Microsoft: Studios Like LittleBigPlanet's Media Molecule Make The Industry Better.
Was Phil Spencer good for Xbox? Whatever you think of the retiring boss’s decade-plus tenure, there was rarely a dull moment.
You don't get rid of big portions of a division to replace them to do the same thing. MS has been critical of Xbox for a few years now.
As a Sony fan, I hope they can bring competition back to Sony because I think Sony have become very complacent the generation. They haven't had time try and whilst there's been a few good exclusives, nothing on the level or as memorable as previous PS generations.
I disagree with your blanket statement but overall yeah I think they need to step up more. However, I’m not sure that has anything with xbox but rather with the disruptions we had at the beginning of the generation. Covid, and then the shortage in chips, then the ram…
Yes the industry and it's workforce thank Phil for the massive industry consolidation, thousands fired and still being fired because of MS buyups and for making people like Bobby Kotick even richer.
Thats true. Bobby did get a little richer. But name a CEO who isn't rich or getting richer. When I look around the industry I see a bunch of people getting fired. Not just from Microsoft. That is, unless you think the devs from Bluepoint deserved to be fired. Unfortunately, things like this will continue to happen whether you like it or not.
Can you list other companies that are doing mass layoffs because of spending $80 billion on massive industry consolidation? Can you list other companies that purchased two of the largest publishers to make the industry less competitive?
Your fangirling over MS's corporate greed doesn't work on me kid, it does expose you though.
Was he? It became slightly better after he took over, but it turned in to a gen of just halo gears and forza. And he tried to monopolise massive parts of the industry with ridiculous acquisitions that ironically lead to the opposite, a near complete collapse of xbox console sales, and putting their tentpole IPs everywhere, all but abandoning xbox consoles going forward for a PC disguised like one.
Id say his legacy is complicated, but if you focus on all the bad and ignore the positive things anyone can seem bad. He did have some positive impacts on the xbox platform.
Launched and grew Gamepass-
Invested in backwards compatibilty enabling thousands of older titles to play on modern hardware-
Grew the xbox box first party lineup
Brought xbox into the PC space
Hardware and feature improvements for xbox consoles
Pushed for cross-play support
And there's more but if you asked xbox gamers they'd say that he is viewed as overall a positive thing for the brand. No one expects non xbox gamers to say many positive things about him or the brand. Project Helix happened under his leadership and that is seen as a positive for the brand too.
Launching and growing Gamepass as a positive? When it was $1 absolutely! This is also what fueled the death of Xbox as the standard living room console
Agree. With how XBox imploded after the attempt to monopolize the industry, and one of the worst launches of a new console, we might be edging to Phil being a disaster to Xbox in the long run.
Big changes are being made at the top of Microsoft's gaming division.
MS knack for one upping bad news from other companies so soon afterwards is pretty astounding lol. Can't say I'm surprised though, this gen has been dreadful for the xbox brand.
Being replaced by an AI boss exec though, yikes.
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I always had this theory that they both wait to see if the other announces something bad so they can announce their bad thing, thus the two talking points bleed together enough to cause overall confusion online.
It then becomes just a big bad thing for the industry rather than a specific company. Wouldn't be surprised if Ubisoft were up next again at this point.
Huh... well that is sure interesting.
@crash, is it bad news though? I mean many here have said he needed to leave... now he and Bond are leaving. That should be good news to some.
It's more the fact the person incharge of AI being taking over. That's a very deliberate decision.
Xbox fans have wanted Phil gone for a long time he's probably the least favourite exec of all time behind matrick purely because uber his leadership he decived fans and took the Xbox brand multiplatform
Considering MS's obsession with ai, this is probably a demotion for her. Still, I enjoy poking fun at Spencer but ultimately it's sad to see him go, he's made mistakes for sure but I think he genuinely cared about the Xbox brand. Sharma seems very corporate to me and certainly not the Spencer replacement Xbox fans would have hoped for.
Replies(7)I'm convinced "early retirement" is just them wanting to save both themselves the embarrassment and them getting forced out without the drama.
You bow out naturally while we make it all look like it's part of the plan, both of us look as competent as we can make out during the fallout
Jim Ryan was the exactly the same.
Replies(1)“ Phil has 3 days to clean out his office?”
Why spread fake news? The press release clearly says that Phil and Sarah are staying on throughout the summer to advise the new person.
Sammy: "Sony disastrously and disgracefully shuttered Texas-based fan favourite Bluepoint yesterday. The long-time PS Studios partner never got a chance to ship a game under its new parent company.
This news hit me particularly hard because I believe it reflects the erosion of once-great PlayStation management that I think we’ve all been feeling for quite some time."
How was this allowed to happen? A studio know for excellent remakes and remasters were put on a GOW live service game? Something nobody wanted? There are so many other, more interesting projects, for me they were the prime studio who should have remastered or remade Bloodborne, what an absolute waste, I'm really annoyed about this.
Hulst should have followed Jim Ryan out the door, especially after his failed concord brainchild, execs really do only fail upwards.
You say "no body wanted" but we don't actually know if the Devs were the ones to pitch it. For all we know
If that was the case you would have thought Sony would have told Bluepoint no & had them make the God Of War trilogy remake instead while having Santa Monica Studios concentrate on the next God Of War & what ever else they're working on. A Bloodborne remake/remaster would have definitely printed Sony millions. It seems the upper management doesn't care what the fans think including them making awful business decisions. To take Bluepoint under their wing for 5 years & dismantle them is crazy work, Sony should have auctioned Bluepoint off to to a company that could really use them.
