He’s been playing a ‘more active role’ in picking franchises
Comparisons between Microsoft’s Games with Gold and Sony’s PlayStation Plus cannot be helped. The two services may be set up differently, but on the surface, they both offer free games (some much newer than others) with a subscription. Microsoft Game Studios corporate vice president Phil Spencer spoke about the program during a Q&A session at SXSW, reports Polygon.
“One of our issues with Games with Gold — not ‘issues,’ but differences between the other system we get compared to, is the fact that with Games with Gold, you get to keep that game, regardless of whether you continue to subscribe,” he said. “And the business around Games with Gold, for us, is just fundamentally different from some of the other programs that are out there, which does put a different financial picture on a — you’re gonna go buy a game that’s brand new, the cost of putting that in, just to be kind of blunt about it.”
For its part, Microsoft appears to be listening to feedback even if it might not seem that way at all based on the service’s offerings as of late. Continuing, Spencer said “I have been sitting down, monthly now, with that team — some of the earlier months were already programmed — and playing a more active role in picking franchises that show up in Games with Gold, and I think you’ll see at least something that feels, at least, more true to what I think Games with Gold should look like with the constraints that are there.”
Those darned constraints. At this rate, I’m more interested in seeing how Microsoft approaches Games with Gold on Xbox One where there isn’t a library of years-old titles to fall back on.
Phil Spencer: Games with Gold will feel ‘more true’ to what consumers want in the future [Polygon]
