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[vaibhavpisal]

Phil Spencer wants Xbox to grow regardless of whether the industry grows or not. His job isn't to grow the industry. His job is to make money for Microsoft stockholders.

So no, don't buy that line one bit.

While I agree with this, you also cannot ignore acquisitions they have made. They can do whatever they want.

With that said, am not sure whats the end game for Xbox is. Does it want to stay in console business or give it up to Sony, just like Sony gave up portable space to Nintendo.

Peter Moore recently painted a pretty grim picture for launching and marketing consoles.

Nothing says growing the industry by buying publishers and then only having their games release on the lowest install base of all consoles.

Its a transition phase. Where it will end up no one knows.

 

[Mr Moose]

Xbox isn’t trying.

In this interview itself, Phil has said they want to grow with industry, not at expense of others.

 

[Klayzer]

Perhaps, but then it will actually mean something. Hearing this from the guy whose console has been sucking wind in sales for ten years ain't that impressive.

What's intresting to me is, Phil went radio silent during the "rumors". Now he's back to having an opinion on any and everything.

 

[Topher]

While I agree with this, you also cannot ignore acquisitions they have made. They can do whatever they want.

With that said, am not sure whats the end game for Xbox is. Does it want to stay in console business or give it up to Sony, just like Sony gave up portable space to Nintendo.

Peter Moore recently painted a pretty grim picture for launching and marketing consoles.

That's the million dollar question. What's Microsoft going to do with Xbox consoles? They are clearly giving it at one more go in the next gen. As I've said elsewhere, I hope they try something different because what they have been doing isn't working.

 

[MisterXDTV]

Perhaps, but then it will actually mean something. Hearing this from the guy whose console has been sucking wind in sales for ten years ain't that impressive.

Would you mean that it sounds like a poor excuse, maybe??

 

[Woopah]

He's not wrong about the situation facing third party publishers, with the rapidly costs and shareholder demand for growth. But Xbox isn't helping with that.

Is Spiderman 2 doing ok? I see advertisements for it everywhere, It's like no one knows it exists.
Is all that money spent on marketing a 1st party game warranted?

Spiderman was a massive success, but still affected by the rapidly rising costs.

I'm not talking about just Xbox, but the market as a whole. Just last week there was a thread about Japanese developers making similar observations to what Phil Spencer said here.

If you can't take Xbox out of your mouth that's your problem.

Switch has sold more in Japan than any country in history, so people buying consoles there isn't an issue.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

. His job is to make money for Microsoft stockholders.

Then the way to do it is certainly not by being in videogame business, yet here we are.

 

[Z O N E]

Phil, listen up...

Become a publisher and publish your games everything and leave it at that. If Xbox fanboys want to complain, who cares, they'll still buy your games, just like how Playstation fanboys complain and still buy the same damn game that's been remastered 500 times.

 

[MisterXDTV]

It's still absolutely hilarious to listen to the guy who botched every possible decision in the last 10 years (despite unlimited funding), predicting the future of an industry he clearly doesn't know anything about.....

It's fascinating, really

 

[Topher]

Then the way to do it is certainly not by being in videogame business, yet here we are.

That's why most of the corporations are not in just one business.

 

[cormack12]

Why wasn't a contraction of the market expected after covid/lockdown would be the sensible question here.

 

[mayham2199]

That's the million dollar question. What's Microsoft going to do with Xbox consoles? They are clearly giving it at one more go in the next gen. As I've said elsewhere, I hope they try something different because what they have been doing isn't working.

I think one more console releasing early and a handheld is their last move in the console market. If that doesn't work they're done with hardware beyond a simple cloud dongle.

 

[newtypepilot]

why does MS keep letting this clown speak in public???

 

[Pelta88]

Xbox isn’t trying.

In this interview itself, Phil has said they want to grow with industry, not at expense of others.

Phil's obfuscation is next level.

Report: Sales are collapsing in Europe and in every territory outside on NA.
Phil's response: We don't want to compete until we can compete in the right way?!

Report: Publishers say there's no profit to be made in releasing IP on XBOX
Phil response: We don't like those publishers anyway.

The first call Phil made after the ATVI deal was announced was to tell SIE that they had 3 years before COD went exclusive. Now the PR is to suggest that the hardware is failing because they chose not to compete? Not because the broader market rejected their offering. Phil's reasoning is so convoluted it becomes comical.

 

[semiconscious]

aaaand... I've had my phil today. thanks...

 

[havoc00]

Thanks Phil!

 

[JerryinSoCal]

He's explaining why the subscription model doesn't work without actually saying it lol. Those big budget games take years to make and are very expensive, you need a lot of fresh content to make a subscription model work so you have to employ an insane number of people and have dozens of projects going on at the same time.

