Eddie-Griffin
Banned
In 2017, Phil Spencer was given full control of Xbox and all interactive related departments at Microsoft that related to gaming in some shape or form. Earlier this year, Satya created a brand new position for him that didn't exist before, the CEO of Microsoft gaming.
As of now it's been 5 years since Phil Spencer has been top management for everything software and hardware related regarding gaming and interactivity. How well do you think has he handled Xbox during these last 5 years?
Imo, there's one major issue I have with Phils approach that I knew years ago would create multiple problems in the long term, and that's how he approached the Xbox One problem and how it's, for now, impacting how the Series X is being handled. I believe he made a critical miscalculation that is only not as bad as it would have been, due to missteps by its competitor, if not for that things would be a lot worse.
What am I referring to? The Xbox One had already solved most problems it launched with by the date pf Phils promotion, the issue with the Xbox One at that point was releasing in countries late, and some countries not at all, a lack of exclusive deals, a lack of major big console exclusive games that were first party, the weak hardware, and disorganization among teams within Xbox and its partners.
What Phil and other Xbox heads did was something that still doesn't make sense to me. They saw the major focus on services led to backlash of the Xbox One before it launched, leading to reversals, TVTVTV is still repeated out of context today, however the Xbox One still launched with various services, some failed, some held out. But it wasn't moving the needle in sales and mindshare once games and output dried up in 2015. Phil saw the problems of software and games, hardware, and services, but he decided for some strange reason, to focus on hardware and services first, and then dealt with the gaming and software last.
He wasn't promoted yet but he was involved with the Xbox One S redesign. he then teased Project Scorpio as a reboot of the Xbox One brand, arguably too much so as it confused people on whether it was actually a new console. Project Scorpio was later revealed to be the Xbox One X, and at the E3 people where wearing T-shirts by Microsoft about seeing the most powerful consoles ever, and the game reveals introduced the new term "console launch exclusive" being deliberately confusing. But in reality he still didn't solve the game studio problem. In 2017, he was still carrying on previous delays and cancellations, the development teams were still not organized, he still didn't have big timed exclusive games, or anticipated third party exclusives on the platform.
Instead he brought in enhanced BC, revamped Microsoft rewards, revamped Xbox One software features, and introduced Game Pass. He didn't really start getting studios in order until 2019, when Crackdown 3 finally came out, and started pursuing acquisitions since it would take too long to create new studios from scratch and seek out acquisitions a few studios at the same time, something he could have already been doing since 2017.
What ended up happening as a result is shown with how the Xbox Series consoles launched. Halo was announced as a launch game with other titles, those titles later didn't have dates, Halo itself was delayed, and Xbox Series X launched with nothing but an enhanced version of Gears 5 DLC. In 2021, some games were released but not many, there was still a major focus on services, they already had the hardware, Series X being the most powerful console this gen, Series S being the weakest but most affordable. After 2021, the games stopped, and for 2022 the big AA or AAA console exclusives have been bare this whole year.
I believe all these issues, including several of the delays, the cancellations, and the communication issues internally all came from his poor choices on what to focus on with the Xbox One, and it's now having a negative impact on the Series consoles. What he should have done imo, was focus on hardware and games first, and focused on services last. The hardware already gave you the BC, and Game Pass when it started was very bare bones, so you could have still had those while you gradually improved them and other software services overtime.
This way, when the Xbox Series consoles launched, Halo or not, there would have been games ready, the studios would have been more efficient and games would have been ready for 2022, less delays, and Game Pass and BC still would have grown the same way, other features may have fallen behind but they would be improving fast. What's important is that games showing off the superior hardware would have been ready at launch.
I believe in any other scenario this would have been a fatal mistake, but because the competition gave Microsoft multiple openings while stepping on it's own foot, Microsoft got lucky and still have the mindshare, got away with the delayed games (it's competitor dealt with this too to a lesser degree), and now seem to be set to turn things around in 2023, assuming there aren't more delays and the games come out well received, but if it wasn't for these fortunate events things would have been much worse.
I hope Phil chooses better priorities next time. Putting so much focus on services on the Xbox One, a console already hanging onto relevancy by a thread, instead of their next console games was a waste of time and resources, BC and Game Pass in their basic forms is fine but those and the others software features being the focus never made sense, because you were taking time needed to organize your studios and get them ready for next gen, for something that wasn't going to change the fate of the Xbox One, and he wasted several years on this that could have went toward studio and game development.
Jury's out on what happens in 2023. Even though I think he has made a crucial mistake with his priorities, Phil has done a good job in other areas such as delivering All Access, which allows you to own a next generation console with affordable monthly payments, acquiring some of the finest developer studios, giving us Xbox as the most powerful console again, Game Pass and the new Game pass friends and gamily plan, expansive enhanced BC, great software features, and an easy way to expand storage, though expensive. But, some of this could have waited a year or two while they were substituted by better studios and game output, and I hope that 2023 is the year where Phil shows he finally has that under control, and we don't have any more delays, games announced with trailers before the devs even know what the game is supposed to be, or Halo Infinites.
