldur’s Gate 3, indirectly leading to a delayed release on the Xbox ecosystem.

“We’ve seen the conversation around old emails and documents,” Spencer acknowledged the leaks in a tweet. “It is hard to see our team’s work shared in this way because so much has changed and there’s so much to be excited about right now, and in the future. We will share the real plans when we are ready.” As mentioned before, the leak also included plans for ‘Sebile,’ the new Xbox controller which despite bearing a similar look and layout to the existing wireless variants, features some changes to enhance immersion while gaming. There’s precision haptic feedback similar to PS5’s DualSense controller. Buttons will generally be quieter and the support for gyro should let us control in-game movement by simply tilting the gamepad in certain directions. I’m assuming any studios under Xbox will be asked to consider the latter feature for any future titles.

The leaked documents have also revealed that Xbox is planning its next-gen console for 2028, which goes in line with Spencer’s comments during the Activision Blizzard acquisition trial from June. As reported by The Verge, the company is describing it as a hybrid gaming platform that relies on the cloud “to deliver deeper immersion and entirely new classes of game experiences.” Xbox seems to be eyeing AMD’s Zen 6 CPUs for the console’s processing power and Navi 5 graphics. The roadmap indicates that hardware design will start next year, while the first dev kits will be sent out in 2027. Bear in mind that these plans could always change.

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Baldur’s Gate III Is Coming to Xbox This Year After All, but No Split-Screen Co-Op on Xbox Series S

Baldur’s Gate III will be coming to Xbox consoles this year after all. In a tweet, Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke confirmed that he and Xbox head Phil Spencer had found a solution to bring the critically acclaimed CRPG to Microsoft’s current-gen consoles. There’s one catch though: the game won’t support split-screen co-op on the less-expensive Xbox Series S — a feature the developer has been struggling to enable for months now, thanks to the technical limitations of the console. In fact, to maintain parity of features between Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Xbox Series S and X, Microsoft even sent engineers from their side to help out Larian.

“Super happy to confirm that after meeting [Spencer] yesterday, we’ve found a solution that allows us to bring Baldur’s Gate 3 to Xbox players this year still, something we’ve been working towards for quite some time,” Vincke’s tweet reads. The aforementioned change does not affect the regular online co-op, in which you can invite friends to help out with your campaign. However, rolling multiple characters on the same system (lower-end) is what’s causing the issue for Larian — especially, when all party members run off in four directions, start hurling spells, and stress the console. That’s a lot of on-screen activity on a single screen and in Vincke’s words from a recent interview, “That requires memory.”

That lack of memory has to do with Microsoft making the Xbox Series S more affordable, which naturally comes with the caveat of reduced performance. Larian confirmed, earlier this month, that the lack of an Xbox release date for Baldur’s Gate 3 wasn’t due to some exclusivity deal with PlayStation, but rather because they were struggling to maintain parity between both consoles on the Green Team. Microsoft’s policy enforces gameplay feature parity between Xbox Series S and X, so players with the lower-end console aren’t left out. As for whether Microsoft is making an exception for Baldur’s Gate 3 or lifting the rule entirely for upcoming games in the generation, remains to be seen.

Speaking to IGN, Spencer claimed that he didn’t see a world where his team was going to drop the Xbox Series S any time soon, but added that Microsoft would learn from the situation. “I don’t think you’ve heard from us or Larian, that this was about parity. I think that’s more that the community is talking about it,” he said, adding that parity between systems was more of a developer decision. “It’s a game I want to see on the platform, and we have resources that helped in terms of making sure it’s going to… I think they’ve said it’s going to ship by the end of the year.” In the tweet, Vincke also confirmed that the Xbox version will have cross-progression between Steam and Xbox Series S/X, so you can jump between platforms and continue from where you left off.

