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Phil Spencer admits defeat in console space, and doesn't think great games would help Xbox's market share.

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
I'll tell you one thing. This is some serious honesty from Phil.

Guys like stressed as fook, showing his bad week frustration for the world to see. You just don't see this kind of shit from an exec....crazy to see tbh...I respect the honesty and candour but wow. You can say businesses shouldn't do this, but in business there is no rules...if things work they work....this may have set MS up for a banger of a showcase next month...we will see.

He needs a long holiday after and to potentially step down at the end of this business year. I think it could be on the cards.
 
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Three

Member
But it's a double-edged sword, as the criticism is that Xbox makes fake promises and doesn't deliver games.
  • They show too much to regain the momentum, and that criticism will return. "See? more promises and trailers for games not releasing anytime soon."
  • They show too little to instill confidence and focus on games that are only releasing in 12-18 months. "See? Where are the games, Phil? Where is Perfect Dark? Where is State of Decay 3? Etc."
Xbox has buried itself in a hole with its strategies.
They tried the latter at their June 2022 showcase. The limited games they showed in their 2022 showcase they touted as "releasing in the next 12 months". They absolutely didn’t deliver there. They didn’t release on time or were bad like Redfall. The big xbox game like Starfield got moved out of that 12 month. Forza Motorsport might still make it but even that is looking like it didn't make the 12 month window. I can understand why people are fed up of the bullshit. It wouldn't affect MS all that much financially though.
 
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They tried the latter at their June 2022 showcase. The limited games they showed in their 2022 showcase they touted as "releasing in the next 12 months". They absolutely didn’t deliver there. They didn’t release on time or were bad like Redfall. The big xbox game like Starfield got moved out of that 12 month. Forza Motorsport might still make it but even that is looking like it didn't make the 12 month window. I can understand why people are fed up of the bullshit. It wouldn't affect MS all that much financially though.
People always bring MS's money to excuse /dismiss Xbox's missteps.
 

Three

Member
People always bring MS's money to excuse /dismiss Xbox's missteps.
Sorry for the misunderstanding if you're referring to me. I'm not excusing them with the last line. It absolutely is a misstep to delay games by a year, then promise them in the next 12 months and still not deliver. I'm just saying realistically this wouldn't have much of an effect on MS' revenue driver and CEO bonuses which is gamepass subs. People obviously still waited and remained subbed for that 12month period to check out redfall and they will do the same until the next game or set of promises/showcase.
 

quest

Not Banned from OT
That's why they bought publishers and removed games that were always going to release on xbox from PlayStations
When would those games release 1 2 or 3 years after the playstation version? If sony wants to moneyhat everything from a publisher Microsoft has every right to buy the publisher. I have zero sympathy with zenimax. Poke the bear and you end up being mauled.
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
When would those games release 1 2 or 3 years after the playstation version? If sony wants to moneyhat everything from a publisher Microsoft has every right to buy the publisher. I have zero sympathy with zenimax. Poke the bear and you end up being mauled.

Zenimax has become a nothing burger. No wonder they were so open to exclusivity deals and to downright being bought. Investors were done with it, just a bunch of mid games one after the other, next is Starfield.
 

quest

Not Banned from OT
It's not the same though. Microsoft can make the same deals as Sony does. They choose not to though even though they can.
They can't what major publisher is making a deal to exclude 70-80% of market share? Hurting any franchise with a deal with Microsoft.
 

GHG

Gold Member
Poke the bear and you end up being mauled.

The bear:

BRjnZpqCAAItX16
 

chonga

Member
They can't what major publisher is making a deal to exclude 70-80% of market share? Hurting any franchise with a deal with Microsoft.
All that does is dictate the price.

And it hasn't stopped them trying in the past. Tomb Raider, Ass Creed, FIFA. It isn't a vacant list.

They've tried. But failed. Like with most things.
 

sn0man

Member
Figured this should probably have its own thread, given the implications of what Spencer is saying.

Timestamped video from Kinda Funny Xcast:




Here, Spencer basically says there's no way the Xbox can compete with Sony and Nintendo, and then goes on to say that making great games wouldn't help Xbox compete.

