Phil Spencer reaffirms his commitment to first-party games and confirms deals

Update: In an interview with Gamereactor, Xbox’s Aaron Greenberg said that they have many huge projects in development which they don’t walk to talk about right now because of how early it is.

Phil Spencer look on the role of Head of Xbox around 3 years ago after Don Mattrick almost destroyed the brand. Not only did Mattrick go against Xbox’s tradition by releasing a weaker console, but he also made questionable decisions when it came to games. For example, Fable Legends was one of the worst titles ever created and somehow it was given the go-ahead despite its copious invisible walls. Spencer had an uphill battle and so far he’s done an amazing job. When it comes to running a gaming division, there are two factors you need to deal with. The first is hardware and the second is software. For years, Microsoft has many great exclusives like Dead Rising 3, Ryse and Sunset Overdrive but the stigma associated with the Xbox One being weaker than the PlayStation 4 cost the company sales. Spencer had to rectify the hardware situation and then focus on games.

Phil Spencer discusses new first-party deals at around 13 minutes.

With the launch of the Xbox One X, Microsoft has blown the competition out of the water and Sony’s executives are scrambling by making bizarre statements. They’ve left their mark and it shows given the unprecedented buzz surrounding Microsoft’s conference. However, what about first-party games? In an interview with Waypoint, Spencer said that he would’ve easily announced games coming out 2-3 years down the line but chose to focus on 2017. He confirmed that he signed first-party deals for great titles which should hit Xbox One in the future. Since the Scalebound debacle, Microsoft has been cautious to reveal projects that aren’t guaranteed to release. Hopefully we’ll see some games at Gamescom which is focused on the future of gaming in August. Until then, rest assured that Microsoft is actively investing in first-party games. It just takes time to fix a hardware problem. Now that the Xbox One X has been revealed, expect the games to flow.