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[feynoob]

And yet a few years later without internet connection it’s impossible to play or your experience is severely diminished due to lack of Day 1 patches, etc.

I might write a more detailed response later but in short: people do not give Don enough credit. The problem was Microsoft was going too fast - they only had one successful console before (X360) and didn’t anticipate that paradigm shift to connected services and TV will take a few more years than expected.

The idea was good, but the execution was bad.
Internet wasn't strong back then. A little outage, and your console becomes a rock.

 

[Three]

That's one game though, always-online for the whole console is insane

The Series and gamepass is pretty much like this though with the same license checks they could implement and needing a connection to install discs.

 

[feynoob]

Congrats on spending 80 billion, really difficult, lots of hard work there.

It's difficult right.
I mean the brand is so shit, that people are keep talking about it nonstop, and those studios.
Gamepass is taking headlines.

Phil was really bad with his job.

 

[DenchDeckard]

I noticed a lot of people are rewriting the Xbox One so that it seems Donny Matt is some kind of monster and didn't do a good job on the Xbox One. As the guy who did good in later part of the 360, only slowly letting things get out of hand with the rise of Kinect's success (also him) but still releasing some good games, he did a great job with the games and deals he set up for the Xbox One. it wouldn't be until mid 2015 where we started seeing what Phil would do and I think we need to compare the two for how they handled the Xbox One given that the biggest problem people had was the pre-release policies which were almost all turned around before launch (and ironically several of those policies people don't mind now) and the bad messaging from guys Larry hyrb under his watch. But otherwise he had a good game plan.

Don Mattrick

1. Saw the launch of Xbox one joining sony in breaking the record of 1 million consoles sold in the first 24 hours

2. His team led to the first 15 million units of sales which others coming in during the restructuring failed to do, so of the ~50 million Xbox One sales the first 15 million were in just a bit over 1 year, a massive chunk, before the decline then the static yearly sales until 2020.

3. Killer Instinct reboot, japanese exclusive Chaos Child, Titanfall deal, Fable Legends, Scalebound deal, Quantum Break contract, Crackdown 3, Forza 5, Ryse deal, Dead Rising 3 deal, Fighters within, Lococycle, power star golf, Xbox Fitness, Max curse of brotherhood, Halo Spartan assault, Zoo tycoon. all ready and in place before the end of 2013 in the launch window.

4. Had already got the deal going for Titanfall, Kinect sports rivals, got dev for Gears remake started, had already had 343i on the Halo MCC, had the Tomb Raider and Evolve(for 2015) deals ready, Got Dance Central spotlight ready, D4 Deal, Starpoint gemini indie deal, had Forza Horizon 2 ready, greenlit the Project Spark project, got the deal for Fantasia music evolved, partnered for Kalimba and ubisofts Shape up. These all were released in 2014

Phil Spencer

1. Screamride. Made the deal for Sunset overdrive when Insomniac needed a pub. Cancelled Scalebound, Cancelled Fable Legends, delayed Crackdown 3, delayed Quantum Break, did a bad job controlling issues with Halo MCC at launch. Oversaw Halo 5 disappointment. Ori and the Blind Forest, Fruit Ninja Kinect, then went on to move support away from Kinect, and got developers to as well resulting in Kinect being dead. Closed several studios without replacing them with anything, put Xbox at the lowest studio count in the history of the brand by late year. State of decay, happy wars. Rare Replay. Forza 6,

2. In 2016, finally releases Don signed Quantum Break after long delays, Raiden V, Recore, Forza Horizon 3, releases don signed Gears 4, , new hardware revision, Xbox One S.

3. In 2017, Project Scorpio Xbox One X revision, halo wars 2, Halo wars definitive, Forza 7, BC, Gamepass, Voodoo Vince remastered timed, Cuphead deal indie, rereleasing Don Kinect Disney games but for controller only to pad out the lineup, Super luckys tale (console launch exclusive for One X), Hello neighbor (console launch exclusive), Pubg timed, acquisitions storm starts.

<>
Phil had cut off many good staff and closed studios and reduced the amount of studios under Microsoft to the lowest point (5 or so studios, 3-4 AAA) with cancellations, delays even with other games I haven't listed as there's several, while seeing a decline in top franchises, and for those games he didn't cancel he didn't over see them resulting in ok or mediocre releases, bad timed deals except for a few that didn't do much of anything, the death of Kinect burning those players, rereleasing Kinect games from the 360 with the 3 Disney games to pad out a bad lineup, and going on an acquisition spree.

I'm not saying Phil didn't turn things around because his hardware and services strategy did put the Series consoles in their current positions as the fastest selling consoles for the brand so far, BUT it's also this focus on hardware and surfaces that he put over the games leading to the acquisitions as he cut the meat without replacing what was in the refrigerator so to speak, leading him in a corner where he NEEDED to buy studios because there he wasted too much time on hardware and services. We still see the impact of this now.

Hopefully that will change in 2023, but it's clear there was a clear different in strategy and gaming appeal between launch of Xbox One to mid-2015, and mid-2015 onward. They aren't even close. I still remember some people complain that the PS4 didn't have games in the first 1.5 years on the market, and how much Killzone was written off as a demo and Knack was run over and over again as a joke, while Xbox stacked the launch months going into 2014, and then still had goodies for that year.

Some later stuff Phil delayed was from Don too. When you look at the whole picture, Phils biggest contributions outside a few good titles was One S, One X revisions, and BC+Gamepass.

Now that since a few years ago Phil got Nadella to give him more access to cash for supporting studios, it's not time for Phil to finally surpass Mattrick in GAMEs too as well as the other areas. I personally will not give him another year, although i don't expect more delays i will say in the rare chance it happens...no.

Is Don a legend in this industry, has he been awarded this status like Phil has? I joke just to wind up

If 2023 hits home with some bangers then Phil has well and truly turned it all around.

 

[Thebonehead]

People tend to forget, but the original Xbox One DRM was going to have the option to buy / Sell / Trade your digital games.

Now that's the sort of digital future I would have liked to have seen.

Mattrick was ahead of the curve there, but way behind on the power curve when it came to the performance of the console, as well as the price.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

If 2023 hits home with some bangers then Phil has well and truly turned it all around.

There is no evidence Don would have done things differently given the situation.

I remember an interesting study: most of top-level strategies bear fruit in 5-7 years, however the tenure of most CEOs is less than 3 years. Meaning in public listed companies a CEO will benefit from strategies implemented by his predecessor.

