Xbox's Big Franchise Decisions Under Fire: Spencer Speaks Out

As Xbox navigates gaming's changing landscape, CEO Phil Spencer reflects on missed opportunities and the "worst decisions" they've made throughout the years. Read on to learn about his statements and more on the upcoming games expected to launch on Xbox.

Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Reflects on "Worst Decisions" with Big FranchisesDestiny and Guitar Hero Were Great Missed Opportunities for Xbox

During a "Story Time with Phil Spencer" sit down interview at the recently held PAX West 2024, Xbox boss Phil Spencer discussed the games that have shaped his career at MSFT's gaming arm—and the ones that got away. Spencer opened up about some of the biggest franchises he "passed on," including Bungie's Destiny franchise and Harmonix's iconic Guitar Hero series, decisions he said he considers among "the worst" of his career.

Spencer, who started at Xbox when Bungie was part of Microsoft, shared his mixed feelings about Destiny. "There's so many mixed emotions and stories for me around Destiny," he said. "Obviously, Bungie was part of Microsoft when I started at Xbox, and I shared a floor with Alex Seropian, Jason Jones in the building that we were in Redmond. I learned a ton from just being around Bungie."

Despite the close ties with the studio, Spencer admitted that Destiny "didn't really click" with him at first, and it wasn't until the game's first expansion, House of Wolves, that Destiny resonated with him. As for Guitar Hero, Spencer also recalled his initial skepticism. When Harmonix pitched the game, Spencer was doubtful. "I've passed on some of the worst… like, made some of the worst game-choice decisions," he admitted.

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

Despite these missed opportunities, Spencer said that he isn't one to dwell on regrets. "I'm not a regrets-type person," he said. "Maybe that's a fault 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 bigger 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 challenges during an interview at Gamescom 2024. "So, it's one of the reasons we're coming out on PC first," Junior said. "There's a lot of optimizations we need to do 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 lower-spec 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 hindered the game's release on the platform. As a result, Enotria will launch on PlayStation 5 and PC, while the Xbox version remains up in the air.

"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 submitting 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."