Larian Studios also dropped their promised first patch for Baldur’s Gate 3, which addresses over 1,000 bugs and balancing issues, in addition to fixing the kissing contact for shorter races. Earlier, the animation made it look like your short character, who couldn’t reach their romantic interest, was simply leaning in and kissing their chest. Now, if you’re not tall enough, your partner will kneel down to make contact. You can check out the entire list of changes on the official website. Meanwhile, the studio will continue working on a second patch, which will include ‘significant performance improvements’ (for Act 3 content, I’m assuming).

Baldur’s Gate 3 is out now on PC. The PS5 version releases on September 6, while the Xbox Series S/X version is slated for release sometime this year.

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‘I’m Upset With Myself’: Xbox Chief Phil Spencer Takes ‘Full Responsibility’ for Redfall Debacle

It has been a tough few days for Microsoft and Xbox. First, the firm’s ambitious and expensive attempt to acquire Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard hit a major hurdle when Britain’s competition regulator blocked the $69 billion (roughly Rs. 5,63,980 crore) deal on April 26, citing cloud gaming concerns. And then, Redfall, Xbox’s first big tentpole exclusive of the year, released May 2 to largely negative reviews that criticised the game over its technical and creative failings. Arkane Austin’s first-person looter shooter is currently sitting at an underwhelming overall rating of 61 on OpenCritic. In the aftermath of the fallout from the botched release and the resulting fan backlash, Xbox chief Phil Spencer has come out and taken “full responsibility” for Redfall’s less than stellar reception. In a wide ranging and revealing interview late Thursday, a visibly dejected Spencer laid out his word on Xbox’s recent failures, the expectations from the community, and the road ahead. “I’m disappointed, I’m upset with myself,” the head of Xbox said on Redfall’s poor launch.

Two days after the dismal launch of Redfall, Spencer came on the Kinda Funny Xcast show and spoke candidly about the failures of Xbox’s latest exclusive. “There’s nothing that’s more difficult for me than disappointing the Xbox community,” Spencer said, adding, “…Just to watch the community lose confidence, be disappointed — I’m disappointed, I’m upset with myself.” Spencer admitted that Redfall’s critical response fell far short of internal expectations and was “not what we wanted” and also volunteered to take accountability for the game’s poor reception. “I also know these games are $70 (nearly Rs. 5,720), and I’m gonna take full responsibility for launching a game that needs to be great,” he said.

Spencer also defended Redfall Developers Arkane Austin over criticism that their latest game was perhaps an ill-advised departure from their regular slate of titles. Arkane is known for critically acclaimed single-player immersive sims like Dishonored and Prey, while Redfall is a co-op looter shooter. “There’s clearly quality and execution things that we can do, but one thing I won’t do is push against creative aspirations of our teams,” he said, adding that the studio had a proven track record, but admitting that they failed to hit “their own internal goals” on Redfall.

Spencer also weighed in on British antitrust regulator Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) move to block Microsoft’s takeover of Activision Blizzard and maintained that the firm intended to appeal the decision that could prevent Xbox from bringing the company’s lucrative portfolio, which includes the sales juggernaut Call of Duty franchise under its umbrella.

Later in the interview, the Xbox chief took on the so-called “console wars,” expanding upon Xbox’s position in the gaming space relative to Sony PlayStation and Nintendo. Spencer admitted that Xbox’s last-gen console, the Xbox One, failed to capture a crucial generation of gamers, most of whom were now tied to their game libraries built over the span of a console generation and thus difficult to sway toward buying an Xbox Series X or Series S. Spencer emphasised that Xbox does not intend to “out-console” Sony or Nintendo and instead focus on its unique services such as Game Pass, cloud and PC gaming.

Redfall released May 2 across PC and Xbox Series S/X and faced flak over its several technical and performance issues, while also drawing criticism for its creative and design decisions, leading to a flurry of sub-par reviews. Its cause wasn’t helped by the fact that the game launched with a 30fps cap on Xbox consoles. Spencer confirmed that Xbox, which owns Arkane-parent Bethesda, will work on improving the game and committed on delivering a 60fps patch on consoles on priority.

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