If the really did pitch it then they would have wanted their own IP for being a brand new game, not using someone else’s IP when it’s not a remake this time.
I mean I guess, but doubt that a small team of 70 wanted to do a live service game, I don't buy it personally, but we'll never 100% know.
i think you are half right. sony became hyper-focused on live service games and given that, studios would then pitch live service games because those projects were the most likely to be greenlit by the higher ups. now, as for what the hell bluepoint was working on since their god of war game was cancelled is beyond me. it's just increasingly frustrating when sony just announced a god of remake which is still in its infancy when bluepoint could have been working on it for years and likely would have shipped it by now.
We had a god of war mp in the past and it didn’t do well back then with less competition so doubtful people wanted a live service game especially from devs that made some top tier remakes
Copium like this is the reason they're in this position. Sony could do no wrong and when something did go wrong, it's never the corporate suits at sony who are to blame.....its either: devs bad or ms/phil spencer bad while their own backyard is on fire. This is the result of not caring what your fav company does just because another company does (way) worse and automatically condoning everything. I hope they can turn it around without having to fuck over their customers more because especially some of the games on ps1 through ps3 were absolutely amazing.
Can't really say im surprised it's gotten to this point although I didn't expect them to close Bluepoint who has always delivered stellar work.
The devs didn’t pitch it. It’s already been discussed publicly. They had literally just started on a new undisclosed project they were still in the initial ideas phase when they were asked to stop and do GoW instead.
Love the downvotes considering it's since become public knowledge that yes bluepoint DID infact pitch the god of war game. They also eventually pitched a Bloodborne remake but from software torpedoed the project, sadly.
Everyone keeps asking for a Bloodborne remaster or remake — a game that genuinely deserves preservation and modernization. Instead, we got a remake of The Last of Us and then a remaster of The Last of Us Part II, both of which were already recent and widely available. That decision feels tone-deaf. It’s hard not to question priorities when so many legacy titles are untouched.
Bluepoint built its reputation on honoring PlayStation’s history. They were masters at remakes and remasters. There is an entire catalog — from PS1, PS2, and PS3 eras — that fans would celebrate. Yet instead of leveraging that strength, they were redirected toward live service ambitions. Six years later, there’s nothing to show, and now the studio is gone. That’s not just disappointing — it feels like wasted potential.
Sony Bend is another example. Days Gone 2 wasn’t greenlit, and the studio was reportedly shifted toward live service. Years later, that project was canceled, and they’re back at square one. That’s years of development time lost in a generation that already feels light on first-party output.
What’s even more concerning is the broader shift. PlayStation used to thrive on bold, risk-taking single-player projects and strong Japanese creative influence. Now the strategy appears more Western-focused and heavily driven by the live service model — where multiple failures are acceptable as long as one becomes a breakout success.
Competition used to push Sony to take creative risks. The PS3 vs. Xbox 360 era forced innovation. Today, Xbox has shifted direction, Nintendo operates independently in its own lane, and Sony doesn’t feel the same competitive pressure. Without that tension, the urgency to push boundaries seems diminished.
The frustration many fans feel isn’t just about one remake or one canceled project — it’s about a sense that PlayStation’s identity is drifting. And while loyalty is natural, defending every decision without criticism doesn’t help the platform grow.
It’s not anger because we hate PlayStation. It’s frustration because we care about what it used to represent
Jack tretton
Shawn laden
Andrew house
Kaz
Shu Yoshida
These people aren't walking through the doors anymore
It does concern me that they think closing amazing studios like Bluepoint and Japan Studios is smart.
I'm honestly surprised Media Molecule is still around. They put out what 1 game in the past 10+ years? I personally wasn't interested in Dreams, so they have been a wash for me since the PS3 era. Are they working on a new game? What are they doing?
I immediately recalled when they shut down Japan Studio. I don’t understand why any studio would agree to be acquired by Sony, EA, or Microsoft with their history of studio closures.
Because of money. Most game studios need financial backing in order to develop games.
Frustrating news, for sure. Hulst is on a major losing streak. Baffling decisions....
They could of let them do a Remakes of Sly, Jak and Daxter maybe the old Killzone games. Ported Demon Souls to other platforms. Steady revenue for growth becoming a 70 team to 100+ eventually.
Precisely! PlayStation have a rich back catalogue that is screaming out for a talented team like those at Bluepoint to work their magic upon.
Such wasted potential. And a terrible thing to happen to those talented workers at Bluepoint.
Demon's Souls remake was the gateway to FromSoft games for me. I'd fully beaten Bloodborne, but had struggled to get into Dark Souls. Demon's Souls - as a launch title - showed me how these games are meant to be played.
As a PS Fan and someone that looks to new exsperiences not rehashing old ones I can feel for the devs but it does not move the needle as far as getting new video games.
is MM owned by sony? cuz i wouldn't want M$ buying them
And yet MS was not interested in LBP at the time...
Sick of getting linked to twitter.
i really love their live slide show they did in the day ps4 launch and kaz keynote, hope sony will do this again at E3 this year
Yep why project spark about.