Xbox boss admits he passed on two massive game franchises

Microsoft's CEO of gaming Phil Spencer said "I've made some of the worst game choice decisions"

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer. (Credit: Microsoft)

• 😲 Microsoft’s CEO of gaming has revealed he passed on two big game franchises

• 😬 Spencer said Microsoft was offered Destiny and Guitar Hero but turned them down

• 😮 Famously, Microsoft also passed on GTA 3 before it became a timed PS2 exclusive

• 🤦‍♂️ Spencer admitted, “I’ve made some of the worst game decisions”

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has candidly shared two of “the worst” decisions he’s made during his time at Xbox, which include missing out on exclusivity deals for two of the biggest gaming franchises.

In an interview at PAX West called “Story Time with Phil Spencer” (thanks, Eurogamer), the Xbox boss explained how he passed on Bungie’s Destiny.

“There’s so many mixed emotions and stories for me around Destiny,” Spencer said.

“Obviously, Bungie was a part of Microsoft when I started at Xbox, and I shared a floor with Alex Seropian and Jason Jones in the building that we were in Redmond. I learned a ton from just being around Bungie.”

However, Spencer revealed that even though he was close to the team, he decided against Microsoft becoming the game’s publisher, leading to Bungie agreeing to a deal with Activision instead and eventually being bought out by Sony.

Spencer said Destiny “didn’t really click” when he first played it, and it was only until the game’s first expansion, House of Wolves, that the game landed with him.

Destiny wasn’t the only game that Spencer passed on. He revealed that Microsoft was also pitched Guitar Hero before it became a huge success.

“An interesting one is when this team came down to Redmond and Alex Rigopulos, he 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 going to play Simon on this guitar and I'm like, really? Do we really think that's going to work?

“I hear that turned into a pretty good game...” Spencer added, laughing.

Despite missing out on two massive franchises, Spencer said he doesn’t have any regrets.

“I'm not a regrets-type person,” Spencer explained. “Maybe that's a fault of mine, but I passed on so many games. I could look back and say-,” he clenches his fist, “-but no, I try to look forward and be positive about the things that we are doing.

“I just like to celebrate what the team [at Bungie] has done. I mean, it's incredible.”

Not the only game Microsoft has missed out on

GTA 3 could have been a timed Xbox exclusive. (Credit: Rockstar)

Destiny and Guitar Hero aren’t the only famous franchises Microsoft has passed over. Perhaps its most costly blunder was during the original Xbox, where a certain Rockstar presented its newest game, Grand Theft Auto 3.

In a six-part documentary on YouTube called Power On: The Story of Xbox, former Xbox head of third-party relationships Kevin Bachus revealed the news.

“They felt that it was complicated,” said Bachus of the group. “They didn't really understand the interface, they thought that it was based on a game that hadn't been all that successful. To my surprise, it was rejected.”

Sony would eventually make GTA 3 a timed exclusive for the PS2, and the game went on to sell 14.5 million units. Ouch.

• Up next: The PS5 Pro is about to create a big headache for Microsoft

Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.