I know some people try to do basic math and add up what the monthly fees are that come in but they have no idea how much is going out every month in expenses just making 1st party titles let alone what they pay for 3rd party games to be on the platform. It may have been a good idea back in the original xbox days or even the 360 but that ship has sailed. It doesn't work like it does for Netflix and other media streamers because they can get 3-5 seasons of a show done before one AAA game is finished, most of those companies aren't making any money either.

Having a sub model for older catalog titles is fine but for new AAA releases it's taking hundreds potentially of millions of dollars off of the table with each release.

 

[64bitmodels]

When he went to trash like minecraft and robolox a couple of years late

1. Its called roblox
2. Minecraft is not trash, its one of the best games you can give to a kid especially in creative mode. A good chunk of the kids who grew up with that game in the early 2010s are stem kids now

 

[Gudji]

In the future all first-party games will have a PC version, even Nintendo games.

 

[[Sigma]]

Phil Spencer may be the GOAT goalpost/meter mover in terms of ceos. Man almost systematically destroyed Xbox all while convincing folks he's the savior lol. Dude failed upward. I'm almost in amazement.

 

[Nydius]

Phil isn't totally wrong about the ballooning budgets but that's hardly anything exclusive to the Xbox brand. Despite insane budgets, Sony and Nintendo are able to put out quality first party offerings that sell more in a few months (sometimes in a week, in the case of Nintendo) than Microsoft's exclusives sell over an entire generation.

Phil is talking bullshit to get the Xbox shills to parrot the new "exclusives are bad for the business and Xbox is leading the way for gamers everywhere" talking points. They've been pushing this narrative since the first set of multiplatform rumors despite the fact the only company struggling with with consistent exclusivity releases and sales is Xbox. Glorified port begging by the head of one of the big three players. Utterly embarrassing.

 

[Edmund]

Phil Spencer is the guy who enables God mode in a game yet somehow manages to die.

 

[Elios83]

I love how Xbox shills and some Western outlets say that the console business model is fading away. No that’s just Xbox.

It's a coping strategy. Since it has become undeniable they're sinking as a console brand, everything must be sinking.
In the meantime they're not realizing that with this interview Phil is giving the rationale of them going more and more multiplatform.

 

[Elbereth]

“Phil Spencer said…”

 

[FrankWza]

Whatcha talkin bout Phil s

 

[ozz ex machina]

Phil Spencer may be the GOAT goalpost/meter mover in terms of ceos. Man almost systematically destroyed Xbox all while convincing folks he's the savior lol. Dude failed upward. I'm almost in amazement.

You have to be so fucking stupid to honestly believe this. He's not done an amazing job but he had such a hard job to come to after the xbox one fiasco. I think he's done pretty well.

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

"Polygon spoke with..."

 

[[Sigma]]

You have to be so fucking stupid to honestly believe this. He's not done an amazing job but he had such a hard job to come to after the xbox one fiasco. I think he's done pretty well.

Then I'm pretty fucking stupid because I certainly not seeing it and i'm long past Mattrick. That's such a crutch at this point.

 

[DForce]

It's an industry problem, not just Xbox. Why is Sony closing studios and laying off people as well? Why are PS Only exclusives now also available on PC? If you told me a few years ago that God of War, The Last of Us, Horizon, etc, were coming to PC, I would've laughed in your face, but times are changing.

Microsoft doesn't have the same problem as Sony and Nintendo.

Sony
PS3: 86-87 million
PS4: 117 million
PS5: 50 million

Nintendo
Wii: 101 million
WiiU: 13 million

Microsoft
360: 84-87 million
XB1: Around 50 million
XBS: Around 23 million

- Microsoft consoles have declined every single generation.
- Sony saw massive growth after the PlayStation 4 generation and was still working on putting their games on the PC platform.
- Nintendo has their best-selling console the Nintendo Switch.

This generation will likely end up as the best-selling console generation ever.

Microsoft is the only one out of the 3 that's desperate for growth and they're the only one seeing massive declines in hardware sales for more than 10 years now.

 

[FrankWza]

He's not done an amazing job but he had such a hard job to come to after the xbox one fiasco. I think he's done pretty well.

Hes only saying this because he couldn't get exclusivity for CoD. He used his big advantage over Playstation and Nintendo and still failed. That put the brakes on acquisitions and his shot at taking customers away from their competitors. Now the pivot. If they had not been planning to keep acquiring and take games away from PlayStation they would never have made Bethesda games console exclusive

 

[Withnail]

Oh cool a Phil Spencer thread. Let’s see what Microsoft’s strategy is this week.

