In a leaked email, Phil Spencer says AAA publishers are "milking their top franchises" and "struggling" to find new hits

gamesradar.com:

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has inadvertently shared his opinion on the issues modern AAA games are dealing with - revealing he thinks publishers are "milking" their successful IPs and "struggling" to find new ones. 

In a 2020 email (released as part of the Xbox FTC leaks), Spencer shared his analysis of what issues AAA video game publishers are currently facing with fellow Microsoft execs - including CEO Satya Nadella, CFO Amy Hood, former executive business VP Peggy Johnson, and head of marking Chris Capossela. According to Kotaku, the email exchange was sent ahead of a feedback meeting with Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive. 

"In terms of subscriptions and the impact on larger publishers," Spencer's email said, "I realized that I haven’t really done a good job sharing our view on the disruption AAA publishers potentially see and how their role in the industry will likely change with the growth in subscription platforms like Xbox Game Pass." 

"The creation of digital storefronts like Steam, Xbox Store, and PlayStation Store eventually democratized access for creators breaking physical retail’s lock on game distribution," he continued. "Publishers were slow to react to this disruption. The AAA publishers did not find a way to leverage the moat that physical retail created in the digital realm in a way that had them continue their dominance of the game marketplace."

Later in the email, Spencer addresses the fact that not all companies can afford to spend what the likes of Activision or Take-Two do to get their games on the shelf. "These AAA publishers have, mostly, used this production scale to keep their top franchises in the top-selling games each year," the head of Xbox Gaming explains. "The issue these