Zeus
07-05-2007, 08:14 AM
Microsoft Game Studios’Phil Spencer recently sat down for a chat regarding the strategy of his unit. One question thrown at him is how he sees his studio competing against Sony's very active publishing and development operation. To which he responded, he does not feel that MS game studios' are that far behind but unlike Sony, they are going for the best games and not just pumping out 40 or 50 releases for a year. Spencer cvlaims that if you look at Microsoft GS' review scores over the years, it shows that they are one of the best publishers around.
Sony is famously very active in Europe and has a very busy and established third party publishing and development operation here. How do you see yourselves as competing with them?
Some of Sony’s work in Europe has been great – but when I think about the fact that games like Fable, Crackdown and Project Gotham are built by our partners I don’t think we are behind them.
We’re not the kind of publisher that is going to turn up and try to compete on volume or number of units shipped a year – I expect Sony will always beat us in that regard, but if that’s what a studio is looking for, to be part of 40 or 50 releases a year then, I don’t know, maybe they aren’t the right partner for us.
We are going to go after the best games –and to go back to the response we’ve had so far, it’s clear that is what other studios want as well, they want to be part of the publisher that produces the best games. If you look at our review scores over the past four years and rank the publishers that way – and yes, review scores are very subjective – but it correlates to the growth of MGS from Xbox 1 to what we are able to do now and what our line-up is. It’s clear we’re one of the best publishers out there.
Competing with Sony for great games is fine – but I don’t put that rivalry as a priority. The priority is finding those great games in the first place and closing those deals when we find them.
News Source: <a href="http://www.developmag.com/news/27865/QA-Microsofts-Phil-Spencer" target="_blank">Developmag.com</a>
Sony is famously very active in Europe and has a very busy and established third party publishing and development operation here. How do you see yourselves as competing with them?
Some of Sony’s work in Europe has been great – but when I think about the fact that games like Fable, Crackdown and Project Gotham are built by our partners I don’t think we are behind them.
We’re not the kind of publisher that is going to turn up and try to compete on volume or number of units shipped a year – I expect Sony will always beat us in that regard, but if that’s what a studio is looking for, to be part of 40 or 50 releases a year then, I don’t know, maybe they aren’t the right partner for us.
We are going to go after the best games –and to go back to the response we’ve had so far, it’s clear that is what other studios want as well, they want to be part of the publisher that produces the best games. If you look at our review scores over the past four years and rank the publishers that way – and yes, review scores are very subjective – but it correlates to the growth of MGS from Xbox 1 to what we are able to do now and what our line-up is. It’s clear we’re one of the best publishers out there.
Competing with Sony for great games is fine – but I don’t put that rivalry as a priority. The priority is finding those great games in the first place and closing those deals when we find them.
News Source: <a href="http://www.developmag.com/news/27865/QA-Microsofts-Phil-Spencer" target="_blank">Developmag.com</a>