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People are wrong about Don Mattricks handling of the Xbox One compared to Phil Spencer.

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I noticed a lot of people are rewriting the Xbox One so that it seems Donny Matt is some kind of monster and didn't do a good job on the Xbox One. As the guy who did good in later part of the 360, only slowly letting things get out of hand with the rise of Kinect's success (also him) but still releasing some good games, he did a great job with the games and deals he set up for the Xbox One. it wouldn't be until mid 2015 where we started seeing what Phil would do and I think we need to compare the two for how they handled the Xbox One given that the biggest problem people had was the pre-release policies which were almost all turned around before launch (and ironically several of those policies people don't mind now) and the bad messaging from guys Larry hyrb under his watch. But otherwise he had a good game plan.

Don Mattrick

1. Saw the launch of Xbox one joining sony in breaking the record of 1 million consoles sold in the first 24 hours

2. His team led to the first 15 million units of sales which others coming in during the restructuring failed to do, so of the ~50 million Xbox One sales the first 15 million were in just a bit over 1 year, a massive chunk, before the decline then the static yearly sales until 2020.

3. Killer Instinct reboot, japanese exclusive Chaos Child, Titanfall deal, Fable Legends, Scalebound deal, Quantum Break contract, Crackdown 3, Forza 5, Ryse deal, Dead Rising 3 deal, Fighters within, Lococycle, power star golf, Xbox Fitness, Max curse of brotherhood, Halo Spartan assault, Zoo tycoon. all ready and in place before the end of 2013 in the launch window.

4. Had already got the deal going for Titanfall, Kinect sports rivals, got dev for Gears remake started, had already had 343i on the Halo MCC, had the Tomb Raider and Evolve(for 2015) deals ready, Got Dance Central spotlight ready, D4 Deal, Starpoint gemini indie deal, had Forza Horizon 2 ready, greenlit the Project Spark project, got the deal for Fantasia music evolved, partnered for Kalimba and ubisofts Shape up. These all were released in 2014

Phil Spencer


1. Screamride. Made the deal for Sunset overdrive when Insomniac needed a pub. Cancelled Scalebound, Cancelled Fable Legends, delayed Crackdown 3, delayed Quantum Break, did a bad job controlling issues with Halo MCC at launch. Oversaw Halo 5 disappointment. Ori and the Blind Forest, Fruit Ninja Kinect, then went on to move support away from Kinect, and got developers to as well resulting in Kinect being dead. Closed several studios without replacing them with anything, put Xbox at the lowest studio count in the history of the brand by late year. State of decay, happy wars. Rare Replay. Forza 6,

2. In 2016, finally releases Don signed Quantum Break after long delays, Raiden V, Recore, Forza Horizon 3, releases don signed Gears 4, , new hardware revision, Xbox One S.

3. In 2017, Project Scorpio Xbox One X revision, halo wars 2, Halo wars definitive, Forza 7, BC, Gamepass, Voodoo Vince remastered timed, Cuphead deal indie, rereleasing Don Kinect Disney games but for controller only to pad out the lineup, Super luckys tale (console launch exclusive for One X), Hello neighbor (console launch exclusive), Pubg timed, acquisitions storm starts.

<>
Phil had cut off many good staff and closed studios and reduced the amount of studios under Microsoft to the lowest point (5 or so studios, 3-4 AAA) with cancellations, delays even with other games I haven't listed as there's several, while seeing a decline in top franchises, and for those games he didn't cancel he didn't over see them resulting in ok or mediocre releases, bad timed deals except for a few that didn't do much of anything, the death of Kinect burning those players, rereleasing Kinect games from the 360 with the 3 Disney games to pad out a bad lineup, and going on an acquisition spree.

I'm not saying Phil didn't turn things around because his hardware and services strategy did put the Series consoles in their current positions as the fastest selling consoles for the brand so far, BUT it's also this focus on hardware and surfaces that he put over the games leading to the acquisitions as he cut the meat without replacing what was in the refrigerator so to speak, leading him in a corner where he NEEDED to buy studios because there he wasted too much time on hardware and services. We still see the impact of this now.

Hopefully that will change in 2023, but it's clear there was a clear different in strategy and gaming appeal between launch of Xbox One to mid-2015, and mid-2015 onward. They aren't even close. I still remember some people complain that the PS4 didn't have games in the first 1.5 years on the market, and how much Killzone was written off as a demo and Knack was run over and over again as a joke, while Xbox stacked the launch months going into 2014, and then still had goodies for that year.

Some later stuff Phil delayed was from Don too. When you look at the whole picture, Phils biggest contributions outside a few good titles was One S, One X revisions, and BC+Gamepass.

Now that since a few years ago Phil got Nadella to give him more access to cash for supporting studios, it's not time for Phil to finally surpass Mattrick in GAMEs too as well as the other areas. I personally will not give him another year, although i don't expect more delays i will say in the rare chance it happens...no.
 
