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[Kotaku] It's Time To Stop Giving Xbox Boss Phil Spencer A Pass

xHunter

Member
Phil bros its getting worse
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Threadworthy? adamsapple adamsapple you doing the honor?
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
I still think he's the best man for the job right now. Xbox is in uncharted territory in terms of transitioning from being a platform holder, running a major sub, planning a PC UI, all while a lot of customer demographic and development cost elements in gaming are just as rapidly shifting for everyone. They're literally in the middle of a transformation of every aspect of their business, that he's executing. Would be pretty ridiculous to put in a new person in the middle of that. Not sure what anyone realistically expects to happen there.

Tango will go down as the worst thing under his tenure though. Even the Xbox console dying itself is not that big a deal when they'll be positioned on PC.

Once they've transitioned to a fully 3rd party publisher, it's not going to really matter who runs it. Every 3rd party publisher CEO is the same. Profit driven entirely, and looks to new trends. That's all that will be left to do and they'll get someone else.
 
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FunkMiller

Gold Member
"I see a lot of shots at Adolf over today's national socialist party announcements. I get it. But knowing him as a human, I know this hurts him as much as anyone else. I can't speak for all of the leadership there, but I do know him and I do know what he is likely going through."
 

Husky

THE Prey 2 fanatic
Phil shut down Roundhouse Studios. My Prey hopes have been killed again. Fuck this man.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
You really think things will improve when Sarah Bond inevitably takes over?
There is no other path for any CEO of any gaming company, including PS. Cut costs, put out GAAS games, try to release on more platforms. Not sure what anyone thinks is going to happen. There's broader industry trends going on. It'll hit the weaker companies first, but it's hitting everything. There's no magic CEO way out of it. So yeah, I agree.
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
Who the fuck was still giving this guy passes in the first place?

The entire Xbox brand is in shambles. Complete disarray. How is he even still employed?

I don't care what a nice guy he is, he tanked it. He's the CEO, man. It's on him, all of it.
And it crossed nobody's mind that Spencer might have been put in place to oversee the transition to 3rd party publishing, with the possibility of maybe lasting one more gen after this one?

Everything that has happened since he took over alluded to everything we have seen happening the past year or so.
 
I still think he's the best man for the job right now. Xbox is in uncharted territory in terms of transitioning from being a platform holder, running a major sub, planning a PC UI, all while a lot of customer demographic and development cost elements in gaming are just as rapidly shifting for everyone. They're literally in the middle of a transformation of every aspect of their business, that he's executing. Would be pretty ridiculous to put in a new person in the middle of that. Not sure what anyone realistically expects to happen there.

Tango will go down as the worst thing under his tenure though. Even the Xbox console dying itself is not that big a deal when they'll be positioned on PC.

Once they've transitioned to a fully 3rd party publisher, it's not going to really matter who runs it. Every 3rd party publisher CEO is the same. Profit driven entirely, and looks to new trends. That's all that will be left to do and they'll get someone else.


They should have been competing far better than what they have been in terms of games , hardware and features. It’s none sense when people say they could not compete with PlayStation, they can and should have been. It’s a people problem.

You look at the 360 how ahead they were in console online and user experience and actually had games for those experiences to compliment the content.

Now look at it, it’s no where what it should be.

They had a shit generation with the Xbox One , so what did they do? Launch a console with a shit name, a bland design and a user experience barely an improvement on its predecessor all the while using their media allies to big up backwards compatibility because they had no launch line up of a showcase title.

Look at that showing for Halo Infinite, clueless, and then they tried to blame the difficulties of the pandemic for that poor showing when the pandemic lockdowns had been in effect for barely a handful of months.

As Xbox fans we should be calling these things out. One thing I will say about some PlayStation fans is they wouldn’t have tolerated half the shit under this guys “leadership”. No chance.
 

onQ123

Member
Phil isn't the problem this is just the way the cookie crumbles. Kinect was going to save Xbox but they gave up on it now Alexa & Hey Google ( Echo & Nest Hub) has taking over the spot Xbox could have been in
 

NickFire

Member
The outlet is correct that its time to stop giving him a pass. I still find it odd that they are continuing to praise his big idea in the face of these closures. I believe there's a fair question regarding the correlation of the big idea to these layoffs. I don't profess to know the answer to the question. But it is hard to take certain claims seriously, about profitability, record engagement, blah blah blah. A whole lot of people are getting laid off despite what felt like nothing but success in public facing comments, in my humble opinion.
 

iHaunter

Member
I’m glad someone is making an article finally even if it is shitty ass kotaku.