 

[FunkMiller]

You have to be so fucking stupid to honestly believe this. He's not done an amazing job but he had such a hard job to come to after the xbox one fiasco. I think he's done pretty well.

He's been in charge for eight years.

Any blame that Xbox fans used to lay at the doors of Mattrick and co has long since ceased to be a factor.

 

[PatientGamer]

For those worried about Playstation...

GTA VI is basically a PS5 exclusive at this point and Playstation is going to have massive 2025.

With how mainstream Microsoft's new approach is, paired with the fact most peoples main motivation is buying what their friends have....PS5 sales are about to fucking explode.

I don't think people realize how many people are about to buy a new console, just for that fucking game.

This. /thread seriously.

GTAVI will be the BIGGEST entertainment product of all time. It'll sell considerably more than GTAV did in about half the time.

The sheer amount of consoles that will sell... PS5 + PS5 Pro; 2025 will be the biggest revenue year for gaming and PlayStation by a landslide.

 

[Nydius]

He's been in charge for eight years.

Any blame that Xbox fans used to lay at the doors of Mattrick and co has long since ceased to be a factor.

100% on point. Xbox fans still blame all of Xbox's problems on Mattrick (sometimes I even see them come after Peter Moore) and act like Phil is a deity that is above reproach. The guy has been in charge of the brand for almost two full generations and Xbox is in an arguably worse place than it was after the Xbox One reveal fiasco.

Spencer has run the brand into the ground but fans give him a pass because "pHiL's A gAmEr!" or because he is charismatic when he needs to be.

 

[Negotiator101]

What he's saying will be the popular mantra here in 5 years when some panicking Sony exec parrots the same thing.

He already did, Sony is not happy with PS profits and that's a fact, and it's gonna get worse.

 

[LordCBH]

You have to be so fucking stupid to honestly believe this. He's not done an amazing job but he had such a hard job to come to after the xbox one fiasco. I think he's done pretty well.

He was part of that fiasco lol.

And he certainly hasn’t done pretty well.

 

[MisterXDTV]

He's been in charge for eight years.

Any blame that Xbox fans used to lay at the doors of Mattrick and co has long since ceased to be a factor.

8 years?

Make it exactly 10 years...

April 2014 - March 2024

 

[Unknown?]

I remember when Phil took over after Mattrick. I pointed out how he supported the original Xbox One mission. That should have been enough to not promote him, totally clueless.

 

[MisterXDTV]

I remember when Phil took over after Mattrick. I pointed out how he supported the original Xbox One mission. That should have been enough to not promote him, totally clueless.

Spencer was the corporate vice-president of Microsoft Studios under Mattrick (2009-2014)

People just thought he came out of nowhere...

LOL

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

This guy really needs to shut the fuck up

 

[UltimaKilo]

While I agree with this, you also cannot ignore acquisitions they have made. They can do whatever they want.

With that said, am not sure whats the end game for Xbox is. Does it want to stay in console business or give it up to Sony, just like Sony gave up portable space to Nintendo.

Peter Moore recently painted a pretty grim picture for launching and marketing consoles.


Its a transition phase. Where it will end up no one knows.

Microsoft's endgame is to make money and grow their ecosystem in order to keep Apple at bay. Sony is not a risk to Microsoft, Apple is slowly creeping into video game space because he is correct, Gen Z and younger have very little interest in dedicated console. Hell, I'm a millennial and my interest has faded.

That still doesn't mean that Phil Spencer is good at his job. By all measurements, he is not.

 

[solidus12]

The bottom line is these companies spend millions a year on market demographics that are showing them that console gaming is flatlining among Gen Z and beyond.

Is this another Helldivers 2 has mixed reviews on steam take of yours ?

 

[solidus12]

Xbox isn’t trying.

In this interview itself, Phil has said they want to grow with industry, not at expense of others.

They tried to buy the whole industry just to prevent PlayStation from getting their 30% bonuses.

Now that it’s not working out like they intended they’re changing their tune…

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Again, He talks more about where and how you play rather than what you play. Him and his cronies have made the brand so fucking boring.

The media never question this fella

 

[Bert Big Balls]

I'm not going to lie, my kids dont play xbox or switch, they would rather jam out on their tablets, playing roblox or some other garbage ass game..

Ah that settles it then lad.

 

[JackMcGunns]

Microsoft doesn't have the same problem as Sony and Nintendo.