I find this attitude utterly baffling, and I think we're now at the point where this dude needs to step away.

Whole quote here, provided by Heisenberg007 Heisenberg007 :

In the summary they mention that Xbox One was the generation they had to win and they lost. He says it was the digital generation when gamers were building their libraries.

Ironic because Xbox one was the first and still is the first forced online console. Nobody asked for forced online. Plenty of folks love online and online features. Nobody likes being forced to do something they previously didn’t have to. The benefits of digital sell themself and Microsoft never fully reversed the draconian policies.

The result. Now all consoles are primarily online with digital game sales.
No games + gamepass.
They caved their own grave.

And that's why PS5 should not ever go full PC. If people have reasons to buy a console, they will buy a console.
100% PS5 is following MS down the same path. I’ve got a PS5 and I find it less and less valuable too as it’s primarily an expensive secondary portal to the same content.
The fact that Phil Spencer truly believes great games wont move the needle for XBOX is tragic.

I've often wondered if XBOX's understood that the most crucial components of console gaming are Mindshare and Momentum. For the longest time I thought they didn't. It wasn't until the attempted activision takeover that I realized they did. The problem is that they don't have faith in building it. They want to purchase it outright, like some off the shelf component.

Unfortunately for Microsoft it isn't for sale. The only way to obtain Mindshare and Momentum is via the creation of great ip.
100% Phil believed it…
I think you need to ask why Microsoft would do this?

I'm assuming this was approved and he didn't just go rogue in the interview.
I think the reason is in fact that their attempts to buy Activision aren’t going well. I’m under the impression that it was blocked in Europe. Now Phil is saying they lost the console war… coincidence? Nah, they’re trying to build the case that Xbox is dead and need Activision when in reality Microsoft is financially quite strong and should just build games to compete.
 

quest

Not Banned from OT
All that does is dictate the price.

And it hasn't stopped them trying in the past. Tomb Raider, Ass Creed, FIFA. It isn't a vacant list.

They've tried. But failed. Like with most things.
Only 1 of those was a moneyhat and it hurt the tombraider franchise. No large studio is ever doing that again after tombraider. It is a vacant list since tomb raider almost a decade ago from major publishers and studios.
 

FrankWza

Member
When would those games release 1 2 or 3 years after the playstation version? If sony wants to moneyhat everything from a publisher Microsoft has every right to buy the publisher. I have zero sympathy with zenimax. Poke the bear and you end up being mauled.
If you poke a bear it doesn't hang around for 20 years and let you keep on prodding it. And I was responding to this comment:
You and others seemingly not grasping that Xbox’s goal is not to “beat” PlayStation. It couldn’t have been made more clear, but some are still stuck in this old-school Console War Fanboyism mindset, and it’s very, very 🙄
So yeah, they are trying to beat PS
 

GermanZepp

Member
But good main VO adds so much depth to the game - even if it is an RPG.

Geralt from The Witcher 3, Shepherd in Mass Effect, and (to a smaller extent) Arthur Morgan in RDR 2. Those games were elevated because of high-quality voice acting.
To a smaller extent?? Arthur Morgan voice acting is the best acting in a game, ever. Period. Rockstar can't be touched in that regard.
 

Kusarigama

Member
Couldn't it be a charade to get FTC and CMA appeal approval like how weak and feeble Brad Smith(ms executive) showed Xbox in his presentation.

It's no hidden fact that Xbox executives are two faced grade A ****. They had the audacity to release such a broken buggy game. Not leaving PlayStation behind where PC ports do get neglected, but atleast the console versions are solid.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Couldn't it be a charade to get FTC and CMA appeal approval like how weak and feeble Brad Smith(ms executive) showed Xbox in his presentation.

It's no hidden fact that Xbox executives are two faced grade A ****. They had the audacity to release such a broken buggy game. Not leaving PlayStation behind where PC ports do get neglected, but atleast the console versions are solid.
No.

Because the CMA has already rejected the Console SLC, so whatever dominance Sony has or doesn't have in the console market does not affect the decision.

