Microsoft plans to drop a cool billion on creating first party games

By Michael Rougeau May 29, 2013

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Microsoft plans to invest at least $1 billion into next-gen Xbox One games, Microsoft Game Studios vice president Phil Spencer and president of interactive entertainment Don Mattrick confirmed in a chat with Official Xbox Magazine. The Xbox One’s debut was light on games, focusing instead on mainstream features like live TV and voice controls, but the Microsoft execs insist that the next-gen console is every bit a gaming machine.

“I think [games are] always important,” Mattrick said. “We just ran through our script and counted the number of exclusives, and looked at the amount of money that we’re spending and the deals that we have, exclusive windows and [things to create differentiation]. I think, candidly, people are way, way under-indexing how hard we’re punching.”

“We’re going to come out with detail on things and people are going to go, ‘oh my god’. Like, ‘they were focused, they made this a core goal, core activity’. There are great hits, there’s innovation, and there are world class creators plugged in. You know, I keep track of it all, and I hope everyone here does—we kind of look back at all the different years and at what we shipped, how many units have sold. There’s a lot of hyperbole about things, but I think we’re going to deliver.”

Microsoft previously revealed that it has 15 Xbox One exclusives in the works, eight of which are new franchises. Some of those are expected to be unveiled at the company’s E3 press conference on June 10.

OXM’s full article has plenty more details on the Xbox One’s game lineup and strategy, so be sure to check it out.

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Michael Rougeau

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Mike Rougeau is a journalist and writer who lives in Los Angeles with his girlfriend and two dogs. He specializes in video…

Gaming

Xbox’s Phil Spencer responds to blockbuster leak: ‘So much has changed’

Xbox Series X on a table.

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has finally commented on the massive Xbox leak that happened earlier today. In his public statement, he explained that "so much has changed" since many of the documents were created and asked fans to be excited about Xbox's future.
On Tuesday morning, unredacted versions of a lot of documents pertaining to the Xbox vs. FTC trial appeared. These emails and documents, most of which were created or written sometime between 2020 and 2022, revealed a lot of unannounced information. That included things like a mid-gen refresh for the Xbox Series X and S, some unannounced Bethesda games, and even Microsoft's early goals for its next-generation console. Hours later, Spencer commented on the leak.
"We've seen the conversation around old emails and documents," Spencer explained on X (formerly known as Twitter). "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."
https://twitter.com/XboxP3/status/1704233222752571842
At first, people didn't know where the leak came from, with the FTC quickly denying that it leaked these things. Ultimately, United States District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley revealed that Microsoft had done it to itself while trying to provide the court with a secure cloud link to relevant exhibits for the trial. The Verge went on to report that Phil Spencer also sent out a memo internally about the leaks today, echoing the statements in his tweet.
"Today, several documents submitted in the court proceedings related to our proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard were unintentionally disclosed. I know this is disappointing, even if many of the documents are well over a year old and our plans have evolved," Spencer's memo reads. "I also know we all take the confidentiality of our plans and our partners’ information very seriously. This leak obviously is not us living up to that expectation. We will learn from what happened and be better going forward. We all put incredible amounts of passion and energy into our work, and this is never how we want that hard work to be shared with the community. That said, there’s so much more to be excited about, and when we’re ready, we’ll share the real plans with our players. In closing, I appreciate all of the work that you pour into Team Xbox to surprise and delight our players."
The fact that Microsoft did this to itself is an embarrassing accident, especially when some of the information contained within the documents and emails is no longer accurate. For now, all we can do is wait and see if Microsoft will actually release new versions of its Xbox Series X and S consoles next year and if games like Doom Year Zero, a sequel to Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Dishonored 3 get announced.

Gaming

Baldur’s Gate 3 drops Series S splitscreen support to release on Xbox in 2023

Jaheira in Baldur's Gate 3.

