VP Phil Spencer says company will support current-gen platform for "years to come," hints at "surprising" announcement for E3. Though Microsoft's future is the Xbox One, the platform holder is not leaving the Xbox 360 behind anytime soon.
Microsoft Game Studios executive Phil Spencer told GameSpot that the company will support the platform for "years to come" and even has a "huge" Xbox 360 announcement in the works for next month's Electronic Entertainment Expo.
As part of its plans to cut 1,900 jobs, Microsoft has reportedly shut down operations at Bethesda France, letting go roughly 15 people
"MIcrosoft leaves Bethesda do what they know how to do best" ... close! Oh the irony ....
(Citation from a week old article)
Bethesda France was made up of roughly 15 people... they couldn't of being doing much
Bethesda France mainly did publishing and marketing within the region
that's a shame for you to say that, i'm sure Elite loves hearing what you just said.
Bethesda France focused on publishing and marketing in the region. And 15 people lost their jobs as part of the closure.
I wonder if this is part of Microsoft's strategy to abandoned physical media or possibly gamepass advertising makes their roles redundant you don't need to market a game as hard when the majority of players get the game as part of a sub which already promoted upcoming games
It's France too, there's a high likelihood only 1-2 people on the team even had an Xbox.
Tbh Microsoft I think Bethesda being 3rd party same with Activision would probably more competitive than thus scenario imo
I think it would have been better for all parties really especially gamers
The recently purchased Activision French offices might take over all the licensing and marketing for Microsoft in France from now on.
Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"
Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”
Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever
Nice one ☝️
It's better than what Nintendo and Playstation is doing. It might not be perfect but at least they are TRYING. Unlike the others.
Trying? Take off the blinders for a moment, mate.
1. A failure to preserve games is just that: a failure to preserve games. Don't try to sugarcoat it: NO ONE is doing it properly. Better than awful is nothing to write home about.
2. At the time of this comment, isn't it the case that you need an internet connection to play Xbox games even if you buy physical discs that are hardly in circulation anymore? I don't have a Series X and I can't verify, but I think that is correct. I'm fairly certain you can at least play PS5 games at version 1.0 (not much of a win really when many games require day one patches). I think Microsoft's all digital, licensing approach is by far more aggressive than anyone else's. They really try to push you to game pass where you lose your entire library by umm.... Skipping a month of payments.
I don't think anyone is doing it right whatsoever. Don't get me started on Nintendo, who goes after anyone looking to preserve their games better than they ever would with extreme litigation.
Don't be a simp for any of these companies. Get it together.
@DarX never speak on Xbox again. You lost all credibility with your internet connection comment. Smh you have 0 clue and misinformed yet speaking on something you don't no squat about.
What has Sony done exactly? You guys keep deflecting to Sony but I am not actually seeing any results, and ai am certain nothing that you can come up with even comes close to what Microsoft has done and what they have tried and failed to do, like tie all your disks to your account on xbone.
Microsoft removed their whole indie section when they moved to the xbone because they were going to only allow games on the service that came from a publisher, id@xbox started after xbone launched and it only exists because Sony embraced indie and Microsoft was forced to cancel their plans and reverse course.
And every single game that was part of games for windows live including disk games (I have gta 4 on disk that won't work) so hundreds of games that use that DRM no longer work unless the company themselves patched it out which of course very few did.
Not trying. Tried. they killed of the backcomp program years ago. They set something up again, but sounds like it's more of an attempt to save the current library on whatever they are planning next. With luck they save everything and more, but let's see. I could see them killing off parts of the OG xbox and 360 libraries. Can't imagine that they would allow us to play Forza 5-7 in the future.
With that said, I do like what they've done and really wish they could have done more.
Zeref
So killing off physical media is trying what exactly. Ms don't really give a fk if you think they do your kidding yourself.
They are not trying this team is established for forward compatability the team is. It interested in preserving Xbox or 360 games.
Just because it's digital only doesn't mean you can't preserve it. Just put it on an external and you have the exact same functionality of what a disc does.