 

[Hobbygaming]

The Series and gamepass is pretty much like this though with the same license checks they could implement and needing a connection to install discs.

Can it download games then play said games offline or do you need to stay connected for it to work?

 

[feynoob]

Can it download games then play said games offline or do you need to stay connected for it to work?

You cant, if its not home set.

 

[Hobbygaming]

The idea was good, but the execution was bad.
Internet wasn't strong back then. A little outage, and your console becomes a rock.

Always-online is still terrible. I have great internet speeds but we still have outages every now and then. A lot of the world still don't have great internet and don't get me started on these companies throttling the connections

 

[Certinty]

Don clearly fucked up the Xbox brand, that much is evident.

Phil obviously has recovered it fairly well and Game Pass seems to be doing good enough but besides that I can't really think of anything else he's done that's spectacular so to speak.

 

[Three]

Can it download games then play said games offline or do you need to stay connected for it to work?

For a given period but it will ask you to check in online to verify licences. When you take your xbox somewhere it will ask you to go online too. The always online was for a given period anyway but it's basically what we have now though the rumour back then was 1 day checks.

What we have now is barely any different. Series S has no second hand sales, most xbox discs require a connection to run and gamepass/digital is basically the same and requires signing in and licence checks online.

 

[Hobbygaming]

For a given period but it will ask you to check in online to verify licences. When you take your xbox somewhere it will ask you to go online too. The always online was for a given period anyway but it's basically what we have now though the rumour back then was 1 day checks.

What we have now is barely any different. Series S has no second hand sales, most xbox discs require a connection to run and gamepass/digital is basically the same and requires signing in and licence checks online.

Yeah you're right. I forgot about the whole not having the full game on the disc This makes me think twice about getting a Xbox Series X when more games come out for it

 

[SSfox]

Don make the DRM mistake, but when it comes to the games he did way more than Phil in a way less lap of time and with infinitely less money too.

 

[Victor Omega]

when you have no new games on your service, you're down to talking about CEOs and corporate bigwigs to pass the time.

 

[NahaNago]

Don and Phil both haven't been that great. Phil though has managed to keep xbox from being shutdown and was able to somehow Nadella to spend so much for Activision. Don did better with game releases, and we are still waiting on Phil to turn things around with the games after being in charge for nearly a decade. Phil at least supposedly saved xbox from getting shut down and got Nadella to spend all that money on Activision.

 

[Team Andromeda]

The idea was good, but the execution was bad.
Internet wasn't strong back then. A little outage, and your console becomes a rock.

Everyone I knew with a 360 had it already hooked up to the internet was telling the world how wonderful online gaming was. I never got the fuss or outrage at looking to have your console always online and still don't to this day, when every sod is online with so many devices

For me, the real bad call was having an underpowered XBOX GPU and to make matter's worse, then look to limited that underpowered GPU by having 10% of the GPU resevered for Kinect

 

[phil_t98]

he broke xbox lol it should of been a sure fire thing off the back of the sales of the 360 but they went TV TV TV

 

[LordCBH]

OP put down his Don Matteick body pillow yet? Never forget the Xbox one reveal:

“TV, TV, TV, Halo TV, TV, TV, Sports, the next water cooler, TV, TV, TV, snap TV next to games, TV.”

 

[Mephisto40]

The disaster of the xbox one wasnt down to how the system eventually released, it was down to what they wanted to do with the console pre release, before they were forced to change everything because of the huge backlash it received

The fact that they tried to introduce a pre owned game fee is just beyond ridiculous

 

[NickFire]

And yet a few years later without internet connection it’s impossible to play or your experience is severely diminished due to lack of Day 1 patches, etc.

I might write a more detailed response later but in short: people do not give Don enough credit. The problem was Microsoft was going too fast - they only had one successful console before (X360) and didn’t anticipate that paradigm shift to connected services and TV will take a few more years than expected.

I would agree with going too fast. But I don’t see it as a visionary ahead of their time thing. I see it as devaluing core audience to chase a bigger one issue (plain old greed). They weren’t trying to advance gaming with tv stuff.

 

[reinking]

Eddie starting a civil war amongst the green rats.

 

[The_Mike]

What a shit take opinion OP.

The focus of TV was hideous.

I would personally have loved the drm. Best of both worlds.

Physical copy gave a digital copy as well.

"but now I won't be able to sell my 60 dollar game for 5 dollars at gamestop and buy my next game at a 5 dollar discount."

"my friend won't be able to loan the game for me".
Stop having poor friends. It's also technically illegal to loan out your game.

 

[Chronicle]

Eddie, retire.

 

[Topher]

I agree. Don was great. I owned an Xbox 360 (which I still have) because, at that time, Xbox had many awesome games that if you didn't play, you'd feel you missed out.

Now, under Phil, Xbox isn't a "mandatory" console to have. It's more of a convenience thing.

• You prefer Gamepass? Buy an Xbox (or ... not and just get the PC gamepass)
• You want to save money in the short term? Buy a Series S (or ... buy a Steam Deck)

That wasn't the case with Don. It wasn't just a matter of convenience or having an Xbox as an additional option.

If you didn't own an Xbox back then, you'd miss out on Halo/Gears (on their peak) and other games like Mass Effect, Ace Combat 6, Battlefield 2, Call of Juarez, Command & Conquer, Witcher 2, Ninja Gaiden, GTA IV DLCs, Bioshock.

Just look at those names!

The problem here is giving credit to Don Mattrick for Xbox 360 when it was really Peter Moore. By the time Mattrick took over in 2007, Xbox 360 was already a success. Gears of War was in full development by Epic and the first game had already launched. Mass Effect had launched as a timed exclusive. Fable 2 was months away from releasing as was Halo 3. Microsoft already had marketing rights to Call of Duty. Peter Moore had already earned ports of games like Final Fantasy XIII, GTA IV and Assassin's Creed which was crucial for 360. Don Mattrick had nothing to do with most of the games you listed.

Don Mattrick inherited all that while Phil Spencer inherited Xbox One/Kinect with a $500 price tag. I will say I think it should not have taken this long for Xbox to recover, but a big reason for that, as others have stated, is that Microsoft wasn't sure they were going to even stay in the console industry.

 

[ungalo]

I feel like there was a kind of over the top approach going on at this time. And yes it was not for the best, we can say that objectively when we see what it cost to the Xbox One in the end, but at least they had a vision, an ambitious vision of what they wanted to create.

Xbox One didn't really exist as intended, we don't know what it could have been, they back-peddled on a lot of things. But even what we had, you could sense it was different from the 360.

