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Sometimes you just can’t predict whether a game will be the next big thing, so it’s not worth kicking yourself if you get that call wrong. Or at least that seems to be the philosophy of Xbox boss Phil Spencer, who says that he doesn’t regret not making the original Destiny and Guitar Hero platform exclusives, even if those calls look a bit questionable in hindsight.
Speaking as part of an interview at PAX West called Story Time with Phil Spencer – seems like that name should maybe have been saved in case Xbox ever made its own children’s TV show, but I digress – the exec discussed some of the ones that got away because he didn’t quite get them right away.
“There are so many mixed emotions and stories for me around Destiny,” Spencer said, going on to talk about his interactions with the studio and its staff while it was still part of Microsoft, before moving on to discussing receiving the pitch for the original Destiny, I’d assume as part of the two parties’ ongoing relations after Bungie span out to become independent. “‘Do we want to sign this?’ We ended up not signing Destiny. It obviously went with Activision, and to seeing what it grew into, like from a business kind of Xbox standpoint, I can look at it [as] it’s just a really interesting journey in terms of what [Bungie] built.”
Spencer went on to say that he didn’t initially “really click” with the first Destiny when it came out, explaining: “I’m not a big PvP player, if somebody looks at my player [history], it’s not a lot of what I do, and I was a little worried that I was going to get thrown into a PvP world. “It turns out that not what it was at all, he continued, “and when [the House of] Wolves [expansion] came out, it definitely landed me.”
Also on the list of games Spencer and Xbox didn’t go for is the original Guitar Hero. “[Alex Rigopulos] pitches a game where they’re actually going to make plastic guitars and they’re going to plug into consoles and then they’re going to sell tracks where you’re gonna play Simon on this guitar,” the exec recalled, “I’m like, ‘Really? Do we really think that’s going to work?'”
Despite the success both series have gone on to have, Spencer says he doesn’t regret the choices he made, even if hindsight might make them harder to justify. “I’ve got so many of those, I’ve made some of the worst game choice decisions,” he admitted, but later added: “I’m not a regrets type person. Maybe that’s a fault of mine. I passed on so many games that I could look back on and [be annoyed], but I try to look forward and be positive about the things we are doing.”
To be fair to Phil, none of us have a crystal ball, even if you might wish you did when your job involves making or being involved in big calls like this on a regular basis.