Phil Spencer: Xbox Is Building More Narrative-Driven Games Than Ever Before

Are you happy to see more narrative driven experiences come to Xbox? Definitely Yes

Bring them all on! Please banjo be one of them.

Having more variety is always good but personally i'll stick mostly to what Xbox/Bethesda do best: fps and western rpgs.

Xbox has the most diverse lineup and growing more.

This makes me super duper pooper excited!

I like the narrative-driven Playstation exclusives a lot. What I don't like about Playstation 1st party output (which doesn't include the likes of Bloodborne and JRPGs like Persona 5) is that pretty much all of them are cast in the same mould: 3rd person action-adventure games, usually there's an AI companion to banter with and/or to protect and bond through an emotional journey... good stuff, really, but they lack variety.

In comparison, Xbox has released very few noteworthy exclusives over the last years, but they seem to be in the right track now and offering a more varied menu. Narrative-driven 3rd person action-adventure stuff would very much welcomed additions, as long as they aren't all that we will get.

So they are going after playstations style

@Richard-92 Ditto. I'd prefer less talk and more games with gameplay and release dates. Makes me fearful they will not come for years and years.

@Magabro This template was set in mid-PS3 cycle with Uncharted games being widely successful and after TLoU 1 Sony saw a winning formula and applied it in TLoU2, GoW,UC4 and so on.

Mmmm mixed feelings about this. Happy to have a couple more of cinematic games on Xbox, but I don't want every second game being one as is the case for PS. I even felt the latest God of War pushed the narrative too much at the expense of the gameplay (my favourite GoW being 2+3 and my most fun in the new one being had once the story was over). That said, there's definitely room for MS to put out a couple more of the cinematic games for those who really like them.

I'm happy to see Xbox developing more adventure story games, it's one of the main reasons i've stuck with PlayStation since PS1. I think it's good for the consumer if Xbox are challenging Sony in this area. It's good for xbox, it's good for Sony to have that challenge and it's good for us because we'll, hopefully, reap the rewards.

@pip_muzz I never got the hype with GOW. I found it to be cumbersome, slow and a bit boring. It was no HZD or TLOU

@pip_muzz Surprised to read your comment considering I'm more afraid that Microsoft will be releasing too many co-op/multiplayer games in the near future due to the Game Pass format helping to keep games like those afloat for a long time. To hear now that they're also focusing on creating more narrative-driven games is music to my ears.

I don't see this as going after 'Playstations style' at all. Uncharted, the game that really kicked off the run of 3rd Person, Narrative Driven games on the PS3, followed by further games in the Uncharted series, LoU, InFamous etc and then in the PS4 era, we got Horizon, God of War rebooted, Ghost of Tsushima etc.

However, Uncharted , the game that 'kicked' off that direction for Sony, was influenced by Gears of War on the Xbox 360. We also had games like Crackdown, Alan Wake, Fable etc too. MS had big story driven games, Halo was an Award Winning campaign.

I do think that the 'latter' part of the 360 era and early days of the XB1, MS seemed to almost double down on one of its biggest strengths over Sony, that being the 'online' infrastructure and Social gaming that was regarded as the 'best' on Console, its partnership with the 'biggest' online Shooter (CoD). Also, MS wanted to get people on 'Gold' subscriptions too.

You could also say that Sony played to their strengths too - focusing more on Single Player games. Coupled with the industry also putting more and more emphasis on Online components of their games, that also helped Sony stand out a bit more.

MS have grown their Studios to bring more Diversity to their gaming line-up. They still have Gears, a narrative driven Action game, but when the only other studios are making Forza & Halo, MS were relying on 3rd Party studio's to bring diversity. Now with more Studio's, you have a lot more diversity...

@BAMozzy Uncharted is NOTHING like Gears. That's a poor comparison.

Get back to me when Xbox is ‘releasing’ more narrative driven games than ever. Smh

@LtSarge I get what you mean, it's why I have mixed feelings. I also don't want service games becoming the norm for MS, having no interest in Sea of Thieves and the like. I don't want every single player game to be overly cinematic in the Sony style either. That said, MS have the studio depth to pull it off and keep everyone happy.

@Rafie I never said it was the SAME, I said it was influenced by Gears of War...

