Head of Xbox Phil Spencer confirms single-player focused games are here to stay

With so many multiplayer adventures hitting consoles these days, there's been a lot of chatter about just what the future holds for single-player focused games. Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox Project Scarlett is due to release Holiday 2020, and thoughts have already started turning to what Xbox’s future games library will look like. Thankfully, Xbox head Phil Spencer is helping alleviate any fears players may have about upcoming Xbox releases after responding to a question about whether any single-player games will be landing on the console in the years to come.

Yes, I can confirm. With the additions to XGS we have a lot of teams that have built strong SP focused games and we want that to continue.August 7, 2019

As you can see in the above tweet, Spencer gave his reassurances that Xbox is committed to continue bringing strong single player focused games to its console in the future. In the tweet Spencer refers to the additions to Xbox Games Studios, as Microsoft brought several third-party studios under its umbrella last year - including the likes of Ninja Theory, Playground Games, and Compulsion Games. With the success of games like Apex Legends and Fortnite, and the growth in live service experiences, there's been more and more discussion surrounding the future of single-player titles.

Upcoming Xbox exclusive titles like Gears 5 will include a single-player campaign alongside multiplayer modes. Halo Infinite is the other big upcoming Xbox exclusive in the pipeline, but we don't know what its campaign will be like, and how focused it'll be on the singe-player side of things. Lots of multiplayer games have come under fire in recent years thanks to the use of microtransactions and loot boxes, and the hunger for single-player titles appears to be increasing even more.

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Heather Wald is the Evergreen Editor, Games at GamesRadar+. Her writing career began on a student-led magazine at Bath Spa University, where she earned a BA (Hons) in English literature. Heather landed her first role writing about tech and games for Stuff Magazine shortly after graduating with an MA in magazine journalism at Cardiff University. Now with almost seven years of experience working with GamesRadar+ on the features team, Heather helps to develop, maintain, and expand the evergreen features that exist on the site for games, as well as spearhead the Indie Spotlight series. You'll also see her contribute op-eds, interview-led features, and more. In her spare time, you'll likely find Heather tucking into RPGs and indie games, reading romance novels, and drinking lots of tea.