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[Draugoth]

With the great risk of betting on something new, large publishers prefer to focus on known IPs.

As Spencer wrote in his leaked email (via Kotaku), "If you were a studio, you needed a AAA publisher to reach a customer at an Egghead Software."

In the era of digital distribution, however, access to physical distribution channels is no longer required. That's led big publishers to lean on their other strength: Making big-budget blockbusters that are out of the reach of smaller operations.

"Very few companies can afford to spend the $200M an Activision or Take-Two spend to put a title like Call of Duty or Red Dead Redemption on the shelf," Spencer wrote. "These AAA publishers have, mostly, used this production scale to keep their top franchises in the top selling games each year."

"AAA publishers are milking their top franchises but struggling to refill their portfolio of hit franchises—most AAA publishers are riding the success of franchises created 10+ years ago."

The point of Spencer's email was to emphasize his belief that as major publishers find their footing eroded, subscription services like Xbox Game Pass offer them a lifeline. He noted that EA and Ubisoft were both trying to build their own competing services but said "they are not moving quickly or boldly enough to scale," and also suffer from the lack of a platform like the Xbox console to launch with. Spencer said he wasn't looking to kill off the big publishers with Game Pass, though, but to help them "build towards a successful future" by giving them access to a massive user base that they can monetize as they see fit.

 

[FunkMiller]

Gee, Phil. If only you were in a job that allowed you to push for creating something new.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

 

[Stare-Bear]

Great to hear Phil…

 

[Nankatsu]

Also Phil when asked about new franchises for Xbox:

 

[GHound]

Remind me how many tens of billions they would go on to spend to acquire old franchises after this...

 

[Madjako]

Says the man publishing forca/gears since 15 years

 

[jm89]

 

[SmokedMeat]

He’s not wrong in that big publishers are relying on old, established franchises instead of creating anything new.

Of course it’s easy for Phil to make these claims when Microsoft can just shrug off failures that would shut down some studios.

As for Game Pass being a lifeline, it’s only a “lifeline” if the game you’re releasing is a commercial failure. Otherwise it’s going to eat into sales, if your game winds up being popular. Even then collecting a check for any subscription service, or exclusivity agreement is the same “lifeline” as Game Pass.

 

[GHG]

"AAA publishers are milking their top franchises but struggling to refill their portfolio of hit franchises—most AAA publishers are riding the success of franchises created 10+ years ago."

Imagine saying this and then spending the money he has acquiring the very publishers who make those 10+ year old games he describes.

 

[SJRB]

So much irony it's giving me hemachromatosis.

 

[mitch1971]

Seriously, Phil, shut up.

 

[Riky]

He's right Gamepass gives them a lot more leeway to take risks and try something fresh. That's why they can do the Kojima game when others are just looking at numbers.

 

[Valkyria]

The audacity of this guy is off charts.

 

[drganon]

He's right Gamepass gives them a lot more leeway to take risks and try something fresh. That's why they can do the Kojima game when others are just looking at numbers.

 

[Roman Empire]

So why the hell are buying old studios and established IPs Phil? Come on, you've got the money to start brand new studios and IPs, right? So take a few risks

 

[Flutta]

He's right Gamepass gives them a lot more leeway to take risks and try something fresh. That's why they can do the Kojima game when others are just looking at numbers.

The definition of a corpo worshiping fanboy.

 

[RoboFu]

Did he say that as a realization? Lol

Yeah no shit.. publishers invest in proven franchises over new ips.

 

[nush]

Halo, forza, Gears every year. OK Phil.

 

[Sintoid]

Funny statement from the man who's trying to buy Call of Duty...

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

Halo. Gears. Forza. Halo. Gears. Forza. Halo. Gears. Forza. Halo. Gears. Forza.

Chant these 3 words long enough and they might magically turn into a new IP. PlayStation creating killer new IP every generation, Nintendo has the likes of a Pikmin or Splatoon once every 10 years but that's still more than Xbox has done, let's keep it all the way real. Every time Phil speaks it's like mana from heaven for ALL the wrong reasons.

 

[ComputerBlue]

 

[Riky]

The last Forza Motorsport was 6 years ago.
The last Gears Of War was 4 years ago.
There was six years between Halo 5 and Infinite and there will not be another one for a long time.

This year we've had three new first party ip from Xbox.

It sounds like some people are just copy pasting bots from a script, maybe the mods should look into them?

 

[Belthazar]

Yeah, I'm sure Microsoft spent 70 billion on Activision for the prospect of creating new franchises. Sure.

 

[balls of snow]

He wont be saying this if halo and gears are still top dogs with thriving online communities.


"Engagement is our oxygen"

 

[jm89]

It sounds like some people are just copy pasting bots from a script, maybe the mods should look into them?

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[Cyberpunkd]

Gee, Phil. If only you were in a job that allowed you to push for creating something new.