Larian Studios promises to release Baldur's Gate 3 on Xbox Series X/S later this year after pushing the game back because of performance problems on Xbox Series S.
Baldur's Gate 3 is available now on PC and will come out for PS5 on September 6, but an Xbox Series X/S version won't be available for a little bit longer. In a July 2023 community update, developer Larian Studios explained that this is because it needed "to ensure that the game is performing without compromise across the entire Xbox X/S ecosystem, in multiplayer and with split-screen. The Xbox Series X version was running fine, but the Xbox Series S version of the game was struggling a lot more. The Xbox versions of Baldur's Gate 3 didn't have a release window until now, when Larian Studios co-founder Swen Vincke took to X to confirm it'd come to Xbox platforms before the end of the year. That said, it will exclude one notable feature.
"Super happy to confirm that after meeting [Phil 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 wrote. "All improvements will be there, with split-screen coop on Series X. Series S will not feature split-screen co-op, but will also include cross-save progression between Steam and Xbox Series."
Thankfully, it looks like Xbox players won't have to wait too much longer to play this excellent game, but it will be one of the first games to notably drop a major feature between the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S versions. This follows comments by Head of Xbox Phil Spencer where he said he doesn't believe Microsoft will drop support for Xbox Series S in the foreseeable future. "I want to make sure games are available on both, that's our job as a platform holder and we're committed to that with our partners," Spencer told Eurogamer. "And I think we're gonna get there with Larian. So I'm not overly worried about that, but we've learned some stuff through it. Having an entry-level price point for console, sub-$300, is a good thing for the industry."

Baldur's Gate 3 is available now for PC, launches for PS5 on September 6, and will finally come out for Xbox Series X/S before the end of 2023.

Gaming

The impending Xbox 360 Store closure makes me wary of Game Pass’ future

I'm an avid Xbox Game Pass user, often trying almost every game that comes to the service and closely following the games coming to and leaving the service each month. Following some recent announcements by Microsoft, though, I've been thinking a lot more about something else about Xbox Game Pass and Microsoft's current digital-focused Xbox storefronts and ecosystem: what happens when it all goes away?
Microsoft announced last week that it will shut down the Xbox 360 Store in July 2024. After that day, it will be impossible to buy games, movies, or TV shows digitally on the Xbox 360 store; it's just like what happened with the 3DS and Wii U eShops earlier this year. That announcement also came not long after Microsoft revealed it would replace Xbox Live Gold with Xbox Game Pass Core in September. With these changes, Microsoft is stamping out any support or focus its giving to the Xbox 360's era as a platform. As someone who grew up mostly playing Xbox 360, seeing these things I grew up with go away is saddening. It's also making me think about the day this will eventually happen to Xbox Game Pass or the store on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

Frankly, I'm not as concerned that Microsoft is going to do it anytime soon. Microsoft has given no indication that it plans on abandoning Xbox Game Pass. It's a really successful subscription service heavily integrated into all of its current platforms, there are titles confirmed to launch day one on it into 2024 and beyond, and Xbox initiatives like Play Anywhere and Smart Delivery ensure that at least some version of most Xbox games are available on other platforms. While I expect it to be the primary part of Microsoft's gaming strategy over the next decade, as someone who mainly played Xbox 360 growing up and is now seeing its storefront and subscription service go away, I'm now thinking about what the end of the Game Pass era will look like.
These recent actions have indicated that Microsoft will eventually be willing to do the same to the storefronts and subscription service we're currently using. Even after the backlash PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox all faced from these announcements, Sony is the only one that has backtracked its plans to close down older digital storefronts, at least temporarily. Xbox Game Pass is the current hotness for Microsoft, but what happens come the day it isn't? A lot more games are digital-only or tied to a subscription this generation, and those are the games most at risk of being lost if a digital storefront shuts down.
What happens to the Xbox console versions of games like Pentiment or Immortality on Xbox once Xbox Game Pass and the current iteration of the Xbox Store are shuttered? Yes, they can be played on PC, but the Xbox console version will be lost forever. And right now, it doesn't seem like Microsoft has any publicly shared plans to permanently preserve those experiences, nor has it done so for all of the Xbox 360 digital games going away. Game preservation is a significant problem facing the game industry, and Microsoft has just made a move showing that it's on the wrong side of that effort.