It’s never too early to hear him talk about video games with enthusiasm. Even at 7 in the morning. It’s a bit like what we say to each other when Phil Spencer meets us at a studio in Los Angeles first thing in the morning to talk about the Xbox Games Showcase that took place the day before, and especially about star field shown in length. An important moment for Xbox, recognizes the interested party even before the start of the interview.
Phil Spencer is first and foremost a passionate gamer before becoming the boss of one of the biggest players in the world of video games. He makes no secret of it and immediately wants our opinion on the featured games even though the camera hasn’t started rolling yet. He is pleased to show them to us, like a child with a new toy, and wants to share his joy, his smile on a face as tired as ours at such an early hour and when we are not even their first meeting of the day.
We feel that the pressure of the event drops little by little. It has to be said that expectations were high after a mediocre 2022 year, a dragging Activision Blizzard King acquisition, and games that have been long delayed. Subjects on which he returns bluntly.
“Gamers are always at the center of everything on Xbox”
‘Feeling the energy of the audience as the different games came on the screen, the reaction of the people during the conference and afterwards, it was really great’: Phil Spencer had a strong moment with the fans present to attend the Showcase -recorded -, but also to participate in a mini-Fan Fest.
“Gamers are always at the center of everything, that’s the main interest. I love contact with gamers. They are one of the most important reasons for everything we do at Xbox,” he confesses, explaining that he especially wanted “the community feel this confidence that we have in Xbox, in our catalog of games and in those that will come.
A message to the players, but also, he does not hide it, a message to the industry and international organizations. Because this Xbox Showcase has given pride of place to in-house studios with some great exclusives to come (Fable, Forza Motorsport, Starfield, etc.)but also featured games from third-party publishers (Star Wars Outlaws, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess…). Nearly 50% of the 27 games featured came from elsewhere and will largely be available on PS5 and PC as well.
A diversity that we no longer imagined possible with the impressive number of Xbox Studios now. But these third-party games had the merit of being numerous and coming from everywhere, especially from Asia with Atlus, Capcom and SEGA, a stronghold thought to be reserved for PlayStation.
Il sait que c’est aussi un point qui fait débat en Angleterre et aux États-Unis dans le cadre de l’acquisition d’Activision Blizzard King, ce risque de voir Xbox cadenasser la concurrence et faire preuve d’hégémonie sur le marché du videogame. The person concerned removes everything with the back of his hand. “External partners, independent developers play a very important role in what we do,” he recalls. “On Xbox, the vast majority of games played and sold come from third-party publishers, not from us as the proprietary company. And that’s what we want.”
Starfield, a major game for Xbox
It wants to see its Xbox Series X⎮S consoles as a place where independent developers, like big publishers, “can do great things.”
But he is also very proud to have home games like star fieldfirstborn of the union with Bethesda after the takeover bid of the ZeniMax group (also owner of Arkane Studios behind red autumn, the first true Xbox exclusive with disastrous beginnings). A game that promises to be gargantuan and about which he speaks with a frenzy, aware of the pearl that Xbox has in its hands.
“We are working on star field for a long time. Who knows how far you’ll go in a game? But Todd Howard and the team at Bethesda Game Studios created skyrim, fallout 3 AND 4. It is a team that knows how to create great immersive role-playing games that last a long time”, enthuses the one who has been playing it since November, without hiding that it is “an important game” for the American giant.
Negotiating the acquisition of Activision Blizzard: “I was not prepared for this”
Reassured by the welcome given to a very dense Xbox Showcase, Phil Spencer also has his mind set on the difficult acquisition of Action Blizzard King, which will last yet. Before the press after the conference, he will admit on the subject that he was not “prepared for it.”
“It’s been a long journey and a learning experience to talk to government regulators, listen to their concerns, think about what we can do to move this process forward. Maybe ease their concerns as well.”
Xbox has obtained the green light from forty countries and especially from the European Union, “an important step for us” and an “interactive” debate that has led the gaming branch of Microsoft to sign numerous agreements around the gaming cloud to answer the questions posed. We still have to convince the UK CMA and the US FTC, who have vetoed the former and filed a legal block request for the latter.
“This is a major acquisition and regulators should definitely think about the impact on their market,” says Phil Spencer. “This constructive exchange that we had with the European Commission, we want to replicate with the United States and the United Kingdom. We remain convinced that we will be able to conclude this agreement.”
King, the true goose that lays the golden eggs
When we told him about the advanced importance of obligations on the record, he wants to rectify things. “On Xbox, our strategy is to increase player count, increase engagement. The biggest gaming platform in the world is gamers playing on smartphones today and Xbox doesn’t have a lot of experience at this level,” he conceives.
Therefore, the acquisition interest would not be in flagship licenses such as code, devil or world of warcraft, but rather King’s mobile declensions (Candy Crush et al), or even Hearthstone or Call of Duty Mobile.
By the end of 2022, in-app purchases on these free games accounted for more than half of the company’s fiscal second-quarter revenue ($831 million of $1.6 billion), including $684 million for King alone. and more than $100 billion in that quarter alone. for immortal devil then it just came out.
“So we’ll stay focused on this strategy of finding players everywhere on console, on PC and on mobile,” he explains. What if the acquisition must be cancelled? “Our strategy will continue to be one way or another,” says the thinking boss of Xbox. “The deal plays a big part in this, but that’s not all.”
“I feel privileged”
Did the player who was a child dream of being the boss he has become? “Not at all,” he laughs. “I started at Microsoft as an intern and ended up as head of Xbox. I love my job, I feel privileged to have gotten this job and lucky in many ways,” he admits. “But I wouldn’t have dreamed like that. When I was little and played all these games, my mother’s friends said that I was wasting time, that it was better to study, to do something else. I laugh about it now.”
Certainly passionate, obviously happy, and always a crazy “spending many hours there” gamer, listening to him speak, we also understand that just as much as Xbox gamers, their gear is essential. “What drives me is all these people with a true vision and passion for games. And I want to do everything possible to make Xbox the best it can be for them, both for the players and for the creators of games”, proclaims this lover of video games.
Source: BFM TV