According to former Naughty Dog developer, Lucas Pope, the franchise drew inspiration from the Gears of War series, with the first Uncharted game being delayed after the first Gears of War game released in order for various core gameplay and technical elements to more resemble and feel like that of the latter.

As I said, Uncharted was influenced by 'Gears of War' - A third Person Action game with cover shooting mechanics. Uncharted's setting is obviously different with more platforming but that doesn't stop both being 3rd Person action games with cover shooting mechanics and a Narrative Driven campaign...

I am finding the industry on all three sides very this coming thats coming, we are going to do this.
When it’s a few months from release or so and we have a decent amount of game etc.
Then I will get excited.
To much stuff years and years away at the moment and lots of delays and development extensions.

@Rafie well, the cover based shooting part is copy-pasted straight from Gears...

@ISD1982, boy, I thought I was the only person that couldn't get into God of War. I'm not a Playstation hater, I loved HZD, Spider-Man, even the much reviled TLoU Pt. 2... but GoW's combat gets boring and repetitive. I never finished it.

Another Tomb Raider epic would do me, it’s about time we had one.

@The_New_Butler @Magabro @ISD1982 @residentSteve01 You guys are breaking my heart, GoW 2018 is probably my second favorite game in the last decade.

Can't wait to get cgi trailers for them in 3 years and maybe play them in 7 years

@The_New_Butler Nope, just makes me sad, boy.

@FatalBubbles you know, the first time I tried Doom Eternal the gameplay didn't click with me. But now I gave it another chance because of the Xbox Series upgrade and I'm loving it, having the time of my life.

It happens, sometimes you're just not in the right mood to enjoy a particular game. I didn't like RDR 2 either, not because the game was bad, but because I was not in the mood for such a slow burn game when I tried it. So, who knows, maybe if I gave GoW another chance I could enjoy it just as much as you did. Sadly I don't see it happening in the foreseeable future because there are just too many games to play...

@Magabro No worries! I too struggled with Doom but want to try again. I also agree 100% with you on RDR2.

@BAMozzy The cover shooting couldn't be inspired by games like Time Crisis? Gears obviously isn't the first game to do this. That is the only comparison I see between Gears and Uncharted. Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones have heavier influences.

I have such a man crush on this guy!!

@Magabro Couldn't agree more. Once I cleared about half the PS4 exclusives I had (I play all multiplatform games on Xbox and have for about a decade) I realized I was playing mostly the same game over and over with a different (albeit mostly great) story. Once I got tired of it, I haven't connected my PS since.

I have had an Xbox for year now and loving every second I play so far. But there are a lot if shooters out there, we're not short on these.
Xbox defo needs more family, adventure, platform titles. It's weirdly very short on party and rythym titles I feel also.

Groove Coaster from Taito would be perfect for Xbox.

@pip_muzz @Magabro Sonys "problem" isn't so much that they're even 3rd person action adventure across the board. It's the emphasis on cinematic, and producing it like it's a movie, where the game-play exists in service to the screenplay rather than the other way around that it's become a problem. I can't think of any of the big Sony tent pole that wouldn't work as well or better as a film. The gameplay adds little value, it's just away of adding interactivity to prolong the film and make it feel personal. Their "secondary" (not quite tentpole) games like R&C, Returnal (can't stand that game, the price, or the marketing, but at least it's gameplay focused), etc. are more gameplay focused. But those aren't the games anyone means when they hype PS exclusives.

Uncharted 1 was hot garbage. The presentation was fun and addictive. The gameplay was terrible, shallow, and repetitive. They kind of fixed that for 2 & 3. TLoU was a movie in search of a game with Uncharted 1 gameplay bolted on. But simple games that you watch instead of play sell to a lot of people.

Which is their other problem. Their games sell decently, but they don't really sell as amazingly as Sony fans have you believe. When you look at the sell-through of those "amazing" games, it's barely a meaningful portion of their hardware install base. Compare to Nintendo where virtually every hardware owner buys at least several of the tentpoles, and Xbox where with GP, a huge portion of the install base at least engages with the tent poles for a time. The Sony Game audience is really a small niche within the hardware owner base. They're not really reaching their own full market with those cinematic opuses, and looking at the new price drop (in the US) for TLoU2, they don't retain much value for them for too long, either, despite that monumental budget to produce.