Today the only principle they follow and identify to is "play as you want, on which device you want, whatever". Perhaps i'm just conservative but that's so boring. Just the fact that they now think that their console is just part of an ecosystem as one thing among many, as a console player, i can't say Spencer's strategy is better. It's some kind of mirror of what Mattrick was planning, having a console as the center of a multimedia experience, but at least the machine was the center, it was everything.

Even if i completely understand people saying Spencer saved Xbox, i think it's polarizing for a good reason when you really think deeply about it. It can sound insane to say this when Microsoft is buying Activision and Bethesda, but i think Xbox is unofficially dead since Spencer, an it's now the Microsoft Gaming era.

 

[MarkMe2525]

This isn't revisionist history, xbox fans wanted Don gone and for reason.

Edit: on the contrary, this OP is attempting to rewrite xbox history. This view point does not align with any xbox fan who was actively gaming from 2010-2013. As Topher mentioned, Peter Moore's direction is largely responsible for the success of the 360. Phil was left with little choice other than to burn down what was build so he could start anew.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

Phil should be credited for making xbox gamers not care about games, that's all he really ever did.

Also: Things will be better next year™

 

[PaintTinJr]

From my perspective neither helped the brand, but had Phil taken over in the Kinect era when Don did and vice versa - Don taking over post-kinect and money hatting publisher buyouts for billions -I've little doubt that Don would have done the better job.

Back in the day Don co-setup up a software company Distinctive software that made excellent 3D games before PCs even had 3D acceletors - such as 4D Sports boxing, driving and tennis that all still work in DOSBox, today IIRC - so his direct contribution to gaming is something I can respect...Phil? nothing comes to mind

 

[Secret of Evolution]

Is Don a legend in this industry, has he been awarded this status like Phil has? I joke just to wind up

If 2023 hits home with some bangers then Phil has well and truly turned it all around.

If 2023 has some bangers for Xbox that would be the bare minimum relative to the absurd amount of money they toss around to buy their potential victories.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

Considering many of the people tarring the OP, without reading it, when it's about games and 1st party, which many of the same posters complaining have been attacking Phil, Matt booty and etc in multiple threads for a long time for, is ridiculous.

The only explanation (or one of them) is that none of the people read the OP and made up their own OP based on the thread title or at best, maybe skimmed 4-5 words from the OP.

The craziest thing about this is not only is there almost not a single post actually mentioning the topic which is about games and 1st party in relation to the Xbox One between Don and Philly, which Phil destroyed, but almost every complaint against the IP is off topic and are comparing Don to Phil outside of games (other than typical exaggerated Kinect stuff).

Phils PR to get people to ignore the games has worked so well that people are imitating it in this thread, despite many of the same users against the OP complaining about games in every other threads, constantly, as well as first party, in the past when looking at their history and now.

Almost no one has defended Phil against Don on games and 1st party or even performance in this thread. the only thing Phil "convinced" Nadella to do is let him decline sales and stagnant the Xbox One for 5+ years in a row, for games we still haven't seen. After originally inheriting a console that was outselling the 360, was spitting distance from the PS4 in sales in stronger territories, and sold the plurality of Xbox One's overall sales in 1.3 years. The only reason why there was a "meeting" about Xbox with Nadella is because they weren't "winning" not that the Xbox One wasn't "selling" as that happened under Phil. He got hardware and services but skimped on the games which is also true with the NEW generation of Xbox (Series consoles) two years in, we just had a whole year with NO games. it could be this changed starting in 2023, but ~8 years to finally fulfill promises is pretty bad even if so.

Not to mention Phil destroying a 1st party collection of 20 FP studios (only 4 kinect) and 16 2nd party studios, to 6 FP studios and 8 2nd party studios, with one of those being brought against two FP closures (state of decay) and the Killer Instinct studio 2nd party now gone so it's really 5 FP studios and 5 2nd party, and these days probably less than that.

The reason Phil went on the acquisition spree is because he couldn't get what he promised done and in 2017 prepared to fill up the gap he created by not replacing his closures with new acquired studios. Period. It was also part of the reimage with the One X, which is also the revision that introduced gamepass and BC. He did a good job coasting off that but people even outside gaming boards are starting to get wary of that.

Here are people who clearly did not read the OP

Whenever there is a negative Xbox related thread on here (and they are daily pretty much), the vast majority of them are started by Eddie.
Its hard to take his viewpoint seriously to be honest.

(and also made this up)

He was responsible for the Xbox One which damaged the Xbox brand 10 times more than PS3 did to
playstation, Its the generation that so maney Xbox 360 players switched to PS4

(lol not it didn't)

i cant believe people want to defend the kinect thumper that nearly killed xbox altogether.

imagine defending Mattricks.

I'm speechless.

He spent all the first party development money on a deal with the NFL.

There are Don Mattrick simps now?

Lol, no.

What? It's true. Microsoft was planning on shutting the Xbox division down when Xbox One bombed.

(no it's not and the Xbox One did not "bomb" it wasn't "winning" two different things. It bombed under spencer)

The guy did the 1 thing don mattrick couldnt do.
And that was 1st party studios. Under Phil, xbox has 25 1st party studios. Under Don, it was shit.

(lol Phil dropped 20 FP studios to 5-6 with no replacements)

Ok. Don closed damn near every studio Microsoft had.

(no)

Smh! Bro please don’t do this man!

Almost everything, or absolutely everything you you scrutinize Phil for is because of Don.

(Nope, Phils start saw it's effects take hold in 2015 or later)

Yeah. That's some rose - tinted glass bullshit

Yes, Xbox One had a record breaking launch.

(Thread mentions 2013 and 2014, only talks about launch)

Eddie-Griffin This is new levels

(of not reading the OP)

Phil was the head of Microsoft studios from 2009-2013...... he was responsible for signing those deals prior to the Xbox One launch.

(Nope, that's why when people saw Phil take Don's spot they expected more change he couldn't do before, they also believe that at his next prmotions, and the next one, and the new current one Nadella made.)


These are also many of the same people complaining in other threads about the topic of the OP, but for some reason they decided to only read the thread title or skim the OP missing the point. Because in any other thread these same people are seen complaining about (the lack) games by Phil, and 1st party, and/or criticizing his need to buyout studios (for some of them.)

Here are people who DID read the thread (in some for or the other)

Don made the deal for Sunset Overdrive too.
It’s first trailer was shown one month before Phil took over.