The deal was rejected because of Cloud gaming. Microsoft saying that -- instead of focusing only on console like Sony -- they are putting their eggs in the Cloud basket will only have a negative effect on the acquisition, if anything.
 
Couldn't it be a charade to get FTC and CMA appeal approval like how weak and feeble Brad Smith(ms executive) showed Xbox in his presentation.

It's no hidden fact that Xbox executives are two faced grade A ****. They had the audacity to release such a broken buggy game. Not leaving PlayStation behind where PC ports do get neglected, but atleast the console versions are solid.

I don't believe the CMA will reward executives who make poor business decisions.
 

Fredrik

Member
I don't want to shit on the game in this thread, but Starfield is cutting so many corners it does not seem to be at the level of Days Gone to me, very honestly. Let alone God of War, TLOU, RDR 2, etc.

Janky combat, poor visuals and animation, bugs, low-quality textures, low-quality facial models, no manual flight control when entering or exiting planets, no mo-cap, no voice acting: it just all feels not very AAA.
It’s a Bethesda RPG. Have you played any of them? Skyrim is super janky too but is still no doubt a high ”level” game which even recently released games can be beaten by if you look at steamcharts.

Now we essentially get Skyrim in space. Different combat but assumably as deep as an RPG with player choices and factions and quests etc. 1000 planets. You can build your own planet bases. Build your own spaceship. Interact with any object you can pick up. Explore, craft, trade, attack, loot, defend, pirate, etc.

Don’t be a Debbie Downer on this game, it’ll be great.

And there is absolutely voice-acting, more lines than in any other Bethesda RPG, 250,000+ lines, Skyrim had 60,000.

As for the manual landings. Have you played No Man’s Sky? I’m at 500+ hours. The first thing I do at a new interesting planet is building a teleporter, because flying manually gets tedious fast. So I’m thinking they did the right thing there.
I’m just hoping there is a manual marker so you can like rotate the planet and choose multiple landing places on different sides of the planets.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Am I the only one that sees Valve making a SteamBox home console type thing running Linux that would pretty much show the world and MS exactly what the Xbox should always have been?

Peope talk about sony monopoly, but VAve is the company I think stands to pose the biggest threat to the current status quo.
Didn't they already try that and fail spectacularly? The Steam Deck is the evolution of that idea, and is working out much better.
 
Microsoft had a good strategy out of the gate this gen, so I can understand some of his frustration.

THAT SAID, M$ also lost Xbox One generation also because the console had no exclusive first party system sellers in abundance. And that's the main issue with the Xbox Series lineup now too.

I prefer the controller, I prefer the UI and I would buy one, but I can't justify it without exclusive games that pull me towards it. I also don't think they're doing all they can with the online system - I mean, at this point they could offer online functionality/multiplayer to people without gamepass, this would make it a broader good deal for people who want to play specific games online, but only pay for the game and not pay for a service. Most people are paying for gamepass instead of buying games, for gods sake.

This could pressure Nintendo and Sony a bit and I don't think would cost them much money. There's plenty guerrilla tactics that could make Xbox "cool" again, but that's not an oreo themed console but things that set it apart.
 
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People like Ryan McCsffrey etc out in force saying more or less the same things about him being a nice guy and hard core gamer and so on. It feels strategic to me, like trying to shame people to not even glance in a critical way.

He may be a nice guy , cool, I get that, people don’t buy these consoles to be expected to be part of a groupie fest about executives. It’s getting ridiculous honestly . What does him being nice have to do with the end product people have paid money for?

I don’t like what they are trying to pull with this, Jez Corden is another one who tries to push narratives in a disingenuous way.

Fans should not be subservient.
 
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Nintendo basically had the same conclusion. Great games weren't enough on GC. They have to push into an adjacent market. For Nintendo it was blue ocean and new input devices. For MS it is cloud. Pretty similar honestly.
Great games would have been enough. But, not JUST great first-party games. You need both.

If all the third-parties had put their stuff on PS2 and GameCube, and the only difference was Nintendo and Sony first-party games, it would have been a much closer generation.

