Big money for first party and timed exclusives
Amidst the flurry of TV, Kinect 2.0, and the kinda-sorta-maybe always online DRM speak at the Xbox One reveal, many people were upset (to say the least) at the perceived lack of games for the console. Speaking to the Official Xbox Magazine, Microsoft Game Studios VP Phil Spencer estimates the company is investing approximately $1 billion dollars on games. That includes first party titles, exclusive content, and timed exclusives. Microsoft’s President of Interactive Entertainment, Don Mattrick, also had a few words on the subject.
“We just ran through our script and counted the number of exclusives, and looked at the amount of money that we’re spending and the deals that we have, exclusive windows and [things to create differentiation]. I think, candidly, people are way, way under-indexing how hard we’re punching.”
E3, and ultimately the system’s launch, it seems will be the proving grounds for their lofty claims. So here’s to hoping the push for core titles is as big as they say. Spencer also had a few words for the LIVE service as well as the console’s general road map.
“Just like at the beginning of any console generation, where we end up will migrate as people learn about the functionality of the box. They’ll learn as Live evolves, as our platform evolves.”
So I guess we’ll learn to get used to Kinect and (possible) DRM, or Microsoft will learn to cut that out.
Why you shouldn’t underestimate Microsoft’s core line-up [OXM]
