Last week, The Guardian published an extensive interview with Xbox boss Phil Spencer, in which he talked about the current state of single-player games in the industry. As service-based games continue to gain popularity, Spencer noted that titles like Horizon Zero Dawn and Zelda do well but ultimately, the audience for story-driven games is “not as consistent.” Hence, they become a difficult business decision for some developers.
Spencer’s comments were somehow misconstrued as some people thought he was undermining the success of the aforementioned games and single-player experiences as a whole. In response, Spencer took to Twitter to clarify that this isn’t what he meant.
“Horizon Zero Dawn is great,” he remarked. “As an industry, we should want single-player to be healthy. Today, as a genre, we see fewer single-player [games] being built.” Spencer said he wasn’t downplaying anything and lamented those who turn “everything into console wars.” “I love playing single-player games,” he continued. Interestingly, he also revealed during one exchange that Sony sent him a Collector’s Edition of Horizon Zero Dawn.
The Guardian’s interview with Spencer is quite comprehensive so it’s worth a read for some insight. You can find it here.
[Source: Phil Spencer (Twitter)]
