Microsoft’s head of gaming Phil Spencer has once again acknowledged that it has been a quiet time for first-party Xbox games.
Despite its acquisition of so many game studios in recent years, only five titles were published by Xbox Game Studios in 2022, and only one of them was actually developed internally – “Pentiment”.
The others included an indie title (“As Dusk Falls”), a re-release (“Age of Empires IV”), some DLC for “Forza Horizon 5,” and the arrival of a multiplayer title (“Grounded”) that was already widely accessible in open access for at least two years.
Speaking in a new interview with IGN, Spencer has taken the blame for last year’s minimal release schedule and promises players should see significant exclusives released for Xbox Game Pass on consoles and PC:
“Our commitment to our fans is that we need to have a steady release of great games that people can play on our platform, and we didn’t do enough of that in 2022, there’s no doubt. And fundamentally, that’s on me. I’m the head of the business.
The commitment we have to our customers, to continue to deliver great games, is something I take seriously, the teams take seriously, and 2022 was too light in games.
We’re excited to about getting to roll into 2023, having the Developer Direct – I felt really good about the games that we were showing – and also knowing that Starfield is a game that we’re going to highlight in its own show, and then just start off 2023 with good momentum. Like you said, I think we needed that.”
That Developer Direct saw Xbox finally commit to release dates for several games, including “Forza Motorsport,” “Minecraft Legends” and Bethesda’s “Redfall” along with the sudden release of the rhythmic action game “Hi-Fi Rush” which has scored rave reviews.
Spencer says he felt it was essential to show games with release dates this time:
“I hesitate to get ahead of the launches because I know there’s rightfully some fatigue in the community about us just saying, ‘just wait until…’. That’s one of the reasons it was nice to be able to launch Hi-Fi Rush during the show, to show that we can launch. We had things like Pentiment, which came out in November and was a really high-quality game, but there has to be more… I think it was important for us to show games and show dates.”
Xbox’s biggest release of the year, “Starfield,” is also scheduled to be released in the first half of this year but there’s no exact date as yet.
