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[Nydius]

That's not competition in your opinion.

Just stop. it’s not competition, period.

Buying established studios just to bolster Game Pass and eventually exclude and damage your competition is, quite literally, anti-competitive.

And as I have repeatedly pointed out these last few days, the $7.5b they spent for Zenimax has been an absolute fucking waste of money. They would have gotten Hi-Fi Rush, Redfall, and Starfield on their platform without needing to own them. They could have paid for day one Game Pass inclusion for far less than they spent to buy them. They spent $7.5bn and are in no better place than they would have been had they saved the money — the only thing they gained was the ability to exclude PlayStation.

 

[feynoob]

This is likely the first time where I’ve listened to Phil and thought wow he’s actually speaking honestly, and it makes me wonder, what’s the catch? I am mediately put my guard up and think, who is he trying to bullshit, because that’s what he does. Is this their ploy to convince people that purchasing Activision isn’t a juggernaut acquisition and won’t hurt their competitors? I just don’t trust this guy to say shit like this and take it at face value.

Activision deal failed. His Xbox division is failing due to his mess.

If the later half of this year is not good, he is out of Xbox. MS should make sure of that and not repeat don mattrick mistake.

 

[X-Wing]

I don't know but the face he did when he said the message about the frame rate on Starfield would be clear wasn't very optimistic.

 

[Senua]

How to make Xbox competitive. 1 stop putting games on pc. 2 release good, must have games

Done, Xbox won’t be king overnight but eventually it’d be in a competitive spot.

#1 is shite, #2 is the answer boyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

How is this concept so hard for people to understand? Legitimately. It boggles my mind.

It’s Phil Spencer, he brings out the crazy in warriors for some reason.

 

[Captain Toad]

"Releasing good AAA games won't help Xbox."

I don’t know Phil. You could TRY. Let's see what would happen.

 

[Badlucktroll]

The solution? Go 3rd party and sell games on every platform. Microsoft need to pull the plug on xbox hardware. Its time. Theres no where else to go.

I would be scared they wouldn’t just sell the standalone games as we know it. You would have to subscribe and stream on the console of your choice, or to unlock the ability to download and run natively on the hardware, you would have to pay an additional fee.

 

[DForce]

Phil literally said: "I see commentary that if you just build great games, everything would turn around. It's just not true that if we go off and build great games, all of a sudden you're going to see console share shift in some dramatic way".
The only thing this refers to is outselling Sony or gaining a significant marketshare in consoles sold. Nothing less, nothing more.
Do you really think they'd spend $7.5billion on Zenimax and $70 billion if they didn't want to compete?

I really, really want NeoGAF to grow again as a community but the level of discourse here is so mind numbingly weak. It's insane.

His words were self-explanatory, and you're here trying to do some weird damage control.

We're not in the business of out-consoling Sony or out-consoling Nintendo. There really isn't a great solution or win for us.

Did he say there's no solution or win for us when it comes to competing against Sony and Nintendo in the console marketplace?

If you're saying that you can't win and there's no solution, then you're admitting defeat against your competitors in the console marketplace.

You can take that quote and apply it to almost anything and it's going to be interpreted as a person admitting defeat. But for some reason, you think it doesn't.

And I don't know why you quoted that from Phil when all he said was great gamers aren't going to shift the market share in a dramatic way. I think that's completely false and it doesn't negate what he said earlier.

 

[RGB'D]

Okay.

Which is why the statement can have a worrying implication that he's actually referring to Microsoft's wider stance of pushing through on gaming acquisitions as a means for the growth in the console market (and cloud and mobile markets) they seek. Because through any observation since 2014 we can see that when Xbox had spikes in gaming revenue, it was after a major acquisition. Mojang, Zenimax...and I'm sure they're hoping for similar with ABK though the path for that one is closing rapidly.

Personally I'm not a fan of mass consolidation, and Microsoft need to focus on what's already on their plate, rather than dumping more onto it. There's some stuff Phil says in this interview which suggest he knows that, but whether Microsoft people at the top (Satya Nadella, Brad Smith etc.) see it that way, or if Phil Spencer can somehow sell them on a different growth strategy with Xbox/Game Pass/xCloud that doesn't rely on publisher acquisitions, remains to be seen.

Realistically MS should not be trying to release GOW/TLOU caliber games to expect they suddenly catch up to Sony. They should be doing that just out of passion for creating games, and to rebuild Xbox's reputation over a period of time and gradually build it into a more appealing brand. Doing that and marketing that the right way will naturally have the market share growth follow, they just have to be consistent and patient about it. And make sure the hardware is quality, keep the features strong and improving, get more creative about how to differentiate yourself in the market that (preferably) doesn't rely on needing to acquire more major 3P publishers.

