Despite the purchase of studios and franchises, the truth is that Xbox Game Studios continue to weigh down the same problem as always, the frequency and release dates. There are not a few of us who think that it is a shot in the foot to leave the first 6 months of the year without a release and then concentrate everything in the last 4 months.
Since Redmond, they have engaged several times that they would bet more to space the games more throughout the year, a promise that has fallen on deaf ears… I insist, several times.
Launch concentration is the Achilles heel of Xbox, and for that reason they are going to improve it
Perhaps now that they have more projects than ever they are in a position to fulfill this promise, it is true that some time must be given until the new toys that Microsoft has bought begin to finish projects. However, I insist, this planning error it’s been years and it is a very negative strategy for the Xbox public.
Now that Xbox Game Pass exists, there is no reason to wait until the end of the year, reaching a wide audience is now relatively easy for Microsoft games, so it makes sense that they stop using the 4-month strategy. And indeed Phil Spencer seems committed to this, at least this is what he replied when asked regarding it on the xbox era podcast.
We’ve got a lot of great games in development… We want to get to this point where there’s a constant stream of great games that are coming in, that our customers can predict… We’re going through this moment, you know, we’re not having a big game this quarter, so together with Matt Booty and the rest of the team we want to get to that point where we really have a great on-ramp for our platform and games that people can get excited regarding on a regular basis.
Now it’s time to see how they react in 2023, the first quarter of 2022 is already aired, and I wouldn’t expect a surprise release before summer. So we can break the promise once once more this year as well. I would like nothing more than a better dosage in Xbox releases, material they have for the future.