BUT they're also stuck in a place they can't afford to change it, either, because the loyal market for that is very loyal. Heck, I just got chewed out on Push Square today for the second time in a week by a poster replying to a several days old comment section that I criticized something Sony about how they have the best exclusives in the world "like playing a movie", yes, playing a movie is the litmus test for a good game among the faithful, in so many words (Which is just about the worst game experience I could ever imagine). The commenter proceeded to insinuate my post related to being a Nintendo fanboy (the prior person to do that flat out said so), which is hilarious, because my post was also criticizing Nintendo (it was the thread @Dezzy70 and I had an exchange lamenting the downfall of new corporate Nintendo the other day).

My take-away from my time on PS is there's an overlap between Sony-play-a-movie fans, and people who lack reading comprehension skills. Maybe that's why they prefer games with cinematic presentations where all dialog is recorded audio?

@NEStalgia Yep, couldn't agree more. And it saddens me that the more gameplay focused Sony games such as Last Guardian and the like are disappearing due to the company's decision to double down on the western market with these cinematic games.
I have yet to hear a convincing argument as to why TLOU 1+2 are some of the best "games" ever. Every discussion about them descends into story, graphics, characters etc...when the gameplay is serviceable, uninspired and simply "good".
It's as if some people's idea of the perfect video game is simply an interactive movie. As a long term gamer myself too, that's not a viewpoint I can support.

@pip_muzz I think people consider those games phenomenal due to their production value. When I played TLOU for the first time, I was not impressed by it at all. The gameplay was pretty fun, I did enjoy the crafting and scavenging. But as a package, it doesn't deliver on anything that hasn't been done before. Because believe me, I was as confused as you as to why people worship these franchises. But apparently, people like them due to the fact that they have the same high production value as a movie. It's weird.

@pip_muzz Yep. There were a ton of Sony games I loved, and I loved the diversity they had. I long argued that PS had a far more diverse lineup than XB, and that was XB's main weakness. I never imagined Sony would just go all-in on every-game-is-a-Naughty Dog-game. I've always hated Naughty Dog. Even before they were Sony. This is the company that invented a platformer where you run toward the camera.

And yeah, TLoU series crystalizes the whole problem. The things that make the games "great"....are things that makes a movie "great" - it has nothing to do with being a game at all. Best cinemetography, best screenplay, best supporting actor, best set design, best costume design,
But, yeah. I really like GoW, I really enjoy it. Combat feels great, and the world is such a creative design. But there's so much time doing absolutely nothing. There's so much walking aimlessly to facilitate dialog. The overall game design is straight off the PS2 down to everything being a hallway with an interesting skybox, so much invisible wall, stiff controls and slow animations to hide load times that shouldn't exist in a game that's literally a series of corridors. It does a lot right, but it does a lot wrong, too. I'm a fan, but if it weren't a Sony game, it would be a 7/10 at best cult hit slammed for glaring flaws and out of date play that's otherwise a delight, where people that like it rabidly love it and demand sequels that never get made, and everyone else shrugs it off as an antiquated curiosity. And if it didn't have Chris Judge it would be a 6/10 without personality.

But yeah, that person complaining at me in that PS thread literally praised what's great about PS games is that it's, quote, "like playing a movie." That's in so many words what their audience sees as the pinnacle of game design - a movie that you interact with. (yet nobody praised Quantum Break that was....very literally, a movie that you interact with.) What their audience seems to feel is the best thing about their games is what, to me, is the worst thing a game could ever possibly be. And ironically, is exactly opposite what a Sony game used to be before they Naughty-Dog-ified the entire brand. TLG, Ico, SotC, Gravity Rush (OMG I love Gravity Rush!), Soul Sacrifice, Soulsborne (I hate Soulsborne, for the record), Heavenly Sword, Folklore, all kinds of interesting, different, experimental, diverse stuff. All of it gone. Even inFamous 1 was really all gameplay in the GTA/AC motif before it became much more cinematic in 2 (I liked 1 more than 2, everyone else apparently disagrees...) There's definitely franchises from them I still like. R&C, LBP/Sackboy, I like GoW despite its flaws (but unlike True Fans, recognize its considerable flaws), HzD is probably their most interesting franchise, but they use it weirdly. It's a great Ubisoft game. Then there's the new franchises they try to make happen by marketing hard and charging maximum price like Returnal. It's a cool all-gameplay concept game for $40 or less. But the pricing and marketing makes me hate it. Reselling "Director's Cuts" a year after launch makes me hate virtually everything. Even Nintendo waits at least 4 years before selling you the same product for more money.

