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How well do you believe Phil Spencer has handled Xbox from 2017-Present?
- Thread starter Eddie-Griffin
- Start date
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
Didn't he win a legend award....I mean...let the mountains of awards speak for themselves....not us on the internet.
Microsoft made xbox live....they made achievements and now they've made game pass and the development of those has made Sony encorperate their versions of them and ultimately made gaming better overall.
Competition is great and these companies make the other ones better.
I'd say game pass has had the biggest impact in the industry in the last 5 years and has helped us players enjoy more games and try genres that we may not...so ultimately there is no denying that Phil has had the biggest impact in gaming than any other one of these execs outside of Iwata in blending portable and home console with the switch.
Microsoft made xbox live....they made achievements and now they've made game pass and the development of those has made Sony encorperate their versions of them and ultimately made gaming better overall.
Competition is great and these companies make the other ones better.
I'd say game pass has had the biggest impact in the industry in the last 5 years and has helped us players enjoy more games and try genres that we may not...so ultimately there is no denying that Phil has had the biggest impact in gaming than any other one of these execs outside of Iwata in blending portable and home console with the switch.
ResilientBanana
Member
I mean, no one here wants a rushed game. We complain about them constantly. Microsoft used to intervein and make games get pushed out quickly and those games had a shit-ton of cut content and bugs. So what do YOU think Phil should do in that scenario?
Belthazar
Member
You don't have to rush development to have a steady pipeline. You have to improve the working culture and have clear guidelines and a workflow that need to be followed to ensure that they deliver on their job, which is making ganes. I mean, things are clearly out of control with things like Everwild being in development for more than 5 years and yet they apparently don't even know what game they're making. Not to mention Halo, having a juggernaut dev time and not delivering much after all that time.
The problem clearly comes from a lack of proper management from above.
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T0minator
Member
Phil Spencer continuously telling us "we hear you" about the lack of must have high quality games from their first party has been going on for faaaarrr too long (2013) it's almost as if they had no plan going into this generation 1st party wise.
Started development of alot of their bigger releases at the start of this generation (2020) most releasing mid gen/late gen
Verbally he says alot to help the brand, in action he hasn't really done much. A quick short cut answer are acquisitions I guess
Started development of alot of their bigger releases at the start of this generation (2020) most releasing mid gen/late gen
Verbally he says alot to help the brand, in action he hasn't really done much. A quick short cut answer are acquisitions I guess
Ev1L AuRoN
Member
Microsoft bought itself a ticket to the video game market, Phil is just throwing money at the problem. I don't think he is doing a good job, no way.
I really like the OG Xbox and the 360, they were innovative forward-thinking consoles, they give us a lot of what we take for granted these days:
But, they manage to undo all of that with the Xbox One. What a failure.
Then Microsoft throw Don Mattrick under the bus taking blame for all the company poor decisions and worked its PR magic to sell the Phil is a nice guy BS that we see today.
I think most of us just want Microsoft to take a bit of risk and try to bring some much-needed fresh new IP's to their catalog. Give some of their IP's a rest until someone bring a new and exciting way to bring it back, like what Santa Monica did with God Of War.
The fact is that Microsoft already has the tools to compete, they aren't doing a good job with them.
I really like the OG Xbox and the 360, they were innovative forward-thinking consoles, they give us a lot of what we take for granted these days:
- Achievements
- Centralized online Experience
- Xbox Live Arcade (the indie explosion)
- A streamline, easy to develop console.
But, they manage to undo all of that with the Xbox One. What a failure.
Then Microsoft throw Don Mattrick under the bus taking blame for all the company poor decisions and worked its PR magic to sell the Phil is a nice guy BS that we see today.
I think most of us just want Microsoft to take a bit of risk and try to bring some much-needed fresh new IP's to their catalog. Give some of their IP's a rest until someone bring a new and exciting way to bring it back, like what Santa Monica did with God Of War.
The fact is that Microsoft already has the tools to compete, they aren't doing a good job with them.
ToTTenTranz
Banned
The longer Phil goes on as the boss of XBox, the more clearly he appears as being very competent at PR and incompetent at handling videogame studios.
