Microsoft Gaming head honcho Phil Spencer says 'I don't like expansions that are manipulative... like, the third level you cut before you launched'

Phil Spencer announces PC Game Pass expansion — (Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft Gaming chief Phil Spencer has been doing a few interviews as 2024 draws to a close, celebrating Microsoft's generally strong lineup of games over the year while also warning that the PC-heavy lineup is "historical" and an "anomaly" following the $69 billion Activision-Blizzard acquisition.

Spencer's focus at the moment is talking up the strength of Xbox's lineup while flogging Game Pass, and moving towards a "Play Anywhere" marketing line that will see Xbox games work across a variety of devices. It's Game Pass that feels like the real driver right now, however, with the recent launch of Black Ops 6 the first time a Call of Duty title has been available day one on the subscription service. But that's part of a wider slew of offerings that, for the moment at least, tend to exclude most DLC and expansions across the slate.

In a new interview with newsletter GameFile, reporter Stephen Totilo pointed out to Spencer that three of Microsoft's nine fall releases are expansions: Diablo 4's Vessel of Hatred, World of Warcraft's The War Within, and Starfield's Shattered Space. Given that the Game Pass model is the blindingly simple subs, subs and then more subs on top, Totilo suggested that expansions are becoming more important revenue-wise, with Microsoft able to hive off paid expansions for popular titles and then offer them to a captive audience. This isn't small beans: Shattered Space was a $30 release while Vessel of Hatred was $40.

The odd element is that idea of expansions being exploitative. Players are rarely happy about the pricing of any expansion (unless it's free) but the better examples quickly win over the crowd: For many people, this year's GOTY may well be Elden Ring's $40 Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. When I think "exploitative" I don't think of expansions for games like Diablo 4 or Starfield so much as the pattern followed by the likes of the Sims, with constant minor DLCs and a nickel-and-diming approach generally.

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Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."