During Summer Game Fest, Microsoft opened the final day with an Xbox Games Showcase that threw the spotlight on titles coming to Xbox Series X|S either this year or next. Following the presentation, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer briefly addressed the challenges of “running a good business” while remaining accountable to Microsoft’s expectations for the division.

“Our jobs inside the company is to run a good business,” said Spencer during his appearance on the official Xbox podcast. “We’re accountable to Microsoft for running a good business–a healthy business that continues to grow at both top line and bottom line. That’s kind of a foundation for us. And what that does is it allows us to continue to invest in Xbox for our community of players and creators and that we’re doing. It does mean we have to make tradeoffs through the year on things that we’re going to invest more in. [And] things that we’re not going to invest as much in, because we are the business that we are. But the business is having really good success.”

Spencer touted Game Pass as “having an amazing year” and praised Xbox’s first-party games for their performance in 2025. It’s worth noting that Spencer has used similar language about running “a sustainable business” to explain the closures of studios like Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks. The latter was successfully revived by its new owner, Krafton, but other studios weren’t as lucky and numerous devs lost their jobs.

Additionally, Spencer has explained repeatedly that the decision to bring Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and other former Xbox-exclusive titles to PlayStation was a business call. That proved to be a fortuitous choice for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and Forza Horizon 5, both of which topped PSN charts in April.

During his podcast appearance, Spencer said that watching Keeper come together for the Xbox Games Showcase “reignited my Double Fine love.” That inspired him to revisit the studio’s previous games, The Cave and Iron Brigade, before reiterating his excitement for players to get their hands on it later this year.

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