ResilientBanana
Member
Is it out of control for Everwild to be in development for 5 years? There are plenty of games that have long development cycles. But Halo wasn't handled well. Much of the other dev studios were acquired and are being left to their own devices and develop the way they're used to. Personally, I feel as though that they should honestly get a steady release schedule of games as the developers start finishing them.
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
I mean, Sarah Bond seems to be proud of him, but Phil himself, not so much?
Sarah Bond is a straight snack!
...oh...back to Phil....he's done good but 2023 is the ultimate test for releases.
Kvally
Member
Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush and High on Life have been some solid exclusives in the past three months. So far so good. Hopefully Replaced, Age of Empires IV for Xbox, Redfall, Starfield and Forza Motorsport do well this year.
Evil Calvin
Afraid of Boobs
Sorry, but really very few games in 6 years.
TheGodfather07
Member
He's done well with what is within his power but he can only do so much when Microsoft management is poor. Phil spencer is only one man. He needs a good team around him and above him aswell. He gets shit on for many of the statements he makes but I bet he's told to say those things by his superiors. It's Microsoft higher ups that are the problem. Not the little guys who have no real say. They follow orders. They can throw Phil spencer under the bus any time it suits them. Just like they did with don mattrick.
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cinnamonandgravy
Member
never been less interested in xbox
poodaddy
Member
I like Phil and I like Xbox's ecosystem and reward system, as well as they're focus on backwards compatibility and enhancement of legacy titles.
That being said, I want more than shooters and racers Phil. Daddy needs RPG's and fighters, feed meSeymour Spencer, feed me! I personally feel like getting Sega under the Gamepass belt would do more for me on a personal level than Activision, but I understand that Activision is the better deal, business wise. I dunno, I just want all companies competitive, just makes for a much healthier industry, and I believe Phil has made some real improvements to the Xbox brand in his time.
That being said, I want more than shooters and racers Phil. Daddy needs RPG's and fighters, feed me
Gavon West
Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
Gavon West
Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
And yet....
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
He's handling it a hell of a lot better than the previous administration so ... 
anothertech
Member
With the amount of resources at his disposal, the fact we don't have first party games releasing monthly or even quarterly is a travesty at this point.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
There's multiple first party games in both Q1 and Q2 of this year. Seems like he's meeting your criteria
jm89
Member
He was part of that administrationHe's handling it a hell of a lot better than the previous administration so ...
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Riky
$MSFT
Delivered the two most powerful consoles since his tenure and massively increased the Xbox studio portfolio.
Also expanded the userbase with top value propositions like Gamepass and Series S.
In charge when they won publisher of the year with the highest score in history.
Fair to say he's knocked it out the park really.
Also expanded the userbase with top value propositions like Gamepass and Series S.
In charge when they won publisher of the year with the highest score in history.
Fair to say he's knocked it out the park really.
Esca
Member
Considering ms is still dealing with their first party output issues, id say he's done a piss poor job. Sure he blew tons of money buying up what he can. That doesn't take skill though just throwing money at the problem. They still suffer the same problems. Only aaa titles that ms are able to put out are forza titles, and let's be honest the forza horizon series is very good, but it's getting stale now. If ms didn't purchase Bethesda things would be even worse. Bethesda had been nearly all the output of titles the past few years for ms and they had no hand in any of those titles.
He's brought ideas to the table and is trying new things but he's still not fixing the problem with how they handle first party. Letting the studios do what they want is fine but they still need to be managed and not hands off so much.
You know with Nintendo and Sony you are nearly guaranteed that they'll have at least a few releases in the year and normally at least one big title. Ms you know fuck all you'll each year. Will it be another forza/halo/gears year, something new, or do we even get anything that really worth noting if at all.
He's brought ideas to the table and is trying new things but he's still not fixing the problem with how they handle first party. Letting the studios do what they want is fine but they still need to be managed and not hands off so much.
You know with Nintendo and Sony you are nearly guaranteed that they'll have at least a few releases in the year and normally at least one big title. Ms you know fuck all you'll each year. Will it be another forza/halo/gears year, something new, or do we even get anything that really worth noting if at all.
