Phil Spencer Called Starfield’s Delay “A Disaster Situation” for Xbox, Reveals Leaked Court Documents

Following the end of the high profile legal battle between FTC and Microsoft earlier this year, it seemed like the case was entirely over. But now, some of the most unnoticed details have surfaced online. By what’s been revealed so far from confidential documents, it appears Xbox boss Phil Spencer was extremely concerned for the console duet to a major reason!

Thanks to the recently leaked FTC documents, tons of undisclosed information has emerged publicly. Among many crucial pieces of news is also one referring to a two-year old email conversation involving Mr. Spencer talking about how not having Starfield on time was nothing less than a nightmare for Xbox and its future.

A delayed Starfield was a bad sign for Xbox amidst the lack of high-quality exclusives, according to Phil Spencer

While there’s a lot of news doing, one key detail has also made its way to the public eye. It seems like the situation at Microsoft wasn’t really going good more than a year ago. Especially, after the unexpected delay of Starfield. A leaked email interaction between Phil Spencer, Matt Booty, Jamie Leder, and Sarah Bond has revealed this information.

“I feel we are in a huge hole”, wrote Mr. Spencer in his email. He highlighted the challenge of Xbox having no big games to attract the players. On top of it, a delayed Starfield painted a disastrous scenario for the console, according to him.

Spencer believed so because there was a gap of almost 16 months after the release of Halo Infinite and before the arrival of Starfield. While Halo Infinite was unveiled on December 8, 2021, Bethesda’s space epic eventually made its way this year on September 6.

Moreover, he wrote that the team needed to learn from this crisis-like situation. After all, there were lots of efforts made to offer more content on Game Pass with increasing number of titles. Unfortunately, it couldn’t happen last year.

Xbox had plans to acquire Nintendo and Warner Bros. Games!

Meanwhile, more surprising details have popped up online from the leaked FTC documents surrounding Microsoft – mostly. It seems like there were plans going on for another huge acquisition by the company. An internal email has revealed that Xbox boss Phil Spencer had a thought about buying Japanese gaming giant Nintendo, back in 2020.

Not just that, Spencer also considered buying Warner Bros. Games – publisher of popular IPs like Mortal Kombat, DC-based superhero games like Injustice, Batman Arkham franchise etc. Unfortunately, these plans couldn’t be implemented due to various reasons. Instead, Microsoft then decided to acquire Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard.

All things considered, it’s wild to know about the internal situation at Microsoft. Especially after knowing Phil’s thoughts on the Xbox platform’s struggle to engage the userbase. Had Starfield released back in 2022, would the result have been extremely favorable for the console? It’s a deep question to say the least.

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