Microsoft Xbox Division Head Phil Spencer is speaking a panel at GDC in San Francisco on the future of gaming across Microsoft's ecosystem.
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.
Frontier Developments has showcased the first iteration of the roadmap of content and features coming to Elite Dangerous in 2026.
Is this MS's answer to No Man's Sky?
Very interested to see how these types of games are played. Good to see that consoles are starting to get these PC type of games as in branching out instead of the regular FPS we seem to always get.
Will have to try this out when it comes to Xbox One.
Hope this comes to Morpheus next year. I believe it was designed for VR.
I don't understand why they would release first on the console that have millions less users? Money have most likely changed hands here..