He also clearly states that ABK wasn't the goal, just an accelerant. He also pushed back that he wanted to allow studios to maintain creativity to not stifle their creative visions. That he wouldn't hold one failure against them (Arkane Austin). I understand that people have a tendency to mistrust Phil and he legitimately acknowledge that at multiple points in the interview. He also makes the correct point with Redfall that even with bug free, 60 fps fixed, perfect AI performance, this game was likely to miss its mark. Sure the optimization is terrible but there is a reason that Star Wars Survivor reviewed well in spite of the same quality problems compared to Redfall and that is that the studio wasn't able to in the games core, achieve what they wanted to when they set out. But that he also wouldn't allow this failure restrict what they were doing next and force them into making a specific type of game because they didn't succeed here. It sounds like they are pretty genuine and self aware. Nothing about this interview made me concerned for XBox. It made me feel better that they are realistic about their current state and are working to improve it. He seemed genuine. He wasn't pontificating on the future amd trying to sell, it was a very accurate diagnosis on Xbox's current state

 

[N30RYU]

Activision deal failed. His Xbox division is failing due to his mess.

If the later half of this year is not good, he is out of Xbox. MS should make sure of that and not repeat don mattrick mistake.

If you have any CEO in the world talk about his company like Phil did, it will be out and replaced in hours

 

[Sethbacca]

Sony was always on track to outsell the Xbox in that generation, from the day the PS3 launched. Even launching at $600 or whatever and having bad games and a system that third parties struggled with. You’re just proving his point here. They were also coming off the PS2 which sold over 100,000,000 IIRC. Actually just looked it up, sold almost 160,000,000 Yeah go ahead and compare Xbox to that.

If they had consistently developed quality over multiple generations their mindshare could have been on par with Sony by this generation. MS started later than Sony in the game market so obviously it would take a couple generations to develop their mindshare in the market. If they're going into it with the thought that they'll never ever be able to catch up, so why even try, they're just destined for failure.

 

[lestar]

at this point, they better start to making steam machines or better yet, gaming handheld pcs

 

[BadBurger]

Well, if there are any console-only gamers out there that were still on the fence this generation for some bizarre reason, I think it's more than safe - prudent, even - to go ahead and buy that PS5. Content is and always will be king in entertainment. It's what put PlayStation back on top and has kept Nintendo a major player despite the winds of change and advances in technology. If the head guy of Xbox doesn't see value or merit in creating good content, well, that says everything one needs to know about the immediate and likely long-term prospects of that platform.

 

[ComputerBlue]

Activision deal failed. His Xbox division is failing due to his mess.

If the later half of this year is not good, he is out of Xbox. MS should make sure of that and not repeat don mattrick mistake.

There are still other huge publishers out there.

I don’t believe this dude, I don’t believe that what he saying is how he honestly feels.

 

[Topher]

If that was the worldwide sales ratio, PS3 would have never overtook the 360's one year lead on the market in more regions. So
(a) it's false and
(b) if it was 50/50, that would still imply the 360 didn't outsell the PS3.

Final worldwide reported numbers:

PS3: 87.4 million as of March 2017
Xbox 360: 84 million as of June 2014

So you've got three years unaccounted for from Microsoft since they stopped reporting numbers. So no, 360 didn't "outsell" PS3 based on those numbers, but we are talking about massive shifts in market share from PS2 gen to PS3 gen.

 

[Cyber_hunter026]

“If you build great games, everything will turn around. It’s just not true”-Phil spencer

 

[Giallo Corsa]

He bought stocks. But that still doesn't explain his behavior.

Jesus H. Crist man, the guy is having a meltdown, again, not to be petty but i really don't understand, he's a shill, yes, and yet, it still doesn't excuse all that...pathos and zeal on display, it really doesn't...

It really must be some kind of mental disorder, there's no other excuse, i actually feel sorry for the guy right now

 

[Sony]

Just stop. it’s not competition, period.

Buying established studios just to bolster Game Pass and eventually exclude and damage your competition is, quite literally, anti-competitive.

And as I have repeatedly pointed out these last few days, the $7.5b they spent for Zenimax has been an absolute fucking waste of money. They would have gotten Hi-Fi Rush, Redfall, and Starfield on their platform without needing to own them. They could have paid for day one Game Pass inclusion for far less than they spent to buy them. They spent $7.5bn and are in no better place than they would have been had they saved the money — the only thing they gained was the ability to exclude PlayStation.

Cool opinion piece, but it's factually competition. The fact that you don't see it as effective doesn't mean it's not.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Not certain if this take from Jez was already posted here.

