Spencer Critiques Xbox's Franchise Handling

As Xbox charts gaming's evolving landscape, CEO Phil Spencer reflects on missed chances and the “worst decisions” they've made over the years. Read on to learn about his comments and more on upcoming Xbox games.

Xbox Head Phil Spencer Reflects on “Worst Decisions” with Major FranchisesDestiny and Guitar Hero Were Significant Missed Opportunities for Xbox

During a "Story Time with Phil Spencer" interview at the recent PAX West 2024, Xbox head Phil Spencer discussed career-defining games at Microsoft's gaming division—and missed opportunities. Spencer reflected on major franchises he declined, including Bungie's Destiny franchise and Harmonix's Guitar Hero series, decisions he considers among his worst professional choices.

Spencer, who joined Xbox when Bungie was a Microsoft subsidiary, shared his ambivalent feelings about Destiny. "I have mixed emotions and memories regarding Destiny," he said. "Bungie was part of Microsoft when I started at Xbox, and I shared a building with Alex Seropian and Jason Jones in Redmond. I learned much from being around Bungie."

Despite the strong ties with the studio, Spencer conceded that Destiny "didn't truly connect" with him initially, and it wasn't until the game's first expansion, House of Wolves, that Destiny resonated with him. As for Guitar Hero, Spencer also recounted his initial doubt. When Harmonix proposed the game, Spencer was unconvinced. "I've made some truly regrettable game-choice decisions," he confessed.

Xbox Release Planned for Dune: Awakening, but Remains Difficult for Funcom

Despite these missed chances, Spencer said that he isn't one to dwell on regrets. "I'm not a regrets-type person," he said. "Maybe that's a flaw of mine, but I passed on so many games. I could look back and—but no, I try to look forward and be positive about the things that we are doing."

Xbox is indeed looking forward, with plans to bring even larger franchises into the fold. One such example is Dune: Awakening developed by Funcom, an action RPG adaptation of the iconic Dune film/novel franchise. The game is expected to be released on Xbox Series S alongside PC and PS5, though Dune: Awakening’s Xbox release has presented challenges to the developer.

Scott Junior, Funcom’s chief product officer, addressed these hurdles during an interview at Gamescom 2024. "So, it's one of the reasons we're launching on PC first," Junior said. "There's a lot of optimizations we need to complete before we release on the Xbox. But yeah, Xbox Series S is a challenge." However, Junior assured that the game would still run smoothly even on less powerful consoles. In a statement to news site VG247, he confirmed that Dune: Awakening will still "perform well on hardware that's years and years old. We'll be able to do it!"

Entoria: The Last Song Faces Difficulty with Xbox Release

In related news, Enotria: The Last Song from indie developer Jyamma Games, has faced delays on Xbox just weeks before its planned September 19 release. The studio claimed that Microsoft has not responded to their submission, despite the game being "practically ready for both Series S and X." Jyamma Games CEO Jacky Greco expressed frustration over the lack of communication from Xbox, which has impeded the game's release on the platform. As a result, Enotria will launch on PlayStation 5 and PC, while the Xbox version remains uncertain.

"We understand how disappointing this news is to the Xbox community. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts and the hard work of our dedicated team, we’ve encountered challenges that have delayed our release on the Xbox platform," the studio previously said in an announcement on the game's official website.

As spotted by Windows Central, Jyamma Games CEO Jacky Greco recently further addressed the situation regarding the delayed Xbox launch of Entoria. On the game's official Discord channel, Greco wrote: "You can ask Xbox why they haven't answered us for two months," and reportedly added, "Obviously they don't care about Enotria and they don't care about you... We've Xbox Series X/S version ready, but we can't proceed with submission and release, I spent a lot of money for porting and they decided to ignore us."

Greco reportedly told Insider Gaming that "the game has been postponed due to a lack of communication from Xbox regarding an issue where the developer cannot open its store page, and consequently submit the game. "We really want to release the game on Xbox ASAP," the studio tweeted, "but with lack of communication on their side it is a hard task indeed."