Spencer’s Xbox One Long-Term Strategy: Invest More In First Party Games, Fewer

Plus, rumour has it that the Microsoft-owned developer Press Play, of Max: The Curse of Brotherhood and Kalimba fame, is set to show off its next project. Taking a franchise that was synonymous with PlayStation at one point and wrapping it up for a year on the Xbox One was a big deal.

In an interview with Gamecore, Spencer noted that gamers should expect fewer third-party deals for exclusive content going forward as Microsoft wants to focus more on first-party.

My strategy is more around our own first-party franchises, and investing in franchises that we own. “I want to have strong third-party relations, but paying for many third-party exclusives isn’t our long-term strategy”, said Spencer.

When asked about if we will get a “firm release date” for Quantum Break at Gamescom, Xbox head Phil Spencer gave a response that seems to hint that exactly to be the case.

This strategy is the opposite of Microsoft’s strategy from the previous generation, as back in the time of the Xbox 360, it was all about third party exclusives and timed exclusive contracts with third party developers. Speaking of features, Puha revealed on Twitter on the same day that the highly-anticipated Xbox One-exclusive game will be “having great combat scenarios that allow one to replay them with different strategies/moves is key”. That isn’t to say the Xbox One would go without a lot of third party exclusives, however.

Gamespot further adds that aside from “Quantume Break”, several video game titles are also going to be featured in Gamescom 2015, such as “Halo 5: Guardians“, “Rise of Tomb Raider“, “Fable Legends”, “Gears of War: Ultimate Edition” and “Forza Motorsport 6″. The questions are in Chinese accompanied with annotations.