Phil Spencer has been the face of Xbox for over a decade now, and he’s done plenty of good for the platform after a dismal period under Don Mattrick’s leadership. Arguably, Microsoft might not even be in the gaming space right now if it wasn’t for Phil’s vision for Xbox. However, that vision once felt like it brought smaller studios along for the ride, especially with the advent of Xbox Game Pass, but it’s getting harder and harder to see that vision in a post-Activision Blizzard landscape. After a period of huge growth, Xbox looks like it’s trimming the fat from its newfound acquisitions, and from its gaming plans in general.
If more bombshells continue to drop like the one that landed today, we’re going to have to get used to a different Xbox – a different Microsoft Gaming. The team now has Call of Duty, DOOM, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, Halo, Gears of War, Forza, World of Warcraft and even more huge IP under its belt, and those are clearly beginning to take precedent at Microsoft HQ. We’re in a tough economic landscape at the moment — not only in gaming — and the safe bets are the ones being taken right now.
And, as much as we lament Xbox for closing down some of its smaller teams and projects, we still think there’s a big future for Xbox – or Microsoft Gaming, whichever you want to call it. A few years into Phil’s reign and we were still talking about the ‘Halo / Gears / Forza box’, and even with some of these unfortunate closures, Xbox is much, much more than that nowadays. We’re still really, really excited about Xbox’s upcoming pipeline of games, but some studios are starting to suffer from Microsoft’s drive for massive gaming growth.
