Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, has said Microsoft should be “pushing harder” for more genre diversity among its first-party Xbox One titles.
Microsoft’s Gamescom showing featured upcoming exclusives such as Quantum Break, Crackdown and Scalebound, all of which follow the same third-person action framework. When asked about this trend in an interview with Gamespot, Spencer admitted Microsoft’s line-up was over saturated by the genre.
“More diversity in terms of genre and mechanics, I think it’s a great thing for this industry to push,” he said. “So yes, you do find a lot of third-party action games from us, and I do think we should be pushing harder on genre and control.”
Spencer added, “I actually think it’s an industry issue, but I would say, the nice thing about third-person is that the mechanic is fairly well known. Many people can play it. You see your character, and you see their personality. So as a canvass for story telling, third-person is right up there”.
“If games are about their story, they tend to gravitate towards that third-person perspective,” he continued. “But I do love games that try to push on mechanics. A game I played a few years ago now, but one that really stuck with me, was Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. It was a really interesting dual-stick mechanic, that did something different, and when I find that, I love it.”