Phil Spencer has been awfully visible over the last year and he’s been quite verbose when it comes to what he thinks Microsoft needs to do with the Xbox One to keep a pretty decent run going for the Xbox One. Earlier this month, the exec told reporters that the console would be moving towards more first party games and away from third party games. Now he’s saying that Microsoft must have a more diverse lineup moving forward.
At least for now, it doesn’t appear the company is taking Spencer’s words to heart, though it is clear he meant in the future and games it has shown off at Gamescom don’t really count. The three big games Microsoft showed off this week, Scalebound, Quantum Break and Crackdown 3 are among the third person action genre. Spencer was specifically asked about that when he sat down with Gamespot. “More diversity in terms of genre and mechanics, I think it’s a great thing for this industry to push,” he said. “So yes, you do find a lot of third-party action games from us, and I do think we should be pushing harder on genre and control.”
Spencer went on to say that he thinks the lack of diversity among genres is an industry issue. Specifically he believes third person games are becoming more and more prevalent. He also believes that isn’t entirely a terrible thing. Spencer said that when a game is about telling a story, those games tend to gravitate towards third person. Just how Spencer is going to bring more diversity, or whether he has a real plan is something we won’t know for a while yet.