“I wouldn’t say Halo is of lesser importance, but we have over 20 studios now,” says the Xbox boss.

As Microsoft’s biggest franchise, Halo is almost always expected to have some sort of a presence at any event being held by the company, so when the franchise didn’t have anything to show at last week’s Xbox Games Showcase, many were left surprised. Reports have, of course, claimed that there is no new single player Halo content in the works at 343 Industries right now, but the long-rumoured Certain Affinity-developed battle royale project, Tatanka, was something that many were expecting to see an announcement for.

So what led to the decision to not have Halo feature in the showcase at all? According to Xbox boss Phil Spencer, it was simply a case of having plenty to showcase outside of Halo, which means that, unlike past years at Xbox, there isn’t as much of a reliance on the franchise for a showcase event.

“I wouldn’t say Halo is of lesser importance, but we have over 20 studios now,” Spencer said in a recent interview with The Guardian. “I’ll go back to the years where we had basically four games – Fable, Forza, Halo, Gears, the four horseman of the apocalypse. We have a lot more games now.”

The star of the show at the recent Xbox Games Showcase was, of course, Starfield, with Bethesda’s upcoming space-faring RPG impressing in its comprehensive showing. Plenty of other upcoming first party titles were shown off as well, including the likes of Fable, Avowed, Forza Motorsport, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, Clockwork Revolution, South of Midnight, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Towerborne, and more.