If he can get that done, then I'll say he's doing well. For those that agree I'll enable vote changing, just in case he turns it around with games next year.
As of now it's been 5 years since Phil Spencer has been top management for everything software and hardware related regarding gaming and interactivity. How well do you think has he handled Xbox during these last 5 years?
Imo, there's one major issue I have with Phils approach that I knew years ago would create multiple problems in the long term, and that's how he approached the Xbox One problem and how it's, for now, impacting how the Series X is being handled. I believe he made a critical miscalculation that is only not as bad as it would have been, due to missteps by its competitor, if not for that things would be a lot worse.
What am I referring to? The Xbox One had already solved most problems it launched with by the date pf Phils promotion, the issue with the Xbox One at that point was releasing in countries late, and some countries not at all, a lack of exclusive deals, a lack of major big console exclusive games that were first party, the weak hardware, and disorganization among teams within Xbox and its partners.
What Phil and other Xbox heads did was something that still doesn't make sense to me. They saw the major focus on services led to backlash of the Xbox One before it launched, leading to reversals, TVTVTV is still repeated out of context today, however the Xbox One still launched with various services, some failed, some held out. But it wasn't moving the needle in sales and mindshare once games and output dried up in 2015. Phil saw the problems of software and games, hardware, and services, but he decided for some strange reason, to focus on hardware and services first, and then dealt with the gaming and software last.
He wasn't promoted yet but he was involved with the Xbox One S redesign. he then teased Project Scorpio as a reboot of the Xbox One brand, arguably too much so as it confused people on whether it was actually a new console. Project Scorpio was later revealed to be the Xbox One X, and at the E3 people where wearing T-shirts by Microsoft about seeing the most powerful consoles ever, and the game reveals introduced the new term "console launch exclusive" being deliberately confusing. But in reality he still didn't solve the game studio problem. In 2017, he was still carrying on previous delays and cancellations, the development teams were still not organized, he still didn't have big timed exclusive games, or anticipated third party exclusives on the platform.
Instead he brought in enhanced BC, revamped Microsoft rewards, revamped Xbox One software features, and introduced Game Pass. He didn't really start getting studios in order until 2019, when Crackdown 3 finally came out, and started pursuing acquisitions since it would take too long to create new studios from scratch and seek out acquisitions a few studios at the same time, something he could have already been doing since 2017.
What ended up happening as a result is shown with how the Xbox Series consoles launched. Halo was announced as a launch game with other titles, those titles later didn't have dates, Halo itself was delayed, and Xbox Series X launched with nothing but an enhanced version of Gears 5 DLC. In 2021, some games were released but not many, there was still a major focus on services, they already had the hardware, Series X being the most powerful console this gen, Series S being the weakest but most affordable. After 2021, the games stopped, and for 2022 the big AA or AAA console exclusives have been bare this whole year.
I believe all these issues, including several of the delays, the cancellations, and the communication issues internally all came from his poor choices on what to focus on with the Xbox One, and it's now having a negative impact on the Series consoles. What he should have done imo, was focus on hardware and games first, and focused on services last. The hardware already gave you the BC, and Game Pass when it started was very bare bones, so you could have still had those while you gradually improved them and other software services overtime.
This way, when the Xbox Series consoles launched, Halo or not, there would have been games ready, the studios would have been more efficient and games would have been ready for 2022, less delays, and Game Pass and BC still would have grown the same way, other features may have fallen behind but they would be improving fast. What's important is that games showing off the superior hardware would have been ready at launch.
I believe in any other scenario this would have been a fatal mistake, but because the competition gave Microsoft multiple openings while stepping on it's own foot, Microsoft got lucky and still have the mindshare, got away with the delayed games (it's competitor dealt with this too to a lesser degree), and now seem to be set to turn things around in 2023, assuming there aren't more delays and the games come out well received, but if it wasn't for these fortunate events things would have been much worse.
I hope Phil chooses better priorities next time. Putting so much focus on services on the Xbox One, a console already hanging onto relevancy by a thread, instead of their next console games was a waste of time and resources, BC and Game Pass in their basic forms is fine but those and the others software features being the focus never made sense, because you were taking time needed to organize your studios and get them ready for next gen, for something that wasn't going to change the fate of the Xbox One, and he wasted several years on this that could have went toward studio and game development.
Jury's out on what happens in 2023. Even though I think he has made a crucial mistake with his priorities, Phil has done a good job in other areas such as delivering All Access, which allows you to own a next generation console with affordable monthly payments, acquiring some of the finest developer studios, giving us Xbox as the most powerful console again, Game Pass and the new Game pass friends and gamily plan, expansive enhanced BC, great software features, and an easy way to expand storage, though expensive. But, some of this could have waited a year or two while they were substituted by better studios and game output, and I hope that 2023 is the year where Phil shows he finally has that under control, and we don't have any more delays, games announced with trailers before the devs even know what the game is supposed to be, or Halo Infinites.
If he can get that done, then I'll say he's doing well. For those that agree I'll enable vote changing, just in case he turns it around with games next year.
