Microsoft has acknowledged what Xbox Series S and Series X gamers have been grumpy about for the entirety of 2022 – the dearth of high profile first party releases.
In an interview on the Same Brain podcast, Xbox chief Phil Spencer said the delays to releases like Starfield and Redfall has left the platform “a little light” this year.
Spencer said that although production schedules have been hit by Covid “and other things”, the excuses are no longer washing with the company’s loyal gamers.
He said: “One thing we’ve definitely heard loud and clear is it’s been too long since we’ve shipped what people would say is a big first-party game. We can have our excuses on Covid and other things, but in the end, I know people invest in our platform, and they want to have great games.”
Microsoft is promising to do better next year with the delayed 2022 games and a whole lot more. As well as Redfall and Starfield, the company is also promising to bring Age of Empires IV to consoles, while the Forza Motorsport remake and Minecraft Legends are also on the way.
It’s unclear whether that’ll be enough to satisfy Xbox Series S and Series X gamers who bought the new consoles expecting a huge line-up of original titles and games from the company’s ever-growing list of acquired studios.
Spender added: “We’re excited about 2023, and we’ve talked about games that are coming, and those games are tracking well, we’re kind of out of what Covid did to the production schedule. As an industry, we have fewer games this holiday than we’ve had in a while when you just think about the launches. Call of Duty’s coming, God of War’s coming, which is great, Nintendo’s had a good year, but I’d say, in general, we’ve been a little light, but I look at 2023, and there’s a great lineup of games coming that I’m excited about. Getting our first real Xbox first-party games out of Bethesda, having them ship with Redfall and Starfield will be a lot of fun.”
Does the Xbox line up for 2023 get you excited for the year? Or are Microsoft and its studio stable still under-delivering considering the consoles are now a couple of years old?
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
