Explain to me how Phil Spencer is NOT the problem?

Knucklepux

Knucklepux

Member
I see this over and over about Phil Spencer not being the problem.. but that it's the execs and that Xbox would already be gone without Phil

I just don't see it…

He took over from the Xbox One failure.. ok. Anyone who took over would've unbundled Kinect and reversed the DRM stuff

He hasn't overseen the creation of any new IP that's worth anything. Maybeeee State of Decay? But otherwise has been there for the bombs of Gears 4 and arguably 5, Halo 5 and Infinite

Gamepass is a failure any way you slice it. It just is.

This idea that Xbox lost last gen so all hope was lost is bullshit. Nintendo rebounded after the WiiU

Spencer is the problem and the absolute reason Xbox is failing.

Explain how he isn't to blame like I'm 5 years old. Without this "he's a gamer" "he wears gamer t shirts"!!!
 
The big giveaway in all this is they want him to take credit for any positive outcome yet deflect when it's a negative one.

If you are judging a brands performance based on personal experiences in the company of executives at gaming events then it's a major problem which I suspect a lot of Xbox media have been guilty of.
 
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when your child keeps grabbing stuff in the market, he or she is not the problem. you are. spencer's just an employee. anything he gets up to is fundamentally with the approval of his boss(es)...
 
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Michael Jackson Popcorn GIF


This gonna be good!

also, I agree.
 
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Knucklepux said:
I see this over and over about Phil Spencer not being the problem.. but that it's the execs and that Xbox would already be gone without Phil
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Phil Spencer is an exec. In fact, he is the Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Gaming.

To give you an answer without being a dick though, Phil use to not be the problem. A big fuckup with the Xbox One launch was alienating the fanbase, Phil got them back. Problem is he didn't do a good job giving them a reason to stay.

A big reason for that is his inexplicable decision to keep Matt Booty around.
 
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Imagine coming out to stage wearing a Hexen t-shirt and then doing fucking nothing at all about Hexen.
 
When you've got a person like Phil Spencer in charge of a faling department for over 10 years and the only way the department has survived is because the parent company acquires successful companies then the problem is bigger than Phil Spencer. The problem is Microsoft.
 
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Phil is definitely the problem. His management over the last decade is why Xbox is in the shit it is now. MS probably wouldn't have had to go out on a publisher buying spree if Phil had managed the studios he had at the start of the XB1 gen properly. MS felt the need to buy Activision/Bethesda this gen because Phil and Co. had damaged the brand beyond repair and Sony had run so far away with the ball that they needed a big splash to get gamers' attention. Phil was high on his own supply and sailed the Xbox brand into an iceberg with his arrogance and stupidity.

With that said, it's not entirely his fault that Xbox is the way it is. It's the culture at Microsoft, they are just not a creative company at all and they are completely and utterly clueless about what it takes to run a successful gaming division. The whole upper management at MS is greedy and incapable of making correct decisions when it comes to gaming or anything creative for that matter. The entire strategy at the company revolves around creating soulless products that they can turn into a service and they can then milk with the Cloud. The strategy works for their OS and Productivity services but it completely fails when they have to deliver a genuinely good and creative product, something that gaming constantly demands.
 
Knucklepux said:
While yes…you know what I mean.

This idea that Spencer wants to be the best for gamers and give us everything but that Nutella stands in the way
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Sorry, I was interrupted mid edit. But I added an update to the post you responded to. I'll paste it here as well.
Loomy said:
To give you an answer without being a dick though, Phil use to not be the problem. A big fuckup with the Xbox One launch was alienating the fanbase, Phil got them back. Problem is he didn't do a good job giving them a reason to stay.

A big reason for that is his inexplicable decision to keep Matt Booty around.
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Haters want a singular scapegoat. How do any of us know what went on behind closed doors with the higher ups? You can only do what is allowed. No one on this forum knows shit.
 
DavidGzz said:
Haters want a singular scapegoat. How do any of us know what went on behind closed doors with the higher ups? You can only do what is allowed. No one on this forum knows shit.
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You're right. But there was a noticeable shift after the ABK acquisition.
 
He's too nice to be a business man. Launching a subscription and getting all major games on it. Letting studios just jerk around without making anything. Letting all exclusives go to other platforms. The media glamored over him but anyone with half a brain could see that long term he was heading towards a disaster. Microsoft tried to hire a likable guy doing likable things after the Xbone reveal.

And what was the result, expensive ass subscription that gets negative coverage every year as it raises price because numbers aren't going up. Thousands being laid off, IPs destroyed. Console dead. And he's still going on about cloud, 2 billion gamers (see microsoft likes big numbers!) its so silly. Anyways the girl I'm talking to isn't replying so here I am writing this garbage.
 
BennyBlanco said:

It's not nothing but they should've done this years ago
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To be honest, I don't like this re-release. I like the idea of more people being exposed to those games, but including a bunch of fan mods and other stuff to make the game easier and having all that stuff enabled by default seems wrong to me.

Plus I wanted Hecatomb. :lollipop_crying:
 
After a straight decade of running Halo into the ground, 343i was finally gutted and their leadership was fired. Bonnie Ross, who steered the 343i ship since it's inception, shoulders the blame for what was done to Halo because, at the end of the day, it was her ship. As Captain, she signed off on every decision, she installed the managers and told them to build their teams, and she greenlit what they planned to release. The fall from the biggest gaming franchise in the world to the utter laughing stock Halo is today lands at the feet of one person, the Captain of 343i: Bonnie Ross. That's what being a CEO means. Under that same metric, Spencer should be getting the same treatment, and I have no idea why he isn't.

