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How well do you believe Phil Spencer has handled Xbox from 2017-Present?

How well has Phil Spencer handled Xbox?

  • He has been handling it well

    Votes: 303 58.4%
  • He has been handling it poorly

    Votes: 216 41.6%

  • Total voters
    519

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
Back in 2020 just before Xbox Series X launch I said in a thread that Xbox needs to look into moving on from Phil because he just can’t get the job done and everyone bashed my take but here we are almost 2 year in and it’s still the same thing, just look at how Halo infinite has turned out and the lack of games these Xbox series consoles have had.
I wouldn't like another CEO like Don who basically got the brands teeth kicked in after years of great momentum

People say he brought the games but its like the wii u where it had games but no one wanted to buy one
 

Eron

Banned
news-halo-infinite-craig-brute-avvistato-campagna-1637396494024.jpg


He has been handling it well​

 
I wouldn't like another CEO like Don who basically got the brands teeth kicked in after years of great momentum

People say he brought the games but its like the wii u where it had games but no one wanted to buy one
It’s funny how people like to downplay Don’s impact. He was the senior Vice President during the 360 era also. He did a horrible job with the Xbox one but he at least had a good console gen under his belt with the 360.

Phil hasn’t had that yet, sure the Xbox Series Is better than the Xbox one but that’s not really saying much because the Xbox one had a horrible gen and he still has a lot to prove. 2023 is a make or break year for him at Xbox IMO.
 
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the actual handing from a software perspective has been bad but the PR is simply masterful. this guy knows how to speak and i can see why he was placed as the head of xbox. good PR is a must for microsoft. phil spencer is almost woshipped by xbox fans and he pretty much has been even before gamepass took off. he gives off that good guy for the gamers vibe.
 
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Phil back in 2014 was about selling xbox one consoles and having AAA games to bring people in. I watched a video of him saying those exact words. How things have changed today. It’s all about gamepass, not much about the consoles and AAA games are far and few between for Xbox. A drastic change indeed.
 
Phil back in 2014 was about selling xbox one consoles and having AAA games to bring people in. I watched a video of him saying those exact words. How things have changed today. It’s all about gamepass, not much about the consoles and AAA games are far and few between for Xbox. A drastic change indeed.

Interesting bump, but to address your post, Phil said he was going to focus on FP in 2014 and 2015, which directly coincided with losing the COD marketing to Sony which apparently Phil didn't even pursue because he wanted to grow in house.

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/201...buying_lots_of_third-party_exclusives_for_ps4
"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."

What's interesting is that it's been 8 years, 9 if you include 2014, since then and we haven't seen yet any improvement in first party in terms of releases. although this year 2023, this may actually change from this year forward. But it depends on what's planned for this year, and what surprises there re to fill 2023 with games.

But it's clear he should have still went after third parties to some extent outside what he did even when he made that promise. He only picked a few odd choices that didn't work out outside of PubG and Shadow of the Tomb Raider (but it didn't bow up) and basically let some good potential deals fall on the way side. So as we were waiting for Phil to fulfill this promise since 2014, restated in 2015, until NOW 2023, we haven't had that many major releases from Xbox mostly because they had nothing to fill the gaps with outside indies and A-AA games on occasion.

There were supposed to be games ready for the Xbox One X, that didn't happen and we got some console launch timed exclusives which was a thing the announce did at every reveal when the One X was announced at the conference, and everyone was having a meltdown over "console launch exclusive" wondering if MS lost their minds. The Super Luckys Tale announcement was causing some hilarious meltdown on the YouTube and internet forums.

But it wasn't hilarious if you had an Xbox One.

Hopefully things will finally come to fruition in 2023, and then Phil can retire with dignity.
 
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Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
Very well. He's done everything right, and there sure as hell has been alot that has to bring fixed after Mattrick clowned around.

If you look past that old story about no exclusives, they are way beyond the industry standard.


Digital refunds(regarding consoles) , pushed on cross play, backward compatible, game pass, xbox play anywhere between pc and Xbox.

