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People are wrong about Don Mattricks handling of the Xbox One compared to Phil Spencer.

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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.

When Xbox sales slowed down the Xbox was already $400 with Kinect decoupled, and then got a further price cuts to move on Nov and Dec 2014.

The TV thing was at the reveal, and the reason for it was because MS wanted games to be at E3 and not the TV stuff.

Phil wasn't dealing with anything other than inheriting a lot of studios, and Xbox One selling faster than the 360, and his own devaluation of the consoles in Dec and Nov 2014. Almost anything people were concerned about not already changed except power (which became a bigger issue after due to Phil not really helping devs until later and not putting out examples to follow) was changed already and Phil still led to the Xbox one to a decline stagnant state without any momentum for 5+ years.

Again, 1st party and games phil was weak. I agree 9there are other areas were Don was much worse, but that's not what the thread is about. It's about what many people here complain about Phil for who happened to forget that in this thread because Don was in the title.

But it takes years and years to turn a console around.

And he didn't after years. He had momentum from the handoff and killed it. he had studios to make games but let them go, destroyed them, or moved them from gaming. He has the money to invest in software and went for hardware and services instead. it's now 2022, the Xbox One is discontinued. The turnaround for the Xbox One didn't happen, but he managed to change the perception of Xbox through PR, issue is that's starting to wan too.

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.

This isn't in the post you quoted or the OP.

I'm only comparing games related tot he Xbox One and 1st party.

Like I said, i am hoping for change in 2023 but so far it's been dicey, and the Xbox One age is over and Phil never got anything done but two hardware revisions and services, and started the pre-Zenimax acquisition spree.
 

Warablo

Member
Mattrick turned Xbox into a Kinect box and moved all their game support into developing Kinect games. Nearly killed Xbox with the launch of Xbox One PR. Phil had to basically start from scratch in terms of studios and dwindling player base.
 
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feynoob

Banned
When Xbox sales slowed down the Xbox was already $400 with Kinect decoupled, and then got a further price cuts to move on Nov and Dec 2014.
Releasing it at $499 was insane. The ps4, which was more powerful sold at $399.
The TV thing was at the reveal, and the reason for it was because MS wanted games to be at E3 and not the TV stuff.
That is what they advertised the console for, and the weaker specs. Xbox is a gaming console, not a tv entertainment device.
Phil wasn't dealing with anything other than inheriting a lot of studios, and Xbox One selling faster than the 360, and his own devaluation of the consoles in Dec and Nov 2014. Almost anything people were concerned about not already changed except power (which became a bigger issue after due to Phil not really helping devs until later and not putting out examples to follow) was changed already and Phil still led to the Xbox one to a decline stagnant state without any momentum for 5+ years.
XBOX lost COD because of the mess DON made. The game, that allowed xbox to be toe to toe with PS.
The moment they lost that game, the hidden cracks of xbox started to show.
One of the reason Why PS4 was succesful, is due to 1st party support. Xbox never had that much support. They didnt even own playground, which made forza, undead labs, and coalition. Phil had to buy those, in order to secure them.
Again, 1st party and games phil was weak. I agree 9there are other areas were Don was much worse, but that's not what the thread is about. It's about what many people here complain about Phil for who happened to forget that in this thread because Don was in the title.
Don 1st party was utterly useless. Do you know what rare made under him? Kinetic games. And with Phil, they made Sea of theives. The guy never bothered investing on his 1st party studios. While Phil made that number 25.

Please dont do revision history. The only reason X360 has exclusve games was, because of ps3 cell system. It made devs harder to develop, which gave x360 an edge for exclusivity.
 
Releasing it at $499 was insane. The ps4, which was more powerful sold at $399.

That's great, but sales slowed after that was $400 and then less under Phil. You're being inconsistent here with the timeline.

XBOX lost COD because of the mess DON made.

Nope.

Phil lost it in summer 2015, did nothing to try and keep it or to outbid Sony, or do anything.

In fact, Phil did it intentionally, saying that he wanted to focus on "first party games" instead while acknowledging Sony was buying up 3rd party exclusives at the time

"They buy them. You know, I read the same things that you do, and I know that some people think that it's somehow less expensive to sign third-party exclusives if you have a bigger market share. I can tell you, it has nothing to do with market share." It was widely believed that Call of Duty, for example, had switched sides because of the PS4's global dominance, but that's not true according to Spencer.

