I like Phil overall but I feel like this continues to happen. Our very own MH Williams put up an article going over all the things announced in 2014 that have all but been axed: http://www.usgamer.net/articles/revisiting-xbox-e3-2014-remembering-the-dead
I almost forgot how much.
Every time this happens, fans start questioning him and the platform's direction, Phil gives the standard reply "we're committed to games and first party", and then you get the "Ok, phew, thanks Phil!" though that seems to be waning now.
Thing is, you need to allow your teams to branch out and take risks creatively. That's how you grow a brand and ecosystem and new fan bases. This has nothing to do with console war bs, but Sony does this and it's evident. One of their flagship studios known for first person shooters was allowed to take 5 years to build a post apocalyptic open world RPG with a female lead and robot dinosaurs. Another studio (Sony Santa Monica), even though its initial new IP failed, was allowed to radically revamp one of their biggest and most beloved franchises (God of War). Both huge risks. Sucker Punch is on a new IP. Bend is on a new IP, etc. Naughty Dog took time to develop a new IP that's arguably their biggest yet. That's how these become successful franchises.
Besides Rare, which is basically their new IP testbed though relegated to service driven games, Turn 10 works on Forza, Black Tusk was transformed into a Gears factory, 343 is relegated to Halo...it's just tired at this point. To me anyway, even though I still enjoy those series a lot. I want Xbox around forever. I was there day one with my OG Xbox and fell mad in love with Halo, but damn...give us new and exciting things man. I mean nurturing internal first party talent, not signing more deals that don't go anywhere.
Sony being able to take risks is a byproduct of their market dominance though. After the failure of a lot of their new IPs for the generation, Microsoft probably feels they're in a position where they have to at least tread water - and the safest way to do that is to repeat what works. The same thing happened to Sony last generation after early titles like Genji, Folklore, Heavenly Sword, Warhawk and Lair failed to make a splash - and the console was struggling to sell out the gate. Sony obviously has a larger internal studio system, so it's not quite as apparent, but their portfolio until the latter half of the Playstation 3's existence was every bit as repetitive as Microsoft's. How much money was spent to develop repeated titles within Motorstorm, Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank, Singstar, Little Big Planet, Resistance and Killzone franchises? It wasn't until the last few years of the generation, and leading into the Playstation 4's existence - when Sony could truly afford to take risks with its brand - that Sony took their studios from franchise purgatory and allowed for them to take some chances.
I do admit though, Microsoft doesn't have the internal first party clout to get away with recycling the same franchises without it coming off as stale. But on the flip side, I don't think Microsoft simply freeing its existing studios from franchise purgatory is the right movie either. What would happen if Microsoft allowed 343, Turn10 and The Coalition to do their own thing - and those games failed? Without Halo, Forza and Gears of War to carry the brand, as rung out as they are, the Xbox brand would sink spectacularly. What they need to do, is form studios or purchase existing ones - and allow those studios to take the risks (or push their mainline franchises onto them).