It’s interesting to look back at the original vision for the Xbox One and how quickly the console turned around both before and after its release. Much of this was achieved through introducing new IPs, constant updates to the console’s feature set and Microsoft’s own stable of franchises. Xbox division boss Phil Spencer spoke to Polygon and the turnaround has a lot to do with the Xbox team as much as anything else.
“It all starts, honestly, with the team. Any one person, myself included, the amount of impact I can have around what shows up on stage — I can suggest some things, I can make some decisions on certain things — but what I loved about the show (at Gamescom), from the opening demo of Quantum Break all the way through the end and the partnership with Creative Assembly and Halo Wars 2, I get the sense now and I feel it every day when I show up to work, that the team at Xbox believes in the mission we’re on.”
Microsoft had a cracking press conference last week during Gamescom showcasing several major games such as Halo 5, Quantum Break and the surprise announcement of Halo Wars 2. However the real star of the show was Crackdown 3 which in all honesty is an innovation for multiplayer gaming. All of this stuff comes from the talented team at Microsoft and Spencer believes that the team’s continuous focus on pushing boundaries is resulting into innovation.
“And more often than not, when I sit down with a team and we’re going through a review of their game or their part of the platform or service, their innovation that they’re doing on their own is beyond anything I can think of. They come in and they surprise me — which you could say is not the hardest thing to do — but they push the boundary beyond what I even thought was possible for us to do in amount of time.”
So far it seems to be working especially with top tier releases like Halo 5: Guardians and Forza Motorsport 5 out soon, updates like backwards compatibility and Windows 10 and a fairly strong 2016 line-up. What are your thoughts on the same? Let us know in the comments.