Smh! Bro please don’t do this man! Don asshat had the easiest transition in history he was coming off the 360 the console most people regarded and played on. He didn’t carry anything from all the things people loved the 360 for. Instead Sony used the 360 playbook for ps4 and ended up dominating. And since then Phil’s been assigned clean up duties. Unfortunately for Microsoft they waited too long or buy studios. Now that they bought a ton they have to wait for them to crack out games and that takes time.
 

Kilau

Gold Member
tumblr_mhynq4xtIc1s5o3aso7_400.gif
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
Phil seems like a good personable guy but I really liked the Xbox One's 1st 2 years so I give Don the W lol
 

ZehDon

Member
Lol, no. Mattrick nearly killed Xbox before jumping ship to mobile gaming. That's not even an opinion - that's an objective, on-the-record fact. Mattrick also never cared for Xbox from its inception - and again, that's not an opinon, that's a fact.

Mattrick inherited the Xbox 360, coasted on its success, and turned Microsoft's first party line up into an endless stream of "Halo, Gears, Fable, Forza". Everything was killed. Kinect was all him - so, props there for that success - but also: Kinect was all him, and Kinect was fucking terrible. Mattrick took the brand that gave Sony a run for its money and drove it so far into the ground that Microsoft considered getting out of gaming altogether. The echoes of the Mattrick era are still present in Xbox today, who are still trying to get their first parties back on track.

Spencer inherited the Xbone, the decimated first party line up, and the brand at its lowest point. He did his best to keep Xbox on life support. By the end of the generation, things were definitely looking brighter, but it was clear that Microsoft kept gaming at arm's length for the Xbone generation. Now, it's all in. And that's all Spencer.
 
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Phil oversaw the acquisition of Bethesda, Obsidian, inexile, Undead Labs, Ninja Theory, cut deals for games like Pluages, Scorn, exclusivity of games like Starfield, Redfall, an exclusive Kojima game, record breaking sales for S/X...you making me sound like an ad because it's rediculously obvious Phil is a better head of gaming than Don...it shows in sales and subscription growth.
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
They made the funniest GOAT gif of Don too

exaYMk9.gif
that GIF wouldn't exist if phil came in earlier LMAO
Don Mattrick was much better at getting out quality games, but horrible at PR.

Phil Spencer can sell people unfulfilled promises year after year and is praised for it.
exclusives don't matter when the actions you take ultimately kill your entire console brand. This idea that Don was some misunderstood competitive ruthless visionary who produced sony level AAA exclusives before lying phil came over and removed all the games is such a fucking joke.
 

feynoob

Banned
I noticed a lot of people are rewriting the Xbox One so that it seems Donny Matt is some kind of monster and didn't do a good job on the Xbox One. As the guy who did good in later part of the 360, only slowly letting things get out of hand with the rise of Kinect's success (also him) but still releasing some good games, he did a great job with the games and deals he set up for the Xbox One. it wouldn't be until mid 2015 where we started seeing what Phil would do and I think we need to compare the two for how they handled the Xbox One given that the biggest problem people had was the pre-release policies which were almost all turned around before launch (and ironically several of those policies people don't mind now) and the bad messaging from guys Larry hyrb under his watch. But otherwise he had a good game plan.

Don Mattrick

1. Almost destroyed the brand.

2. His team showed the worst reveal for any brand console. That TV reveal was legend.

3. Couldnt expand 1st party studios

4. Worst, he made MS lose COD marketing to Sony.

Phil Spencer

1.Saved the brand

2. made big xbox 1st party studios permenant (Playground, Coalition, Undead labs)

3. Increased xbox 1st party studos to 25. And now in the process of bringing COD to Xbox.

Fixed
 

feynoob

Banned
that GIF wouldn't exist if phil came in earlier LMAO

exclusives don't matter when the actions you take ultimately kill your entire console brand. This idea that Don was some misunderstood competitive ruthless visionary who produced sony level AAA exclusives before lying phil came over and removed all the games is such a fucking joke.
You can get exclusives any time you want. But its harder to reverse the brand damage. Sega lost badly, because their console couldnt live up to the market expectation. Now they are 3rd party publisher.
 

Topher

Gold Member
Lol, no. Mattrick nearly killed Xbox before jumping ship to mobile gaming. That's not even an opinion - that's an objective, on-the-record fact. Mattrick also never cared for Xbox from its inception - and again, that's not an opinon, that's a fact.

Mattrick inherited the Xbox 360, coasted on its success, and turned Microsoft's first party line up into an endless stream of "Halo, Gears, Fable, Forza". Everything was killed. Kinect was all him - so, props there for that success - but also: Kinect was all him, and Kinect was fucking terrible. Mattrick took the brand that gave Sony a run for its money and drove it so far into the ground that Microsoft considered getting out of gaming altogether. The echoes of the Mattrick era are still present in Xbox today, who are still trying to get their first parties back on track.

