Support NeoGAF

[ShaiKhulud1989]

Yep, old pic but still works. Pretty sure this has been created in early 2000s, lol.

Most of XKCDs doodles aged surprisingly well. Sadly.

 

[BlackTron]

At one point, she stuck a Post-It note to her computer with some advice about interacting with him. “I’m not being paid to do what he says,” it read. “I’m being paid to do what he meant.”

This is like a microcosm of the answer to the question "what happened to Xbox"

 

[MarkMe2525]

That's a quote from what she said at the business event. I'm talking about how the author frames the context more than anything.

Like this

That's the articles author editorializing

 

[XXL]

So that's more of the interviewer's commentary, nothing Sarah said leads to anything like that.

Agreed. But this is a puff piece.

I'm not saying anything major has happened here, I'm just saying the framing suggested that.

 

[twilo99]

If she is really the one in charge that’s
great news for the competition

 

[XXL]

That's the articles author editorializing

I agree. Check my reply to Adam below you.

 

[Daniel_Mallorca1985]

 

[Freelance Yakuza]

It's official then

 

[dmaul1114]

Can't see myself buying another Xbox console or a handheld, given I'm leaning strongly toward dropping consoles and moving to PC gaming.

Hope GamePass survives though. I love subscription services as I don't care about owning my games, movies etc. as I rarely revisit things and have never enjoyed collecting things. Subscrption services are way cheaper for someone like me who just plays games once. Though I realize it's maybe not sustainable money wise in the AAA space with how much games cost to make these days. So I'm fine buying those--just way more selective in what I buy given there's always things I'm wanting to get to on GamePass, PS+ extra, freebies I've claimed on PC (can only play non-intensive games on my 2016 gaming PC these days though) etc.

 

[Guardian Monkey]

Can you quote the parts that suggested that? It's pretty clear their time in the hardware space is nearing the end, but the messaging this year has been so confusing it's impossible to tell what the fuck is going on.

Phil Spencer has gone completely silent on X. All he does is retweet things now. No more "had a meeting with xyz today. very excited about the future." to drum up excitement for the brand. He's totally checked out.

This is less than 24 hours old.

 

[DeepEnigma]

$80b in the hole and conditioned less-spend to the consumer will do that to ya.

 

[Kacho]

This is less than 24 hours old.

I hope it's something interesting and not an announcement of late Final Fantasy ports. While I like seeing Xbox get more games, since so many miss the platform, the constant third party catchup they're doing for their platform is sad.

But Phil's recent Twitter activity is still interesting. He has far less presence on the platform and that, IMO, looks bad for their future. Even Aaron Greenberg is falling back on retweets more than actual tweets, and his tweets have comments turned off. Why? These dudes seem down bad.

 

[MayauMiao]

Puff pieces come out for a reason. We'll find out soon enough I guess.

All I see is a puff piece to make her a target for more firings while Lord Savior Phil Spencer will remain unscathed.

 

[Nydius]

Me looking for any new information in that “article”:

As others have rightly pointed out, this is nothing more than a PR puff piece to make Sarah Bond look better. It doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know, doesn’t give us any further insight into Xbox’s future plans, and simply repeats the same vague language they’ve been using all year.

I’d like my few minutes I wasted reading the article back but, alas…

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

Me looking for any new information in that “article”:

As others have rightly pointed out, this is nothing more than a PR puff piece to make Sarah Bond look better. It doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know, doesn’t give us any further insight into Xbox’s future plans, and simply repeats the same vague language they’ve been using all year.

I’d like my few minutes I wasted reading the article back but, alas…

There are few interesting nuggets about portable still being hanging in the air and Sarah not really vibing with Phil though.

 

[splattered]

So who killed Xbox... Phil or Sarah?

 

[bitbydeath]

Me looking for any new information in that “article”:

As others have rightly pointed out, this is nothing more than a PR puff piece to make Sarah Bond look better. It doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know, doesn’t give us any further insight into Xbox’s future plans, and simply repeats the same vague language they’ve been using all year.

I’d like my few minutes I wasted reading the article back but, alas…

Sarah got the activision deal over the line;
Sarah got promoted two weeks after celebration to make Xbox more diverse AKA 3rd party;
Sarah struggles to understand Phil.

Those were all new to me.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

So who killed Xbox... Phil or Sarah?

Stupidity

 

[Kacho]

So who killed Xbox... Phil or Sarah?

It never falls on a single person in a company as large as Microsoft.

 

[Timberwolf25]

I mean, Microsoft has a stellar record when it comes to handhelds. Who could forget Windows Phone?

...or rather, remember it. But hey, there's also the portable music player market. What other company would have called transferring songs wirelessly between Zunes "squirting"? Not that many. But Microsoft's got this.