This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.
No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.
Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.
Replies(3)Anyone remember xblig which Microsoft removed their whole 360 indie section removing hundreds of games from people?
Do you know you can put your games on an external and preserve them that way? There are no benefits to discs. ZERO. Idk why some of you are still obsessed with them.
Because games like Persona 5 exist. It's STILL V1.00. On Playstation, that's a win because 1.00 is installed on the disc—no need to download anything.
If a game does not require any updates, it's all on the disc.
Extremely low bar in the modern era, of course. It's not much of a win by any stretch.
But for now, physical media does have a purpose, at least on Playstation.
That is factually not how game licensing works, try plugging your hard drive into someone else xbox, It's not going to work, and it won't work if the licensing servers ever go down.
Anyone remember games for windows live.
I have around a dozen games, some on Steam itself that will not work because Microsoft shut off the licensing servers.
I do. I STILL have games (Gears of War being the big one) I cannot access because Games for Windows LIVE is total garbage and no one has held Microsoft accountable.
You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership.
"You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership."
Damn how many times do people got to explain your idiocy to you? You can take a copy of Persona 5 like someone used as an example and play that game on ANY console WITHOUT logging in which means I can lend the game to a friend without internet and they can play my game. Can you lend your hard drive to anyone without logging in for them to play? NOPE. That is a huge difference and if you think otherwise then sorry you're an idiot.
"No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft."
Ubisoft is literally erasing games people bought from their libraries... My PS1-3 discs are useless on modern hardware. Nintendo's re-published and resold almost their entire Wii U library, and the eShop is completely dead with no BC mechanism in the Switch software. Microsoft publishes everything they make today day one on Steam and Xbox/Windows. Sony only brings to PC the titles they think you might want some years later and Nintendo won't even design a functional long-lasting joystick.
You're absolutely trolling and not serious if you think Microsoft today is the worst offender.
Yay steam
Not everyone fks with computers though. The disc is still the best way as a console player. Period.
How do Sony and Nintendo feel about these discs from 2001-2013?
Don't be stupid, you know Xbox is the best at this today.
Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?
Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.
That is not their plan, their plan is to transfer users accounts to the cloud.
Phil Spencer himself said as much a few months back, plans could have changed but I think people are reading way too much into one statement where Phil said he would allow Epic on xbox because he wants to be able to sell xbox games directly on other platforms. Aka, instead of selling Sea of Thives through PSN he wants to have an xbox store to sell his games on PlayStation without giving PlayStation any money.
Again, it's extremely unlikely that Phil plans to put PC on xbox and licensing would prevent them from just giving out other publishers games purchased on xbox copies of thier games on PC, Microsoft does not own their games.
The thing that doesn't align with the cloud strategy is the giving up on exclusives. You'd still need strong exclusives for cloud streaming - it's still a "platform" , just with a lower upfront hardware investment. I feel like they've learned what PS learned with PSNow long ago. We're not ready to stream games and it's only gonna lose them money to try at this point
I would love that, I'd buy up some of the Xbox games if they could run on PC, like the Rare Replay, Lost Odyssey and Dead or Alive Ultimate, probably a pipe dream though.
Xbox has been lagging behind PlayStation in terms of 1st party content, but 2024 offers the platform and Phil Spencer a chance at redemption.
Nah, that time has passed for many, and with their words on future plans, i really don't see it ever happening.
It's a wrap. Now is the time they are slowly going to move on as to not to kill the base as is. Titles will slowly drip onto ps and Nintendo consoles, etc. Those 4 already had to of been in development for awhile already cause two of them released really soon after the announcement
There is no ‘last chance redemption’ for Phil Spencer - he’s going straight to hell for tanking the Xbox console platform.
"2024 Is A Chance At Redemption For Xbox & Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer"
I thought that was supposed to be a decade ago
U do rel7se ps5 is at thr moment only getting g those titles that were mentioned nothing else as of yet
"Nah, that time has passed for many, and with their words on future plans, i really don't see it ever happening."