Phil seems like a good personable guy but I really liked the Xbox One's 1st 2 years so I give Don the W lol

Don Mattrick was much better at getting out quality games, but horrible at PR.

Phil Spencer can sell people unfulfilled promises year after year and is praised for it.

Say what you will about mattrick, at least he had exclusive games ready for the systems launch.

Ill also give him the W, Xbox actually had interesting games back then. Whoever created that UI, is the real reason of its failure. Worse fucking UI of all time. Steve Jobs died twice when it was revealed. So he died 3 times in total.

He's a scapegoat and just wasn’t good at PR. His output on console launch was ten times better than Phil's.

The football field sized contrast is evident.

Again, it's amazing how games (during Xbox One) is completely avoided, to talk about Phil outside of that in order to prop him up over Don in a games and 1st party thread (related to the Xbox One), as a result we are seeing posts hardware revisions, services, and office talk used to justify it. the exact same thing many of the same users in this thread complain about when Phil does it.

Let's be honest here, if Don wasn't in the thread this would be filled with people talking about Phil's promises, and lack of results for games and 1st party.

 

[Neff]

His team completely misunderstood how to entice the kind of enthusiast gamers which support new hardware. In fact they misunderstood gamers almost entirely. They treated the majority of existing 360 owners as a single, casual demographic and lazily assumed they'd unquestioningly adopt a successor without giving thought as to how 360 established itself in the first place.

Is it unfair to herald Spencer as a saviour of Xbox while shitting on Mattrick? Maybe. But Mattrick absolutely deserves blame for Xbox One's appalling start in terms of hardware, branding, promotion, cost and library.

 

[Bragr]

(no it's not and the Xbox One did not "bomb" it wasn't "winning" two different things. It bombed under spencer)

There is no telling if Xbox would still be around if Phil Spencer didn't push for the cloud/pc/mobile/game pass future of Xbox. Phil Spencer on a meeting with Nadella on Xbox (Microsoft CEO):

"Then the question is, do we go forward with Xbox? Because we're getting really outsold by PlayStation in the market at this point. Do we stay invested in it? Or do we make a different decision?

He and I had a discussion, and I made a pitch. I said, "You know, gaming can be a real important consumer category for the company." He didn't quite understand it yet, not from an intelligence standpoint, but he just hadn't been close to it. But he was willing to make a bet on us as a team. And I said, "The thing I need, if I'm going to step into the role to head this group, is I need to bring it back together. I can't have my hardware team over there and the platform team over there, and first-party over there. I need to bring it back as a cohesive team." And he agreed to that. So I ended up working in the Windows division, but we brought all those pieces back together.

I think the reason I ended up in the job, frankly, was the other leaders were gone. I tease myself that I was the last person left at the table. and there's some truth in that. I want to make sure I keep my ego in check. It wasn't a clear, "You take the person who ran first-party and make them head of the platform." But frankly of the leaders that were there, I was the one that was left."

https://www.shacknews.com/article/1...heriting-xbox-one-and-launching-xbox-series-x

 

[Amiga]

Phil Spencer

 

[Bernkastel]

Thats because unlike Don Mattrick, Phil Spencer replaced the guy above him - Terry Myerson. Until 2017, Xbox was a sub division of the Windows and Devices group.

Meet Terry Myerson, the most important man at Microsoft

He's in charge of Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox. Can he make it all work?

www.theverge.com

He's in charge of Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox. Can he make it all work?

By Adrianne Jeffries - Jul 12, 2013, 10:30am EDT

In 2017, gaming became its own division and Phil Spencer directly reported to Satya Nadella.

Microsoft adds its gaming chief to its Senior Leadership Team

Microsoft's Phil Spencer, now an executive vice president, is becoming part of the company's inner circle of advisers, in a move signaling the growing importance of gaming to the company.

www.zdnet.com

What Phil Spencer's promotion means for Xbox and gaming at Microsoft

Xbox head Phil Spencer recently got promoted to Microsoft's executive leadership team, in a big show of confidence for gaming. But what does it mean?

www.windowscentral.com

Microsoft reorg shakes up Windows group, Windows leader Terry Myerson departs

The Windows and Devices Group is no more.

arstechnica.com

Before 2017, forget acquiring studios, they eve lost their own second party studios to third parties

• Bizzare Creations - Bought by Activision and closed
• Bioware - Bought by EA
• Double Helix (made Killer Instinct)- Bought by Amazon
• Nakayama appealed to them to buy Sega, but Bill Gates blocked that deal.

Only after 2017, they started expanding their gaming division. Don Mattrick didn't have any power like Phil Spencer. If Terry Myerson wanted Xbox to have a cloud focus, Mattrick had to comply.

 

[CircusOfValues]

 

[thismeinteil]

Don did suck at the end, but he was just made into a scapegoat for the XBO troubles. It also helps make Phil out to be some kind of savior for Xbox. However, Phil was also there and most likely approved of the always online/DRM vision. He's also overseeing the slowest years for the Xbox in terms of first party output. Had most of last gen, yet XSX still launched with no real exclusives. As it looks currently, XSX is going to once again be outsold 2:1 by the PS5.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

Considering many of the people tarring the OP, without reading it, when it's about games and 1st party, which many of the same posters complaining have been attacking Phil, Matt booty and etc in multiple threads for a long time, is ridiculous. T

The only explanation is that none of the people read the OP and made up their own OP based on the third title and at best, maybe skimmed 4-5 words from the OP.

The craziest thing about this is not only is there almost not a single post actually mentioning the topic which is about games and 1st party in relation to the Xbox One, which Phil destroyed, but almost every complaint against the IP is off topic and are comparing Don to Phil outside of games.

Phils PR to get people to ignore the games has worked so well that people are imitating it in this thread, despite many of the same users against the OP they didn't read complaining about games in every other thread, constantly, as well as first party, in the past when looking at their history and now.

No one has defended Phil against Don on games and 1st party or even performance. the only thing Phil "convinced" Nedella to do is let him decline sales and stagnant the Xbox One for 5+ years in a row, for games we still haven't seen. After originally inheriting a console that was outselling the 360, was spitting distance from the PS4 in sales in stronger territories, and sold the plurality of Xbox One's overall sales in 1.3 years. The only reason why there was a "meeting" about Xbox with Nadella is because they weren't "winning" not that the Xbox One wasn't "selling" as that happened under Phil. He got hardware and services but skimped on the games which is also true with the NEW generation of Xbox two years in, we just had a whole year with NO games. it co9uld be this changed starting in 2023, but ~8 years to finally fulfill promises is pretty bad even if so.