The problem with those examples are that both of those portables were actually pretty good hardware wise.

Windows phone couldn't make a dent because it couldn't get devs to make windows phone version of the apps, but the UI was something I thought was better than either android or IOS had at the time.
The Zune was a superior portable media player to the Ipod. MS couldn't do shit against the monoply that Apple had on the music business as they were locked up via exclusives. But the music quality and desktop app were way better functionally than Apple. At the time, I used it as my PC media player because it so good even though I owned an Ipod.

I agree they don't have a good track record with handhelds though.

 

[Little Chicken]

Our Mother,
Who art in Washington,
Sarah be Thy name;
Thy Game Pass come;
Thy Market won on PC as it is on console.
Give us this day a handheld Xbox;
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive Freegunners who trespass against us;
and lead us not into PlayStation, but deliver us from Sony.

Hail Sarah, full of Games.

 

[Kacho]

The problem with those examples are that both of those portables were actually pretty good hardware wise.

Windows phone couldn't make a dent because it couldn't get devs to make windows phone version of the apps, but the UI was something I thought was better than either android or IOS had at the time.
The Zune was a superior portable media player to the Ipod. MS couldn't do shit against the monoply that Apple had on the music business as they were locked up via exclusives. But the music quality and desktop app were way better functionally than Apple. At the time, I used it as my PC media player because it so good even though I owned an Ipod.

I agree they don't have a good track record with handhelds though.

Still have my Zune. Amazing hardware. Love it.

 

[paolo11]

If they make Xbox Handheld that can play offline games like the Switch and all digital Xbox 1- Series X are playable without any issues /stable framerate , sure I’ll take it.

 

[nowhat]

Windows phone couldn't make a dent because it couldn't get devs to make windows phone version of the apps, but the UI was something I thought was better than either android or IOS had at the time.

You know why that was (that there was no developer support)? It was because Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, tied the OS to a particular SOC. So you had "partners" like Samsung producing Windows Phones - you want the next version of the OS, well fuck you, because you need the next chipset. It was the most braindead decision I've ever seen in corporate management. It's like they wanted the platform to fail.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Our Mother,
Who art in Washington,
Sarah be Thy name;
Thy Game Pass come;
Thy Market won on PC as it is on console.
Give us this day a handheld Xbox;
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive Freegunners who trespass against us;
and lead us not into PlayStation, but deliver us from Sony.

Hail Sarah, full of Games.

 

[Little Chicken]

 

[cireza]

I read the summary in OP but couldn't find any piece of new information.

 

[Fess]

So Sarah Bond killed Xbox.

Sarah hasn’t made things better yet that’s for sure. But all the higher ups are to blame. And having nothing new and exciting in 2 years is going to be a mountain to climb when PS5 Pro and Switch 2 are out.

 

[bitbydeath]

Puff pieces come out for a reason. We'll find out soon enough I guess.

Agreed. People often don’t look back on these but their TGS conference will probably explain the reasoning for this article’s release.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

I read the summary in OP but couldn't find any piece of new information.

- Sarah and Phil are not friends and clash a lot
- GP running costs are around 1bil a year
- Mobile is not so hot and ABK King deal is suffering because of it
- Xbox is not meeting internal metrics and expectations
- 3rd party releases was mainly Bond's idea along with huge concessions to navigate the ABK deal
- Portable is flying around, but at the moment it's on a stage of an early idea, than some cocnrete product
- Bond T-mobile background really helped during ABK deal phase because she used to work with erratic CEOs

Feel free to steal this, OP

 

[cireza]

- Sarah and Phil are not friends and clash a lot
- GP running costs are around 1bil a year
- Mobile is not so hot and ABK King deal is suffering because of it
- Xbox is not meeting internal metrics and expectations
- 3rd party releases was mainly Bond's idea along with huge concessions to navigate the ABK deal
- Portable is flying around, but at the moment it's on a stage of an early idea, than some cocnrete product
- Bond T-mobile background really helped during ABK deal phase because she used to work with erratic CEOs

Feel free to steal this, OP

We already most of this, or it is irrelevant, is what I meant. But thanks for the effort.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

We already most of this, or it is irrelevant, is what I meant. But thanks for the effort.

Well it's from more or less verified source this time, I guess.

The whole piece reads like Phil's final hoorah and some straw for significant hardware repositioning.

 

[DeepEnigma]

- Sarah and Phil are not friends and clash a lot
- GP running costs are around 1bil a year
- Mobile is not so hot and ABK King deal is suffering because of it
- Xbox is not meeting internal metrics and expectations
- 3rd party releases was mainly Bond's idea along with huge concessions to navigate the ABK deal
- Portable is flying around, but at the moment it's on a stage of an early idea, than some cocnrete product
- Bond T-mobile background really helped during ABK deal phase because she used to work with erratic CEOs

Feel free to steal this, OP

Reads like Phil's power was basically demoted.

