Phil Spencer is ushering in a new age for the Xbox platform, one that could be appropriately titled ‘The Multi-Platform Age Of Xbox.’ It’s begun with four games coming to PlayStation and Nintendo consoles, and if recent reports are true, there’s many more to come.
Spencer dug a bit into why he’s leading Xbox in this new direction, and how part of this change comes from Gen Z buying habits, and the lack of growth in the console market.
Carrie Patel, ex-Game Director for Avowed, takes her expertise to Netflix's Night School after 12 impressive years at Obsidian.
Shuhei Yoshida offers his take on the recent industry implosion and ponders whether there's light at the end of the tunnel.
Ironically, so did tech advancements.
New tech creates pressure to take full advantage of the power for people to feel a box is worth it. That expectation bloats team sizes (and by extension, costs) and to be more secure in a high risk-high reward project, they play it safe (which is why I think a lot of the industry is facing creative bankruptcy). Few franchises are proper exceptions because they're damn near entitled to a ROI.
But other than that? I'd say the adoption of Blu-ray in the PS3 kind of acted as the architect to some of the things some of us hate today. The decision to adopt it resulted in painfully show loading times because the drive was slow in the PS3. The result was mandating every console to have an HDD for installs, and Xbox 360 then discontinued those arcade models and every console came with an HDD. That adopted standard lead to a lot of games that were physical only to be available via download and that laid a path for digital distribution and the gradual death of physical media we're witnessing now. It was always going to be this way eventually, but it's hard to think that guaranteeing a HDD didn't lay some important groundwork. And now with crazy fast SSD storage and download speeds, it's gotten worse and now we're bloody streaming games via cloud computing.
Really great take on how we got to this point. Will add that the weaponizing/monetizing of the "console warring" concept, accelerated/facilitated all of your points. When you take what used to be simple bantering and jabbing between different fanbases and throw money/resources at it as the most effective marketing tool, instead of improving any areas that might add longevity to your products, you only improve sales while creating a destructive environment. Which now has come full circle. Gaming media/tech sites capitalized on this as well. So we now end up in a landscape where we get less for more, nobody is held accountable (unless you are Nintendo in which case, you will always be blamed for everything including world hunger) and what you now call and parade as "greed" to defend you own greedy company is years upon years of every asshat that has paid in $$$ what these companies get away with today, but yeah that "burn" or "you got ratioed" or "fanboy" this and that was worth it huh.
It's also screwing over gamers with limited budgets for PC hardware, well Nvidia is trying to at least.
OK, but what did Shu do about this while he was working in the industry?
If he felt so strongly about it, why didn't he quit sooner?
I'm honestly getting a bit tired of seeing this guy come out with all this stuff, week after week, yet he didn't seem to do anything about it when he was a prominent figure IN the industry.
*I got passed over for the CEO role and sidelined into an Indies CRM role, but I just sucked it up and did it for several years.* Great.
"If he felt so strongly about it, why didn't he quit sooner?"
Jim Ryan held him and down and demoted him to Indy role as you pointed out. We all wondered why Shuhei was never put in charge in the past and everyone else seemingly passing him up in high position's. Everyone getting promoted except him. He also spoke up about the LS awhile ago then folded and was actually help make Concord.
If it's not making the most money and attempt to have conversation that maximize profit they won't promote. Why? Because Shuhei was seemingly for the ppl.
Despite his 80$ comment on games.
'then folded and was actually help make Concord'.
Right, so once again he just sucked it up and went against what he thought was the correct path.
He also clearly didn't turn things around for Concord.
Seriously, if he felt so strongly about this stuff he should have quit ages ago; not just suck it up for years and then bitch about it to the public AFTER he quit.
Agree.
It’s easy to armchair QB other people’s decisions, but it’s all speculation. Maybe he loved Sony and wanted to see if things would turn around. It’s also hard to leave a place when you have been there so long. You think you have friends who will help you out, until you don’t. The corporate world really is dog eat dog. Having obligations like family also makes you do things you may not want to do in a perfect world. But this world is far from perfect, and so are we. So I will cut Shu some slack.
"Right, so once again he just sucked it up at went against what he thought was the correct path."
I mean yeah. He didn't have much of a choice. It was either go with what Jim wanted or get fired.
He went against LS but had to help with it anyway. Probably talked about all the bad spending that Sony was doing (and still are.) Corps don't want you to talk sense, they want to I to talk cents. That's goes for everybody.
Not sure why he didn't leave earlier he probably wanted to wait for the right opportunity to leave on a high note or leave on his terms. Much better than getting forced out.
Yeah, and sure, leadership don't want anyone rocking the boat; they just want 'yes' people through the ranks, but Shu didn't quit and make a point; he sucked it up for months or years. Nor did he go out on a high note.
If he felt so strongly about this stuff he should have told Jim to shove it, and join xbox, but he didn't.
At least he's talking about it and it's not just some anonymous internet person. That's why I posted his take. He was on the inside.
