Phil Spencer Says Single-Player Game Sales Are Easier On Consoles

[Alpha Maeko]

I play most of my Single Player games on the PC and most of my community-based games on the Xbox...

I think I'm doing it all wrong! D:

 

[Baresark]

Eh, I disagree. I mean, the consoles themselves are the one's who are scrambling to make everything online. I play lots and lots of single player games, or games that offer the option for single player. The indie market consists of almost all single player games and that is where a lot of the most interesting games are these days... and both the consoles have horrid indie game markets. I play those games almost exclusively on the PC.

I have to ask. Is there any wonder that he would be making these claims? His job is to make the XBox One look better to all other platforms.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Welp I saw this coming the moment I saw the title.

Shame people get too agitated by PR like this and feel the need to defend themselves and downplay a console rather than not giving a fuck what the guy says.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

It sounds like he's just referring to PC industry staples like WoW and LoL, because they are the kinds of PC games everyone knows about.

What console gamers don't hear about (to pick a couple at the top of my Steam list) are things like The Witcher (although later ported to the Xbox) and Shadow Warrior.

It's like talking to an old granny about the difference between CoD and Battlefield.

I never play single player games on my 360 anymore. My 360 is only used for casual passing time multiplayer games like CoD these days.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

Wait... they still make single-player games for the PC?

Good to know.

(Yeah, I'm being facetious here, but a helluva lot of reviewers seem to use "no multiplayer" as a NEGATIVE in reviews of games which were clearly never meant to be anything but single-player. Which leads me, as a gamer who's almost never actually played multiplayer games except one or two particularly specialised ones (TF2 for example) - why?!

 

[clippen05]

I think it's probably exacerbated on PC, because sales are much more frequent and much more generous. Maybe that's what the guy meant? It's hard to sell games at full extortionate money-grabbing price on PC because we know that we can get a 5-10 hour single player story game (ala Alan Wake) for $10-20 or less a year or two later and actually get our money's worth from the game?

I'm not sure what Sony is doing, but sales are really no more frequent on PC than on Xbox 360, and I'd imagine the same holds true for Xbox One. Both essentially have one or more games on sale at all times. Granted, I agree that PC game sales are more generous, as there are generally more games that are both more recent and of higher quality, but, at least on Xbox, you're almost always getting sales just like on Steam.

I have to disagree with you completely on this one. Right now, after Steam had one of its largest sales of the year, there are currently 49 games/software on sale on Steam. Every week something new goes on sale. And this is just one distributor, you seem to forget that PC is not just 'Steam.' I'm not even counting all the deals on at Gamersgate, Origin, GMG etc. etc. I highly doubt you could go onto the Xbox marketplace and find me 49 things on sale, let alone 25 things. Not to mention that the sales on Xbox are only available to Gold members...

 

[MysticSlayer]

I think it's probably exacerbated on PC, because sales are much more frequent and much more generous. Maybe that's what the guy meant? It's hard to sell games at full extortionate money-grabbing price on PC because we know that we can get a 5-10 hour single player story game (ala Alan Wake) for $10-20 or less a year or two later and actually get our money's worth from the game?

I'm not sure what Sony is doing, but sales are really no more frequent on PC than on Xbox 360, and I'd imagine the same holds true for Xbox One. Both essentially have one or more games on sale at all times. Granted, I agree that PC game sales are more generous, as there are generally more games that are both more recent and of higher quality, but, at least on Xbox, you're almost always getting sales just like on Steam.

I have to disagree with you completely on this one. Right now, after Steam had one of its largest sales of the year, there are currently 49 games/software on sale on Steam. Every week something new goes on sale. And this is just one distributor, you seem to forget that PC is not just 'Steam.' I'm not even counting all the deals on at Gamersgate, Origin, GMG etc. etc. I highly doubt you could go onto the Xbox marketplace and find me 49 things on sale, let alone 25 things. Not to mention that the sales on Xbox are only available to Gold members...

1. I said that they were more generous, not more frequent. Frequency indicates that stuff goes on sale more often. Generosity indicates that more and better stuff is offered for less (or just one of those). Considering Xbox almost always has something on sale, you really can't say that they are holding sales less frequently, just that they are more stingy with it.

2. Not all sales are for Gold members only. Some might be, but I haven't been signed up for Gold for almost a year now and I'm still seeing sales and am able to take advantage of them.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Maybe because single player games are about the only thing trending on he Xbone? Not to mention the whole pay to use the online bits makes it harder for everyone to use the damn thing.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Just look at his face. "Heh, I did that whole interview on weed, and nobody will suspect a thing."

My favourite was the part about Ryse being a 'unique capability for console'. It sure does become unique when you pay developers for exclusivity...

 

[A-D.]