 

[Mr Moose]

If this is genuinely true at MS (and to be fair I dont think any company wants to purposely release crap products unless its some noname company trying to sell dollar store items that will break on first use... it's happened to me), it goes to show their standards in game quality is way lower than the average gamer or game critic.

Maybe all the people saying wokeism is bad for gaming isnt that exaggerrated after all. Hire people who dont know what they are doing and they wont know what's a good or bad product.

They should hire Shu.
"This is shit!"

 

[Melfice7]

This is just microsofts way of saying its sooo unfair that sony and nintendo have quality games. Poor trillionaire underdog microsoft cant compete unlesssss they buy activision.

 

[Rea]

Lots of L from Xbox lately.

 

[Sony]

His words were self-explanatory, and you're here trying to do some weird damage control.

The words were indeed self explanatory, yet here we are. Imaging having to explain self-explanatory quotes.

 

[N30RYU]

Final worldwide reported numbers:

PS3: 87.4 million as of March 2017
Xbox 360: 84 million as of June 2014

So you've got three years unaccounted for from Microsoft since they stopped reporting numbers. So no, 360 didn't "outsell" PS3 based on those numbers, but we are talking about massive shifts in market share from PS2 gen to PS3 gen.

Account that the better PS3 games were launched at the end of the generation while microsoft stopped releasing 360 games years before the generarion ended just to have a great xbox one launch line up

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Or maybe nobody wanted to say the truth that many were thinking when they tested the game internally?

Who knows how they tested it internally.

All I know in my brief stints giving feedback on prototypes at work (including packaging and the actual product itself) is that everyone in the fucking marketing team thinks their brands and new products are all 8s, 9s and 10s out of 10. And somehow every competing product are all 5s and 6s. So the shit they are planning to sell next year should be a slam dunk in consumer sales.

Out of everything I've ever seen at work, it's probably the most lopsided and biased attitudes I've ever seen from any department.

They must hate me when it comes to feedback, since I'll call out the competitor's stuff looks better, and our packaging can look cluttered as hell. And that excludes the pricing issues my team brings up where most of the time they act like money is no issue and many of them still think of market share first and financials second when our company has been trying to focus on financials first for years. Some people just dont get it even though the execs have pounded through our heads for years our bonuses are even heavily dependent on profits and margin vs. tonnage or share like 6 years ago.

 

[Heisenberg007]

I told y'all that April 2023 marked the beginning of the end for Xbox as we know it. Xbox will abandon its hardware soon.

And to be fair, that'll be their best path forward IF they want to stick to the Game Pass model. Imagine if Netflix was only available on Android phones and Samsung TVs.

If they want to target EVERYONE, drop console hardware, become like EA, have your subscription everywhere (including a first-party-only-tier on PlayStation and Nintendo), and make money by software and subscriptions.

 

[Crayon]

What the actual f***. There is so much to say about just that transcribed quote. I need to just pick a couple and get on with my day here.

One. Pointing out that you lost the worst generation to lose, is the biggest self kick in the nuts I read there.

Two. Is there going to be some corresponding pivot in the ambassadors and MVPs story? Or is this Phil just flying off the handle?

Three. Why do you have to be first? Why? Why? This whole project was kicked off as a PlayStation killer and that was a mistake. 360 was the time to do that, I mean pivot away from that. But instead you had Nelson and Greenberg stirring the pot with your core fans for years and years until you are kind of captured and having to talk out both sides of your mouth.

Idk. I have to go.

 

[Topher]

Account that the better PS3 games were launched at the end of the generation while microsoft stopped releasing 360 games years before the generarion ended just to have a great xbox one launch line up

Dramatic shift in games.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Just to give more ammunition to the idea the quote in the OP might be Phil alluding to MS continuing their acquisition strategy, there's another quote from Phil in the interview referencing competitors making "discreet deal that make it hard for Xbox to be Xbox". He's obviously referring to Sony and their 3P exclusivity deals. So Sony making 3P exclusivity deals to help their platform stand out as unique prevents Xbox from being Xbox, but MS making 3P exclusivity deals doesn't prevent PlayStation from being PlayStation? Then that just shows a certain platform has too much a reliance on 3P software to create an identity and it's not PlayStation.

Again, it's a funny comment considering Microsoft HAVE a lot of 1P studios right now and have some that can actually give them unique games, but they don't want to acknowledge how business decisions like doing Day 1 of ALL games on PC contribute to preventing "Xbox from being Xbox", not Sony doing 3P exclusivity deals that MS themselves also do. If Sony can get better deals with bigger games it's because they've had multiple generations as the #1 platform and being the place where software sales are much stronger for the majority of games.

