"If you just build great games everything would turn around. It's just not true that if we go off and build great games, all of a sudden you're going to see console share shift in some dramatic way."
Having listened to the full interview for context, and having read the 23 pages of this thread, I guess I'm the guy with the hot take today: I think Spencer's correct in what he actually said.
What I took away is that Spencer is talking about is ecosystem investment versus player adoption. If a given gamer spent hundreds of dollars on their PS4 library and were happy with what that console offered, the odds are that they're going to buy a PS5 when the times comes for your next-gen console. That's not an outrageous claim - I think that's pretty much accepted fact. Over the course of a generation, a percentage might be convinced Xbox is the place to be, and maybe they buy a Series S as a secondary console, but for the
vast majority, they're entrenched after that initial purchase. They're not going to dump PlayStation because of one Xbox title - be it Halo, Starfield, of something else. And I think that's absolutely correct. Phil is saying Xbox needs to have more than
just games to convince people to buy into the Xbox ecosystem - things like Game Pass, xCloud, Play Anywhere, and so on. And again, I think that's absolutely correct: Starfield, Halo, Game Pass, Play Anywhere - that combination
might convince someone to change platforms whereas Starfield on its own really isn't going to convince anyone who's invested in the PlayStation ecosystem.
Of course, that's now morphed into "Xbox is a failure, the brand is over, no more great games". Which is odd, because, for me, the takeaway from this interview is that Microsoft remains committed to its own vision, of which great games is a part, of which great services is a part, of which great hardware is a part. And that's been the mission statement since before this generation started. So, I don't think Spencer really said anything controversial at all, just a lot of words in his typical PR speak. Anyway, I'll be off looking for a way to convert every laugh reaction to this post into a dollar so I can retire early. Have fun, folks.