 

[Daneel Elijah]

Sarah got the activision deal over the line;
Sarah got promoted two weeks after celebration to make Xbox more diverse AKA 3rd party;
Sarah struggles to understand Phil.

Those were all new to me.

Shit.You got me to read the article. Last year it was Brad Smith that got the Activision deal accepted by the regulators. This year it is Sarah Bond. In 10 years one of her interns will reveal that they got the idea that magically got the CMA to back up?

Beyond the biography of Sarah Bond, and the fact that yes, she is a gamer that can give her dad advice on the phone about Super mario bros( ) I loved how each time they put her and Spencer in the same sentence she is praised and he is not. The guy got to sleep and she stay to work. The guy is white so he does not get heat from gamers as she do. And she recently got a great meeting about the future of Xbox and how much grow they can have. Honestly this is where they got to far for me. If there is one thing where Spencer can't be beat is on being positive.

At least they admited that she was not good in her interview with bloomberg a few months ago. Curious to see what they plan to do at TGS and how they will make the transition between her and Phil Spencer happen.

 

[Kacho]

3rd party releases was mainly Bond's idea along with huge concessions to navigate the ABK deal

 

[adamsapple]

Our Mother,
Who art in Washington,
Sarah be Thy name;
Thy Game Pass come;
Thy Market won on PC as it is on console.
Give us this day a handheld Xbox;
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive Freegunners who trespass against us;
and lead us not into PlayStation, but deliver us from Sony.

Hail Sarah, full of Games.

The holy father, mother and the prodigal child.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Just as bad a Phil.

I'm not paying attention to any of these chumps at xbox until someone actually comes out and says "we gone and fucked it up good and proper, this is the plan to fix things."

Either that or just outright call it and fuck off.

Well said sir

 

[Team Andromeda]

No interest in shitty handheld gaming but can't wait for a beast of a Xbox console and also have no issues with subscription based gaming.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

I just see Microsoft attempt at handheld will be another disaster in the making. Couldn't save their console, and did terrible job with Windows Phone.

It's beyond retarded.

They might be able to compete with Steamdeck, which sold like what? 3M units?
That's a complete joke, but something Xbox could manage to beat.

If they're going to compete with Nintendo? Well, all the best luck to em.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

All I see is a puff piece to make her a target for more firings while Lord Savior Phil Spencer will remain unscathed.

I think that's a dub in this case.

 

[clarky]

It's beyond retarded.

They might be able to compete with Steamdeck, which sold like what? 3M units?
That's a complete joke, but something Xbox could manage to beat.

If they're going to compete with Nintendo? Well, all the best luck to em.

It all comes down to games. Which Xbox are sorely lacking. Simples.

 

[Clear]

Here's the question you should ask yourself; What upcoming Xbox releases are going to start turning things around for them?

 

[Astray]

Agreed. People often don’t look back on these but their TGS conference will probably explain the reasoning for this article’s release.

Reads like Phil's power was basically demoted.

My gut feeling is this is a set-up for Sarah Bond to succeed Phil.

Which honestly speaking is probably better than Booty taking over.

 

[XXL]

Agreed. People often don’t look back on these but their TGS conference will probably explain the reasoning for this article’s release.

I agree 100%

The direction they went with this puff piece is more telling than anything she said directly.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Xbox’s President on Handheld Devices and Subscription Gaming

A relative outsider, Sarah Bond is leading a high-stakes transformation of a company that’s lagging behind Sony and Nintendo.

www.bloomberg.com

Ok, so now they are preparing the fanboys for a transition and we can see the Istituto Luce style propaganda machine whirring up… as they expect people to just lap it up.

In doing that they are giving us some true gems:

“Bond recalls Spencer and others at Microsoft telling her that her tendency to “push the envelope” and “not let something go” was new to them”

Do they realise that this makes them look like complete buffoons? …

 

[Killjoy-NL]

It all comes down to games. Which Xbox are sorely lacking. Simples.

Doesn't even matter anymore, since they're going 3rd party.

 

[clarky]

Doesn't even matter anymore, since they're going 3rd party.

It does matter if your games are shit.

 

[March Climber]

Time will tell if she was put in this position as a set up to be the fall guy on a sinking ship, or if she was put in position because she knows how to turn a ship around.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

It does matter if your games are shit.

Sure, but that's a different matter.

 

[BlackTron]

- Sarah and Phil are not friends and clash a lot

Reads like Phil's power was basically demoted.

irrelevant