This guy single handedly killed the Xbox brand. Straight up.

This is Xbox’s year, every year, and it never happens.

Under him:
Gears of War died (maybe it’ll be back with rumored gears 6)
Halo (he definitely should’ve canned 343i and given the IP to a smarter hungry team)
Forza (rushed the latest in a shit state)
Fable (go see lady character face image)

This man got a boner for 33 shit sentinels or whatever the game is instead of getting into wtf is going on at the above studios and getting them to launch the core IPs for the brand in tip top shape.

Fuck Phil.
Not single handedly. Who was that clown that launched Xbox One?
 
Kotaku is about 5 years late to the party. 5 years ago, you could clearly see this guy didn't know what he was doing and he was going to kill xbox. I mean, just the way the series x was released should have gotten him fired. Releases a console with no new games, no new ui, no new controller, etc. Dude failed badly.
 

coffinbirth

Member
Say what you want, but he's probably the only reason Xbox still exists, let alone has a future at all. Sure, many will say that would've been for the best, but then where would we be? The industry would be even worse, IMHO.

I'm sure that if Phil had his druthers, stuff like this would never happen and sales milestones wouldn't matter...but he, like most, is beholden to his corporate overlords as much as the next guy. So go ahead, fire the motherfucker,but if you think the person that would be replacing him would be any better or somehow convince Microsoft that profits don't matter, you're delusional, at best. GamePass was a Hail Mary not only for Xbox, but the obviously untenable state of AAA games publishing as well.

Megacorporations and investor groups are playing monopoly with ALL forms of entertainment these days, not just gaming...and the results are sterile, soulless products bereft of the art portion of the form. Reminds me of old Hollywood and the CBS Records era of music. They were buying up the art, artists and even the goddamned instruments they were being played on. The suits are running the show. This is peak capitalism. AI is The Beatles now.

The industry (world) is fucked, writ large.

Luckily the artform is not dead, nor is the passion of the people that create and enjoy it.

Speak with your wallet.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
Phil aside and I'm not sure if Sony have an equivalent but they need someone to oversee all their studio's and their content.

Spider-Man 2 looked great but Sony take no prisoners telling the lead guy that it's not up to scratch and pull their finger out.

Xbox to me seems like 'too friendly' to studio's and end up accepting a bit of mediocrity instead of having the balls to say this is a flagship IP, fucking improve it now.
 

Crayon

Member
Little late to start holding him accountable.

Everyone who put in overtime to pretend things were not just fine, but *great*, for the last decade is finally seeing the payoff for their service.
 
If Phil has integrity at all, he should step down right now and cast the blame for this on Satya Nadella and Amy Hood, the only 2 people at Microsoft who could have overrode him on this decision. If he doesn't, that tells me he made this decision and that his words were lies all along. Personally I always suspected he was a liar, always did give me used car salesman vibes, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for a long time. That benefit ends now.

Preach GIF by Harlem
 
Phil aside and I'm not sure if Sony have an equivalent but they need someone to oversee all their studio's and their content.

Spider-Man 2 looked great but Sony take no prisoners telling the lead guy that it's not up to scratch and pull their finger out.

Xbox to me seems like 'too friendly' to studio's and end up accepting a bit of mediocrity instead of having the balls to say this is a flagship IP, fucking improve it now.

That's the former Turn 10 studio head who's supposed to be doing that.

Failing upwards
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
Somebody literally needs to ask Phil what his excuse would be for buying all these companies that produce little to no games and doesn't know what to do with the studio that they bought. And why were people of cheerleading when they bought these other big corporations like activision? Too busy wanting to lick the boots of your favorite platform older and I realize what's best for the industry specially when it comes to one of the platform holders that is the worst. That's your Microsoft.
 
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