Not to mention Phil destroying a 1st party collection of 20 FP studios (only 4 kinect) and 16 2nd party studios, to 6 FP studios and 8 2nd party studios, with one of those being brought against two FP closures (state of decay) and the Killer Instinct studio gone it's really 5 FP studios and 5 2nd party, and these days probably less than that.

The reason Phil went on the acquisition spree is because he couldn't get what he promised done and in 2017 prepared to fill up the gap he created and did not replace with 6b9rought studios. Period. It was also part of the reimage with the One X, which is also the revision that introduced gamepass and BC.

Here are people who clearly did not read the OP

Whenever there is a negative Xbox related thread on here (and they are daily pretty much), the vast majority of them are started by Eddie.
Its hard to take his viewpoint seriously to be honest.

(and also made this up)

He was responsible for the Xbox One which damaged the Xbox brand 10 times more than PS3 did to
playstation, Its the generation that so maney Xbox 360 players switched to PS4

(lol not it didn't)

i cant believe people want to defend the kinect thumper that nearly killed xbox altogether.

imagine defending Mattricks.

I'm speechless.

He spent all the first party development money on a deal with the NFL.

There are Don Mattrick simps now?

Lol, no.

What? It's true. Microsoft was planning on shutting the Xbox division down when Xbox One bombed.

(no it's not and the Xbox One did not "bomb" it wasn't "winning" two different things. It bombed under spencer)

The guy did the 1 thing don mattrick couldnt do.
And that was 1st party studios. Under Phil, xbox has 25 1st party studios. Under Don, it was shit.

(lol Phil dropped 20 FP studios to 5-6 with no replacements)

Ok. Don closed damn near every studio Microsoft had.

(no)

Smh! Bro please don’t do this man!

These are also many of the same people complaing in other threads about the topic of the OP, but for some reason they decided to only read the thread title or skim the OP missing the point. Because in any other thread these same people are seen complaining about games by Phil, and 1st party, and criticizing his need to buyout studios (for some of them.)

Here are people who DID read the thread (in some for or the other)

Don made the deal for Sunset Overdrive too.
It’s first trailer was shown one month before Phil took over.

Phil seems like a good personable guy but I really liked the Xbox One's 1st 2 years so I give Don the W lol

Don Mattrick was much better at getting out quality games, but horrible at PR.

Phil Spencer can sell people unfulfilled promises year after year and is praised for it.

Say what you will about mattrick, at least he had exclusive games ready for the systems launch.

There is no telling if Xbox would still be around if Phil Spencer didn't push for the cloud/pc/mobile/game pass future of Xbox. Phil Spencer on a meeting with Nadella on Xbox (Microsoft CEO):

"Then the question is, do we go forward with Xbox? Because we're getting really outsold by PlayStation in the market at this point. Do we stay invested in it? Or do we make a different decision?

This isn't relevant to the discussion of games, but what you quoted proves my point entirely the issue with Mattrick is that MS wasn't winning, not that otherwise the Xbox wasn't selling, because under Phil the Xbox One literally wasn't selling.

But in either case this doesn't resolve the game and first party issue and Phil not really doing much during the 5 years+ of him being in control of the Xbox One outside the 2016 One S, and the 2017 One X, services, and BC.

Thats because unlike Don Mattrick, Phil Spencer replaced the guy above him - Terry Myerson. Until 2017, Xbox was a sub division of the Windows and Devices group.

Meet Terry Myerson, the most important man at Microsoft

He's in charge of Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox. Can he make it all work?

www.theverge.com

In 2017, gaming became its own division and Phil Spencer directly reported to Satya Nadella.

Microsoft adds its gaming chief to its Senior Leadership Team

Microsoft's Phil Spencer, now an executive vice president, is becoming part of the company's inner circle of advisers, in a move signaling the growing importance of gaming to the company.

www.zdnet.com

What Phil Spencer's promotion means for Xbox and gaming at Microsoft

Xbox head Phil Spencer recently got promoted to Microsoft's executive leadership team, in a big show of confidence for gaming. But what does it mean?

www.windowscentral.com

Microsoft reorg shakes up Windows group, Windows leader Terry Myerson departs

The Windows and Devices Group is no more.

arstechnica.com

Before 2017, forget acquiring studios, they eve lost their own second party studios to third parties

• Bizzare Creations - Bought by Activision and closed
• Bioware - Bought by EA
• Double Helix (made Killer Instinct)- Bought by Amazon
• Nakayama appealed to them to buy Sega, but Bill Gates blocked that deal.

Only after 2017, they started expanding their gaming division. Don Mattrick didn't have any power like Phil Spencer. If Terry Myerson wanted Xbox to have a cloud focus, Mattrick had to comply.

The issue is Don didn't NEED the acquisitions and Phil Spencer DID because he had put himself in a corner not replacing staff and studios he closed down and not getting optimal results from what he had left. He based the "perception" turn around on services and hardware, and we are still waiting for h6is promise of also applying that to games.

Like I said I hope that 2023 is the year.

 

[Bragr]

This isn't relevant to the discussion of games, but what you quoted proves my point entirely the issue with Mattrick is that MS wasn't winning, not that otherwise the Xbox wasn't selling, because under Phil the Xbox One literally wasn't selling.

But in either case this doesn't resolve the game and first party issue and Phil not really doing much during the 5 years+ of him being in control of the Xbox One outside the 2016 One S, and the 2017 One X, services, and BC.

You don't think Game Pass helped the Xbox One?

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

You don't think Game Pass helped the Xbox One?

Gamepass started helping the Xbox One late as next gen was about to transition. Didn't really doo much for the Xbox one earlier on and in fact, most of the GP subs came from late Xbox one through the first 2 years of Xbox Series. It was an idea that had interest but it didn't convince people yet and they had similar deals than promoting the service, that's why there was more hype for BC originally outside of reporters.

Also given the software issue with the XSX, it took awhile for Xbox to grow it enough to start getting more subs on board. The first two years of GP was more of a test if anything to run along side BC and the One X revision.

GP didn't reach 10 million sub until April 2020, I assume in 2019 that it would be less than 8 although we don't know how much, especially pre holidays. So you are looking at potentially a 20-21 million sub increase from 2019, and a almost ~20 million sub increase from april 2020. Xbox Series is definitely the savior of gamepass and is what's doing the leg work.

 

[feynoob]

(lol Phil dropped 20 FP studios to 5-6 with no replacements)

are you OK? Honestly, are you ok?
These are their former studios. Please do more research.