But, Nintendo had burnt a lot of bridges with former close partners when going from SNES to N64 and those bridges were still down.
 

kingwingin

Member
Just that comment about if starfield was an 11/10 people wouldn’t trade in their ps5’s was insane. Why not release good games so I will want to own both a ps5 and Xbox. Why do I have to trade it in?

He is out of touch and that interview was rough. I don’t think he will be at Xbox much longer
 
Just that comment about if starfield was an 11/10 people wouldn’t trade in their ps5’s was insane. Why not release good games so I will want to own both a ps5 and Xbox. Why do I have to trade it in?

He is out of touch and that interview was rough. I don’t think he will be at Xbox much longer

It could just be console warring mentality. Then again the head of Xbix shouldn't have that. It really sounds like something Timdog would say.
 

JackMcGunns

Member
PS5 Pro it is.

Im in the business of buying consoles that give me great games. Nuff said.


He’s saying he can give you a Starfield with a Meta of 11 out of 10 and you’ll still go out and buy a PS5 pro instead of Xbox. Be honest to yourself and everyone else.
 
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Yeah, really bad interview by Phil. He shouldn't have let his pessimism show.

The reason he's so well liked by people is because he's down to earth and willing to "admit" his mistakes. "A CEO that goes on small podcasts and hangs out with regular gamers? Cool"

That's NOT a good reason for gamers to want him in charge though! I don't understand gamers mentality of always wanting to defend devs, companies, and CEO's when they continually spit in our faces and if you guys don't think that's what happened with Phil (not just Phil byt he's a big part) and Redfall I don't know what else to tell you.

We should only care about what these people are doing for the platform and games we're freakin paying for! In one week we had two of the most shameful $70 games release. There's no other way to describe Redfall other than total disrespect towards Xbox fans.
 
They tried the latter at their June 2022 showcase. The limited games they showed in their 2022 showcase they touted as "releasing in the next 12 months". They absolutely didn’t deliver there. They didn’t release on time or were bad like Redfall. The big xbox game like Starfield got moved out of that 12 month. Forza Motorsport might still make it but even that is looking like it didn't make the 12 month window. I can understand why people are fed up of the bullshit. It wouldn't affect MS all that much ]⅞financially though.

Didn't they also say Forza Motorsport was Q1 '23?? THEY DID!
 
It could just be console warring mentality. Then again the head of Xbix shouldn't have that. It really sounds like something Timdog would say.

Here is the big standout to all of this. In his IGN interview earlier this year he acknowledged “community fatigue “ in the Xbox fan base. This was shortly after some unhappy fans speaking out on their lack of presence at the VGAs and the Showcase.

He has in the past constantly talked about learning, about hearing the feedback from the fans and there have been a few apologies thrown in the mix too.

Now ask yourself, if they were doing so great, hitting it out of the park as it were, would he be constantly háve to come out to say these things? It’s all there.

I knew after the reaction to this weeks interview that the usual people would launch some counter defensive tactic in the media and they have. Ryan McCaffrey going as far to say the heads of Nintendo and PlayStation are not gamers. Well so what?

There’s a chance that they don’t speak much because their products are speaking for themselves, they don’t have to come out and talk like Phil has over the years.

Watch this guys video to see what I’m getting at in terms of the media defence this week. People don’t buy systems for the executives. It’s ridiculous that even has to be said.

 

b0uncyfr0

Member
He’s saying he can give you a Starfield with a Meta of 11 out of 10 and you’ll still go out and buy a PS5 pro instead of Xbox. Be honest to yourself and everyone else.
Of course i would. Starfield is only one game. One good game on xbox is not equivalent to the multitude of good games on PS. Even if they cost more on PS.

And to take that defeatist mindset and perhaps use it as an excuse/reason to not produce better games on XB - is a huge red flag.
 
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Hoppa

Member
I want Xbox to succeed because if anything they've pushed PS to implement things that benefit PS users - cross game chat and trophies weren't a thing and they had to be brought up to standard. PS Plus (whether you like it or don't) wouldn't exist if it weren't for Gamepass. Xbox doesn't really seem to excel at anything at the moment so hoping whatever games eventually come out for Xbox are big hits.
 
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