Phil Spencer's recent comments on single player games sparked a significant debate in the core gaming community. As a recap here's the most significant quote:
The audience for those big story-driven games… I won’t say it isn’t as large, but they’re not as consistent. You’ll have things like Zelda or Horizon Zero Dawn that’ll come out, and they’ll do really well, but they don’t have the same impact that they used to have because the big service-based games are capturing such a large amount of the audience. Sony’s first-party studios do a lot of these games, and they’re good at them, but outside of that, it’s difficult – they've become more rare; it’s a difficult business decision for those teams, you’re fighting into more headwind.
Spencer then answered several questions by Xbox fans on Twitter, clarifying his stance. He began by saying that he loves single player games, but they ship into a market dominated by service-based games which makes it harder for them to shine. This shouldn't be taken as a hint that Microsoft will focus on PvP games in the future, as well.
It's healthy to disagree. I love playing SP games. Point is majority of play today is in service games, that's just a fact.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) April 28, 2017
No reason to apologize at all, I wasn't hinting that. It was just an industry point, just what I on the platforms.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) April 28, 2017
In fact, a few hours ago he added that he wants single player games to succeed and he's striving to find models and tools to help. He's not giving up at all, rather he's listening to developers on things platforms can do to aid their business.
We should want SP success, imo. Liking great examples doesn't mean genre is healthy. I want to find models/tools to help.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) April 29, 2017
Not giving up at all, have to listen to devs on things platforms can do to help their business.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) April 29, 2017
It sounds like it's fair to expect single player games by Microsoft Game Studios, but also to see them experimenting new models, possibly the episodic one which Telltale and HITMAN have been successful at.
Overall, E3 2017 should be a place where we'll hear about more first party games by Microsoft given Spencer's statement that the company is upping investment in this sector after hearing the feedback from fans. As a reminder, Microsoft's conference has been confirmed to take place on June 11th at 2 PM Pacific Time.
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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