"So we're making a conscious decision to focus on our first-party games," he continued. "It doesn't make it harder or easier, it's just a decision. I do think that building up first-party exclusives is creatively more difficult than signing a deal, just by the nature of what it is. For us, right now Xbox is in a stretch where all of its first-party teams are doing an incredible job. I'm proud of that as the head of Xbox, and as the head of first-party."

Phil made the "conscious" decision to focus on first-party games instead of deals. That's why Sony got COD. This caused an uproar on gaming sites back then too. But people seem to be forgetting it.

You are the only revisionist here.
 

feynoob

Banned
That's great, but sales slowed after that was $400 and then less under Phil. You're being inconsistent here with the timeline.
Dont you see the problem, or are you just blind?
That's great, but sales slowed after that was $400 and then less under Phil. You're being inconsistent here with the timeline.



Nope.

Phil lost it in summer 2015, did nothing to try and keep it or to outbid Sony, or do anything.

In fact, Phil did it intentionally, saying that he wanted to focus on "first party games" instead while acknowledging Sony was buying up 3rd party exclusives at the time



Phil made the "conscious" decision to focus on first-party games instead of deals. That's why Sony got COD. This caused an uproar on gaming sites back then too. But people seem to be forgetting it.

You are the only revisionist here.
Lost it, due to attracious events by Don, which crumbled the brand.

I suggest you do more research in chronological order. Maybe you will learn a thing or two.
 
Dont you see the problem, or are you just blind?

no, but based on your speed you didn't read the post properly.

Dont you see the problem, or are you just blind?

Lost it, due to attracious events by Don, which crumbled the brand.

Nope, you are now going against documentation and Phils own words. You clearly don't practice what you preach in doing research.

Here's another one from MONTHS EARLIER from the E3 announcement by Phil in APRIL:

Phil Spencer wants to focus on first-party games and hopes to have a new platform exclusive to announce at this year's E3, according to a tweet from the Xbox boss.
"I agree," Spencer replied. "Means this years E3 might feel different from past E3s but I like focusing on our games."

Not long after, he said others shouldn't misconstrue his remarks as a knock on third-party publishers writing "And to be clear we will have 3rd party deals, it's just, imo, important to focus on and support our 1st party."

Phil was consistent the whole time, had nothing to do with anything DON did, and it was under Phil the Xbox One became less competitive anyway, Take the lint out your eyes. Phil even before Sony announced the deal at E3, months before, had already decided to give up the COD deal to focus on first party, which as we know didn't happen.

Phil wanted to push a promise to fix up FP studios, and made promises that were never kept about it and hurt the brand in doing so, while he was gradually gutting and closing, letting go, or changing studios away from gaming until 2017, and actually caused the brand to crumble when consoles buying interest vanished, he only started fixingthat with the ONE X, and NOT by games.
 
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feynoob

Banned
Nope, your poor research and timeline is the issue here.



None of your videos have anything to do with the topic of the thread, or debunk Phils own words for why the COD deal was abandoned. You're literally have nothing left to use.
Kenan Thompson Snl GIF by Saturday Night Live
 
April months before E3 announcement
Phil Spencer wants to focus on first-party games and hopes to have a new platform exclusive to announce at this year's E3, according to a tweet from the Xbox boss.
I agree," Spencer replied. "Means this years E3 might feel different from past E3s but I like focusing on our games."

Not long after, he said others shouldn't misconstrue his remarks as a knock on third-party publishers writing "And to be clear we will have 3rd party deals, it's just, imo, important to focus on and support our 1st party."

August after E3 in June and Sony COD announcement.
"So we're making a conscious decision to focus on our first-party games," he continued. "It doesn't make it harder or easier, it's just a decision. I do think that building up first-party exclusives is creatively more difficult than signing a deal, just by the nature of what it is. For us, right now Xbox is in a stretch where all of its first-party teams are doing an incredible job. I'm proud of that as the head of Xbox, and as the head of first-party."

All, consistent through the months in 2015 before and after. Any such claims otherwise is imaginary (not to mention Activisons sales were high early in the Xbox One's life so it wouldn't make sense to leave unless Phil, as he admitted, let them go, like he did with some first party studios.)

