Rumour: Xbox's Phil Spencer Got 'Really Frustrated' Last Year Over Use Of CG Trailers

If Phil is frustrated by this, I hope Xbox releases some GOTY tier games soon. Lol.

2022 is already a bust, but I’m trying to be hopeful for 2023.

CG trailers do nothing for me now. They clearly have nothing to show, and so are showing me nothing and wanting me to be excited for nothing but my own imagination. Nah.

There's only one other way to do a CG trailer, and that is to laugh along with me about you having nothing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClhDyC0ZECs

I'd expect that these shows will always show games coming within 12-18 months and any of the further out ones they will show at Keigh3 or E3 or at a secondary show. But overall I want to just see gameplay and trailer's, no deep dives at the showcase.

CG trailers just do nothing for me, show me gameplay all day long. I play games, not cutscenes

Not sure why only recently he had an issue with it. Years ago, before COVID, back in the live event E3 days, the public and gaming media were complaining about way too many CGI trailers and not enough gameplay. Gamers have been tired of it for years now, and yet MS was still cranking out CGI trailers.

This is the problem with announcing games years before they release to try and build hype as often showing a game too early in development can mean showing a game that doesn't actually look like what it will do when closer to completion. Take Halo Infinite as an example they shown that at such an early stage that it really wasn't ready to be shown. Some games get announced way too early which is often why they need to try and keep that hype with brief trailers over the period.

Funny, I thought 2021 was a little better than 2022's showcase from an announcement standpoint, but 2022 was admittedly better in terms of substance.

@Richnj That trailer is the single best trailer in the history of trailers. Making your own Honest Trailers as the announce takes brass ones.

Plus it actually genuinely shows the gameplay because that writing is pretty much canon for the series...

@IronMan30 CG-fest showcases are always better from an announcement perspective. But that's the problem. If you look at E3's past the big memorable ones were almost always the ones that were all CG-fests. Including Sony Year of Dreams, where the only major gameplay I remember was Uncharted at the end and Detroit in the middle. It was otherwise CG After CG.

@eagletrippin I'm guessing he cracking down more due to spending almost using 200 Billion in acquisitions and exclusives. Before all of these acquisitions, Xbox just didn't have the man power to deliver more gameplay and less CGI. Now that they have the man power... It would look bad for business to keep showing CGI.

Even if the games didn't all resonate with everyone, the format of this weekends showcase was perfect. They need to do this same thing going forward. Show games that are coming soon, and show gameplay gameplay gameplay!

@Kooky_Daisuke I doubt the Kojima bit had anything to do with leaks. The segment was meant to show support from Japanese studios. Team Ninja, Atlus and Kojima back to back make a big statement that XBox is serious about the kind of Japanese games.

Strange... doesn't he review what is being shown before it is shown? Doesn't he set the guidance of what should be shown? He's kinda the boss, I would think that what is shown ultimately falls on him.

there's a middle ground, in my opinion: when you initially show a game, a CG trailer is fine. once the game has been announced, i'd prefer to see gameplay. CG trailers can be very exciting when first announcing a title.

I don't think CG trailers are the problem. In fact, Sony still use them and they are well received. Look how everyone went gaga for Wolverine — and what was shown! As @NEStalgia, they are often actually better for announcements. At the very least, you should lead into a gameplay sizzle with some captivating CG.

The difference between Sony and Microsoft is that while Sony releases CG trailers for things that are years away, like the aforementioned Wolverine, they've been doing it for so long now that the things they announced ages ago are finally taking form and bearing fruit. It's a steady stream of content coming down that pipeline. Yeah, Wolverine and Spider-Man 2 are not coming any time soon, but you get Horizon 2, GT7, and God of War this year. Even last year, a limited year for Sony, you got Returnal and Ratchet & Clank.

Conversely, because Microsoft effectively downed tools and only really started to pick them back up a few years ago, they just don't have the content ready. So all they can show is CG trailers. If they don't, they end up with 2022's showcase, which was absolutely abysmal from a first-party perspective — and I will fight you if you try and claim Redfall looks good.