The usual suspects are gonna laugh at my post, but really, when it comes to pro consumer then there's really no one who can beat Microsoft.
Facts!

Xbox is an entirely different beast this gen. The IPs are coming slowly but, they are coming. Phil has done a legit turn around of the brand, even up against the market leader. Not to list all the things Xbox has done since he's been at the helm but, just think, they aren't even done yet. This year has been insane already. And it's just beginning.
 
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Hendrick's

If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
Phil is the GOAT. He had the vision to see that Xbox 1st party was good to be slow to turn around so he made some smart acquisitions to keep the games rolling in. And he gave us Game Pass, the best thing to happen to gaming since Xbox Live.
 
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Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
Yep, bang on for me. I'm liking or loving just about all their other moves and studios/games but Halo under 343 ain't it Chief.
Halo Infinite is amazing. Best MP on the market (IMHO) and the SP was really good. You can say the DLC content has been trickling since release but, what's there is aces. Season 3 is legit!
 
He was left a mess by don, the fact that he is maintaining the brand is already an accomplishment

The mess Phil himself helped cause and made worse once Don left, with the one thing he left for Phil, game studios, he got rid of after promising to focus on FP? With no restructuring, letting good studios go free, or converting studios away from games?

I mean all Phil had to do was have shift some staff around, give more money to the better smaller studios, restructure studios like 343 and a few others, and Xbo would have been fine. Instead, Phil basically destroyed the foundation of the 15 or whatever studios they had, dropped it to 4 at the bottom, than went on a buying spree with incompatible acquisitions that have taken forever to assimilate and to release anything stating in 2017.

It seems Phil kind of shot off his own foot there, at some point you have to stop blaming Don. Phil didn't even have games ready for the Xbox One revisions. He also led go of big third parties for his FP promise so nothing was filling in the gaps.

But we got Quantum Break and Crackdown 3 being the things Phil decided to keep from Don because... he...uh...
 

Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
Could you post the last new AAA ip/game created and released by XBOX gs?
Hi Fi Rush is exquisite! This year is jam packed with games. But you knew this already.

And 2021 saw a plethora of XGS games that were well received. You gotta be trolling ..
 
I think he's done pretty well. Brought Xbox back from a pretty perilous position after Xbox One launch and is delivering on a vision for what could be the future of videogame consumption, i..e. subscription / cloud streaming. Getting the quality AAA1st party pipeline going is still to be seen outside of the Forza / Horizon games. Hopefully, a good showing with Starfield will kickstart that.
 

Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
He's done well, the future for Xbox has never been brighter and there's definitely more goodwill and mindshare towards Xbox then there has been in a long time.

If Phil lives up to the potential they are laying out, Xbox is going to be strong going forward.

You can tell by the pushback from the PS community, that they can sense its coming too. Though they will never admit it.
They know damn well it's coming. Once the ABK deal goes through, it'll change the gaming landscape for the foreseeable future. That's what I think the PS community fears most.
 

Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
do you really believe that?
You don't?

The last place player out of the Big 3 is changing the gaming landscape from 3rd place! These are market leader, big dick moves. Once ABK goes through, their position will only get stronger because the mobile and CoD pallet will be in full bloom.

Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying they'll take the helm as market leader, but, it'll be a more even playing field than it has ever been.
 

ChorizoPicozo

Gold Member
You don't?
the answer is more nuanced.

The last place player out of the Big 3 is changing the gaming landscape from 3rd place! These are market leader, big dick moves. Once ABK goes through, their position will only get stronger because the mobile and CoD pallet will be in full bloom.
just in term of revenue alone, MS should be very happy.
Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying they'll take the helm as market leader, but, it'll be a more even playing field than it has ever been.
that seems logical.

the issues MS has are way deeper tho.

buying one of the most important videogame IPs ever created didn't move the needle for MS/Xbox. I am talking about Minecraft.

Why?.

