Phil Spencer Talks Xbox Series X Launch Lineup

In a lengthy interview with IGN, Phil Spencer, the executive vice president of Gaming at Microsoft, discussed the release and lineup for the launch of the upcoming Xbox Series X. Set to release later this year, Spencer is confident in the next generation of the Xbox making it out on time, despite the setbacks caused by the ongoing pandemic around the world.

At this point we know that the day one launch lineup consists solely of Halo Infinite, Xbox’s flagship franchise. When asked about the launch lineup, Spencer skated around the topic, not really confirming anything new, but instead outlining his own beliefs on how Microsoft will be handling the launch. “For the momentum of the platform, it’s not about any one day, it’s about a sustained stream of great games coming from our first party and our third party partners,” he said.

Spencer went on to comment on how he thought the Xbox One had too many games released on the launch day. “It doesn’t really help somebody to have eight games launched on one day, and I think you can pace those out,” he said.

Here are the games we know so far that will be coming to or releasing on the Series X:

Halo Infinite will be released on both the Xbox One consoles and the Xbox Series X. Cyberpunk 2077 will have a free upgrade for the Xbox Series X for those who purchase the game on Xbox One.

As the interview went on, Spencer touched on Microsoft’s various studios working on multiple projects and how they will be planning on announcing titles much earlier in development.

“With more internal teams, we’ll be able to show things that are further out because it is just regretfully it’s a little different internal team and external teams. …Aaron Greenberg (Xbox Marketing manager) and I were just doing the math with Matt [Booty] (Head of Xbox Game Studios) and trying to figure out what is the next show that we would have that we would not be announcing a new game. It’s kind of hard for us to predict, because we just have that many studios.”

“Our first party organization that works with independent studios to ship games under our first-party brand and we unannounced signed things there that we are really, really excited about and that teams really found the rhythm in terms of how they’re working on these games and getting the quality and the shipping. So, I’ll just say that [you] are going to hear a lot more from us in the game space. I know I’ve been saying that for a while, but it’s just the math now says that we have to announce things almost every time we’re on stage, new things, otherwise were gonna be shipping games without ever announcing them.”

The Xbox Series X has no price as of yet, with Spencer saying he is “eyes wide open” in regards to the final retail price of the console. Microsoft will be looking at how Sony prices the PlayStation 5 for release come holiday season 2020.