Former[edit]​

Sold or spun off

• Access Software/Salt Lake Games Studio/Indie Games — Links series — Sold to Take-Two Interactive 2004-2006
• Bungie — Halo series — Became independent. left in 2007
• Lift London — Removed from Microsoft's games business[105]
• Twisted Pixel Games — The Gunstringer, LocoCycle, The Maw, 'Splosion Man series — Became independent
• Wingnut Interactive — Peter Jackson's joint venture game studio — Sold to WingNut Films[106][107]

Closed or consolidated

• Aces Game Studio — Microsoft Flight Simulator series — Closed
• BigPark — Kinect Joy Ride, Joy Ride Turbo — Consolidated
• Carbonated Games — Closed
• Digital Anvil — Brute Force, Freelancer — Consolidated[108] 2006
• Ensemble Studios — Age of Empires series, Age of Mythology series, Halo Wars — Closed 2008
• FASA Studio — MechWarrior series, Shadowrun, Crimson Skies series — Closed 2007
• Good Science Studio — Kinect Adventures, Kinect Fun Labs, Kinect Star Wars — Consolidated
• Hired Gun — Halo 2 PC port — Consolidated[109]
• Lionhead Studios — Fable series, Black & White series — Closed 2016
• Microsoft Studios Japan — Phantom Dust — Closed
• Microsoft Studios Victoria — Closed 2013
• Press Play — Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, Kalimba — Closed 2016
• Team Dakota — Project Spark — Consolidated
• Xbox Entertainment Studios — Closed (TV and movie studio)
• Xbox Live Productions — Consolidated (Publishing arm)

Here is a more clear one

E3 2018: Here's What Happened To Every Studio Microsoft Has Bought - IGN

Microsoft has a history of buying new studios, but how long do they last?

www.ign.com

And these are current studios.

Subsidiaries and divisions[edit]​

Parent company	Name	Location	Founded	Acquired	Notes
Xbox Game Studios	343 Industries	Redmond, Washington	2007	—	Established by Microsoft to oversee the development of Halo following the departure of Bungie Studios.
The Coalition	Vancouver	2010	—	Formerly named Microsoft Studios Vancouver and Black Tusk Studios. Oversees development of the Gears of War series.
Compulsion Games	Montreal	2009	2018	Founded by ex-Arkane Studios developer Guillaume Provost. Developers of Contrast and We Happy Few.
Double Fine Productions	San Francisco	2000	2019	Founded by Tim Schafer after his departure from LucasArts. Developers of Psychonauts and Brütal Legend.
The Initiative	Santa Monica, California	2018	—	Established to act as a first-party developer similar in role to Santa Monica Studio. Led by Crystal Dynamics veteran Darrell Gallagher.[101][102]
inXile Entertainment	Tustin, California	2002	2018	Founded by Brian Fargo and specializing in role-playing games. Developers of The Bard's Tale series and the Wasteland series.
Mojang Studios	Stockholm	2009	2014	Developers of Minecraft and Crown and Council.
Ninja Theory	Cambridge	2000	2018	Developers of several projects including Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.
Obsidian Entertainment	Irvine, California	2003	2018	Development team that specializes in open-world role-playing games. Developers of Pillars of Eternity, The Outer Worlds, Avowed and Grounded.
Playground Games	Leamington Spa	2010	2018	Developers that work with Turn 10 Studios on the Forza Horizon series.[103]
Rare	Twycross	1985	2002	Developers of numerous popular games since the Nintendo 64 era. Modern releases include Sea of Thieves and Everwild.
Turn 10 Studios	Redmond, Washington	2001	—	Established by Microsoft to develop the Forza Motorsport series and associated Forza Tech engine.
Undead Labs	Seattle	2009	2018	Developers of the State of Decay series.
World's Edge	Redmond, Washington	2019	—	Created internally to oversee the Age of Empires franchise.[104]
Xbox Game Studios Publishing	Redmond, Washington	2000	—	Xbox Game Studios' first-party publishing arm.
ZeniMax Media	Bethesda Softworks	Rockville, Maryland	1986	2021	ZeniMax Media's publishing arm.
Alpha Dog Games	Halifax, Nova Scotia	2012	Mobile games developer.
Arkane Studios	Lyon	1999	Creators of several immersive sim games. Including Prey and the Dishonored series.
Bethesda Game Studios	Rockville, Maryland	2001	Developers of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series, and maintains the Creation Engine.
id Software	Richardson, Texas	1991	Creators of the Doom, and Quake series, and maintains the id Tech engine.
MachineGames	Uppsala	2009	Current developers of the Wolfenstein series.
Roundhouse Studios	Madison, Wisconsin	2019	Formed by former developers from Human Head Studios.
Tango Gameworks	Tokyo	2010	Founded by Shinji Mikami, developers of Ghostwire: Tokyo and The Evil Within series.
ZeniMax Online Studios	Hunt Valley, Maryland	2007	Developers of The Elder Scrolls Online.

 

[feynoob]

(no it's not and the Xbox One did not "bomb" it wasn't "winning" two different things. It bombed under spencer)

Its not like xbox one reveal, and the weak hardware, plus the expensive price didnt do anything right?

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

Its not like xbox one reveal, and the weak hardware, plus the expensive price didnt do anything right?

I remember when DR3 showcased something the PS4 couldn't do because of the amount of stuff on screen.

The Xbox weak hardware was a thing but it didn't become issue until later. Xbox also had game output for those two years and let to people questioning games on the PS4. Phil has done the exact opposite and has received the reception across the Xbox One du6ring his time as a console without any games.

The "reveal" which was done so they could have games at E3 and they did, and anything controversial behind it was turned around before launch. None of that has any impact on the game releases.

are you OK? Honestly, are you ok?
These are their former studios. Please do more research.

Like I said, Phil closed studios and went from 20 to 5-6, and lost a lot of second party studios.

You are only proving my point by skipping several years until now with how Phil HAD to start b9uyouts in 2017 to fill the gaps he created. he didn't have any of the studios you listed for years.

You haven't shown anything different than what I said. Phill destroyed Xbox's first party with no replacements and ended up with a handful of FP and 2nd party studios. You can easily find this doing your own research.

Here is all Phil had for some time after spending time crippling studios through 2015-2017.

