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Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Addresses Studio Closures: "I have to run a bussiness"

Replace Inafune's name with Phil Spencer:

AvsfC.png
 

graywolf323

Member
I feel like Arkane got a raw deal as well considering Phil Spencer was defending the studio after the Redfall debacle. Acts like he has your back and then stabs it.
yep, Redfall sucked but the studio had a good track record & it wasn’t even a game they wanted to make (but Phil ignored them and didn’t just cancel it when they bought Bethesda which would have been the smart business decision)

then for all his talk about Japan he goes and closes Tango despite the fact they have had success and Hi-Fi Rush is the one game they’ve had that got critical praise lately, he’s just terrible at his job
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
I think people know pretty well what your job is. The point is wheter you're doing well or not, which is probably the latter.



You come to a discussion gaming forum to post this low effort snarky comment even knowing that includes you as well?
Whats next? He earns more than people on here so no one is allowed to say anything? Cheez dude, thats a 10 year old rot brain level posting here.
My sarcasm was directed to the fact that some people seem to think that running a division of a multi-trillion dollar company is easy, without even telling how "to run things better".

Yeah, no shit. Saying "do better" is always easy, but at least back it up with some ideas about the right thing to do given the circumstances for debate sake. Of course that the lay-off suck. I know it's terrible to everyone involved, and I hated that they did it to Tango and even Arkane Austin (despite their misses, Prey was pretty well received, I think they had tons of potential).

But we don't know what lead to said decisions. If the company made some projections that pointed they needed to trim the fat, and that these cuts would probably be the ones that would give them the less amount of loss, then what you expect that they would do?
 
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radewagon

Member
He should run it better then.

Go on, teach him how it's done, sitting on your desk while eating some Doritos.

computer nerd GIF by South Park

This type of "you can't do it either" argument is such a strange one. A person does not need expertise, nor the ability to do something better, nor even the ability to do something as well as someone else in order to criticize that person's performance. The ability to judge is not contingent on one's ability to one-up the one being judged. It likely helps, but it's in no way necessary.

For example, I can't play the guitar, but I know when someone sucks at it. I don't know how to direct a movie, but I can tell that the Resident Evil movies are terrible. And I can't run a multi-million dollar games division but I can confidently say that Phil's been dropping the ball.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Microsoft: We need more Games (2018)

Microsoft: We bought Bethesda for more games (2020)

Microsoft: We love HiFi Rush it's a great game (2023)

Microsoft: We need to run a business so we shut down studios that don't sell many games (2024)

....

Why did you buy the studios then if you're going to cut and run after 1 failure partially caused by GamePass?
If MS never bought Bethesda, Tango would still be around and working on their next game. Bet.
 

BlackTron

Gold Member
then for all his talk about Japan he goes and closes Tango despite the fact they have had success and Hi-Fi Rush is the one game they’ve had that got critical praise lately, he’s just terrible at his job

In my opinion, I don't think closing Tango was his first choice. I think after buying all those studios/publishers, Satya stormed in and told him to clean house and laser focus on those big guns like yesterday. Basically that big purchase had the opposite effect anticipated, instead of allowing him to consolidate power, it took so long to happen allowing his failure to be dragged out that Satya didn't give a shit what his plan was by the time it was approved finally.

Of course he needs to take responsibility for the decision because it's his job, but I kinda doubt he personally wanted this.
 

Angry_Megalodon

Gold Member
But we don't know what lead to said decisions. If the company made some projections that pointed they needed to trim the fat, and that these cuts would probably be the ones that would give them the less amount of loss, then what you expect that they would do?

Every merger in every industry leads to massive layoffs. This is so basic that shouldn't need explaining. Phil Spencer lied in court and to the media saying that wouldn't happen. Yes, we know he's running a business, thanks for the explanation, Mr. Spencer, even the dumbest monkey in the jungle knew that MS is not a charity.

It turns out that running a business is not enough, he has to get profits while not harming the industry as he promised. He hasn't delivered on any account. The only thing he's good at is making people like you jump in his defense.
 

Montauk

Member
It doesn’t need to be him that runs it.

Obviously I’m not saying anything new here but it cannot be said enough: Phil Spencer should be fired.
 

Kumomeme

Member
it took him this long to 'realize' that huh...

jim-ryan-laughing.gif

hopefully next time he mind his words everytime when want to say something. prioritize the bussiness first than blatantly throw promise after promise and say whatever people prefer to hear for sake of winning brief short online PR moment against Sony. he should not be scare to say whats important even if it end up as something bitter for people to hear. even if it end up align with their competitor. or just shut up if there is nothing need to say and focus on work out the actual output. people not idiot. proper clear explaination would help people to understand and would give rise to educated gamers which is better than having a blind evangelist fanboys.
 
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Kssio_Aug

Member
Every merger in every industry leads to massive layoffs. This is so basic that shouldn't need explaining. Phil Spencer lied in court and to the media saying that wouldn't happen. Yes, we know he's running a business, thanks for the explanation, Mr. Spencer, even the dumbest monkey in the jungle knew that MS is not a charity.

It turns out that running a business is not enough, he has to get profits while not harming the industry as he promised. He hasn't delivered on any account. The only thing he's good at is making people like you jump in his defense.
I'm not jumping in his defense at all though. I'm just not claiming that I know better.
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
“See that Halo Infinite gameplay video?”

“Yes”

“It’s not up to standard and you risk a substantial negative reaction coming into a new generation of consoles considering you have no other major launch title to compensate “
I would rather see the end of 343i than Tango's. No doubt. Except that this would also lead to lay-offs, and that also would suck for people involved.

