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Phil Spencer: ‘Really Strong’ Game Pass Announcements Coming; Halo Infinite Staggered Release Was Considered

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IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

Microsoft's Head of Gaming Phil Spencer appeared on the Animal Crossing: New Horizons talk show hosted by Gary Whitta (the writer of the screenplay for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Telltale's The Walking Dead) late last night.

The VOD should appear later today on Whitta's YouTube channel, but in the meantime, we have highlighted some of the most interesting tidbits, such as Phil Spencer hinting at big Game Pass announcements coming soon. This appears to line up with recent rumors of a big publisher about to join Microsoft's subscription service with its titles.

I’d say the positive for us through the May showcase and the Summer showcase and the July showcase has been the rise of importance for us in Game Pass.
As we go out and talk to our customers, it’s becoming a real decision maker for those both on our platform and people that are evaluating the Xbox Series X as a console for them.
Our investment in Game Pass and that portfolio continues to be strong. We’ve got some more really great, strong, announcements to come about things coming to Game Pass.
What you’ll see from us around the launch of the console, frankly, isn’t going to change too much because you were going to hear a lot about the console and a lot about Game Pass and how we think those two things together are a real great value proposition for gamers going into the next generation.
After discussing the ever-important Game Pass, Phil Spencer also couldn't afford to dodge the elephant in the room that is the delay of Halo Infinite into 2021, away from the launch of the Xbox Series X console (still planned for Holiday 2020).

Let me start just by recognising the fans and the fact that is is a bummer. It is disappointing to people, it’s disappointing to us. We were looking forward to the alignment of Halo Infinite and the Xbox Series X.
In the end, I have to make the right decision. The strength of the Halo franchise, the health and ability of the team are things tracking toward the quality of where you want the game?
I’ll apologise to the fans because I never like to set up expectations and then not hit them, but I also believe we’re making the right decision in the long run, for both Xbox and Halo and our customers.
Additionally, he said that he, Matt Booty (Head of Xbox Game Studios) and Bonnie Ross (Head of 343 Industries) did briefly consider a potential staggered release for Halo Infinite, but ultimately it wouldn't have been the type of release that Microsoft is looking for with the game.
 
Seems reasonable.. others won't agree.. but whatevs. Curious what else is coming down the pipe since they still had 9 studios, I believe, with no game announcements.
 
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The Alien

Banned
Hopefully they either act quickly to fill the launch void left by Halo or they have some big unannounced things to share.

They'll need to open the checkbook and money hat somethings (Cyberpunk GamePass at launch type megatons).

Hope their August/September/whenever event is huge. They need some good press as the launch ramps up.
 

ZehDon

Member
Interesting to hear that Bonnie Ross and Matt Booty were the ones who floated the idea of a staggered Halo Infinite release. I’d have thought Spencer would’ve asked for that, and the studio would’ve had to explain that it’s just not Halo. That the head of 343i thought it was worth considering really doesn’t inspire confidence - it’s self-evidently not the right decision for the game, the franchise, or the console.
 
GamePass is such a great addition. It's like when you went over to the neighborhood kids house and he had new NES games to try out. (I'm an 80's kid). There's always something new to explore. The only gap is I wish there were more local multiplayer games I can share with my son.
 

pasterpl

Member
I don’t expect cyberpunk or anything of this big calibre, but I wouldn’t be surprised if ea access got dragged in into game pass
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Interesting to hear that Bonnie Ross and Matt Booty were the ones who floated the idea of a staggered Halo Infinite release. I’d have thought Spencer would’ve asked for that, and the studio would’ve had to explain that it’s just not Halo. That the head of 343i thought it was worth considering really doesn’t inspire confidence - it’s self-evidently not the right decision for the game, the franchise, or the console.
She is diversity hire, so what do you expect.
 

martino

Member
yeah i'm active following news for month now and it seems when we want concrete positive things we only have announcement of announcement
he must be a good buddy of Macron...
 
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mejin

Member
By delaying Halo, Spencer killed two problems with one shot.

1. Infinite is a pile of shit to launch right now.
2. Next year, he will have nothing significant to launch.

Although, he can creat a bigger problem, if Halo sucks anyway.


Anyway, just remember the words "strong", "bigger", "biggest" and others coming from Spencer have not the same weight of a common sense person.
 

Tiamat2san

Member
What is a very strong announcement ?
Seriously it is boring...
A game ? (FF7 remake would be cool)
A service?
A beta?
A.....
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
What is a very strong announcement ?
Seriously it is boring...
A game ? (FF7 remake would be cool)
A service?
A beta?
A.....
Mark Strong is going to do the announcement.

B9314896305Z.1_20141029181532_000+G268VJBG6.1-0.jpg


"Coming soon to GamePass, Solitaire!
 

reinking

Gold Member
I wonder what the actual android numbers look like. I don't mean the people that play on the phone because they already have it, I mean people that subscribe to play on an android device. I am guessing it is not a very high number based on nothing but silence about it.
 

CamHostage

Member
I'm not clear on what "staggered" meant in the Halo Infinite case? I assume they talking about having divided the Story Mode from the "Multiplayer"?

(I don't know enough about Infinite, but I thought the design was a kind of open-world'ish game SP/Co-Op, then a multiplayer hub of some type that was F2P and almost its own game for deathmatches and team play and Arena and Forge and probably Halo BR and whatever else. Am I confused what the structure of Infinite was to be?)
 
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JackMcGunns

Member
Spencer: "Really strong announcements coming soon!"

Announcement: "Minesweeper coming to GamePass!"


Or maybe it has something to do with earnings (how successful it's been) rather than a new game (booooo) and even though I'm hoping new games, either one would be good news considering how people keep claiming GP is not sustainable. Or maybe both 🤷‍♂️
 
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Schmick

Member
I don’t expect cyberpunk or anything of this big calibre, but I wouldn’t be surprised if ea access got dragged in into game pass
EA Access is already available on GP Console and will be available for GP PC sometime this year.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
Seems like people are confused by the bump (yet another IbizaPocholo mindfuck bump). This was the EA thing, no?
 
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