 

[mejin]

Not certain if this take from Jez was already posted here.

He's lying lol


Edit.: It's people like him that Phil should cut in half.

 

[Ronin_7]

PlayStation the Xbox Nemesis

 

[DeepEnigma]

Not certain if this take from Jez was already posted here.

Let Phil know then, Jez.

He is the one that brought up wInNiNg, ya clown.

 

[PropellerEar]

Microsoft should rent Jim for a week to train Phil on how to not be a fucking loser

Jimbo is known miracle man second to Jeebus, but this is prob asking too much.

 

[Topher]

Then stop talking about console war shit, Phil

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

The words were indeed self explanatory, yet here we are. Imaging having to explain self-explanatory quotes.

They're okay with shipping meh games because great games don't make a difference. All they're doing is flipping a coin

Hence Redfall

 

[feynoob]

There are still other huge publishers out there.

I don’t believe this dude, I don’t believe that what he saying is how he honestly feels.

Buying other 3 big publishers is off the limit after this deal.
They can try buying small publishers, but that is it.

His last hope is Xbox 2nd half being good year. Otherwise, it's a game over for him.

 

[solidus12]

Not certain if this take from Jez was already posted here.

 

[Celcius]

he dun goofed.
Either Phil gets fired, or xbox doesn't survive the next decade as a hardware manufacturer.

 

[Sethbacca]

Not certain if this take from Jez was already posted here.

It's almost like there are more gamers born every year, and those of us that grew up with games continue to buy them, thus creating a larger install base to sell more games and hardware to.

 

[FrankWza]

Do you really think they'd spend $7.5billion on Zenimax and $70 billion if they didn't want to compete?

Yes. They're doing this Because they can't compete.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

IDK I think if Halo Infinite really knocked it out of the park, and Redfall and Starfield both released on schedule and lived up to expectations, people would genuinely be excited about Xbox right now.

Sure they would still be in 3rd place but they’d still be in a much stronger position instead of year-over-year declines.

 

[_Ex_]

 

[Dr. Samuel Hayden]

The damage control of the damage control begins...

 

[8BiTw0LF]

Xbox Series will be the last console from Microsoft. They already focused on TV in last gen and next gen will be collaborations with TV manufacturers to have Xbox Cloud pre-installed on 80% of all TV's. TVTVTV

 

[Demon2blades]

Sony was always on track to outsell the Xbox in that generation, from the day the PS3 launched. Even launching at $600 or whatever and having bad games and a system that third parties struggled with. You’re just proving his point here. They were also coming off the PS2 which sold over 100,000,000 IIRC. Actually just looked it up, sold almost 160,000,000 Yeah go ahead and compare Xbox to that.

Again, he’s not saying they aren’t trying to make great games. He’s not saying they need to try and outsell Sony and since they can’t, what’s the point. He’s saying a string of great titles wouldn’t make them the #1 console and he’s right, it wouldn’t. They simply don’t have the worldwide brand the others do. Now, we can talk all day and night about WHY they don’t, about mistakes made in every single generation, but it doesn’t matter in context of what he said. And he even admits this is all on them, so we don’t have to even talk about why.

Sure ps3 was thought to outsell x360 coming off the back of the ps2 gen that's a given , it probably would've ended with ms winning the gen though had they stayed the course and not fell off halfway through the gen with silly decision making . People aren't willing to see it's Microsoft that always fucks Microsoft that's why they are where they are now imo.

 

[DForce]

The words were indeed self explanatory, yet here we are. Imaging having to explain self-explanatory quotes.

We're here because you're ignoring the obvious and want to argue.

Let me ask you directly because you're clearly trying to avoid what he's saying.

1. Did he say they lost the Xbox One generation? If the answer is "yes" then how did they lose?
2. Did he say there's no solution or win when it comes to out-consoling Sony and Nintendo?

 

[Stare-Bear]

Final worldwide reported numbers:

PS3: 87.4 million as of March 2017
Xbox 360: 84 million as of June 2014

So you've got three years unaccounted for from Microsoft since they stopped reporting numbers. So no, 360 didn't "outsell" PS3 based on those numbers, but we are talking about massive shifts in market share from PS2 gen to PS3 gen.

And how many of 360s were people 2nd or 3rd console cause the other RRODd? Or didn’t have basics like WiFi or HDMI.

 

[Cyber_hunter026]

Not certain if this take from Jez was already posted here.

 

[ComputerBlue]

Yes. They're doing this Because they can't compete.

But buying them is trying to compete, meaning they do want to compete.

 

[Pop]

The damage control of the damage control begins...

How embarrassing haha

Xbox whole strategy is a mess. Their own side wont even hold them accountable. Just endless pr spin