That man is a moron. Now i dont talk PR-Speak but from what i can make out from it, he is essentially claiming that the PC as a platform itself is based around the software being a service, rather than a product, where as on the console, specifically microsoft's console, it is a product, which you essentially own without the need for streaming, internet and so forth.

So who else just realized how fucking dumb this man is? Just me or did everyone else catch on at the same time? Because here's the rub, for one this whole "service thing" that apparently makes the PC not as good as consoles is caused by publishers such as Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft and various others, they want to sell you a license to use a product, rather than selling you the product itself. You caused this you dipshit and dont even give me that crap how the console is any different when not even half a year ago your company tried to push what is essentially a PC in console-format on the market, in fact it would have been worse than a PC because it would have had all the downsides with none of the upsides.

This man has to stop speaking, now. And to be even worse after all this, he is also the guy that wants Microsoft to focus a little more on the PC, which is by itself contradictionary given these statements right now, but also spells quite a interesting picture.

The funny thing being that Microsoft being the ones that were trying to turn their system into a service. Yep this answers it, Phil is the same as the others at M$, an utter moron.

Which was my point. He bemoans, or seems to bemoan, the state of the industry, the same exact state that his company let happen, if not even helped create to begin with. Honestly in retrospect i wish the Xbone would have kept all its announced features like 24 hour checks and such, just to see it fail so epicly that it would be a reminder for generations to come as to what not to do, to see all those console gamers, or specifically Xbox gamers go "Im just going to buy a PC then".

But alas, luck had it that this didnt happen, luck for them in any case. But its a matter of time before Microsoft, or Sony, or Nintendo or some newcomer will try a similar tactic and it will work, because nobody paid any attention. Which is why the industry is as it is, nobody cares or pays any attention until things already went downhill, when its already too late to prevent the descent into failure. I mean us older gamers can look back a couple years and wonder just when the industry changed this much, the same will hold true in a few years for all the young'uns gaming now.

 

[Callate]

Single-player offline games were the heart of PC gaming for decades. The introduction of the Internet and the advent of social media have changed things a bit, yes, but there are still plenty of people who crave rich single-player experiences; the furor over the latest version of SimCity, and the success of games like The Stanley Parable, Gone Home, and The Walking Dead ought to be proof enough of that.

Spencer's words sound like a man who isn't looking much further than Blizzard and all its would-be imitators who've gone Free-To-Play as their business models folded, and takes the usual rhetorical arguments about piracy as gospel. In light of Microsoft's increasing failures as a "service provider" within the PC realm, I half wonder if the statement is a mistaken expression that they're doing everything right but for some reason the consumers won't play ball, or a prelude to further MS retreat from those pernicious PC gamers and their demands for experiences that don't display a thorough lack of effort and actually work.

 

[Flunk]

I predict this is the last console generation. Then we won't need to heart this junk anymore.

 

[smithy_2045]

If he meant that a single player, story driven game is generally seen as a console experience, I can agree with that. I imagine it's a better experience playing a game like Ryse on a big TV with surround sound than on a computer monitor with headphones on. And honestly, there's been heaps of times where I can't be bothered playing a game on my PC because I have to sit at my desk and can't have my laptop open next to me.

Although, given what he said, I have no idea if that's what he meant. Someone needs to go through Microsoft and teach their employees, one by one, how to not stick their foot so far in their own mouths that it starts coming out their arse. It's beyond cringeworthy now.

 

[mitchell271]

I think this guy just likes to pretend that Steam Sales don't exist. It seems like the majority of games that are sold during those sales (and we can extrapolate to the rest of the year) are predominantly single player. Let's see some data before you make baseless points!

 

[Storm Dragon]

Those were certainly words he said there, English words. Sometimes they even came close to approximating a coherent sentence!

 

[Jaylo69]

I honestly prefer single players games only anyways.

Never got back into online gaming since my CS days.

 

[jackpipsam]

I do admit I rather get single-player games on GOG if I can.
I hate having to use Steam, Origin, Uplay for single-player games (I'm looking at you Skyrim).

So there's a good chance if there's a game which is primarily single-player, I might rather get it on an Xbox One, because chances are it has Steamworks on PC.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

In fairness, he's probably seen analytics and sales data that I haven't. But...I'm inclined to disagree, because mods, and because indie games. But the suggestion that the Xbone is somehow uniquely suited to playing singleplayer games is such bullshit.

 

[Darren Cusack]

While I applaud the fact that the console market is now opening up to the idea that people without millions of dollars to spend can make interesting games, I also find it hard to take that they are trying to claim the 'Indie Scene' as their own. Indie games were born on the PC, they live on the PC and they are unlikely to migrate completely away. PC gamers are a breed apart from console only gamers. They have a curiosity for games which people on consoles (in the main) just don't have.

The single player games statement is frankly ridiculous and not really worthy of comment.