Phil Spencer “The math on making a game has definitely changed”

In an interview with Polygon Phil Spencer talks candidly about the gaming industry and about how “The math on [making] a game has definitely changed,”.

Polygon once again got Phil Spencer on the record to talk about the state of the gaming industry while GDC, the San Fransisco-based Game Developers Conference. There were a number of choice quotes, focused on the rising costs of development and how that precludes publishers from risk-taking.

“The cost “really reduces the risk that publishers are willing to take.” Where previous games needed to sell a few hundred thousand units to justify their cost, new games may need to sell many millions of units. “If you’re a publisher, you know that’s a pretty big number in a world that already has a lot of video games coming.” said Spencer. “How are you going to establish this thing? Am I willing to take the red on new IP — on a new kind of game — when the earnout risk is that high? I think it impinges on the creativity of this industry, which I don’t love. Creativity is like the cornerstone of what we should be about in gaming.”

Concerning exclusivity, everyone’s favorite topic, Phil Spencer stated “[The case for] exclusivity gets pressured as the cost of the game goes up.” This is in relation to the fact that the console market has stagnated, with little growth in its number of users over the past few decades. “everybody else’s customer is your success state,” said Spencer. “You can’t succeed unless you draw in customers from other publishers and other platforms. And because you’re not finding new customers with the games that you’re building, everybody’s kind of fighting over the same-size pie.”

There are more topics covered in the interview and you can find them all HERE. What do you think about Phil Spencer and his thoughts on the ever-changing game industry? Is Microsoft at the forefront or do you disagree with their latest moves? Sound off in the comment below.