For the Xbox ship, Phil Spencer was it's Captain. Under his leadership, Xbox created zero new and successful IP, allowed it's internal quality assurance to languish leading to decades of under-cooker games that failed time and again, and ultimately failed to provide a single inarguable smash hit to drive their console sales. He steered Xbox into being just another beige Microsoft division. Game Pass might have worked had the teams under his banner actually delivered games worth subscribing for. Halo Infinite, Redfall, Avowed; these are the titles he needed to produce to push subscriptions and shift hardware, and he should have known it, or, employed people who knew better.

Spencer's moved on to "Gaming CEO", and Sarah Bond's Xbox's captain now. If I'm reading the room, she's got exactly one chance to deliver or the entire concept of an Xbox goes bye-bye. No pressure.
 
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He's "a" problem, not "the" problem. You'd have to clear out a bunch of people at Microsoft, Xbox and their developer teams before anything gets fixed, and it's never going to happen. Hell, Spencer and Bond both got promotions while leading this sinking ship. It's a total clown car operation and he's just one of them.
 
FIREKNIGHT2029 said:


Phil is definitely the problem. His management over the last decade is why Xbox is in the shit it is now. MS probably wouldn't have had to go out on a publisher buying spree if Phil had managed the studios he had at the start of the XB1 gen properly. MS felt the need to buy Activision/Bethesda this gen because Phil and Co. had damaged the brand beyond repair and Sony had run so far away with the ball that they needed a big splash to get gamers' attention. Phil was high on his own supply and sailed the Xbox brand into an iceberg with his arrogance and stupidity.

With that said, it's not entirely his fault that Xbox is the way it is. It's the culture at Microsoft, they are just not a creative company at all and they are completely and utterly clueless about what it takes to run a successful gaming division. The whole upper management at MS is greedy and incapable of making correct decisions when it comes to gaming or anything creative for that matter. The entire strategy at the company revolves around creating soulless products that they can turn into a service and they can then milk with the Cloud. The strategy works for their OS and Productivity services but it completely fails when they have to deliver a genuinely good and creative product, something that gaming constantly demands.
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2015 was the best lineup in Xbox HISTORY!
 
He is the public problem, it can't be explained or defended.

The only possible explanation is he truly holds no power like a Nintendo America CEO. Everything comes from above and Phil has to spin whatever directive he is told too.

I am sure Phil is paid extremely well for being the spinster, liar and destroyer of dreams that he is. He doesn't care about you, his employees or games. Phil is going to get promoted for his efforts and climb the ladder.

Professional con man. At one time he may have had a heart and skin in the game, or even cared. But he is a beaten man.

We honestly don't know what strings are being pulled above him. But those emails that leaked, don't make Phil out to be a champion.
 
Well, to demonstrate that he is the problem, you'd have to convince me that anyone else approved by MS would do something significantly different. I don't think swapping him out would change the direction Microsoft as a whole wants to go in.
 
It only makes sense if you were there when he was rolled out as his own brand.

images


Then it makes all the sense. He's supposed to be jesus.
 
You have to go to Xbox-centric forums for that. You won't get it here.

I've listened to enough diehard Xbox guys to do a fair imitation, though. They would say Phil brought all kinds of wonderful things to Xbox, and that he was right on the cusp of victory when the higher-ups (Satya et al) decided they needed more money because they were greedy corpos. They seized the wheel of the car, put Phil in the back seat, and then drove the car off the cliff. Something like that.
 
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MS stocks are an all time high. That's why Phil is not the problem l.
 
He's part of the problem, but I do think he only has so much decision-making with how their platform has developed, and ultimately their other divisions + AI actually matter to Microsoft.
 
Phil is the problem... but so is MS.

Without Phil, Xbox would have been dead with the XB1 gen. And could have then gone onto be the biggest and best third-party publisher... and maybe even built a storefront and version of Windows that would have put Steam outta business. But thats Phils problem, he came up with an idea so radical that he gave xbox another lease at life.

The problem with MS? Is that they let him, and supported him.

As at this moment, the only reason MS is still parroting anything about Xbox and its future. It is because they are afraid of what the truth will do to their share price.
 
I mean the man doesn't develop the games himself. You think he wants to put out shit games on purpose? It's like blaming the manager/coach of a sports team because the high paid athletes on his team aren't performing. I know people get upset with what he says but that's basically his job, hes there to paint things in a positive light anyway he can. You ever hear a coach/manager of a sports club say their team/players suck or the season is over and they have no chance?

He had no choice but to try the hail mary of gamepass to gain marketshare. At this point though hes had a long enough leash that he needs to go just to show ms is trying to improve xbox.

Sony and Nintendo are so entrenched after the ps4/switch era that nothing xbox could've done would've turned it around. Only a all time screw up by sony and nintendo could save xbox. Sony was getting close with all their gaas/dei stuff/lack of game themselves.
 
I like Phil, he has been the major force behind positive things at Xbox (from a gamer's perspective). Microsoft would have ran that division into the ground years ago. I think most would have a very different opinion of him if he were put in a more successful position at another gaming company. All the blame he catches for Microsoft's recent decisions is unwarranted, especially considering how he was obviously and publicly defeated last year.


He has not been successful in turning Xbox around. Not sure if anyone could, but Phil didn't and for that I can understand people disappointed with him. Xbox fans most of all. His one unforgivable act is not firing Booty, and I have to wonder what if they actually had someone qualified to lead their first party studios, would some of those games that needed to be hits actually delivered?
 
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