If you cant' agree with good guy Phil who always tells it like it is, the truth, then any blame to Don for losing COD is just unbacked nonsense. There's no counter to this evidence.
 

Dane

Member
Mattrick came at the latter half of the Xbox 360 which saw a massive flip from some of their successful acts (indie support) and even in smaller ones (Japan support), it went all in on Kinect, had zero regards for the Xbox One DRM, pricing and package, the stuff you mentioned were bound to be happen because Xbox was at the top back then and were signed back then, no one was expecting the mess it would be with the successor.

Phil Spencer came into a division that was neglected the major money it needed except when it came to buy Mojang as it was considered a quick ROI, no wonder why there was a decline on AAA and indies deals during this time.

If Mattrick and others had stayed they would have buried the brand 6 feet under.
 

PhaseJump

Banned
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.

The word you are looking for is "Comments." You must have been too speedy with your edit post tagging me there. The very thing you accuse others of in this thread while squawking like a lunatic.

You spend more time info dumping a pile of bullshit, and then accuse others that they don't read your bullshit properly, than any other poster on this forum.
 
The word you are looking for is "Comments."

No I meant commence, as in commence the deflection of not reading the OP. In fact you're suggestions (if you can call it that) doesn't even make sense based on the sentence.

It's not about properly, it's reading beyond the title. Sorry. You spend a lot of time complaining and being boldly confrontational over small things, not to mention a lot of projecting.
 
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Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
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.
I have an old man's memory and may have attributed some games to Don, so thanks for the correction. Though I rate both Peter and Don very highly -- especially in comparison to Phil.
 

PhaseJump

Banned
No I meant commence, as in commence the deflection of not reading the OP. In fact you're suggestions (if you can call it that) doesn't even make sense based on the sentence.

It's not about properly, it's reading beyond the title. Sorry. You spend a lot of time complaining and being boldly confrontational over small things, not to mention a lot of projecting.

It makes perfect sense. You're accusing people of not reading the OP comments. In the context you suggest here, the word would have been commences anyway.

You waited a while to actually tag me to it in the first place, which is typical of your bullshit trolling.
 

Neff

Member
That's great, but sales slowed after that was $400 and then less under Phil.

Quickly stalled momentum. Those initial sales were propelled by die-hard Xbox fans. It soon became apparent that nobody else gave a fuck, and the price cut did little to change that. Nobody should have to explain this.
 
It makes perfect sense. You're accusing people of not reading the OP comments. In the context you suggest here

No people didn't read the OP at all, including you. Stop.

Also i tagged you the first time you even said it in your post, you're clearly just not able to admit you screwed up here. It's over the thread is continuing.

Quickly stalled momentum. Those initial sales were propelled by die-hard Xbox fans. It soon became apparent that nobody else gave a fuck, and the price cut did little to change that. Nobody should have to explain this.

No, the sales went on for almost 2 years, Phils devaluation during the holiday of 2014, and then trying to rise the price back up but failing, and then dropping it again later after he caused sales to slump, along with no plans for 1st party games (which he gave up COD exclusivity for in April 2015 out his own mouth) and poor deals or engagement with third parties is what led to 2015 being a bad year. Before the effects of this was felt, the Xbox one was still the fastest selling Xbox and still competitive with the PS4, and was still the fastest selling Xbox in some other countries as well, all of that hit a brick wall. Literally.
 

Killer8

Gold Member
Don Mattrick was the OG "you will own nothing and be happy" salesman. Looking at where gaming is now with subscription services, always online and consoles you barely even own, it's tempting even to say "Don Mattrick was right". If anything, he was just too early - not that I approve.
 

Gravemind

Member
Ahhh so we've officially reached the point in time where someone/something horrible is looked on as good or underrated.

No. Mattrick almost destroyed Xbox. His vision was to shift Xbox away from gaming and center it around general entertainment. That right there is a massive L.
 
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Sure Phil is doing a lot more for the Xbox brand, starting with Xbox One X to correct Xbox weak console narrative and bought tons of publishers and developers. But Phil also spent billions of MS dollars for that. Comparatively Mattrick was actually not ambitious enough with a weak hardware (XB1 after XB360) and timid first party strategy.
 
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