Xbox has PLENTY of first party games this year while Playstation has none!
There´s more first party games from Xbox Games Studios on PS5 this year than Playstation Studios own games.
Those are the *facts* and if those facts is not something to Sony be ashamed of, they can´t feel shame at all.
Granblue Fantasy versus, FF7REBIRTH, Helldivers 2, Rise of the Ronin and Stellar Blade will have launched on PS5 and not on Xbox by the time Hellblade 2 launches.
This only first party games count is cope.
And as a bonus meme...Microsoft will have published 3 first party games on PS5 (Hifi rush, Grounded and sea of thieves) before their first for the year on Xbox(hellblade 2). Glad they have their priorities straight...
It's funny when people like to say xbox has more games coming to playstation this year than sony does.
YET, they leave out the context that Microsoft literally bought the biggest (Activision) third party publisher and Bethesday (another big one). So congrats on having to buy giants in order to compete?
On topic, wasn't Starfield the "last chance" for redemption?
Am I to assume that if the games they have coming this year don't get positive, feedback then 2025 will be the year of redemption?
@VersusDMC
"Granblue Fantasy versus, FF7REBIRTH, Helldivers 2, Rise of the Ronin and Stellar Blade will have launched on PS5 and not on Xbox by the time Hellblade 2 launches."
None of the games you mentioned are first party. None. There´re more Xbox first party games on PS5 this year then Playstation´s own first party games, undeniable fact!
The real bonus meme is Sea of Thieves a game which PS fanboys used to sh!t on
"And as a bonus meme...Microsoft will have published 3 first party games on PS5 (Hifi rush, Grounded and sea of thieves) before their first for the year on Xbox(hellblade 2). Glad they have their priorities straight..."
Imo, the real meme is Sea of Thieves, a 6 year Xbox first party game which diehard fanboys used to mock and sh!t on, making to the top of the most pre-ordered game at PS Store in a year where Playstation has zero first party games.
https://twitter.com/BenjiSa...
and all will end up on playstation, and nintendo, if xbox was doing amazing they would not need ps or nintendo, if gp was amazing they wouldnt need pc. PS has multiple first party games in development that we dont know about. Look at how halo was treated, look at redfall, and look at starfield. Its fine to be loyal and prefer one platoform but to be wilfully ignorant about it just ridiculas.
LOL se we are moving from "exclusives" to "console exclusives" to now only "1st party exclusives" matters just after MS has bought 2 publishers for $77B??
Moving goalpost to always favor MS i. Your argument is getting tiring! Exclusives are exclusives! 1st or 3rd party, they are still exclusives. You do remember the PS2 literally killed the Dreamcast, Gamecube and the first xbox due to mostly 3rd party exclusives, right?
Observe is actually correct. Sony paid to play. But we don't mention when they do it. When they do it we're totally cool with it. N4G 4lyfe!
“This notion that Xbox can only be this one device that plugs into a television isn’t something we see in the Gen Z research. Because nothing else is like that for them.
Some of them will have an iPhone, some will have an Android, but all the games and everything is the same. I can still get to TikTok on both of them, at least for now." - Phil Spencer
Read it and weep... all Xbox games are coming to as many platforms as they can put them on, and this is the first step towards them getting out of hardware entirely, just like Sega did.
Xbox has been Dreamcast out of the industry. You can deny it all you like, but it's happening.
@Obscure_Observer
You certainly have more faith in Xbox than Phil Spencer does, I will give you that.
@VersusDMC here yall Sony fans go moving the goalpost again lol now this only first party things is a cope when yall was the one who started that crap in the first place. When Sony had all the first party games and Xbox was relying on third party , yall was shouting they had no first party games. Now the tables turn and suddenly it’s a cope. lol
@lodossrage and so it’s also funny that the majority of Xbox first party games this year aren’t coming from any of those big studios lol except for Indy .. the biggest one this year is coming from a studio that Sony left and almost let that studio die after releasing two big exclusives on their console first. Now MS swoop in and saved them , then here they are with the best looking game this generation. Now that’s ironic , but you mention buying studios like Sony biggest studios weren’t BOUGHT my brother.