Yoboman
Member
Could have been worse but it took him a long time to get it
Xbox One was universally hated when he took over so he got the poison chalice. Though he was part of the team that launched Xbox One. However it was just poor policy that they should have been able to turn around far more easily.
Both Sony and Nintendo have displayed how to recover from a poor gen by having must have exclusives. With PS3 Sony invested in ensuring they had an amazing game out every year at minimum, competing for GOTY awards, creating new IPs on the regular publishing which had people buying the system. Within a few years they were back on their feet
Phil oversaw the dismantling of what was a good Xbox first party at the end of the 360 gen. Seems like Phil's first actions as leader was cost cutting and cancelling products, doubling down on 3 franchises - 2 of which have been poorly managed. No investment into new IP for many years. This is effectively what changed a situation from a poor start to a gen to something they still haven't recovered fully from
Phil focused entirely on on services, which help bandaid up the wounds but we've seen that having a good service will never compete with having must have games. Seems like they eventually got the memo and started buying devs and publishers to rectify those mistakes, but make no mistake those were mistakes by Phil not knowing what he was doing at first
On the positive side he's probably got more buy in to the Xbox vision from Microsoft than any of his predecessors, and if the acquisitions so far start resulting in good games it will help alot. The fact he has still left Matt Booty in charge of first party after so many failures is concerning though and you have to wonder if those senior positions are actually earned through merit
Xbox One was universally hated when he took over so he got the poison chalice. Though he was part of the team that launched Xbox One. However it was just poor policy that they should have been able to turn around far more easily.
Both Sony and Nintendo have displayed how to recover from a poor gen by having must have exclusives. With PS3 Sony invested in ensuring they had an amazing game out every year at minimum, competing for GOTY awards, creating new IPs on the regular publishing which had people buying the system. Within a few years they were back on their feet
Phil oversaw the dismantling of what was a good Xbox first party at the end of the 360 gen. Seems like Phil's first actions as leader was cost cutting and cancelling products, doubling down on 3 franchises - 2 of which have been poorly managed. No investment into new IP for many years. This is effectively what changed a situation from a poor start to a gen to something they still haven't recovered fully from
Phil focused entirely on on services, which help bandaid up the wounds but we've seen that having a good service will never compete with having must have games. Seems like they eventually got the memo and started buying devs and publishers to rectify those mistakes, but make no mistake those were mistakes by Phil not knowing what he was doing at first
On the positive side he's probably got more buy in to the Xbox vision from Microsoft than any of his predecessors, and if the acquisitions so far start resulting in good games it will help alot. The fact he has still left Matt Booty in charge of first party after so many failures is concerning though and you have to wonder if those senior positions are actually earned through merit
Banjo64
cumsessed
On a personal level, the only games that Xbox have out out under his leadership that are on par with the best Sony/Nintendo games are Ori 1&2. And those were delivered by a third party studio. Halo and Gears, the quintessential Xbox franchises, have fluctuated between poor and simply good in the hands of 343i and The Coalition. Impossible for me to say he’s done a good job.
Stare-Bear
Banned
No real innovation hardware wise, no VR or AR on the horizon, controller is the same as last generation and propriety SSD expansion that is far more expensive than the competitor.
Because MS doesn’t disclose the split in sales between Series S and X, we don’t know how well they’re doing. I reckon the split is 70/30 for the Series S.
Because MS doesn’t disclose the split in sales between Series S and X, we don’t know how well they’re doing. I reckon the split is 70/30 for the Series S.
Killer8
Member
Say what you will about the current studio and release calendar mismanagement - Xbox today is, almost objectively speaking, in a healthier place than it was during the Xbox One years. A lot of that is no doubt due to Spencer's stewardship compared to the dark ages of the Don Mattrick years.
cinnamonandgravy
Member
xbox is basically the far cry of consoles these days.
MS has so much potential... hope they find themselves.
MS has so much potential... hope they find themselves.
BbMajor7th
Member
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Black_Stride
do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
Atleast Jim Ryan believes in Generations.
