LogIn2022 was a difficult year for the company.
Image credit: FromSoftware | Dark Souls 3
Starfield's delay last year was disappointing not only for players but also for Xbox as it meant there was a hole in its exclusive Game Pass launches due to a lack of big AAA releases.
A recent leak of Microsoft documents revealed a 2022 email from the head of Xbox Phil Spencer, who expressed his frustration about "a huge hole with our games lineup." At the time, Starfield got delayed, Redfall's release date was still unclear, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 also didn't make it.
"We keep talking about a big AAA a quarter in the service [Game Pass] and it feels like we are likely to go through a gap of almost 16 months between big exclusive launches on our platform," Spencer said (via Eurogamer). "This is really a disaster situation for us given all we've invested in content across studios at our GP content fund."
He then suggested getting better at portfolio planning "with real honesty on dates" and understanding that the situation the company found itself in was "a failure of our planning and production execution."
"We set a very high bar in 2021 on quality and pacing of content which was awesome to see. But to come off of that year with no big exclusives launching in 2022 is a portfolio planning miss that we can't afford."
Image credit: FromSoftware | Dark Souls 3
Spencer was aware that the lack of updates and clarity made it obvious to players that Xbox was "out of position."
Still, he ended the email on a positive note, saying the studio has been in tough conditions before and would get out of them eventually.
In response, Xbox head of ecosystem Sarah Bond suggested adding third-party games like Lego Star Wars, Dying Light 2, City Skylines 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, Baldur's Gate 3, Gotham Knights, Suicide Squad, Jedi Survivor, and Mortal Kombat 1 to Game Pass.
Spencer seemed to like the idea and brought up the Dark Souls games, which could do very well in the Game Pass as Elden Ring was probably the most popular game at the time.
"Another option with the hit factor around Elden Ring is to try to go get all of the Dark Souls games and make a push with From[Software] and an Elden Ring upsell," he said.
Image credit: FromSoftware | Dark Souls 3
Bond agreed and promised to work on it, but it's not clear how the story goes from there.
In any case, while 2022 was an okay year for games in general, Xbox had fair reasons to worry. And it looks like 2023 wasn't much better for the Game Pass. Well, at least Starfield got its share of love among its 10 million players.
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