Spencer inherited the Xbone, the decimated first party line up, and the brand at its lowest point. He did his best to keep Xbox on life support. By the end of the generation, things were definitely looking brighter, but it was clear that Microsoft kept gaming at arm's length for the Xbone generation. Now, it's all in. And that's all Spencer.
The Office Thank You GIF
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
You can get exclusives any time you want. But its harder to reverse the brand damage. Sega lost badly, because their console couldnt live up to the market expectation. Now they are 3rd party publisher.
^^^^

for there to be exclusives, there needs to be a console. There can't be a console when you make so many dumb decisions in a row that MS considers shutting down the Xbox divsion. almost 10 years later and now they're investing more into it than they ever have in 20 years.
If Don were at helm for 3 or maybe even 2 more years you wouldn't be hearing from Xbox anymore.

I want Xbox to have exclusives now because when Phil has gotten MS to invest so much into the division and built the console back up, there's no reason why they shouldn't be making captivating games. They've got gamepass, they've got Xcloud, they have a recipe for success all thanks to Phil's work, but he can't seem to find the one main ingredient- consistent good quality games. And that's frustrating to me
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Lol, no. Mattrick nearly killed Xbox before jumping ship to mobile gaming. That's not even an opinion - that's an objective, on-the-record fact. Mattrick also never cared for Xbox from its inception - and again, that's not an opinon, that's a fact.

Mattrick inherited the Xbox 360, coasted on its success, and turned Microsoft's first party line up into an endless stream of "Halo, Gears, Fable, Forza". Everything was killed. Kinect was all him - so, props there for that success - but also: Kinect was all him, and Kinect was fucking terrible. Mattrick took the brand that gave Sony a run for its money and drove it so far into the ground that Microsoft considered getting out of gaming altogether. The echoes of the Mattrick era are still present in Xbox today, who are still trying to get their first parties back on track.

Spencer inherited the Xbone, the decimated first party line up, and the brand at its lowest point. He did his best to keep Xbox on life support. By the end of the generation, things were definitely looking brighter, but it was clear that Microsoft kept gaming at arm's length for the Xbone generation. Now, it's all in. And that's all Spencer.


Yep.

More at the link below, but basically just a year after XBO launched, Satya and the highers ups were already questioning if they even need to continue the Xbox division. Phil (and a few other highers ups) were able to secure Satya's support and keep it going.

 
Matttick was out of touch with his core audience. He tried to create a platform that would replicate the casual / novelty success of the Wii, solve the used game sale issue through assigning physical games to accounts and create an all round entertainment box that didn’t have gaming as a clear number one priority.

It could be argued he was ‘ahead of his time’ on some of those , but overall he was an abject failure and handed the market to Sony on a silver platter.

That being said, his failure has resulted currently in a MS that is hungry to win back gamers and making aggressive moves to do so which is good for competition (despite what some might believe!)
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
You can get exclusives any time you want. But its harder to reverse the brand damage. Sega lost badly, because their console couldnt live up to the market expectation. Now they are 3rd party publisher.
You are right about market expectations. Not having major third party support from some of the biggest developers like EA Sports, Rockstar and Squaresoft was a problem. People wanted those games. It also should have used DVD instead of GD-ROM because DVD video was something people wanted and they didn't necessarily want a second machine for it. Following the debacle of Saturn dying such a quick death and people feeling burned by that they lost a lot of goodwill from fans. I loved Dreamcast so much and I was sad to see it die, but I understand why it did.
 

ckaneo

Member
Phil is still to be determined.

COVID unfortunately ruined next gen for both consoles, difference is Sony had an elite previous gen they are making sequels from for cross gen

That said, I have very little faith in Perfect Dark/Fable or anything not Bethseda/Activision and if he manages to land COD you gotta tip your cap to him
 

Stuart360

Member
imagine defending Mattricks. What a truly awful take. Has the american education system really devolve into such a trainwreck??

you know the saying, "GAF has a defense force for everything"
ROFL
Whenever there is a negative Xbox related thread on here (and they are daily pretty much), the vast majority of them are started by Eddie.
Its hard to take his viewpoint seriously to be honest.
 

gothmog

Gold Member
Whenever there is a negative Xbox related thread on here (and they are daily pretty much), the vast majority of them are started by Eddie.
Its hard to take his viewpoint seriously to be honest.
Strange, because I think most of the positive Xbox related threads are started by Eddie. In fact, Eddie starts a lot of threads in general.
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
Strange, because I think most of the positive Xbox related threads are started by Eddie. In fact, Eddie starts a lot of threads in general.
he's responsible for like the biggest threads on the site. It's rare to see a 10+ page thread that wasn't started by him. Guy is great at creating a lot of buzz
 

feynoob

Banned
Strange, because I think most of the positive Xbox related threads are started by Eddie. In fact, Eddie starts a lot of threads in general.
He is walking on a thin line.
This platform is divided in to 2 groups, while the rest are small.

People would judge you on what you post. So, he is trying to statisfy both sides, but its getting backfired on him badly.
 
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I know his video of saying go buy a 360 if you don't have internet is meme worthy but in reality he was just being honest. What does PD say to GT7 players when they don't have an online connection...yeah we got a huge game but all you can play is one track and a music rally. If you don't have internet its like you are playing something that would not even be considered a demo back in the day, less so. I mean, what did people expect him to answer....errrr well if you don't have internet, we will make a special edition just for you?
 
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