Yall need to be more worried about Sony closing studio after studio , the PSVR 2 dying , Sony losing billions , and the fact that yall biggest game this year as in Stellar Blade was once being developed as a multi platform game until Sony paid for them to be a second party studio. lol but you want to mention things being bought , your delusional
Shame in the competitor buying up tons of dev teams in order to make that a reality? Yeah...there's no shame in that on the PlayStation side....
There's probably tons of games exclusive to Xbox that won't be on PS because of their early access clause.
However list the games that count helldivers 2 I'd argue has done more for gaming this year than any other title will.
It could be their only game and it would still be a great year because it was that unexpectedly good even haters of love service games are playing it
Still at it? Doesn't matter at this point. The games will eventually launch on PS5.
I see you ignored his" only first party games count" line as if preordained. Is it on xbox? No...then it is ammunition. Meanwhile sony gets to passively soak up 30% of all ms game studios sales.
@obscured: “There´s more first party games from Xbox Games Studios on PS5 this year than Playstation Studios own games.
Those are the *facts* and if those facts is not something to Sony be ashamed of, they can´t feel shame at all.”
That says more about Xbox than PlayStation that they have to release games on rival consoles to stay afloat, Microsoft and YOU SHOULD NOT BE ASHAMED OF THAT FACT.
Edit After thought: it took Microsoft 6 years to finally fix their sea of bugs just in time to release it on PlayStation 🤷🏿
On topic:
MS’s last chance was Starfield…
How many last chances are there?
@Osbscure
You’re moving the goal posts into places that have no basis in reality anymore.
Life is too short to hold onto grudges. Grudges against a console, game or company is just petty.
Has nothing to do with a grudge. Ive been waiting 12yrs for them to get back to their greatness, im done waiting and have moved onto just watching that ship sink as i play on literally every other platform
^^... I still play on it, as well as the other platforms. Which is why I am not someone who dwells on the negativity like others do. there is always something for me to enjoy in this hobby.
@darth
Again, not dwelling on negativity, they legit haven't made anything i want to play since like gears 3 and halo reach. I did play Crackdown 3 and gears 5 cause i had hope given i was a huge fan of the older games, but that was a dud on both cases.
You're thinking it's way deeper than it is 🤣 make something worth playing and ill play it, i was hoping starfield would be that but again, dud.
^^...I never said YOU were doing that... but its obvious others (here) do. Its all they seem to do is dwell on negativity, especially if its XB related. all im saying is there is more to enjoy than there is to complain about. And this is exactly why I play all the platforms instead of just one. You say you do the same... so just enjoy it.
It's fanbots making their last stand in an attempt to save the Xbox, what more can one expect that the most optimism they've ever had. Xbox can't get a lock in Japan, still, and Europe is about to abandon it as well. What're you gonna do? And what happens IF Japanese generates interest? They'll see Europe losing interest and decide it's not worth it either. And it's not just Xbox, Microsoft as a whole is losing their footing. They've backed on subscriptions with everything they have to offer and it's tanking. Xbox needs to port to PlayStation and Nintendo while they can stay relevant and try to stay relevant, the longer they delay, we could see a complete Microsoft nose dive
And you think MS fans are just dandy? Besides, is it a grudge if MS continues to give reasons for people to despise them?
when you cant make enough from your own platform and pc and you have to go to ps and nintendo you know its a slow transition to 3rd party publishing, and that is fine. Xb never had the thurst or ambition after the 360
The second they decided to put exclusives on the ps5 they blew any chance of redemption
Even if they managed to get a win this year it dosent overthrow 10 years of mostly disappointments from Phil’s leadership.
Then this way, no company can redeem themselves. The very concept of redemption arc becomes impossible if the past is refused to be forgiven, even if the company manages to better themselves.
Then the now popular redemption arc of No Mans Sky or Phantom Liberty wouldn't exist in the gaming community if the same logic is also applied there.
