Phil Spencer has admitted that Microsoft doesn’t need to rely on its older, more extensive franchises.

A few days ago, we saw what games are coming to Xbox Series and PC shortly (as none of the internal studios are developing for Xbox One anymore, as we reported the other day), so the Redmond-based company showed off Starfield, Avowed, and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, for example. Although Forza Motorsport and the Fable reboot, for example, were also shown, we didn’t see Gears or Halo anywhere. (We also recently wrote about the former, supposedly handled by People Can Fly for Microsoft.)

Halo’s absence was particularly odd, as Halo Infinite, due out at the end of 2021, is a live service title), and they could have said something new about that (if they did about the Sea of Thieves Monkey Island DLC). “I wouldn’t say Halo is less important, but we have over 20 studios now. I’ll go back to the years when I had four games – Fable, Forza, Halo, Gears, the four horseman of the Apocalypse. We have a lot more games now,” Spencer told The Guardian.

On the failure of the Halo Infinite franchise, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty told Axios that the management team at 343 Industries, which developed the game, has since been replaced: “I feel confident in the leadership team, but the team that got us here is probably not the same team that’s going to take us forward.” And Spencer promises exciting things for the future of Halo: “We’ve been pretty public about the leadership change at 343. You can see that in some of the social things [the team have] been doing around seasons, but I don’t want to force them to talk about their longer-term vision until they’re ready. I think you’ll see some pretty cool things coming.”

Rumor has it that Texas-based Certain Affinity is working on something bigger, perhaps in the style of Tarkov or possibly a battle royale Halo experience (game mode). We’ll see.

Source: WCCFTech