Eddie-Griffin
Banned
This whole ABK back and forth has proven that neither company, or the industry, or the regulators, consider Switch a home console or competing with the other two.
So I have no idea why people even YOU are saying Xbox is in third place. It's not last place it's 2nd place. There are only two options.
RCU005
Member
Poll result is the reason why we have wannabe dictators in Latin America!
Why on earth would someone think that Phil Spencer has been doing a good job on Xbox?
“Oh, but GamePass” the fact that you get your games for “free” doesn’t mean he is doing a good job! Xbox is in last place, they are using money from their other businesses to keep it alive, they don’t release games other than Forza! How many games have been announced but take years and years and years and they just don’t come out? (Hellblade 2, for example, it was the first game to be announced one year BEFORE launch)
Why people vote like this just because they get one thing they like? Be objective!
Why on earth would someone think that Phil Spencer has been doing a good job on Xbox?
“Oh, but GamePass” the fact that you get your games for “free” doesn’t mean he is doing a good job! Xbox is in last place, they are using money from their other businesses to keep it alive, they don’t release games other than Forza! How many games have been announced but take years and years and years and they just don’t come out? (Hellblade 2, for example, it was the first game to be announced one year BEFORE launch)
Why people vote like this just because they get one thing they like? Be objective!
TLZ
Banned
TheGreatMusashi
Member
I think he’s done a pretty good job overall, but I can’t fucking stand logging in to Xbox and seeing all the bullshit on the dashboard.
From Latinx month to treating others how you want to be treated, it seems like every time I turn it on there’s some social message that feels super fake and disingenuous in the way that only large corporations can achieve.
I don’t have a problem with the messages themselves, but this is a gaming platform. I understand that there are many months and holidays in our country for all different kinds of people and I’m cool with it. But for some reason it really rubs me the wrong way.
It gives me flashbacks of corporate meetings where clueless motherfuckers try to figure out what we are going to do for something like pride month. Those meetings always ended with something stupid like let’s put rainbow stickers on everyone’s desk. We’ll send out a mass email mentioning pride and our zero tolerance policies and put cupcakes in the break room!
I guess if that’s my only complaint he must be doing a good job but, I still don’t like his face.
From Latinx month to treating others how you want to be treated, it seems like every time I turn it on there’s some social message that feels super fake and disingenuous in the way that only large corporations can achieve.
I don’t have a problem with the messages themselves, but this is a gaming platform. I understand that there are many months and holidays in our country for all different kinds of people and I’m cool with it. But for some reason it really rubs me the wrong way.
It gives me flashbacks of corporate meetings where clueless motherfuckers try to figure out what we are going to do for something like pride month. Those meetings always ended with something stupid like let’s put rainbow stickers on everyone’s desk. We’ll send out a mass email mentioning pride and our zero tolerance policies and put cupcakes in the break room!
I guess if that’s my only complaint he must be doing a good job but, I still don’t like his face.
Gavon West
Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
I give a whole shit who includes Nintendo or not. I do. Nintendo is who their also talking about when they say, The Big 3. Regulators know Jack shit when it comes to how this industry works.
It's funny how you're NOT including Nintendo. As if by pretending they aren't included (conveniently so), putting Xbox second place gives the deal a shot at being blocked. Lol. It doesn't...
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Eddie-Griffin
Banned
Talking about regulators.
I literally said neither company included Nintendo as a competitor either, because they aren't, and haven't been since the Wii, Sony nor Xbox have them in any of their data or charts.
I'm not including them because they aren't included by ANY party.
Iced Arcade
Member
Lol Why would it matter? They are the same console gen that sells the same games and same subscription.
A game sold is a game sold.
When he took over (in 2014) crackdown 3 was just a tech demo he was trying to sell as power of the cloud. He could have cancelled it without much sunk cost if he didn't genuinely believe in it. Fable legends and Scalebound were much further in development and those were cancelled. I honestly believe he kept trying to push it because of the PR pie in the face it would have been due to that power of the cloud tech demo alone.
I think this has happened already. Should have happened sooner based on foresight and not just based on market reaction to a product again but it's happened.