Not defending anyone here but I want gaming to improve, companies to better themselves and most importantly competition to exist so that we get offered the best products to enjoy.
(I know in typical N4G fashion, this comment will be downvoted to oblivion, but I want good games offered from every studios irrespective of publishers.)
@RaidenBlack
IMO, what @-Foxtrot means, one years doesn't mean much. It's a start, yes, but they need more, much more.
Look at your own example, No Mans Sky - they didn't just release one patch and everyone started praising them, no. They've been doing this consistently. If Microsoft will start releasing good games consistently, that'll be great, no ifs and/or buts! But hyping them up in advance (no worthy releases yet is what i mean) - dunno, i might be wrong, but i don't think it's healthy or helps anyone.
Your analogies are terrible. A company releasing a single game that failed to meet expectations.
Isn't the same as Phil Spencer making mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake, telling lie after lie after lie after lie for 10+ years.
Your whole comparison makes no sense. It literally took years for both of those to "redeem" themselves in the container of a single game. MS has been lacking for 12yrs starting with the halo/gears/forza criticism begining in the latter half of the 360. So even by YOUR logic, he's right, it's gonna take a lot more than one game to be redeemed ESPECIALLY after fumbling what many were already holding as their chance at redemption with starfield
It's not Playstation or Nintendos fault that Xbox poses no competition. They've had more support and more money behind them than Playstation and Nintendo combined!
You say you aren't defending Xbox, but, you kind of are. Xbox has been completely mediocre for decades. The last time Xbox was competitive was the 360 era. My 360 collection absolutely demolishes my Xbox One collection and so far Series X hasn't had much reason for me to jump to a purchase.
Can you honestly say Xbox is 'competitive'?! I would say not even close.
With the gaming media, Xbox is always just one game away from redemption and success. It's willful ignorance that they think there's a 'magic bullet' that will somehow erase all the moves by Phil & the gang of the last 2 console generations.
"Well there's always next year!" Should be the official Xbox slogan
100% this Mammo!
They've been screwing up for over a decade! Even if they release a game that's of the highest quality, that's nothing in the grand scheme things.
It also doesn't un-do Kinect (with lies based advertising).
Or Kinect 2 (forcing people to spend $100 extra for something they didn't even want!).
Or releasing two consoles with nothing noteworthy twice in a row (One X, Series S|X).
Or releasing unpolished games such as Re:Core, Sea of Thieves, Halo: MCC, Halo Infinite, Redfall, and Starfield.
Let's not forget canceling games as well such as Scalebound,Project Spark, and the Phantom Dust remake.
Finally let's remember the broken promises of vaporware games, languishing in development Hell, such as Perfect Dark, Fable, Everwild, what else am I forgetting?
Redemption is far far FAR AWAY for Microsoft. It'll take a full decade of only making smart pro-consumer decisions and releasing plenty of amazing games in order to make up for it all.
2024? It ain't gonna do squat on its own.
It was the same old story in 2020, 2021,2022 and 2023. XBox has never delivered this gen.
I wonder if the 2025's version of this article is already written, probably I would say
''2024 Is A Chance At Redemption For Xbox & Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer''
We've been hearing and reading the same crap since the xbone launch, these shills/journos need to come up with something new. Good thing is most gamers know this is all BS, they all read ''"Step right up folks and hold out your money or sub to our service. You don't know what you are going to get, but like always, take our word for it" Signed Lord Phil.
360 at 99 dollars , like the rumors state?
After XBox One reveal I hoped they will say something like this. By the way not getting XBox One, Will buy next COD and Gears for 360.
Halo TV series coming 2 360!
Nothing they could possibly do would reverse the wave upon wave of hatred the gaming community has for them at the moment. This will probably be some price cut and software package deal aimed at the casuals. As mentioned above it will be within $99 to $150 USD and most likely be 2 Kinect games and 2 better with Kinect titles and bundled Kinect. Meh.
They had better support their current platform because no one is buying the next.