Spencer Hints at Microsoft’s Promising Future: Extensive Game Line-up for 2024 Concealed during Stage Presentation

After the recent Xbox Games Showcase, Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, was interviewed by Polygon. The interview covered various industry topics and provided insights from the outspoken executive.

One thing is clear: Spencer has a high level of confidence in the future lineup of Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda, starting from next year. Exciting releases such as Towerborne, Avowed, Hellblade II, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, and potentially more are expected. Spencer also hinted at several games that were not showcased in this year’s event, including upcoming projects from id Software and The Coalition, the reboot of Perfect Dark, and Rare’s Everwild.

In terms of upcoming releases, I’m not particularly concerned about 2024. 2022 was a challenging year for us, but we learned valuable lessons. For example, take South of Midnight, which was announced at the Xbox Games Showcase. We actually had the game ready to announce last year, but we decided to keep working on it, improving it before making the announcement. We believe it’s okay to delay announcements in order to ensure a better final product. Another example is Clockwork Revolution. When I was at E3 last year, I played that game at inXile. I didn’t just watch the announcement video, I got hands-on experience with the latest builds. This gives me confidence because we are gradually revealing these games closer to their release dates. We have firsthand experience with them.

I believe now is the time to truly deliver on these promises, and not just for the next 12 months. There are still many exciting things we haven’t discussed, such as what’s coming from id Software and The Coalition. When will we see Perfect Dark and Everwild again? We have numerous projects in the works that we have yet to showcase. I don’t like to be overly confident, but I am cautiously optimistic about our portfolio. I think we are in a very strong position.

Phil Spencer’s confidence in the lineup of first-party releases traces back to E3 2018, when Microsoft began acquiring studios like Ninja Theory, Undead Labs, Compulsion Games, Playground Games, and established The Initiative. Later, they acquired Obsidian and inXile in the same year, followed by Double Fine the next year. Recently, they made even bigger moves with the acquisition of ZeniMax for $7.5 billion and the pending $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

With 20 studios working on content, it was only a matter of time before the release calendar started to fill up. It took some time because some studios had to finish their multiplatform games before focusing on exclusive titles. However, it seems that Spencer and his team have successfully orchestrated the pieces to fall into place.

While Microsoft’s quantity of games will undoubtedly increase, it remains to be seen if they can match the exceptional first-party output of Sony and Nintendo. The upcoming release of Bethesda’s Starfield, in less than three months, will be the first true test of Microsoft’s capabilities.