Xbox CEO Phil Spencer admits mistakes after "Redfall" disaster launch
The Xbox brand just experienced its worst week ever after its Activision Blizzard acquisition was blocked by British authorities, and its first big release of the year, “Redfall,” was met with fan backlash and critical disappointment.
Needless to say, Xbox chief executive Phil Spencer isn’t a happy camper.
“I’m not in a positive mood this week, so I apologize for staying in cranky mode,” Spencer told the hosts of Kinda Funny Xcast.
British regulators denied Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of games publishing giant Activision Blizzard last week — impeding the company’s attempt to gain that company’s massive intellectual property, including the Call of Duty series, as Xbox releases.
Then on Tuesday, Xbox’s highly anticipated release of “Redfall” ended with a splat. Developed by the widely acclaimed Arkane Austin, which Microsoft recently acquired, the game garnered surprisingly low critical scores, such as a 4 out of 10 on GameSpot. Reviewers generally criticized it as boring, uninspired and full of bugs.
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It was one of first titles released under the inflated $70 price tag that has become standard for big-budget games.
“Redfall is an absolute catastrophe of a video game” was the title of a typical trending review on YouTube.
On the podcast, Spencer took responsibility for at least the game’s technical failures.
He explained that “Redfall” started development before Xbox/Microsoft acquired the property in 2021. But he also acknowledged that it released under the Xbox banner with a critical reception far worse than what the company expected.
“We need to improve on engaging in games that are midway through production when they become part of Xbox,” Spencer said. “We didn’t do a good job early on in engaging with Arkane Austin to help them understand what it meant to be part of Xbox and part of first-party, and use some of our internal resources to help them.”
Spencer said Arkane didn’t make use of an internal division at Microsoft that helps game developers with multiplayer networking, code performance and reliability. He also said Xbox failed to give the studio the technological help it needed for Unreal Engine, the game engine software that powers “Redfall.”
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Moving on from bad news, he turned the subject to Microsoft’s next big release: “Starfield” by Bethesda Game Studios, which he hopes will put some wind in Xbox’s sails when it releases this fall.
“We did a better job with ‘Starfield,’ but that game was earlier on in production, and it was easier for us to swarm a bunch of people to help with the technology on our platform and ensure we ship a quality experience there,” Spencer said.
The Xbox Series console is currently trailing in sales behind Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Nintendo’s Switch. The company has attempted to refocus its business as a service across platforms, which include PC and cloud gaming. Its main pillar is its Xbox Game Pass subscription service, which offers more than a 100 games to install and play for $10 a month.
Spencer offered some cautious optimism that Xbox will start catching up soon.
“I’m just going to say there’s not a win for Xbox staying in the wake of somebody else,” he said.
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