The latest Xbox Scorpio games news reinforces what Microsoft has been saying for a long time: first-party or die. Head of Xbox Phil Spencer was a real Chatty Cathy on Twitter this week and gamesindustry.biz catalogued the conversations Spencer had with curious fans. Spencer didn’t mince words when it came to Scorpio games.
Having our 1P games ready for Scorpio is critical.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) March 22, 2017
Very focused on 1P games. I'll be careful about when we announce things but I know strong 1P is critical.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) March 22, 2017
It’s going to take first-party Scorpio games to make the most of Microsoft’s new console. They’re billing it as the most powerful console ever, and it’s likely that claim will hold up after teardowns, but they’ve also made it clear there won’t be Scorpio exclusives, either. And asking third-party studios to do extra work on features for a console only a fraction of the audience will have is a tough sell. It’s on Microsoft to make Scorpio look its best. And it sounds like that means giving the games a bigger spotlight on gaming’s biggest stage of the year: E3.
I want to give our games more time on stage at E3, I sometimes feel like we rush telling the story of our games at E3.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) March 22, 2017
Microsoft always says E3 is about the games, but talk is cheap. I remember last year’s press event where a too-large chunk of time was dedicated to talking about controllers. Like, Elite controllers are cool and all, but they don’t exactly fire up the base. So it won’t be hard for Microsoft to be more games-oriented this year than last year, so long as they don’t spend too much time talking about the Scorpio beyond a release date, pre-order hype and price tag. We might even see some surprises by way of third-party games from Japan.
I was encouraged by trip to Japan. More work to do but I'm committed to working with Japanese publishers.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) March 22, 2017
Japanese publishers who build games that they believe have a WW audience want Xbox success. FFXV an example.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) March 22, 2017
This is a white whale for Xbox One owners, although if you’re really into japanese games, odds are you have a PS4 too, because you have to. That landscape could change, as Spencer points out FFXV sold well on Xbox One (almost a million copies) so it could help open the door for other publishers who want to reach a wider audience. Unfortunately, the upcoming Persona 5 release, among the biggest imports coming from Japan this year, won’t be on Xbox One. If Microsoft wants to show fans it’s got the ear of third-party devs in Japan, it needs to use E3 to announce something big.
Excited for Xbox Scorpio? Hoping for a more games-focused E3? Tired of the “new” console fad? Let us know in the comments!