He knows better than most what's going on.
We live in a weird world where primary sources don't mean anything, evidence and reason hold no weight, but rumors and speculation hold the day.
Yeah, agree in general, but pretty much everything he's said since he quit could have been covered in a 30 minute interview.
Next week:
In a new interview, Shu reveals that he knew factions was going to get canned months in advance, but was powerless to do anything about it so just sat back and kept his mouth shut (and getting a juicy salary).
@SO1D
Was just going to say this. You can say this about anybody. Anyone on n4g that complains about greed but are doing nothing at their jobs to stop it... How dare you!
@ Outside
It's not just greed though; it's flat out bad decisions and poor leadership, and Shu was one of those leaders.
Because everyone knows you can really change the industry by quitting and being an outsider. I mean, his comments now aren't changing the industry at all. What would have been the advantage of doing it 8 years earlier?
He didn't, and doesn't, have to be an outsider though.
And great job by him calling out all of this stuff in hindsight. 'The Embracer thing turned out to be a train wreck'. Was he predicting this as it was happening?
As gamers we also need to make it clear what we want. Do we want fancy RT and RT
shadows, global illumination etc? Oh that's right we have to do the internet thing and brag about all those things. What we need is innovative gameplay mechanics and deeper more dynamic story telling and reactive realistic worlds and characters imo. Emphasis on Innovative gameplay mechanics. Expedition 33 was made by a tiny group of 30 ppl. Not sure what the budget was but I know it wasn't no 400m$ project or nothing crazy like that.
They join the Baldurs Gate team for being independent and releasing great game with out corporate meddling and stupidly big budget's that kills jobs and studios. If more groups get to together remain independent and create games for gamers and fans this industry would be better off in the future. Again it's about getting away from big corpos because corpos aren't gonna change, ever, they're just not. Scary to be out on your own? Yes but high risk high reward again as we've seen.
Randy writes: "A) Not my call. B) If you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen. My local game store had Starflight for Sega Genesis for $80 in 1991 when I was just out of high school working minimum wage at an ice cream parlor in Pismo Beach and I found a way to make it happen."
I will be doing what I always do and wait for a sale or buy used on Facebook marketplace.
I haven't paid full price since Metal Gear Solid 2 back in 2001.
Paid $250 for Clannad on Switch. A 25 year old visual novel, lol. Although it was the Collector's Edition from LRG.
To be fair it isn't his call, if Take 2 comes out and say Borderlands 4 and GTA will be $80, there is literally 0 Randy can do about it
Totally wrong response. It would be better to explain that for the product they are producing, they feel this price is fair to both gamers and developers,writers and staff. Explain that they don't have an enormous exectuive or publishing overhead. And then find a way to give content away for free to add value to the purchase. Even if later DLC is paid, the game should include on or two free DLC packs.
Borderlands 3 was enough reason for me to be skeptical. His comment guarantees I won't buy the game.
Real fan? What the actual f*** man
Does he actually read back what he writes before he posts
I was the biggest BL fan. I played the original solo for so many times. I pre ordered BL2 that loot chest edition and loved it. I bought BL3 on sale and never even touched it's DlC and have very little interest in 4th. For a series that started so strong it's just amazing how much nonsense this series has become with idiot choices
It is amazing how similar my story is to yours.
Many of us bought Borderlands 3 out of a sense of nostalgia for how much we enjoyed Borderlands 2 (which is, to this day, a great game). But despite buying everything Borderlands have released, the last time I wasn't disappointed by something they produced was the Tiny Tina DLC for Borderlands 2. That was over a decade ago...
Toxic
It truly is sad what this company has become. BL went from one of my favorite games to now I don't even care that a 4th is coming out. I will pick it up when 4th one has a complete edition with all the dlc and patches for under $30
I can't believe 2k kept randy in his post even after the acquisition since he is pure negative PR for the studio and it's games. Don't get me wrong randy gave part of the company to long time employees when embracer bought them originally so I guess he has some good in him because he made bunch of people millionaires at employee level. I just wish he would stop saying all the other nonsense
He’s a scumbag. Check out his personal history unless it’s been scrubbed from the internet (as well as his hard drive). Don’t know how this guy has survived in the industry so long. He’s a slimy lying scumbag. Not to be trusted and shouldnt be given the time of day. Don’t know why anyone would buy anything he touches!
herez a little magic trick Randy boy i wont buy it if its 80 dollars.
cause that means its gonna be more expensive for euro land.
i am a fan, but i like my money more. ha
Gen Z's habit not to buy Xbox consoles?
Lmao
“It’s not our fault Xbox fans, we have no choice, blame yourselves or the young”
I thought he said a while back it was because of AAA budgets being so bloated or something
Apparently sea of theives was a huge successful on PS so I guessed the board has seen dollar signs and that small batch of games will probably Expand
He failed miserably and like always will not take the blame.
Gen Z is buying up PS5s, so he needs to put his games on Sony platforms.