Recently, Executive Vice President of Gaming Phil Spencer sat down with Director of Programming of Xbox Live Larry Hryb to discuss everything from Crackdown 3 to plans for E3 2019. The podcast launched on January 25, 2019, and has energized many Xbox One owners since then.
The first major piece of news Spencer dropped was that Playground Games and Rare are working on new projects. It's unclear what they are, but we'll probably have to wait until E3 2019 or E3 2020 to find out. Rumor has it that Playground is developing Fable 4, but as with any such alleged "leak," take it with a grain of salt until the media receives official confirmation. Spencer said, "I saw what Playground is working on next, I saw what Rare is working on next, and their continued success with Sea of Thieves."
That wasn't all though. Spencer discussed plans for E3 2019 and how Xbox was going big this year, especially since Sony isn't attending the event. Spencer said the following.
This is going to be a fun E3 for us... we had a discussion internally. Should we go big? Should we save some money? No, we're going to do our thing and we're going to go and be as big at E3 as we've ever been. And I love that opportunity to be with our fans and the industry... We're still going through some of the discussions on how much long-term and how much near-term [games] do we talk about... I'm a proponent for being as transparent as can be... I feel really good about our plans... The content that we'll have will be great and we'll talk about our future. We'll talk more about what the Xbox brand means to us... We have millions of Xbox customers... we see them on a phone or another device... We want to make that possible.
It's great to see that Xbox is going all-out for E3 2019. Hopefully the next-generation console will be revealed alongside a slew of amazing titles like the rumored Fable 4.
Spencer went on to discuss Project xCloud, Microsoft's game streaming platform which is in active development right now. Spencer said the following.
One thing I was doing on holiday was that I was playing games on xCloud... We want to make sure we get it as right as we can. We want to test it... to anyone else on the service, I'm just playing... It'll be years before this is the primary way people are playing... but let's think about our future... We should also have these five to ten year views on where things can go.
Hopefully Xbox Insiders will be able to get their hands on Project xCloud soon.
Given the sheer scope of Microsoft — it's one of the most valuable companies in the world with many divisions — many gamers question the higher-up's commitment to the gaming division. Spencer cleared the air by saying "Satya Nadella and Amy Hood are quite supportive... Satya looked at me on the last [meeting] and said, 'Man, we're really in on content.' He trusts the team... He calls Game Pass the Netflix for games."
There are thousands of people working for Xbox around the world at more, and that figure is growing and growing. This interview made it clear that Microsoft has an important long-term vision for how Xbox fits into the company as a whole. Hopefully this commitment will continue to get strong in the future with a lot of great exclusives. How do you feel about this interview? What stood out to you the most? Let us know.
