Xbox’s Phil Spencer Talks Black Tusk’s Gears of War, Rare’s New Game, PlayStation Experience and More

Xbox’s Phil Spencer Talks Black Tusk’s Gears of War, Rare’s New Game, PlayStation Experience and More

Giuseppe Nelva November 16, 2014 11:16 PM EST

Microsoft’s Xbox Division head honcho Phil Spencer went all out recently in responding to questions from the fans, giving quite a lot of information on upcoming games, events and more.

He started by talking about Black Tusk Studio’s work on Gears of War:

I’ve been really impressed with the work of @GearsViking [Black Tusk’s Studio Manager Rod Fergusson] and the team so far. Hard to tell long term what @blacktuskstudio will be doing but for now they are busy on GoW.

He also gave a rather important hint about Rare’s new and unannounced game:

I’ll say this, Gregg Mayles was the one presenting the game. If you know Rare, you know Gregg is true Rareware.

For those unfamiliar with the name, Gregg Mayles worked on Banjo-Kazooie, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Star Fox Adventures, Viva Piñata, directed Banjo-Tooie and more.

Spencer then apologized for the problems faced by Halo: The Master Chief Collection early adopters with matchmaking and online gameplay:

We have to do better with the matchmaking, apologies for that. Team is working around the clock. Sorry about the issues. I know our fans expect more from us. Team is making progress but I know it’s still disappointing.

He also expressed his interest in what Sony is going to show at PlayStation Experience, mentioning that he’s focused on 2014, but there will be new announcements from Microsoft before E3.

I know Sony is doing a fan event in Dec. We don’t have anything planned for that time. Will be cool to see what Sony shows. Not sure yet. Right now just focused on what we are doing in 2014. I think we’ll have news before E3.

Additionally, he also talked about his plans to celebrate Xbox One’s 1st anniversary:

Yea, it will be a fun day. Hard to believe it’s only been a year, first year really helped me get centered for future.

Finally, as an added bonus, Spencer mentioned that BBC’s iPlayer is coming to Xbox One “Very Soon.”

That’s quite a lot of information, and honestly my interest in Rare’s new game just skyrocketed now that I learned that Mayles is involved with it in a prominent position. Hopefully we’ll hear something about it soon enough.