Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer was featured in an hour-long interview with Andrea Rene at PAX West, speaking on several subjects mostly related to his history in the gaming industry. Arguably, the most interesting tidbit is that Spencer admitted passing on some major exclusivity opportunities for games like Bungie's Destiny and Harmonix's Guitar Hero.
There are so many mixed emotions and stories for me around Destiny. Obviously, Bungie was part of Microsoft. When I started at Xbox, Bungie was already part of Xbox, and I shared a floor with Alex Seropian and Jason Jones in the building that we were in Redmond. I learned a ton from just being around Bungie and how to build games and Alex's approach and Jason's approach to design. I would spend a ton of time down in their offices talking to them about stuff I was working on and getting their feedback. So you know Bungie both as part of Microsoft and then spinning Bungie out seeing getting the pitch for Destiny on.
‘Do we want to sign this?’ We ended up not signing Destiny. It obviously went with Activision, and to seeing what it grew into, like from a business kind of Xbox standpoint, I can look at it as it's just a really interesting journey in terms of what Bungie built.
I’m not a big PvP player. If somebody looks at my player history, it’s not a lot of what I do, and I was a little worried that I was going to get thrown into a PvP world. It turns out that's not what it was at all, and when House of Wolves came out, it definitely landed me.
Regarding Guitar Hero, Phil Spencer didn't think the concept would resonate at all with the gaming audience.
Alex Rigopulos pitches a game where they're actually going to make plastic guitars and they're going to plug into consoles and then they're going to sell tracks where you’re gonna play Simon on this guitar. I'm like, 'Really? Do we really think that's going to work'?
Destiny is, of course, very much still alive, especially after the most recent expansion, albeit following ups and downs. Guitar Hero, on the other hand, hasn't received a new installment since 2015's Guitar Hero Live.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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