But they most certainly don't close 343i because it has the potential to make much more money to them than Tango, specially after the master mind behind it left the studio.

And didn't they recently make some changes at 343 too?
 
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Saber

Member
My sarcasm was directed to the fact that some people seem to think that running a division of a multi-trillion dollar company is easy, without even telling how "to run things better".

I don't think people though otherwise.
But when you run up your business for more than 10 freaking years and still produce garbage-tier results, then thats really some very bad managment theres no defense for that.
Also why the fuck would people tell him how to run better? He is the one that is being paid to do this work(and alot btw), not them.
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
I don't think people though otherwise.
But when you run up your business for more than 10 freaking years and still produce garbage-tier results, then thats really some very bad managment theres no defense for that.
Also why the fuck would people tell him how to run better? He is the one that is being paid to do this work(and alot btw), not them.
Because, as you said yourself coming to a discussion gaming forum and post a low effort comment is not good. Saying "do better" seems pretty low effort imo.
 

BlackTron

Gold Member
I would rather see the end of 343i than Tango's. No doubt. Except that this would also lead to lay-offs, and that also would suck for people involved.

But they most certainly don't close 343i because it has the potential to make much more money to them than Tango, specially after the master mind behind it left the studio.

And didn't they recently make some changes at 343 too?

They did make changes at 343. I don't see the studio going anywhere because it was created by MS to work on Halo and they still need someone to work on Halo. If they don't like something they will just change what is going on inside the studio instead of replace it.
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
It' not a low effort when he had 10 years to prove people were wrong dude lol
Ok I will say then, do your fucking job better.
What he did to Tango sucks, there's no debate to that. But saying that Phil Spencer is objectively bad to Microsoft or Xbox as a whole, after he managed to convince them to invest so much money on the brand, that I can't agree with. Specially after today's very impressive event.
 
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Montauk

Member
They did make changes at 343. I don't see the studio going anywhere because it was created by MS to work on Halo and they still need someone to work on Halo. If they don't like something they will just change what is going on inside the studio instead of replace it.

Everyone at 343 should be sealed alive in a giant rocket and fired into the deep reaches of space
 

BlackTron

Gold Member
Everyone at 343 should be sealed alive in a giant rocket and fired into the deep reaches of space

Okay, but even if they did that, 343 would still exist and be making Halo.

It's like if everybody on the Windows team died, would they make a new one? They would just put new people in it, and still call it the same thing.

We need to accept 343 is the Halo Department at MS and there will be no "symbolic punishment" by closing it.
 

Radical_3d

Member
If you have to run a profitable business and your division declares record profits that year, what’s the excuse then for closing not even the cafeteria of the building?
 

BlackTron

Gold Member
If you have to run a profitable business and your division declares record profits that year, what’s the excuse then for closing not even the cafeteria of the building?

It was obviously a generic canned reply. Satya told him what to do. Therefore, "guys I have to run a business there's difficult choices and whatever"
 

BlackTron

Gold Member
My sarcasm was directed to the fact that some people seem to think that running a division of a multi-trillion dollar company is easy, without even telling how "to run things better".

Yeah, no shit. Saying "do better" is always easy, but at least back it up with some ideas about the right thing to do given the circumstances for debate sake. Of course that the lay-off suck. I know it's terrible to everyone involved, and I hated that they did it to Tango and even Arkane Austin (despite their misses, Prey was pretty well received, I think they had tons of potential).

But we don't know what lead to said decisions. If the company made some projections that pointed they needed to trim the fat, and that these cuts would probably be the ones that would give them the less amount of loss, then what you expect that they would do?

Managing a division of a trillion dollar company can't be easy, but it's a lot easier than running it without the trillion dollars behind you. Ask Sega.

Saying in one breath that they have a trillion dollars and in the next that they need to cut losses by closing the studio that delivered their biggest recent hit is nonsensical. Maybe we don't know exactly what happened, but we know management dun fucked up somewhere.

IMO this is really about Satya taking the reins from Phil after the acquisition because he was tired of waiting for results, so we have a completely new strategy that doesn't include Tango anymore. But even in that scenario, Phil was an idiot whose boss had to take over.
 

VAVA Mk2

Member
I would rather see the end of 343i than Tango's. No doubt. Except that this would also lead to lay-offs, and that also would suck for people involved.

But they most certainly don't close 343i because it has the potential to make much more money to them than Tango, specially after the master mind behind it left the studio.

And didn't they recently make some changes at 343 too?
Most of the shitty people left (Bonnie Ross and Frank O'Connor). They are hiring up again as they work on Halo 7 and the rumored Halo 1-3 remakes. Rumor is Marcus Lehto (co-creator of Halo and Master Chief) is going to work at 343i and work on Halo once again...
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Microsoft: We need more Games (2018)

Microsoft: We bought Bethesda for more games (2020)

Microsoft: We love HiFi Rush it's a great game (2023)

Microsoft: We need to run a business so we shut down studios that don't sell many games (2024)

....

Why did you buy the studios then if you're going to cut and run after 1 failure partially caused by GamePass?
Don't think it was just one failure, Evil Within 2 sales figures from a Steam leak were pretty dire.
I don't know why they wouldn't eat the cost of running a studio that was producing well reviewed games, but as a pure numbers decision it probably made sense.
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
Most of the shitty people left (Bonnie Ross and Frank O'Connor). They are hiring up again as they work on Halo 7 and the rumored Halo 1-3 remakes. Rumor is Marcus Lehto (co-creator of Halo and Master Chief) is going to work at 343i and work on Halo once again...
Exactly. So it seems to me they're fed up with 343 low performance and actually making something about it too. Which, in this case, definitely feels like the right thing to do imo.
 
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