AAnd so everything has changed on Xbox. Last Friday, it was announced that Microsoft’s gaming division CEO Phil Spencer is retiring, while its president Sarah Bond is resigning. In their place, a new partnership: Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty has been promoted to chief content officer, while the new CEO is Asha Sharma, who stepped down from her position as president of Microsoft’s CoreAI product.
In a company-wide email, Spencer said he would remain in the advisory role until the summer before “starting the next chapter of my life.” On his part, Bond issued a statement on linkedin account: “I have decided that this is the right time for me to take my next step both personally and professionally.” It was all extremely good-natured, but it’s doubtful that these breezy messages tell the whole story.
For 25 years, Xbox has had an unbroken presence in the gaming industry. It consistently challenged the PlayStation as the most popular, technologically advanced console, it revolutionized online gaming, and it brought us multimillion-selling titles like Halo, Gears of War, and Forza Horizon. And for most of that time, Spencer has been the man at the helm of the machine.
In charge of Xbox since 2014, Spencer inherited the PR disaster that was the Xbox One announcement. From here, they adopted new innovations like cloud gaming and subscriptions, turned Xbox into a multi-platform app, and introduced Game Pass, giving owners access to new and old games for a single monthly fee. They also oversaw a period of massive development expansion, buying ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion in 2020 and then Activision Blizzard for a staggering $69 billion in 2023, securing Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush for the empire.
But this was also a phase job cuts Microsoft’s gaming division is also facing waves of studio closures and game cancellations, as well. Tango Gameworks, The Initiative, and Arkane Austin were shut down, and the Perfect Dark remake was cancelled, as was Rare’s interesting eco adventure Everwild.
“Spencer has left Microsoft in something of a dilemma with Xbox,” says games analyst George E. Osborn, whose book Power Play: Video Games, Politics, and the Battle for Global Influence is coming out in June. “Its hardware sales have declined significantly in recent years, but the dream of a cross-platform game subscription service rising in its place remains unfulfilled. That leaves the business in a confused state with Xbox also positioning it as one of the world’s top three video game publishers in terms of revenue, but lacking clarity about where it goes next.”
There are concerns about Sharma’s redeployment from the AI division – is he there to further cut costs by greenlighting more studio redundancies in favor of General AI? In her letter to employees, she assured them, “We will not pursue short-term efficiency or fill our ecosystem with soulless AI slop (…) I want to return to the renegade spirit that created Xbox in the first place.” But can that feeling, which saw a small team of wild-eyed engineers take over Microsoft’s opaque, Orwellian building, really be recaptured in our age of massive global integration? We live in the age of forever games, mega verticals – Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft, Genshin Impact, Honor of Kings; Billion dollar games that require millions of dollars to create, market, and maintain.
Could it be tempting for Microsoft to quietly kill off Xbox altogether? Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley said exactly that in an interview on Monday, GamesBeat tells: “Xbox, like a lot of businesses that aren’t core AI businesses, is sunsetting. They don’t say it, but that’s what’s happening. I hope…her job will be like a palliative care doctor who gently slides Xbox out into the night.”
As of current annual sports industry report According to analyst Matthew Ball, record revenues could be achieved in 2025, but the sector is losing its share of the economy to a focus on social media, sports betting, “content creators” and other zippy interactive experiences. So it’s worth asking: What role do games actually play in the future of this three trillion-dollar corporation? Osborne says, “The appointment of a new leader who has a background within AI shows that Microsoft is thinking more deeply about how Xbox meets its broader ambitions, rather than just how Microsoft can fund Xbox development.” “And while it makes sense when it comes to building a corporate structure, it risks undermining the ability to take the creative risks needed to succeed in the video game industry.”
Spencer always said he loved sports – and I believed him every time I met him. But there’s no guarantee that their successors will feel the same way – do they love the games enough to support strange new experimental projects? Will they support another Minecraft or Sea of Thieves game? They’re big, bold gambles and the casino looks very different from when the dice were first rolled on Xbox many years ago.
what to play
Imagine if golf was actually an interesting and exciting game. This obviously ridiculous proposal comes up super battle golfeight player online sports sim Where everyone has to try to get the ball into the hole at the same time while violently thwarting their rivals’ attempts.
You can hit people with your nine iron, crush them in your golf cart or obliterate them with the Orbital Death Laser, all while dealing with the usual challenges of ruining a good move. The cartoonish visual style is reminiscent of other knockabout multiplayer titles like Gang Beasts and Fall Guys, and the series of courses brings true depth and challenge to Carnage. It’s like the PGA Tour sim series crossed with Worms – no wonder it was downloaded by 100,000 people in its first week on sale.
Available on: PC
Estimated playing time: more than 20 hours
what to read
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It’s always interesting to see critical re-evaluations of video games. In This piece for the AV ClubB. Wertheimer argues that although it was an indie darling 10 years ago, fire watch Maybe it’s just as toxic as the masculine gaming fantasies it tried to combat.
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Ubisoft ceo Yves Guillemot spoke to Variety About the future of Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, and how the company is reorganizing into five semi-autonomous “creative houses,” each in charge of different brands. It sounds like something out of Game of Thrones, but Guillemot hopes the plan will stabilize the company after a difficult period.
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valve It is facing a lawsuit in UK courts over the revenue share it receives from game sales on its Steam platform. Digital security campaigner Vicki Shotbolt argues that Valve is taking advantage of UK gamers: “Steam is a big and important platform for a big and important ecosystem – it needs to be co-operated fairly, and it clearly isn’t,” she explains. gamesindustry.biz.
what to click
question block
This week’s question comes andrew In Liverpool:
“Despite starting gaming in the 1980s, I never really played turn-based battle games, the few RPGs I played were always of the action variety. last year i Tried out Persona 4 Golden and liked it, although I had to turn the difficulty down immediately. Can you recommend games that are a good entry point for learning the systems and concepts? there are so many that I Don’t know where to start and Worried that choosing the wrong one will leave me completely disappointed.”
This is difficult to answer because all role-playing games have different approaches to combat rules and systems, so it is difficult to recommend a game that will provide an authoritative overview. In addition to trying out other titles in the Persona series (especially persona 5 royal), you can choose an actual remake of a classic title, something like Dragon Quest III HD-2D RemakeOne of the greatest entries in the early Dragon Quest series, featuring a beautiful battle system. Recent final fantasy vii titles reconstruction And rebirth Can also work.
You can also try a modern game that wants to explore the classic era – sea of stars For example. But if you like the look and feel of Persona 4, it’s great Metaphor: Refantazio Persona is a kind of spiritual companion to the series and you can dial up the difficulty in the settings. i love too Yakuza: like a dragon And Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth From Sega, which uses a lot of familiar systems – they’re so silly and cute, and the learning curve is generous. I know a lot of players who started their turn-based journey with Last Year’s Praise Claire Obscure: Campaign 33However it also has a lot of real-time elements.
Hopefully, there’s something here to tempt you!
If you have a question for the Questions Block – or have something else to say about the newsletter – Email us at pushbuttons@theguardian.com.
