While Sea Of Thieves Thrives As An Ongoing Experience With Halo Infinite Behind It This Fall, Matt Booty Explains It Is Not A Requirement For First-Party Titles

While the largest criticism towards Microsoft and its Xbox platform is the limited number of first-party release throughout majority of the last-generation for Xbox One, plans to resolve that issue is still underway with new machines already in public hands. Bringing transparency to its consumers, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty told that definitive releases for the new hardware is not due until a couple of years after launch.

However, Booty does later elaborate more recently on Microsoft’s plans to better its exclusive lineup. In a press release transcribed by Video Game Chronicles, Booty explains that more acquisitions until a unique release each quarter is Microsoft’s answer. “We are committed to building a diverse collection of studios that deliver a predictable pipeline of high-quality games,” Booty told.

For some of Microsoft’s most successful additions, they happen to be online services/ongoing titles. Games such as Sea of Thieves and the evident roadmap slated for Halo Infinite on the way. But, when speaking to The Guardian, Booty adds that it is not a requirement on Microsoft’s behalf when publishing.

We don’t have any direction or mandate that says every game has to be an ongoing, sustained game. Take [surrealist platforming game] Psychonauts: there might be a Psychonauts 3, but I’m not going to tell [designer] Tim Schafer to go make it. Knowing the history of games that he makes, I don’t think he’s going to be making a game that has seasons and goes on for five years.

Sea of Thieves has longevity and we’re going to have Halo multiplayer start to be based around seasons, but Compulsion Games, our studio in Montreal, weren’t told to go build something that’s going to have seasons or six pieces of DLC or something. Tell Me Why was an important story for us to get out there, but there is no mandate that they’ve got to go figure out how to do seasons for that game.

Later in the interview, Booty reiterates on a statement from Xbox lead Phil Spencer regarding more populous studios in regions outside conventional nations like the United States, England, or Japan. “There should be a several-hundred-person studio [in one of these territories], Booty adds.

“And not for outsourcing or support, but a team building whatever the version of the best blockbuster game may be for that market. That is very much the vision.” The comment from Booty echoes a tone that many teams at Xbox Game Studios repeat from their experience with Microsoft. Previously, Double Fine Productions explains that their acquisition from Microsoft did not infringe on being an expressive game studio. You can read the full report by heading here.

Are you surprised by the statement made by Matt Booty?

Source: The Guardian