United States

• 343 Industries
• Decisive Games (have heard nothing about them since MS first mentioned them.)
• Kids and Lifestyle Entertainment (killed sometime in 2016-17)
• Microsoft Casual Games Team (Not sure what happened to these guys.)
• Turn 10 Studios

United Kingdom

• Lift London (moved away from being a game studio)
• Rare

Europe

• Mojang

Canada
The Coalition

So that's 5 studios. Of course he had to buy more after wasting all that time having poor output and not having much to work with since he didn't do any replacements.

Under Don Mattrick on the other hand you had a much bigger pool of studios.

United States

• 343 Industries
• Connected Experiences
• Good Science Studio
• Kids and Lifestyle Entertainment
• Leap Experience Pioneers
• Microsoft Studios – Mobile Gaming
• Team Dakota
• Turn 10 Studios
• Twisted Pixel Games
• Xbox Live Productions

Europe

• Lionhead Studios
• Lift London
• Microsoft Studios – EMEA Publishing
• Press Play
• Rare Ltd
• Soho Productions

Canada

• BigPark
• Black Tusk Studios (Coalition later)

Asia

• Microsoft Studios Osaka

19 game studios to Phils 5, seems like to completely different numbers to me. Not to mention the two publishing studios for home and mobile so technically it's 21 studios, but I took those off because i suspect people would nitpick them.

When you go from 19 studios to 5, and two are underperforming of those 5, you put yourself in a bad position. You have n9o choice but to fill those gaps with buyouts due to time. Which is what Phil did.

This gets even worse for Phil when you see the massive road of destruction with 2nd party studios also in this time frame. Holy smokes. Don't forget7 the studios Phil "let go" that used to be owned too.

 

[Bragr]

Gamepass started helping the Xbox One late as next gen was about to transition. Didn't really doo much for the Xbox one earlier on and in fact, most of the GP subs came from late Xbox one through the first 2 years of Xbox Series. It was an idea that had interest but it didn't convince people yet and they had similar deals than promoting the service, that's why there was more hype for BC originally outside of reporters.

Also given the software issue with the XSX, it took awhile for Xbox to grow it enough to start getting more subs on board. The first two years of GP was more of a test if anything to run along side BC and the One X revision.

GP didn't reach 10 million sub until April 2020, I assume in 2019 that it would be less than 8 although we don't know how much, especially pre holidays. So you are looking at potentially a 20-21 million sub increase from 2019, and a almost ~20 million sub increase from april 2020. Xbox Series is definitely the savior of gamepass and is what's doing the leg work.

I don't understand your point here, you are looking at Xbox One and separating it from everything else. What Phil Spencer did was build Game Pass and Xbox into a ubiquitous platform that doesn't need one system. Getting that many subs from Xbox One and PC are a big boon for Xbox Series.

Look at the Xbox documentary when the employees themselves talk about Xbox One early on. It's clear how Phil Spencer turned around an almost impossible situation by getting Microsoft on board to open the piggy bank and build Game Pass.

 

[Bernkastel]

The issue is Don didn't NEED the acquisitions and Phil Spencer DID because he had put himself in a corner not replacing staff and studios he closed down and not getting optimal results from what he had left. He based the "perception" turn around on services and hardware, and we are still waiting for h6is promise of also applying that to games.

He shut down? How many studios did he shut down?

Closed or consolidated

• Aces Game Studio — Microsoft Flight Simulator series — Closed
• Digital Anvil — Brute Force, Freelancer — Consolidated[108] 2006
• Ensemble Studios — Age of Empires series, Age of Mythology series, Halo Wars — Closed 2008
• FASA Studio — MechWarrior series, Shadowrun, Crimson Skies series — Closed 2007
• Lionhead Studios — Fable series, Black & White series — Closed 2016
• Microsoft Studios Japan — Phantom Dust — Closed
• Press Play — Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, Kalimba — Closed 2016

These are the studios that they closed.

• BigPark — Kinect Joy Ride, Joy Ride Turbo — Consolidated
• Carbonated Games — Closed
• Hired Gun — Halo 2 PC port — Consolidated
• Good Science Studio — Kinect Adventures, Kinect Fun Labs, Kinect Star Wars — Consolidated
• Microsoft Studios Victoria — Closed 2013
• Team Dakota — Project Spark — Consolidated

These are either internal teams of the gaming divisions or small studios witth 10-30 people for Kinect/Hololens, that were consolidated into other studios. For example Microsoft Studios Victoria merged with Vancouver which later became Coalition.

GameInformer - The Final Level

The teams that are now absent from the site, including SOTA, LXP, [Fun]tion, Bigpark, and Good Science, had either worked on Kinect games, were on incubating projects, or were working on HoloLens. There is no evidence that layoffs occurred, just that these teams’ logos no longer appear on Microsoft’s website.

Because they stopped making Kinect, they consolidated them to other studios.

Halo 2 PC going offline next month

Microsoft will shut down online multiplayer for 2007 shooter February 15 after peak user count hits only 20.

www.gamespot.com

Halo 2 PC launched in May 2007, more than two and a half years after the original Xbox version was released. It was ported to the PC by internal Microsoft team Hired Gun, which has since been dissolved. The game runs only on Windows Vista.

Seems like the Big Park team still exists in Vancouver and works for Office 365.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbridg/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/djseymour/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterhoang/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendyweideng/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavinrodrigues/

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

I don't understand your point here, you are looking at Xbox One and separating it from everything else

Yes, that is the thread topic.

It's clear how Phil Spencer turned around an almost impossible situation by getting Microsoft on board to open the piggy bank and build Game Pass.

Not in games, which is what this thread is about. Him being able to convince Nadella to invest in a market he made worse for the Xbox one for 5+ years isn't relevant to the topic of comparison, which is 1st party and games. Any other comparisons are not relevant, the biggest defense against the thread other than not looking at it, is bringing up everything except games. Even you are doing that currently.

If anything it shows that people aren't really argue against the issue of Phil's handling of games and 1st part studios.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

He shut down? How many studios did he shut down?

Posted right above you. He also "let go" of some studios and transitioned some from gaming. In fact, your post doesn't really help him as is.

19 (and 2 pubs) to 5 is not a good look. That was for some time too.

Lol, Phasejump below not reading the OP commence.

 

[PhaseJump]

Considering many of the people tarring the OP, without reading it, when it's about games and 1st party, which many of the same posters complaining have been attacking Phil, Matt booty and etc in multiple threads for a long time for, is ridiculous.

The only explanation (or one of them) is that none of the people read the OP and made up their own OP based on the thread title or at best, maybe skimmed 4-5 words from the OP.