1. They bought that IP once it had already become a juggernaut

which means that:
a) the brand was already engrained in the culture (not associated with MS/Xbox).
b) subsequent growth is not going to be as meaningful as the initial boom
c) you cant make it exclusive/ongoing product
d) different market segment appeal.

with Zenimax and ABK; MS is buying several IP's that are already established.

in paper, and as you said: this should make a more even playing field.

taking about the console market (which is the relevant in this conversation)

MS/Xbox has shown a very poor management of Studios/IP/and even hardware.

Every single merger (especially big ones) are followed by:

1. layoffs.
2. People leaving
4. Culture clash
5. Turmoil/Power Vacuums
and in this instance, we can add
6. Unionization efforts.

MS/Xbox is about to face and "atonement task" that could last this entire generation. which means (because MS/Xbox's track record) there is a high chance they fuck this up badly.
 

Havoc2049

Member
The jury is still out, IMO. He was delt a bad hand, after Microsoft downsized their first party studios during the X360 era and failure of Games For Windows, plus the XB1 rollout. If Starfileld, Avowed, the InXile RPG and the Fable, Forza and Perfect Dark reboots turn out to be system sellers and they gain market share, then it will be a job well done.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
I'm not really sure how to answer here. He certainly made the Xbox image as a whole better but aside from that not a lot of good games were released so far. I'm still waiting to see some kind of payoff from all these studio aquisitions.
 

Three

Member
As of now it's been 5 years since Phil Spencer has been top management for everything software and hardware related regarding gaming and interactivity. How well do you think has he handled Xbox during these last 5 years?

The OP seems to be asking how well he has done for xbox while talking about his tenure as overall gaming boss.

If you want an opinion of how well he has handled xbox it would be from 2014 (9yrs ago) when he was made CEO of xbox.

In terms of handling xbox itself I think he has done poorly and took it in directions that don't benefit xbox or console gaming specifically. In terms of PC gaming as a whole though and not specifically xbox I think he has done better. He is expanding services and games there. For mobile he has yet to show or prove anything. For other software and hardware related gaming like VR he has done absolutely nothing.
 
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Warablo

Member
He saved them from the bad Xbox One launch, and got Microsoft to open their giant pocketbook for Xbox. Just need those new studios to get settled in and start making some games.
 
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DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
For me, as a consumer. Game pass has been a big enough disruption and game changer for me that he has done an amazing job. If these coming months and years are too tough on my finances I know I could get my gaming enjoyment from that alone. Obviously, all being well I will continue to own all platforms and buy all the games I feel the need to but game pass and microsofts output has been decent...just needs a couple of massive hits.
 

Mephisto40

Member
It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if the next xbox was just called "GamePassBox"

As far as Phil Spencer goes, it surprises me how many people don't seem to realise he's just a guy that is thrown scripts and put on stage to read them out
 
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DJ12

Member
As a PlayStation gamer I think he's doing great.

Joking aside, I'd give him a d- for what he's done. Always next year. I'd be pretty disappointed if I was invested in the xbox ecosystem.
 

BbMajor7th

Member
No, he's miserable. PlayStation and Nintendo have been walking all over MS for most of the last decade. Nintendo crashed and burned way harder with the Wii U than MS did with the XB1, but by 2018 Nintendo was already solidly back in the game. Phil's big play - GamePass - has been poised to revolutionise the industry since its inception six years ago and aside from the restructuring and expansion of PS Plus, it's hard to know what other impact it's had. MS's putting first-party on GP day-one was clearly meant to be a 'your move' moment from MS - Nintendo and PlayStation took one look at it, laughed, and hiked their prices by $10.

PlayStation is now expanding mindshare through cross-media merchandising (HBO's The Last of Us, Marvel's Spider-Man), carving out a space in new tech (PS VR2, GT Sophy), and expanding into the PC market. Meanwhile, Phil is busy trying to convince trade commissions around the world that buying out entire publishers with vast stables of IP is totally chill and not the desperate power play of a company that has failed to win on merit alone.
 
I've been impressed. I've been playing my series x and/or PC Game pass on my desktop a ton - and also pc gamepass when im at work on my laptop...And im happy. Whole list of games I've beat over the past few years including about 4 over the past month alone. Its a hell of a lot better IMO but I understand if some are still a bit disappointed, I can respct it
 
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