"I look at gaming as a first-class citizen inside this company," the new head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, just told me on the phone on this the day it was announced that he's taking over all things Xbox at Microsoft. "And that's how [Microsoft CEO] Satya [Nadella] has shared it with me."
Microsoft's Phil Spencer is now in charge of all things Xbox. "It's been a remarkable year for Xbox and I am honored to lead the team at this incredible time for Microsoft and the games industry."
I put this to you, Xbox fanboys (though it's of course equally applicable across all platforms): if you love console so damn much you indeed qualify as a fanboy, one who adores Microsoft and despises Sony and Nintendo, what does it say about you when one of the execs running Xbox itself owns and enjoys not just a PS4, …
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Microsoft considered delaying some Xbox One launch games and even holding Halo 4 for their new console before committing to last week's unusually diverse and rich day-one Xbox One line-up, the company's head of game development told Kotaku. And now Microsoft is planning to give early adopters a lot more to play—earlier …
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I came to E3 this year in search of good news about the Xbox One. By week’s end, I found a few men able to tell me some.
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Microsoft’s Phil Spencer made the rounds in in the slight-casual variation of the Game Exec Wardrobe: blazer, t-shirt, dark-hued jeans. But, eagle-eyed viewers will have noticed that Spencer quick-changed his tops as the morning went on. Think he was sweating a lot?
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If you didn't see any of the Xbox One announcement yesterday, you may be of the impression this morning that Microsoft must have gone on stage and urinated on a picture of Mister Rogers while—wait a minute, was Phil Spencer really wearing two watches?
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It's not only that Pro Controller that reminds Microsoft of its Xbox 360. The graphics do, too.
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As you read this, people are making video games for the next PlayStation and the next Xbox. They have been for many, many weeks. But last week, at E3, where the biggest video game companies were ostensibly talking about the biggest video games on the horizon, not a single soul would officially discuss the PlayStation 4 …
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Sony PlayStation will soon have a Smash Bros. clone, a game called PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale that lets its most famous characters beat each other up. Why? Because it was a great idea when Nintendo first let Mario, Link, Samus and the rest of its best heroes beat each other up.
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For Microsoft, the E3 2011 recipe read much like E3 2010's—Kinect, and lots of it. The head of Microsoft's Game Studios noted the company's focus on the device and said at some time in the future, all first-party games from the Xbox 360 maker will include Kinect support.
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Not first party exclusives like Mario, Halo and God of War. Those will live on as long as there are console platform holders. Rather, is the age of big third-party exclusives finished?
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At one time, Microsoft was in Hollywood, meeting with movie producers and trying to make a Halo movie. It didn't happen. And while Microsoft hasn't given up, the question remains:
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Fire Pro Wrestling is returning, but this time it's coming to Xbox Live Arcade and it's way cuter. But does that mean the buff Fire Pro-Wrestling of days gone by have been passed over in favor of Xbox 360 Avatars?
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While Project Natal, and its ability to allow Xbox 360 gamers to play video games completely free of a controller, will launch as a niche of sorts on the platform, Microsoft believes it will one day become the norm.
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Gears of War 2? That's so 2008. We ask recently promoted Microsoft Games Studio head Phil Spencer about Gears of War 3. We heard during the show that story for the Gears of War trilogy has been completed, so what about the game design?
Halo, Halo, Halo! What's going on with the movie? What about Halo Wars? What about Peter Jackson? How bout the Halo no show at the big press conference. No real answers from head of Microsoft Game Studios Phil Spencer or newly minted corporate vice president of Strategy and Business Development Shane Kim, but plenty…
