What crisis? Xbox plays its hand, and it's impressive | Opinion

gamesindustry.biz:

Ahead of Xbox's latest showcase, Phil Spencer took to the stage to speak with fans.

During it, he apologised for being emotional on a podcast – referring to his appearance on Kinda Funny, where he reacted to the poor performance of Bethesda's Redfall, and expressed his frustration with the console business.

I don't believe he should apologise for anything. And, frankly, the hyperbole surrounding Xbox's struggles in recent times felt overblown and premature.

There's no denying Redfall was disappointing, but that's not a fair reflection of Xbox's output in recent times. The game arrived just a few months after the superb Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment. They've not all been AAA blockbusters, but Xbox's teams have been – on the whole – delivering the goods.

Nevertheless, sentiment has been low. A disappointing game launch, the CMA blocking the Activision Blizzard deal, and mixed financial results all coincided at the same time. Put together and things look bleak, but individually, these were moments of disappointment, rather than crisis.

A lot of Xbox's struggles, at least in terms of its release slate, have been a little unfortunate. Many of its acquisitions were in the middle of developing multi-platform games, and in some cases were committed to PS5 exclusives. When those games finished up, these teams were then faced with starting new projects in a pandemic world, with remote and hybrid working slowing down development and ideation.

COVID also made it far harder when it comes to retaining and on-boarding employees, which is what the likes of Playground Games, Rare and The Initiative were the middle of doing as they looked to scale up their new AAA teams. Microsoft isn't alone in these struggles, but whereas Sony and