@LtSarge Technically "moviegoers that prefer to play their movies" still appear to be a tremendous minority of game players (assuming we're including sports game players and mobile players as game players) - it just looks like it's all the Sony fandom when you hang out on the internet, the gaming media is made up of would-be film critics, and Sony buys all the awards shows so it looks like it wins everything. Their games really don't sell that amazingly. Compared to a lot of games 13M+ etc is amazing. Compared to their 120M customers, 11% of Playstation owners give a hoot about Playstations flagship movie game. Not really a great ratio when they're hanging their hat on the $100+M exclusives as their brand identity. 89% of Playstation owners don't actually care about said flagship movie game.

I'm convinced most of their creatives are just film industry crossovers. Sony Pictures, Playstation, it's all one big umbrella. Not many years ago, Playstation was going to absorb Sony Pictures itself before they decided not to.

@NEStalgia Really can't agree with most of that.

Uncharted 1 was a fantastic game, and the series as a whole is brilliant.

And you are really doing TLOU a massive disservice. There's a massive difference between watching a movie and playing in a game that has a good storyline akin to a movie. You are part of it. You're playing the main characters, you're invested in them in a way that a movie can never capture. The gameplay, in my opinion anyways (and a lot of others considering the sales/reviews etc), was pretty tight too.

All opinions of course and you're entitled to yours, even if we disagree haha

I have played quite a number of games that are just simply animations hidden behind the odd button press. I don't feel that the above two are quite in that area though.

I played through FF9 not that long ago and felt that it was very much hand holding for the majority of the first few hours, so it's nothing new.

@ISD1982 Naughty Dog, especially, I think represents the worst "creatives that really wish they worked in Hollywood (and half of them actually also do...)" My complaint with Sony is largely that they saw profitability from ND and decided to model the entire company and all their products around their design. Never did like ND. Crash was awful. The whole concept was awful. Jak 1 was actually really good. Jak 2 was horrible, and was the start of them turning everything into an interactive movie. And that's the one that got the critical attention because the cinematic presentation was so unique in its time, even if the game was a step back.

But modern ND. I'm a closet-fan of Uncharted. For some reason, I have a soft spot for that series. I know it's technically a movie dressed in garbage gameplay...but somehow I end up liking it. But objectively even as a fan of the series that knows it's trash and still likes it....the first one....was bad. The story was almost good but went entirely off the rails half way through and didn't even know what it wanted to be (other than a TLoU prototype). The gameplay was horrid from the start with the most insipid gunplay of any game I've played to date. And it just never ended. Ever battle was just endless waves of the same Hogan's Alley (anyone else remember that?) mockery.

Things got better with 2-4 in terms of the gameplay not being painful to push through anymore. But it also doubled down on being a movie you barely interact with. It's not that that can't be fun in its own way, but it's also undeserving of the praise that gets lavished on it. Same for TLoU series.

But even your own post kind of highlights the point. You're highlighting the fact that the interactivity makes you more a part of the movie and captures an investment in characters more than a movie can. It highlights the point nicely: It's not about being a great video game, it's about using aspects of gaming to enhance their movie. It's a movie first, a game second. That's not to say there isn't a place for that, or it can't be good, but that it's almost a side genre, not this pinnacle of games it's often made out to be. If anything it's the pinnacle of cinema, not games.

FF in general, and FF9 in particular tends to be a slow burn and a lot of the origin of the meme of "it gets good after the first 10 hours" for JRPGs. I love FF9 but yeah, the beginning is one of the worst examples of the slow guided start that won't let you do anything. Take 3 steps, play a scripted battle, CUTSCENE! Take 2 steps, play a scripted battle, CUTSCENE! But once the intros are set up and it takes the leash off, it really opens up into such a free game without forced direction. One can't say the same about ND games. Of course, it's not an RPG, it's a linear story by design. Certainly that has a market. If you're a movie fan in general, there's certainly an appeal to playing the movies. That's the same appeal every movie licensed games since the Atari 2600 (E.T.!! )has tried to purchase. If you can't really stand movies, it really exposes how "not a video game" those games are. I don't really do movies. The last movie I actually saw in a theater was Return of the King. Watched a few streamed after that...that's about it. Unless playing Uncharted counts. It should.