"With news of Scalebound's cancellation, we ask whether Phil Spencer is the wrong person to steer the Xbox to success."
Asa from Gameondaily discusses whether Phil Spencer should be blamed for the Xbox's recent failings.
Following a recent interview with Sony, Naughty Dog head Neil Druckmann claims the original intent was “unfortunately lost” in the process.
Glad he clarified it but i'm still somewhat skeptical. Plus, his comments about how Ai will revolutionize storytelling were still pretty iffy.
Druckmann claims the tech could 'push the boundaries of storytelling in games.'
I’m more interested in what else he said.
“Neil Druckmann says new Naughty Dog title could ‘redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming’
He also said it has "ethical issues we need to address" but of course that doesn't get the clicks.
I’m all for it. Cuts the time to make a game. Look, Hellblade 2 took 5 years to make, if AI can do that in half the time, as a consumer, I support it.
CD Projekt RED and Yigsoft have launched The Witcher 3 REDkit on PC. We interviewed both studios to discuss the release of these mod tools.
some will say yes and others no. Honestly though, the tough calls have to be made and that means having to deal with the backlash of making those calls. We don't know all the details about why certain games get canceled. All we have is speculation until both parties agree to disclose the reasons in a mutual decision.
Games like Scalebound and Fable legends and phantom dust all have been canceled with little to no explanation and it has been speculated that Scalebound was taking too long with development and/or MS was being pushy for updates. Fable legends was not turning out to be the game MS was expecting and/or the development team wanted to start over which would take even more time. Phantom dust was just not shaping up to be a good game (multiplayer only) and/or MS wanted the original game remastered instead.
Some of those statements may have some truth to them but overall the decision to cancel these projects was made under the guise of quality control. Anyone in a position of leadership has to make those tough decisions even when the consumer backlash is something they know they will have to face.
How you face it says allot more about a leader than just simply making these decisions.
Can we just take a second to take a step back and observe the overblown nature of this news. When Phil and Xbox released the Xbox One S just a few months ago, it was called the "comeback" and his leadership was praised for turning the ship around for the Xbox brand. He cancels a game that was missing deadlines, stuck in development troubles and looking in bad shape and look how quickly people are to jump back on the Xbox hate wagon. It's embarrassing we wish failure on any brand/persons in this industry.
Very good article and I agree.
Phil is doing the best he can with what he has been given and even though he has retconned a lot of the many blunders the console had at launch it seems the only uphill battle he now has to face is the "where are the games?" stigma that has been attached to Xbox. Other than that the Xbox has turned around real nicely and it has been under his watch.
"Let’s assume for the moment that Scalebound was terrible."
And here's the thing, the game supposedly had a lot of problems, from the engine not working properly, to framerate drops. It is said that the game just couldn't function right on the Xbox console. I keep reading from some on here that MS should have just released it...could you just imagine the backlash if that would have happened?
MS's games get scrutinized enough (all games do but...) Xbox games gets a special type of scrutiny not found on any other system. I can only imagine the articles and fan(boy) reaction if Scalebound released with technical issues and a meta score anywhere below 85.
Phil has been upfront and vocal on what he wants to do with Xbox, he answers tweets and keeps himself pretty accessible to Xbox fans. That alone IMO is what I can appreciate about the guy, who else in this console business does this as much as he does?
I wouldn't have had a huge issue with Scalebound being canceled if there was at least something else similar (action type game) coming in from MS for Xbox.
"The name will be etched on the Xbox memorial wall alongside Fable Legends, Phantom Dust and Project Spark."
Who is the R & D head guy at MS? Maybe we should be asking Phil this question before we all drop him into a pit of boiling acid. Who is green lighting these games and then finding out two to three years later when the game is in beta that it wasn't fun or technically possible on Xbox? That team or guy should be the one to be fired.
I don't think Phil is doing a bad job or anything. The only decision I still think was the wrong one was spending the 2 billion dollars to purchase Minecraft. While it stands to reason that that franchise will generate a lot of revenue for them, I just think that they could have used that money to bolster their 1st party line-up. The Scalebound cancellation doesn't exactly have me concerned at all because we don't know (or at the very least, I don't know) the exact details apart from Kamiya going through some mental health issues (likely just from the pressure that the industry imposes on devs on a daily basis), and I think it's a matter of extenuating circumstances that lead to that decision.