SPEAKER 1: Games in this podcast range from E to M (XBOX sound).
JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Hello and welcome to The Official XBOX Podcast, the only podcast coming to you from inside XBOX. We're into June, things are starting to heat up. I'm not talking about the weather. I am talking about the games industry. Everything really picks up at this time of year, and let me tell you, no better person to talk through it with than my favorite co-host, and I'm not just saying that, Tina Amini.
TINA AMINI: You too. It's always good to have you back here. I miss you when you're not here.
JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Oh, thanks, same.
TINA AMINI: And it's a good thing that you're here because we do actually have a lot to talk about. We just launched Forza Horizon 6. Congrats to Playground Games on that. We had a big Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 reveal yesterday. The XBOX Games Showcase is in less than a week. In fact, it's entirely too much to talk about without the help of XBOX Chief Content Officer, Matt Booty. Welcome, Matt.
MATT BOOTY: Hello. Thanks for having me back.
JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It's great to have you back. We are currently working on your five-timers jacket, just this year, I think. So one more time.
MATT BOOTY: I thought there was a punch card. I get a free sandwich or something, a coffee.
TINA AMINI: We got to get an official laminated one.
JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Oh, yeah, a six-inch sub. If we give you 12, let me tell you, your dinner is going to be covered. Tell me, what have you been up to since you were last on the show?
MATT BOOTY: Well, you talked about it being June, and it's also the end of the school year. And so I've had a really cool opportunity to get out and spend time with students and a few different forums. DigiPen was kind enough to invite me to give a commencement address. A cool moment for me just to see people that are starting their journey in games and also the fact that there's a place like DigiPen that exists. You can go get a degree in so many parts of making a game. I also got to spend time at Stanford and talk to a class that deals with leadership and entertainment. Fascinating that they had a lot of questions about what we're doing in TV and movie and film, which was cool. And then spent time at USC. So we're pretty involved in their games program. They have an amazing games program down there. And it was, I guess you'd call their capstone part of the year, a capstone project. So we got to see projects that they had been working on. Blows me away what some of the students do and that they're able to form these teams, 30, 40, 50 people. So many of these games are just this far away from something that you might see come through ID@XBOX or from one of our smaller teams. So just inspiring to me. I love the craft of making games, and I love seeing people that are just starting their journey and have such passion for it. It's been really fun.
JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, I feel like we've all played games that actually probably started in that incubator or in that program and later ended up coming out. And you wouldn't know it was like people in their early 20s made this. It's kind of awesome.
MATT BOOTY: Yeah, it's great. It's inspiring, yeah.
JEFF RUBENSTEIN: All right, well, let's talk about a game that I think has been inspiring and entertaining a bunch of us in the past couple of weeks. That is Forza Horizon 6. At the time of this recording, it is the best reviewed game of the year. Feels like my whole friends list is playing it. I think this may be the one I get all the roads. I just can't help it. But it's just really fun to do that. I saw last week we announced that it had sped past 6 million players. So how's the game doing a week past that? How's the team feeling? I would just love to hear more about that.
MATT BOOTY: Yeah, the team is doing great. And it's fantastic to see the success. Just to call some of this out, you can't take this for granted. This is the fourth iteration of Forza Horizon that Playground has shipped that has scored over 90. So just the difficulty of pulling that off four times in a row. I think currently it still sits as the highest Metacritic-ranked game of the year so far. So also fantastic. Team is in good shape. I think, to me, some of the things that really stand out are just the direction that the game went. Just to bring in the setting, but not just the place, but all the cultural things that go with it. So much attention put into the social aspects of the game. And it's great to see that resonating with players. And then, of course, just the usual technical expertise that Playground pulls off, working also in partnership with Turn 10 Studios here in the Redmond area.
TINA AMINI: What do you think it is about Playground Games, getting those four in a row, exceeding 90 on Metacritic? What do they put in the water over there?
MATT BOOTY: Yeah, well, again, all kudos go to them. And just so grateful for the hard work they do. It is just really their culture. I think they set a very high bar for themselves. It is really just a culture of empowerment, of teamwork, of having lofty goals, and going after them, and just some great people in the studio. Again, in the UK at Playground and also helping them here at Turn 10 in Redmond. Great group.
JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I'm going to ask what I think a lot of folks and a lot of players out there are wondering, and that is, do you have the identity of and/or are you BowieKnife99? [ Laughter ]
MATT BOOTY: While there is some appeal to driving around the little three-wheeled contraption, no, it's not me.
JEFF RUBENSTEIN: They got away with it this time. But if you haven't seen it, just Google BowieKnife99 or look on Twitter or something. Some of the clips are just amazing.
TINA AMINI: Yeah, just a menace to society in Forza, basically.
JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It's almost an honor to be ran off the road by them.
TINA AMINI: Absolutely, you want to have that encounter.
JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yes, exactly. All right, so let's change gears here. As we mentioned just yesterday, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 was revealed to the world. You've got a pretty unique perspective, a vantage point, seeing projects all the way from green light to them getting announced or launch day. So when you look at something like Modern Warfare 4 early, early on, what really pops?
MATT BOOTY: Yeah, well, you mentioned this. I think it was three years ago right after that acquisition had closed, and it was December of 2023. We went down for a green light, and because there's multiple iterations in development, we see the coming year. But then we also see early work on the years after that. So I think that I first saw Modern Warfare 4 in that green light there. It's just really cool to see the evolution of the setting, the evolution of the story. And I think what's great about this release is that it really sits at the center of what makes Call of Duty great, what sits at the center of Modern Warfare. So I'm excited. I'm excited for players to get to play it. And again, it is probably one of the better parts of my job of being able to see that arc and see them, okay, here's the setting. Here's the scenario. Here's what we want to do with gameplay. Here's the modes we're going to bring. That all is put in place years ahead. But then to see the actual execution and how it's brought together is really great.