On top of that, Redfall, Starfield, and Forza aren't even launching in 2022. They've got nothing this year. And how far off are Fable, Hellblade 2, Everwild, and Perfect Dark? Those now seem to be comparable to Wolverine in terms of release windows. The issue is that they've got nothing to release now.

The reason MS are struggling is they are still trying to pay down that content debt, which is the result of bad decisions to wind down first-party studios and to rely on third parties and TV, TV, TV. And I'm sure in the face of conversations asking "Should we shutter the Xbox brand?" there probably wasn't much appetite for investment, which is why we got Crackdown 3 and ReCore.

And that manifests in the question: why would you buy an Xbox in 2022? For some, Game Pass might be enough. But Sony just released its competitor today (and it's decent) and first-party Day One titles are moot because Microsoft doesn't ****ing have any.

@NEStalgia right, so that's why I say 2022 was better from a substantive standpoint. We actually got to see the games in action. And most of them looked good.

@Kooky_Daisuke glad you recognized Kojima game is no where close but was forced to reveal due to leaks...

@Hexamex-Tex He was frustrated that the games were not in a state that the devs and/or Microsoft were comfortable showing gameplay.

In this day and age there shouldn't be cinematic trailers anymore.

@I_Go_by_Many_Names 100% right. For THIS year, with the current narrative of "xbox can't get any games out" & articles saying "you should unsubscribe from Game Pass" this was the sensible show to do. Have content that will (hopefully) launch in the next 12 months and show off a lot of things coming to Game Pass.

In the future when they hopefully DO have a steady flow of games it would be great to see a bit of both. Still 90% concentrate on the here and now, gameplay and the next 12 months but also have 10% of teasers and something to look forward to in the future.

Completely agree they got it right this year. Even if it wasn't as exciting, it was more tangible and real. We didn't need to see CGIs, target renders or vertical slices of games 2-5+ years away... there's already too many games in that category sadly.

I do believe a lot of the problems with these showcases are the presenters to, a fine balance between a dev explaining something that viewers find totaly boring, because a lot of these people do come across as boring personallites, we need people on stage that can express their wow of the game and come across in a way to make you not just look forward to a title but make you want it, even though you may not have even thought about it. Maybe their scripted to much, we need some spontanious outbursts to catch us off guard.

You know I watch a few of these guys on Youtube who put up game review videos and such like and they just go for it. there passion comes across so fresh and honest it make you enjoy the video ,. People like Metal Jesus and Radical Reggie should host the Xbox show. what a crack that would be .

@theduckofdeath right… so why did they show them. Again these events are planned many months in advance. Nothing is shown that isn’t reviewed and approved. So it is on him.

Phil needs to be fired, it's a disgrace that 2022 doesn't have a single xbox exclusive worthwhile other than some indie games that no one woul really care about if they weren't coming to gamepass, if Sony actually gets out God of War: Ragnarok by the end of 2022, then xbox is in really big trouble, because they can't compete unless they start hiring people who know how to actually put out games in a timely fashion.

@themightyant No one needs to subscribe to xbox gamepass this year to play games which MIGHT come out in 2023. There are no worthwhile games at all which are exclusive to xbox in 2022. And even worse, MS wasted $80 billion buying Activision Blizzard so Diablo 4, COD and Overwatch 2 can all come to playstation. That's inexcusable, how come Jim Ryan over at playstation can ship great AAA exclusives every year with their limited finances, and meathead Phil Spencer can get more than 80 billion dollars to spend on xbox games, and all we get for 2022 are indie games? What the hell is going on over there at xbox? Are the developers turning up drunk every day. One year out almost and no co-op for Halo Infinite either which keeps dying more every day with lack of content and terrible direction, xbox needs a new head, someone who knows how to put out games , money isn't the problem, the direction/leaders of xbox are the main problem.

Why do games have to be exclusive? I don’t care if a game is exclusive or not, actually would prefer they weren’t and more gamers get to play them.

But the point I was making was Game Pass has a lot of great looking games coming over the next 12 months, many in 2022. True If you only like big AAA games then perhaps Game Pass isn’t for you right now, but for many of us there is plenty to look forward to and play.