It’s a really good read, and Spencer comes across as intelligent and thoughtful, which is a real diversion from a lot of the PR nonsense that senior execs normally like to spout.
“I own a Vita, I own a Wii, I own a PS3, and I play a lot,” he says, when asked about how he enjoys stuff from Xbox’s competition.
“I think there are great experiences that come from all over. I don’t try to claim that everything that is ever created is something that we touch, that would be somewhat ridiculous,” he admits.
He’s ballsy about the sales of Xbox exclusives over Sony ones, though. “If you look at our top franchises in our first-party, they do incredibly well relative to other first-party franchises. If you rank our top four franchises against the other franchises, our top 4 outsell like the top 11 Sony franchises or something like that.”
He sees the Xbox exclusives as complementary to the third party stuff like Batman and Call of Duty, rather than echoing it. “We take our first-party and we try to do unique things,” he said. “I’ve never really looked at first-party as simply a portfolio filler strategy. I want to pick some things that will really differentiate.”
And on cloud gaming? “I think it is at an incubation period,” says Spencer. “I think Gaikai is doing great work and I’m not downplaying what they’ve done but it is not yet at global scale where you can promise someone that when they buy this TV and plug it into their own internet connection that they are going to get a reliable service that a normal, non-technical person would accept for playing all types of games.”
He’s straying away from games though, at least just now:
“I think cloud is in the future, there is no doubt about that. And as a company, Microsoft has Azure; we have data centers, Office 365, Hotmail. There is no question about big data, large scale services that Microsoft has invested in.”
“I think we are a ways away from everybody being able to play all the games that we are showing off on the floor of E3 via the cloud reliably. We’re involved in the investigations and the experiments, but I don’t think it’s at scale yet.”
“It will be, but it is not an ‘if,’ it’s a ‘when.'”
KeRaSh
What an honest interview. I approve.
Youles
I think he’s spot on about cloud gaming to be honest, and it is refreshing to hear him, as a MS big-wig, to even mention Gaikia and admit publically that he has a Vita/PS3/Wii.
Regards sales, I would pretty much always expect MS to beat Sony globally on first party stuff, given their respective native populations, hence probably why even MS’s top 4 outsell Sony’s top 11. However in reality, that doesn’t mean all 4 of those games are better than Sony’s 11.
I can’t decide if he’s eating a sweet in that photo, or if he’s just a little bit ugly.
Tuffcub
Yay Phil :)
gazzagb
He clearly knows what he’s talking, and I think he’s right, especially about the Cloud. He’s probably also right about exclusives too, xbox exclusives definitely sell more than than PS3 ones.
hazelam
surprisingly free of most of the bullshit these kind of interviews are usually full of.
but i don’t think the kind of data centres they run stuff like Hotmail on are going to cut it for cloud gaming.
i’d rather see these guys from these companies talking about what’s good about their stuff rather than badmouthing the competition.
KeRaSh
But their Office 365 and Azure datacenters are pretty significant in scale. They might not be cut out for gaming duties but I’m sure they’re much bigger than whatever OnLive or Gaikai are currently running.
stage1
If you rank our top four franchises against the other franchises, our top 4 outsell like the top 11 Sony franchises or something like that.”
I thought Gran Turismo trumped all of Xbox’s exclusives combined?
Alex C
GT5 > Halo, Gears of War, Forza etc? No way.
Forrest_01
I guess that would more than likely be 3 of the top 4, but what would the 4th be?
Not taking the michael here, I just really can’t think right now of what it would be.
MrTwP
I think he means GT > halo, gears, forza.
GT as a franchise sold a lot but i doubt it sold more than halo and gears combined.
MrTwP
Also Forrest_01, I’m thinking its Fable
Forrest_01
Ah yes, i suppose it could be that – I was actually thinking along the lines of Alan Wake or something, but i don’t think it sold that many copies (although i could well be wrong, its happened before!).
Either way, i would class the three mentioned above as their really big 1st party hitters.
InternationalGamer
Impossibru.
I doubt GT5 can sell more than Halo.
MrTwP
It’s not GT5 selling more than Halo, its GT selling more than halo.
E8_BALL_
Mentioning he owns a Vita, reminded me, i’ve always wondered why XBOX, don’t enter the portable market & capitalize on their existing loyal user base & XBOX Marketplace.
E8_BALL_
(Wondered why Microsoft rather.)
Megamoppy
Indeed, to my simple mind simply make a portable in which every game has achievements and it would sell, it’s quality would be irrelevant.
Gadbury
There are less 360 exclusives to choose from. It would be interesting to see combined sales of all exclusives, 360 vs PS3.
Awayze
If you take away Kinect and Move exclusive sales, PS3 exclusives outsell when combined.
After all PS3 users have sooo much choice where Xbox players are mainly limited to Halo one year, Gears next year and so on and throw in Forza as well. Alan Wake and Fable just sucked.
BalramRules
Slightly a cocky character this person has, I have to admit.