Microsoft’s Xbox chief, Phil Spencer, says the company’s next-gen Xbox Series X console is still on schedule for later this year, but game production is a little more of an unknown. In an
interview with CNBC, Spencer notes that there could be “some impact” to Xbox Series X schedules, but that “the teams are doing a very good job with keeping our hardware on track” and “overall we’re in line with where we thought we would be.”
“I’d say the bigger unknown is probably the game production, just being honest,” says Spencer. “Game production is a large scale entertainment activity now, you have hundreds of people coming together, building assets, working through creative.”
Xbox game developers are now mostly working from home, creating and sharing assets that are often gigabytes in size over US home internet connections — an obvious challenge. “On the game production side, we’re learning every day,” admits Spencer. “I still feel good about it, but I also need to make sure that the security and safety of the teams is the most important thing, and not unduly push when things just aren’t ready.”
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