TINA AMINI: Well, Matt, let's talk about the rest of 2026 because we have a big year. The industry has a big year. And I'm curious about the roadmap, the portfolio, how you manage all of those things, especially with what we're releasing. I think the whole industry has their eyes on GTA 6. So our third-party partners have a lot going on this year as well. So how do you look across all of that and then make decisions for our portfolio and releases?
MATT BOOTY: Yeah, well, just even talking about portfolio, to start out, we've got so many games for XBOX players to play coming up. We start out with Halo: Campaign Evolved. We go to Minecraft Dungeons II. We've got Gears of War: E-Day. Then we go into Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4. And then we've got more after that. So it's just, to start, a really great lineup for XBOX. So that is a result of so much hard work by our teams to be in a place where we've got a regular cadence of games and we're actually doing active portfolio management. And you bring up GTA 6. I think it's cool that one of the biggest entertainment moments of the year is going to be a video game. But let's take all of that and put it together in terms of what it really means for us. We talked about Forza Horizon 6 and how the team at Playground is doing really well. Also doing really well on Fable. The game is in great shape. The team feels really good. We're excited about where the game is. We want to make sure that that game has a window all to its own, so we are going to move it from this fall to February. And again, we really just want it to have its own moment to shine. And related to Fable, we will be seeing more of it in Showcase. So we're going to have plenty for people to see. It really is coming together well, exciting stuff, and then we're going to move to February.
TINA AMINI: Well, since you did tease a little bit about Showcase, that we're going to see Fable at the show, which is very exciting and it looks really great, I agree. It is only a week away, which is pretty crazy. You actually just filmed your stage segment last week.
MATT BOOTY: In this very building.
TINA AMINI: In this very building, just downstairs. Slightly different set than this one. Now the show and the Direct are also both going through final color and audio. We're just in polish mode now. So we're very ready for everybody to see the show next week. But what else can you say about it?
MATT BOOTY: We start working on this, as you both know well, in the fall. I think we had our first meeting almost before Thanksgiving. So the teams are really, really working hard. I mentioned that we've got some really cool stuff to show for Fable. I particularly am excited for the Gears Direct afterward. It is the opportunity for us to go deep, to meet the team, to cover the ins and outs and just the nuts and bolts of how the game actually comes together. I think in this case, we really hit some just cool moments in terms of things with the audio, with the animation and the mocap and just all the technology that goes in that, as well as the story and just how we're going to bring Gears forward for a modern era. So the Direct is pretty exciting, but --
TINA AMINI: You don't say (laughter).
JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You didn't have anything to do with that.
TINA AMINI: I didn't ask him to say that (laughs).
MATT BOOTY: There's a lot of good stuff in there. And again, the teams put just so much energy into working on the trailers and working on the timing and getting everything put together. We're very busy. It is a very busy time at work. But we're excited because all that energy goes into what should be a great Showcase.
TINA AMINI: Yeah, I think one of the best things about the Direct format and it being a part of Showcase is getting, as you said, getting inside the craft and really looking at the details, the things that all of the passion and the information and the skill sets that the teams have. And The Coalition are Unreal Engine 5 experts, but there's so much other technical finesse that goes into the game. And it was awesome for me to learn that stuff. So I'm very excited to share it with the world soon. And I love that you love it. So thank you, Matt.
MATT BOOTY: Well, you're welcome. And it really came together well. Another thing about Showcase I'll say is that the focus is going to be on these games. We really want to focus on the teams and on the games. And this is not going to be a place where we're going to talk about strategy broadly. There are certainly some strategic things that are out there and things we want to bring clarity to. But the focus here is on the games. For the long term, we want to make the right decisions, not fast decisions. And I can also say that there won't be Helix news. So Helix will not be in this Showcase. Again, we want to get everything about that right. So we're really focused on the games now. We've got a great lineup over the next 12 months. That's really what Showcase is going to focus on, the broader strategic questions. Anything to do with Helix will come at a later time.
JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So as you say, focus on the games. That's what we'll all be talking about come June 8th.
MATT BOOTY: That's exactly right.
JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So in recent broadcasts that we've had like Dev Direct, Partner Preview, we've been really transparent about when a game is multi-platform. So should we expect to see that transparency continuing here at Showcase?
MATT BOOTY: Yes, absolutely. We'll be very clear about what platforms a game is coming to and want to continue the precedent. I think we've got a good system going where we make it clear in Showcase.
TINA AMINI: Well, on that note, we'd love to remind all of you when and where you can watch the full Showcase followed by Gears Direct. So the XBOX Games Showcase and Gears of War E-Day Direct starts next Sunday, June 7th, at 10 AM Pacific, 1 PM Eastern. That's 6 PM in the UK, 7 PM for our friends across most of Europe, on XBOX's YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook pages. It'll be available in over 40 languages, as well as American Sign Language, British Sign Language, and English audio descriptions, all thanks to my very talented localization and accessibility team. Thank you, team.
JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I appreciate you not making a 6-7 reference there, by the way. We'll also have all the news on XBOX Wire. That's news.XBOX.com. And we are preparing some special official XBOX podcast episodes as well, including one with The Coalition, which is pretty good.
TINA AMINI: Bit of a tease. Love that. Well, Matt, thank you so much for joining us. This has been awesome, as usual. We hope to have you again soon so we can get that water bottle for you.
MATT BOOTY: It's good to see you both, thanks. Got to get my card punched.
TINA AMINI: Exactly. And everyone else, we'll see you next time on The Official XBOX Podcast (XBOX sound).
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