Sony
PS3: 86-87 million
PS4: 117 million
PS5: 50 million

Nintendo
Wii: 101 million
WiiU: 13 million

Microsoft
360: 84-87 million
XB1: Around 50 million
XBS: Around 23 million

- Microsoft consoles have declined every single generation.
- Sony saw massive growth after the PlayStation 4 generation and was still working on putting their games on the PC platform.
- Nintendo has their best-selling console the Nintendo Switch.

This generation will likely end up as the best-selling console generation ever.

Microsoft is the only one out of the 3 that's desperate for growth and they're the only one seeing massive declines in hardware sales for more than 10 years now.

You conveniently left the OG Xbox out. I wonder why? Oh don't answer that, I know why, because the OG Xbox sold just around 24 million units for the entire generation, so it wouldn't fit your weak rhetoric.

You conveniently left out the fact that 360 absolutely demolished the OG Xbox sales and even bested the PS3 in the United States and after the dust settled, they were both neck and neck worldwide thanks to the 360's dominance in the US and the UK.

So what happened? We can all thank Don Mattrick for coming in with Xbox One and throwing that all in the garbage. DRM online only Xbox was the biggest fear in gamers, much more so in a world when digital and online checks weren't even a thing yet. Xbox One was basically a downward disaster that nearly caused the demise of Xbox. That downward momentum is basically why MS is just picking up the pieces with XBS. So it hasn't been ALL DECLINE for Xbox... LIES! Xbox started of with a pretty nice 2nd place outselling the GameCube slightly, not bad for a newcomer, then absolutely smacking it out the park with Xbox 360 only to mess it up with Xbox One and now XS is still feeling the effects, but as history has taught us, it can take more than a generation to bounce back.

Getting back to my original point though, it wasn't about comparing how well Xbox is doing vs Nintendo or PlayStation, but simply saying that EVERYONE is feeling the burn, or are you going to tell me that Sony just layed off 900 workers and closed studios because they are pure evil?

 

[DragonNCM]

The idea of constant growth is such bullshit. There is a limit of individuals on the planet, hence a limited number of customers, current and potential. Even if they were the market leaders, they would eventually hit the max amount of units/services they can sell. So no, there cannot be "constant growth", be it Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft. This is by far the most stupid fallacy of capitalism.

Totally right !!!
If you want to grow in games there is a limit but as Microsoft you can invest in other segments of business.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

The idea of constant growth is such bullshit. There is a limit of individuals on the planet, hence a limited number of customers, current and potential. Even if they were the market leaders, they would eventually hit the max amount of units/services they can sell. So no, there cannot be "constant growth", be it Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft. This is by far the most stupid fallacy of capitalism.

Look at app economy. It it an industry generating value of billions of dollars that came into being overnight. There was no transfer of money from one place to the other - new value was created.

 

[Nydius]

You conveniently left out the fact that 360 absolutely demolished the OG Xbox sales and even bested the PS3 in the United States and after the dust settled, they were both neck and neck worldwide thanks to the 360's dominance in the US and the UK.

Revisionist history. The 360 was not "neck and neck worldwide" at the end of the generation. The PS3 had pulled ahead and solidly put the X360 in third place. The first half of the X360 generation they were pushing new IPs and getting amazing exclusives, benefitting from Sony shooting themselves in the foot with the PS3 launch. The back half of the X360, they were already becoming rudderless, chasing trends with Kinect, and saturating their profitable IPs with mediocre spin-offs (Gears of War: Judgement, anyone?).

The Xbox was already in its downward trajectory before the botched Xbox One reveal. That only helped accelerate it. Even if the original XBO reveal hadn't been a nightmare, they were still lacking the thing that drives console sales: Software. With exception to cross-gen Forza Motorsport 5, their flagship IPs were nowhere to be found at launch. Their biggest new third party exclusive, Titanfall, didn't show up for six months after launch. Third party exclusive Sunset Overdrive didn't come for almost a year. The first (only) mainline Halo game didn't come out until two years after console launch and the first mainline Gears game didn't come out for three years after launch.

Even in a world where they didn't get pilloried for their focus on TV and DRM, the XBO would have floundered due to lack of power and lack of software.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

You conveniently left the OG Xbox out. I wonder why? Oh don't answer that, I know why, because the OG Xbox sold just around 24 million units for the entire generation, so it wouldn't fit your weak rhetoric.

If you live in the US, maybe. As a Eastern European that was OG Xbox owner from 2003 to 2005 it was a local's gaming community sightseeing spot, Xbox were so rare outside a very few selected 1st world countries.

So it's only natural to start the count with the first truly global product for MS. And 360 was global. Due to ease of piracy it was Eastern Europe console of choice up until 2009. And 360 gamepad cemented itself as a competent PC Gaming option too.

From there it went only downhill.