The craziest thing about this is not only is there almost not a single post actually mentioning the topic which is about games and 1st party in relation to the Xbox One between Don and Philly, which Phil destroyed, but almost every complaint against the IP is off topic and are comparing Don to Phil outside of games (other than typical exaggerated Kinect stuff).

Phils PR to get people to ignore the games has worked so well that people are imitating it in this thread, despite many of the same users against the OP complaining about games in every other threads, constantly, as well as first party, in the past when looking at their history and now.

Almost no one has defended Phil against Don on games and 1st party or even performance in this thread. the only thing Phil "convinced" Nadella to do is let him decline sales and stagnant the Xbox One for 5+ years in a row, for games we still haven't seen. After originally inheriting a console that was outselling the 360, was spitting distance from the PS4 in sales in stronger territories, and sold the plurality of Xbox One's overall sales in 1.3 years. The only reason why there was a "meeting" about Xbox with Nadella is because they weren't "winning" not that the Xbox One wasn't "selling" as that happened under Phil. He got hardware and services but skimped on the games which is also true with the NEW generation of Xbox (Series consoles) two years in, we just had a whole year with NO games. it could be this changed starting in 2023, but ~8 years to finally fulfill promises is pretty bad even if so.

Not to mention Phil destroying a 1st party collection of 20 FP studios (only 4 kinect) and 16 2nd party studios, to 6 FP studios and 8 2nd party studios, with one of those being brought against two FP closures (state of decay) and the Killer Instinct studio 2nd party now gone so it's really 5 FP studios and 5 2nd party, and these days probably less than that.

The reason Phil went on the acquisition spree is because he couldn't get what he promised done and in 2017 prepared to fill up the gap he created by not replacing his closures with new acquired studios. Period. It was also part of the reimage with the One X, which is also the revision that introduced gamepass and BC. He did a good job coasting off that but people even outside gaming boards are starting to get wary of that.

Here are people who clearly did not read the OP


(and also made this up)

(lol not it didn't)







(no it's not and the Xbox One did not "bomb" it wasn't "winning" two different things. It bombed under spencer)

(lol Phil dropped 20 FP studios to 5-6 with no replacements)

(no)


(Nope, Phils start saw it's effects take hold in 2015 or later)

(Thread mentions 2013 and 2014, only talks about launch)

(of not reading the OP)

(Nope, that's why when people saw Phil take Don's spot they expected more change he couldn't do before, they also believe that at his next prmotions, and the next one, and the new current one Nadella made.)


These are also many of the same people complaining in other threads about the topic of the OP, but for some reason they decided to only read the thread title or skim the OP missing the point. Because in any other thread these same people are seen complaining about (the lack) games by Phil, and 1st party, and/or criticizing his need to buyout studios (for some of them.)

Here are people who DID read the thread (in some for or the other)








The football field sized contrast is evident.

Again, it's amazing how games (during Xbox One) is completely avoided, to talk about Phil outside of that in order to prop him up over Don in a games and 1st party thread (related to the Xbox One), as a result we are seeing posts hardware revisions, services, and office talk used to justify it. the exact same thing many of the same users in this thread complain about when Phil does it.

Let's be honest here, if Don wasn't in the thread this would be filled with people talking about Phil's promises, and lack of results for games and 1st party.

Yeah, but who has time to read your OPs?

You spam this forum. Argue like a pedant. Tell people what they are really thinking or doing. It's a fucking joke.

Now you want to point out and spew some backseat moderation or shame on the people for saying anything that comes to mind as a tangent, when jumping in and glancing at the other posts you deem unworthy here, on a topic comparing Don Mattrick and Phil Spencer; Two lightning rods for bias and fanboy hatred. You expect to start it by telling people that they are wrong about it.

Welcome to the internet.

 

[feynoob]

I remember when DR3 showcased something the PS4 couldn't do because of the amount of stuff on screen.

The Xbox weak hardware was a thing but it didn't become issue until later. Xbox also had game output for those two years and let to people questioning games on the PS4. Phil has done the exact opposite and has received the reception across the Xbox One du6ring his time as a console without any games.

The "reveal" which was done so they could have games at E3 and they did, and anything controversial behind it was turned around before launch. None of that has any impact on the game releases.

the weaker hardware and the price is what made consumers turn away from Xbox, With PS4 gaining dominance, publishers left xbox, leaving the brand with not enough big publishers support. Something which X360 enjoyed massively.
This also when they lost COD marketing rights.

If done focused on the console, instead of the TV part, Xbox would have had those publishers support and COD marketing.

Phil was just dealing with effect of all those decisions.

 

[Bragr]

Yes, that is the thread topic.



Not in games, which is what this thread is about. Him being able to convince Nadella to invest in a market he made worse for the Xbox one for 5+ years isn't relevant to the topic of comparison, which is 1st party and games. Any other comparisons are not relevant, the biggest defense against the thread other than not looking at it, is bringing up everything except games. Even you are doing that currently.

If anything it shows that people aren't really argue against the issue of Phil's handling of games and 1st part studios.

But it takes years and years to turn a console around. That he was gonna flip the Xbox One into the PS4 was never gonna happen. What he did, changing the situation for Xbox as a whole long term is the important part.

I never heard an argument that Phil Spencer was the savior of Xbox One. I don't understand why you feel this way and feel the need to push against it.

You can make an argument that he should have been harder on some studios and demanded more output, but I think the big problem here is that the increase in cost and dev time, as well as key people from select key Xbox studios leaving, left a huge void from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One that needed to be addressed before the Xbox One even came out.

But that's what these huge acquisitions are gonna fix over the next few years. It takes a long time to get this in order, but he is currently spearheading the push to add to the Xbox capacity, there was just no time to see this change in the Xbox One's lifecycle.

 

[feynoob]

But it takes years and years to turn a console around. That he was gonna flip the Xbox One into the PS4 was never gonna happen. What he did, changing the situation for Xbox as a whole long term is the important part.

I never heard an argument that Phil Spencer was the savior of Xbox One. I don't understand why you feel this way and feel to need to push against it.

You can make an argument that he should have been harder on some studios and demanded more output, but I think the big problem here is that the increase in cost and dev time, as well as key people from select key Xbox studios leaving, left a huge void from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One that needed to be addressed before the Xbox One even came out.

But that's what these huge acquisitions are gonna fix over the next few years. It takes a long time to get this in order, but he is currently spearheading the push to add to the Xbox capacity, there was just no time to see this change in the Xbox One's lifecycle.

The notion here in neogaf, that the ceo can instantly make every thing right.

They dont understand the process that goes behind the scenes.