I think he means they will have a lot to show when the ABK deal goes through. Other than that, same old same old.
Well that doesn't speak too highly of what they're doing with the teams they currently own, then. They shouldn't need ABK in order to have "a lot to show", they already have 20+ other studios! If it comes down to needing ABK to have "a lot to show", then that just speaks to poor management at the top.
I'm surprised there weren't even release dates given for Starfield, RedFall and/or Forza Motorsport and preorders opened up. Even that would've been something to cap the year off with but apparently even that was asking of too much.
They've already announced three first-party games for 2023. LOL
Two of which were supposed to be 2022 releases.
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I think MS is bringing in more $ in gaming than they ever have (likely the primary thing that Spencer's bosses care about) while also greatly improving the position of the brand (both in public opinion and sales) over the X1. If that's failing at your job, more companies should take this failing up approach.
Well when you've got diapers for your controllers and an audience ridiculous enough to buy them, you can obviously increase your revenue.
I chalk this up to covid largely, same with microsoft and even nintendo. It feels like very few of the large publishers had anything to show/announce this year. I feel like this was the year that the effects of covid on game development were felt the hardest. Youd think with new consoles out, that microsoft and sony would do more to get people excited for the future. Still, at least sony and Nintendo made up for the lack of 1sr party announcements with “big” first party game releases this year. Microsofts 2022 couldn’t even do that. If I were phil spencer or matt booty i would feel embarassed.
No. Enough of this. Stop. Stop it. Stop it, please.
We cannot keep pinning the blame on COVID every single time. The lockdowns in most parts of the world started easing off near the end of LAST year, so how does that prevent MS from making short new gameplay sizzle reels for Starfield, RedFall, and Forza, and give release dates and preorders? We saw SF VI do it, we saw FF XVI do it. Hell, Forspoken had a demo released the night OF the TGAs! We even got a new trailer for Tekken 8 (another (rumored) 2023 release) as well; these are all H1 2023 games, BTW.
ALL of these companies were affected by the COVID lockdowns and some still are in ways more strict than any of MS's currently owned teams (outside of potentially Tango). Yet look, they're still able to give timely updates on their games as they near release six months out. For some reason, MS are not able to do this, and it's not due to COVID lockdowns; it's an organization and management issue. I don't know how compartmentalized and granular their studio management is, or to what degree Xbox upper management has to work with the other parts of Microsoft for certain approvals or whatever, but something about that structure is definitely acting as a bottleneck and needs to change.
It's affecting their ability to have timely updates on games where they make sense, affecting release schedules of games (I know some people are speculating Starfield & RedFall were delayed simply to let the $1 GP offers run out and sell at $70, and maybe that's true, but I think those are more convenient coincidences if anything), affecting the quality of multiple releases and the long-term status of various games (look to Halo Infinite and FH5), etc. IMO it's also affecting (or potentially will affect) growth opportunities for studios under them that want to reach for higher ambitions, because they'll need guidance and leadership that either isn't there or isn't organized to be there efficiently.