cormack12
Gold Member
Summary
- Retrospective on announcing the XSX at last years VGA, references COVID and how the teams rallied for the launch. Proud of the teams and launching the new console;
- Consoles are selling out quickly. Still making them as fast as they can and getting them to retailers;
- They get asked 'why didn't they supply more/start earlier?'. This is just down to physics and engineering - all assembly lines are still on full production schedules. Has been on the phone to AMD asking how do they increase production;
- PS5 also in tight supply so illustrates it's just one of those things that they have to deal with. A lot of hardware is constrained at that moment;
- Thanks the SOC (ops) teams for keeping xbox services up over the holiday. Insight into morning calls about any issues and reports on service health, dealing with the holiday spike in activity;
- Contrasts that and remembers years that weren't great in terms of uptime and availability;
- Phil is currently playing Destiny 2 (still), Tetris:effect, Halo:Reach on Legendary, Gears 5 and Hivebusters (praises the coalition for Hivebusters), a ton of Valhalla;
- Quick resume - is one of those things that's a small quality of life enhancement but will be a game changer. Started on Xbox One, while testing VRR. Now they have an SSD, their focus is 'how many games can we put in quick resume because it's not at 100% yet'. Changes the way you play games, always being paused and kakes drop in, drop out so accessible;
- Velocity architecture is the key that enables the 10 second quick resume;
- Talking about UI features to incorporate for quick resume like a quick resume tile which makes it clear which games are in the carousel and 'paused';
- Major Nelson has been playing something called Sparkle 2;
- Has been playing a lot on a retail Series S, on his PC monitor and sometimes switches the input during teams calls (don't tell Satya!);
- Series S has really stood on its own, hitting the technical targets and made its value at that price point. Some games load slightly faster because they don't have to squeeze 4K assets down the pipes. Same speed SSD in both. Glad to have both SKUs on the market;
- Looking at holiday numbers and christmas day was massive (assuming login numbers rather than sales);
- Gaming - not just xbox - (as a business) is doing really well at time of need when peoples are stuck at home and need distractions;
- Focused on making gaming as widely accessible as possible;
- Thinks of the millions of people who aren't gamers and how to get them involved in games/stories in which you have agency etc;
- Gamepass took it to the next level in 2020 - the catalogue of games. Undisputed best value in gaming;
- Compared it to Netflix numbers and adoption to 1 million subs and it was years before they hit that number. Gamepass is only 3 years old and the numbers they are hitting are impressive. Creators now appraoching Microsoft and pitching 'gamepass' games. Getting EA Play was big and 2021 it will get even bigger;
- Talks about success of Among Us, Phil has never played it. Has it installed on PC though, might play with majornelson;
- Flight simulator - incredible history, actually predates windows. Phil never worked on Flight Sim though the studio reported to him previously. Gamepass allows them to focus on building something like this, targeted at the niche/hardcore but gives an easy way for others to try/test it without the risk of dropping full retail price. And in time it can grow that hardcore/niche audience;
- Thinks back to 2004 and the 360 days and the first thoughts of a peer 2 peer marketplace, used steam as a good model to mimic. Remembers the livery editor for Forza and talks about unlocking creative modes for the users (mods, features, graphics etc.) to give games longer legs. Talks about how it would need to be curated/managed so breaking items don't get published;
- Talks about Bethesda acquisition, couldn't sleep night before announcement and it was amazing to see the reaction from the xbox users, but more importantly the Bethesda teams as well. Talks about Starfield and as yet unannounced projects which are going to be top class. Can't wait to close the deal and get them working and plugged in to the Microsoft programme of work;
- Talks about their RPG capabilities with InXile, Playground, Obsidian, Bethesda and FPS with id, 343, their profile has doubled and is excited for the coming games;
- Demand for gaming is increasing, and has become part of the weekly entertainment for people including music, reading and TV;
- A lot of people see majornelson as just PR but he does a lot of work behind the scenes and is proud of how their socials aren't super serious;
- xCloud has been invested in for a couple of years. They will get to iOS and PC in 2021 and expand the regions they are in. Getting so much feedback on what to improve, features to add etc. Perfect companion for gamepass ultimate. When people try it, they seem to like it and adopt it;
- They are noticing a growing number of people choose to not have a TV these days, they get their content through large tablets, PC monitors or mobile devices so need a delivery mechanism for that market;
- They have a roadmap of the next 1-3 years of emerging and new tech, and then long term 3-10 years to decide which experiments to invest in to change the market. Both see long term tech as interesting and want to be part of xbox when they finally get delivered;
- Despite this, Phil tries to avoid talking ahead of himself (after some mistakes he has leaned from) to manage expectation but has confidence in the teams to maybe take risks in other areas;
- 20 years since original xbox launched which is crazy. Acknowledges the original vision and creators and how succession planning is on their mind;
- Final words: Diffcult year, thanks everyone for coming together and how the communities love for games gives the teams a lot of energy to continue.