Speaking alongside Double Fine founder Tim Schafer at the Paley International Council Summit on Thursday, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer emphasized the value of creative risk-taking to a small crowd of film, TV, and online media bigwigs.
“The creativity of the teams is, in my mind, the most important thing and the thing that we need to protect and foster,” Spencer said during the moderated discussion.
According to Schafer, whose acclaimed adventure game studio was acquired by Microsoft in 2019, Spencer and the software giant have been true to their word, at least in his experience.
“When we talked about becoming acquired, it was a big thing for me, like, ‘How do we keep our culture intact?'” Schafer explained. “And everyone was like, ‘No, we really want you to stay who you are.’ And that’s been true all these years. You know, creatively, we can be like, ‘Hey, we want to make this game about a walking lighthouse,’ and they’re like, ‘Cool. Sounds cool.'”
The walking lighthouse game in question is the recently released *Keeper*, which has been well received — we just awarded it a 90% in our review.
Schafer said that Microsoft’s acquisition freed Double Fine from the burden of constantly “shaking the bushes for money,” providing the stability to ask, “What would we do if we weren’t constantly afraid?”
He also emphasized the importance of individuals, sharing that he learned from his time at LucasArts to “make bets on people” rather than ideas. This approach nurtures and develops leaders who are later trusted to run their own projects.
However, hanging over these reflections on the value of creative risk-taking and individuals are the expansive layoffs Microsoft has executed across its gaming division in recent years. These followed a period of rapid expansion that, besides Double Fine, included major acquisitions like Bethesda and Activision Blizzard.
Spencer did admit that Microsoft has not always succeeded at protecting its creative risk takers, though his comments came in the context of internet criticism.
“I think it’s the most brave thing a team can do, whether you’re making a movie or a television show, to go and put something out for the internet to evaluate, judge and comment on,” he said. “Sometimes I scratch my head on why anybody wants to go do that, because the internet’s not always a nice place for the discourse around things that have been created. But nurturing and protecting creative teams that want to go take risks — we don’t always succeed at that, but I think it is kind of the root of any media industry, the creative nugget.”
In Double Fine’s case, the partnership with Microsoft seems to have been positive, freeing the studio from the chase for publisher and crowdfunding support.
Obsidian, which Microsoft acquired in 2018, also appears to be thriving with three notable releases this year: *Avowed*, *Grounded 2*, and *The Outer Worlds 2*, which we recently reviewed positively.
At an industry event earlier this year, Obsidian presented a remarkably sober plan for longevity, aiming to maintain low employee turnover and focus on moderate successes rather than chasing ever-larger profits.
Meanwhile, however, reports suggest Microsoft’s gaming division as a whole has been asked to achieve unreasonably high profit margins in recent years. This pressure may explain why the company has laid off thousands of workers, cancelled major projects—including a Blizzard survival game and a Zenimax MMO—and shuttered multiple studios. These actions do not exactly paint a picture of creative risk takers happily and securely doing their work.
“With every subsequent round of mass layoffs, I’ve witnessed the dread in my coworkers grow stronger because it feels like no amount of hard work is enough to protect us,” Diablo 4 producer Kelly Yeo said after the team voted to unionize in August. It is a common sentiment throughout the industry.
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/xbox-boss-phil-spencer-says-nurturing-and-protecting-creative-teams-that-want-to-go-take-risks-is-the-priority-admits-we-dont-always-succeed-at-that/