Why create when you can buy?

 

[Pelta88]

Says the man who ran Halo into the ground. Why doesn't he just shut the fuck up and focus on creating great games. He's so desperate for a PR win, he can't see that he's making an ass out of himself with his own PR statements.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

Oh... you mean like buying up third-party publishers to take advantage of the success of their old games, after you've shitted your historically successful first-party games and studios down the crapper??

You mean like that, Phil?.... hmmnnn?!

 

[graywolf323]

It sounds like some people are just copy pasting bots from a script, maybe the mods should look into them?

if they did that there’d be a lot less posters for you to leave likes on though during those periods you avoid posting yourself

 

[Panajev2001a]

Says the man who ran Halo into the ground. Why doesn't he just shut the fuck up and focus on creating great games. He's so desperate for a PR he can't see he's making an ass out of himself with his own PR statements.

We know why, you have seen why he does it, he probably likes himself talk and he wants to be always on some news site, always visible, always keeping the brand visible and people talking.

You then have his evangelists, like in this very thread, that he could beat up and send to an hospital while decrying the use of any form of violence and their first comment once they wake up would be: “well, it hurts a bit, but without Phil I may have never seen first hand our brave A&E/EMT brave folks at work so closely. Thanks to Xcloud I can play with the hospital TV too, isn’t that something?”.

 

[Klayzer]

Shut the fuck up Phil. Please, shut the fuck up.

 

[Skelterz]

That’s a bit rich coming from him, I remember when Microsoft bought Rare from Nintendo they thought they had the rights to donkey Kong obviously they didn’t and then rare got relegated to making avatars..

 

[Moses85]

Microsoft doesnt risk anything

 

[StereoVsn]

I agree, all you need is a multi-$trillion parent corp, buy best selling shooter franchise for cool $70bil and take some risks. I mean whats wrong with all the other publishers?!

 

[ReBurn]

That's been the standard playbook since the PS360 days.

 

[@gkTH]

I'm now sure that AB will stop developing COD for all platforms and create a new IP exclusively to XB. It's the corporate policy directed by Phil !

 

[HeWhoWalks]

Egghead Software

All making sense now.

 

[squarealex]

Phil Spencer + says

 

[Horseganador]

That the guy who has been holding the brand with Gears, Forza and Halo says it is ironic, shut up Phil, every time you talk the bread goes up.

And now they will say... MS has released more IPs, yes, but the main course has always been the same.
2015 - Halo 5
2016 - FH3 - Gears 4
2017 - Forza 7
2018 - FH4
2019 - Gears 5
2020 - xDDDD
2021 - Halo Infinite - FH5
2022 - xDDDD

 

[lh032]

and phil took advantage of existing multiplatform IPs and acquire multiplatform publishers.

 

[ReBurn]

According to this he's not wrong

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[Duellist]

That turd need to shut the fuck up.

 

[jroc74]

According to this he's not wrong

GamesIndustry.biz presents… The Year In Numbers 2022

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox 2022 has been a busy year for GamesIndustr…

www.gamesindustry.biz

"AAA publishers are milking their top franchises but struggling to refill their portfolio of hit franchises—most AAA publishers are riding the success of franchises created 10+ years ago."

Now figure out how many new IP were created less than 10 years ago.

Because thats for 2022.

 

[Hudo]

Can Phil and Jim finally shut the fuck up?

 

[ReBurn]

"AAA publishers are milking their top franchises but struggling to refill their portfolio of hit franchises—most AAA publishers are riding the success of franchises created 10+ years ago."

Now figure out how many new IP were created less than 10 years ago.

Because thats for 2022.

How many new IP's have these companies released since the start of this generation? Just because Phil said it doesn't mean the statement is wrong or that he's not complicit. But what he said is true. And we gamers are somewhat responsible because all people seem to ask for these days is remakes, remasters and sequels.

 

[adamsapple]

 

[GHG]

It sounds like some people are just copy pasting bots from a script, maybe the mods should look into them?

You and Phil are one in the same.

 

[jroc74]

How many new IP's have these companies released since the start of this generation? Just because Phil said it doesn't mean the statement is wrong or that he's not complicit. But what he said is true. And we gamers are somewhat responsible because all people seem to ask for these days is remakes, remasters and sequels.

I'm just going off what Phil literally said....10+ years ago. There are alot of new IP less than 10 years old.

As for the start of the generation? Not alot. But there are some:

Returnal
Destruction All Stars
Forspoken
Calisto Protocol
Atomic Heart
High on Life
Deathloop
Ghostwire Tokyo
Godfall

Hell, Cyberpunk 2077 came out in 2020.

But using 2022 doesn't tell the whole story, for a line about 10+ years ago.

 

[Klayzer]

You and Phil are one in the same.

Zero self awarness, just like Phil.