After years of darkness, thanks to the direction of Phil Spencer and his collaborators, the position of the Xbox division in the console market has been strengthened and, more than anything else, the plan to offer the Microsoft Gaming ecosystem to an audience of gamers increasingly large and diversified came to life. The combined efforts on the services and gaming fronts via cloud infrastructure, combined with the recent acquisitions – completed and not completed – aimed at expanding the production machine of the Redmond giant certainly indicate a bright future for the green-crossed world, which, however, needs to be reflected upon.
In drawing the line towards the new trends and the gaming of tomorrow, Spencer and partners have not managed, at least until now, to fully satisfy the players regarding the current offer, too often supported by a Game Pass full of interesting releases but almost never first party or capable of highlighting the capabilities within the Xbox Series X. If we add to this the precarious state of health of historical series, some painful postponements and the substantial disappearance of many projects already announcedthe reasons why we wanted to focus on the future challenges of Microsoft after the special on the future of PlayStation are evident.
The productive machine: between stumbles and hopes
At the 2019 Game Awards, with the surprise announcement of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 and Xbox Series X – a powerful console with a bold design but also at the service of dissipation – Microsoft effectively opened up the current generation of consoles, promising ever greater prominence of Xbox Game Pass and the arrival of exclusive high-profile titles. We are now three years away from those events and things have not gone exactly as expected.
On the promises kept, on the services front it is impossible not to praise the work done by the giant of Redmond, which in the last year has allowed us to have fun with Return to Monkey Island, A Plague Tale: Requiem, Immortality, High On Life (here the review of High On Life), Scorn and Persona 5 Royal, just to name a few. The games that have been added to the Game Pass catalog since Day One are numerous, varied and often of unquestionable quality but unfortunately, net of peculiar smaller experiences such as Pentiment (here the review of Pentiment), the great first party productions are absent .
In late 2021, in addition to the acclaimed Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite made its long-awaited debut, sporting excellent gunplay and an enjoyable campaign, albeit characterized by a sometimes inconsistent narrative sector. On paper, the foundations for creating a platform capable of expanding over time, both in terms of single player and multiplayer, seemed to exist, yet to date the fate of the Infinite project appears nebulous to say the least. One of the first reasons behind this statement it is to be found precisely in the multiplayer, updated with new content – not always interesting – at a phlegmatic pace and today far less populated than in the first, encouraging, months of the product’s life. If we also consider the report on the possible abandonment of the Slipspace Engine in favor of the Unreal Engine and the recent farewell of some key figures of 343 Industries, a sign of a possible structural reorganization, the future of Halo is currently unknown. Speaking of internal teams, the new 2023 Forza Motorsport will showcase the power of the Xbox Series X thanks to technological solutions proudly actual gen however, net of the course fees, several first party productions have disappeared from the radar.
We hope that in addition to giving us some more concrete information on Hellblade 2, the next communication appointment from Microsoft – which after the deafening silence at the Game Awards could occur relatively soon – will be able to reassure us about the state of health of Fable, Avowed and Perfect Dark, just to name three, especially given the official news and the rumors surrounding these “great absentees”.
In the first case, according to Windows Central, the alleged development problems derive from Microsoft’s desire not to rely on third-party solutions for the benefit of internal engines, just think of the Forza Tech Engine. Developed in collaboration with Crystal Dynamics, The Initiative’s Perfect Dark would be coming along well, while Obsidian’s RPG – apparently – will be even more ambitious than initially budgeted: however, the basic remains the substantial lack of news on these projects, probably disclosed to the public prematurely, just like in the case of State of Decay 3 and Rare’s Everwild, announced when it was only a concept and little more. In short, we hope that in the coming months Microsoft will be able to manage communication in a more transparent way, avoiding talking about games in the embryonic stage and providing concrete news – also through gameplay videos – on some of its most visible “gestations”. A central role in this sense Bethesda will also fill it and not only with Redfall and Starfield, of which it is now reasonable to expect the definitive launch date.
The marriage between Microsoft and the house of The Elder Scrolls has in fact led to the acquisition of many pearls of the past to be included in the Game Pass catalog, as well as graphics engines – think of the never too praised idTech that moves Doom and Wolfenstein – and teams of indisputable talent.
We are referring precisely to the guys from id Software and Machine Games, with the latter who could finally enlighten us on the future of the slaughter of Nazis by William Blazkowicz and, why not, about the Indiana Jones project, which according to Todd Howard would be a difficult game to classify, because it is a meeting point between different elements. At the beginning we also referred to unfinished acquisitions, such as that of Activision Blizzard Kingwhich would allow Microsoft Gaming not to impose itself only in the console and PC world.
A 360-degree expansion… all to be managed
Thinking about the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, one often tends not to consider King, whose weight in the whole deal is instead decisive, as confirmed by the CEO of Microsoft Gaming himself. Phil Spencer is well aware that at the moment Microsoft has not managed to significantly enter mobile platforms and it would be King who could change things: Candy Crush for example it is one of those names that spring to mind when we think of the giant’s desire to reach new masses of players.
In addition, Call of Duty Mobile alone has earned the company over 1 billion dollars and therefore it is not surprising that products such as Diablo Immortal have hit the market. As far as the PC world is concerned, Microsoft is well aware of the importance of franchises such as World of Warcraft and Starcraftwhile in the console field we finally come to the central role of Call of Duty.
In short, if the green cross division successfully concluded the deal, it would have a real chance of expand to 360 degreesbecause what would be the use of diversified access points to the offer – including cloud gaming, TV, console, PC – if this did not provide the right attractions for an audience with such varied tastes?
In addition, in addition to allowing the arrival of a multitude of classics on Game Pass, this marriage could allow several talented teams to focus on projects outside the world of Call of Duty and able to flesh out the offer of services with new Spyro, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Crash Bandicoot and so on and so forth. Even in this sense, however, it is difficult not to think to managerial challenges that Microsoft will have to face if the operation were to be completed, because trivially even today’s management of the Xbox Game Studios and of the individual production processes is proving not exactly easy. In conclusion, if the foundations for his long-term vision have been laid in the best possible way, with the multiplication of devices and methods for accessing Game Pass and green gaming in general, the division led by Spencer has yet to to exhibit the goodness of his intentions and promisesbecause only by materializing these will their near future shine with a heartening light.
