Cancellations are a tough thing, and right now Xbox head Phil Spencer can tell you all about what it’s like being right in the middle of one. Spencer has been fielding comments and questions seemingly non-stop since Platinum and Microsoft announced that the former Xbox exclusive, Scalebound was ceasing development and it appears that fans are very concerned with the current direction.
In an effort to ease tensions, Spencer has been doing his best to keep things calm and transparent (there’s only so much he can do). One of the things he has said to appease fans is that he knows that the Xbox brand has to be willing to branch out more. In a tweet, he said:
@LeoCasablancas @aarongreenberg @Xbox Good feedback, I know we have to take risks, I realize right now probably sounds hollow but I agree
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) January 11, 2017
An interesting point was raised in a NeoGAF thread by the infamous insider, Shinobi602, who talks about how their competitors (Sony) have let some of their internal studios take significant amounts of time to try new things. He cites KillZone developer Guerilla Games as an example with their work on Horizon: Zero Dawn as well as Sony Santa Monica’s brand new take on God of War. It’s unknown how these games will fare as of now, but at the very least, both games have unquestionably generated a serious amount of anticipation.
Spencer himself also cites Sea of Thieves as Xbox’s potential ace in the hole. A fan inquired as to what game he thought had the best chance of being as big as Gears of War or Halo, and Spencer’s response was Rare’s open world pirate game.
Here’s that tweet:
@ma1asiah @SeaOfThieves , as something completely new, has a real opportunity to surprise and delight a lot of people imo.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) January 11, 2017
Of Xbox’s upcoming exclusives, I’d have to agree that Sea of Thieves represents the company’s best opportunity to launch something completely fresh. At the very least, it’s good to see that Spencer recognizes the need for the Xbox brand to branch out and try different things, it’s just unfortunate how things have worked out to this point.
Sources: [Twitter via DualShockers, NeoGAF]
