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Phil Spencer named Head of Xbox

Steverulez said:
His job was head of Microsoft Studios. Quantum Break and Sunset Overdrive are published by Microsoft Studios and they are first party games (you can second party for SO if you like as Insomniac own it).

MS own State of Decay... I wouldn't consider Undead Labs a third party relationship.

Titanfall/Respawn/EA would be an example of third party
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They are still third party, but are so closely tied to the IP that they won't be working on anything else any time soon...

I wouldn't be surprised if MS attempts to buy them at some point.
 
chadskin said:
He'll report to both once Elop joins Microsoft. Myerson is EVP of Operating Systems while Elop will be EVP of Devices.
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Where are you getting that? Nadella says...

Stephen will partner closely with Phil and Terry on Xbox...
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It sounds like the Xbox division is Phil > Terry > Nadella. Elop is just over the aspects of hardware like design, manufacturing, and supply chain operations. He'll have nothing to do with the strategy of Xbox, basically fulfilling the Xbox division's needs.
 
Miles Quaritch said:
They are still third party, but are so closely tied to the IP that they won't be working on anything else any time soon...

I wouldn't be surprised if MS attempts to buy them at some point.
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I edited it, I think its more akin to the definition of second party.

Multi-year multi-title deal, I doubt they are (or will be anytime soon) big enough to develop games for Microsoft and someone else.

Quantic Dreams are considered second party for Sony... same sort of deal.
 
Team Vernia said:
Why? GAF posters are usually pretty in the know about this sort of thing.
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Phil was very much involved in the original Xbox One philosophy and has been in the company forever I don't see how him getting a job that he was expected to get shakes anything up at all. Being likable doesn't mean jack imo.
 
XBLA needs a mention, games Shadow Complex, Trials, Limbo, Minecraft etc. Microsoft were right on the money back then getting the best ones.
 
LAA said:
Not the right attitude, what? (Though yeah the boos were actually overexaggerated, and they were at different points in the conference anyway)
The X1 deserved all the backlash it got, you cen debate about the "rudeness" at booing in a conference (I wouldnt do it anyway), but can't really condemn them. If it was appalaus I'm sure they'd take it, why not booing?

As for Spencer... I think he probably is the right guy for the job...in MS currently that is.
Not sure I like him so much in general though..., though I havent seen him so much tbh, so I'm not outright condemning him., maybe its just him being behing a product that just seemed against me from the start that enforces this view, but hopefully I'll see his face behind positive moves in the future.
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I can understand the backlash, but why use a public stage like E3 to show your hatred to a person or the company he/she represents? You have twitter, forums to vent your frustration.
 
Steverulez said:
His job was head of Microsoft Studios. Quantum Break and Sunset Overdrive are published by Microsoft Studios and they are first party games.

Second party relationships is how I would consider Remedy/Insomniac/Undead Labs even if MS own QB/SoD - but not SO.

MS own State of Decay... I wouldn't consider Undead Labs a third party relationship.

Titanfall/Respawn/EA would be an example of third party
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You missed the point (I know all of that). Why would he be talking about all that over the last 6 months if it's not part of his job, as implied by the people saying he was just over first party studios.

I don't think he was just over first-party output. It would seem he was involved in anything bearing the Microsoft Studios name as a publisher, but happy to be proven wrong.
 
Miles Quaritch said:
They are still third party, but are so closely tied to the IP that they won't be working on anything else any time soon...

I wouldn't be surprised if MS attempts to buy them at some point.
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They are 2. party due to the fact that Microsoft are funding the development on contract.
Edit: And they are publishing it.
 
Nibiru said:
Phil was very much involved in the original Xbox One philosophy and has been in the company forever I don't see how him getting a job that he was expected to get shakes anything up at all.
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He's reacted well to the blowup and things have changed greatly since he's had more power post-Mattrick. At least it seems that way.
 
M.Prashanth said:
I can understand the backlash, but why use a public stage like E3 to show your hatred to a person or the company he/she represents? You have twitter, forums to vent your frustration.
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because its the biggest stage of them all......you get boo'ed there you know something went terribly wrong in planning. People rage and vent on twitter all the time, guess what remember Orth? Yes, they still didn't care even after he left. It wasn't until after E3 and the huge backlach that all the reversals came about.

Also gratz to Phil he was the best person to put into the Xbox position, he understands the consumer and knows what they want.
 
Nibiru said:
Phil was very much involved in the original Xbox One philosophy and has been in the company forever I don't see how him getting a job that he was expected to get shakes anything up at all. Being likable doesn't mean jack imo.
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Eh people can change also I'm pretty sure he knows first hand just how much people hated the original XB1 vision.

It's one of the advantages of being proliferate on social media, you get to experience the backlash first hand rather than being told about it.
 
Really the only logical choice for the position. Good for him! I look forward to seeing the direction he takes Xbox in, maybe it'll even be enough for me to join their ecosystem again.
 
Halo Anniversary 2 confirmed :D

Oh congratulations on the job man...really look forward to the future of Xbox under your command
 
24731377.jpg
 
Monty Mole said:
This is the best news possible for Xbox right now IMO. Spencer is totally the right guy to drive Xbox forward and get it back on track, as he's very much in tune with what gamers want, and doesn't come across as a corporate bullshitter.

Fantastic news for Xbox and may sway me back over to the camp at some point in the future. But he's got a real mess to clean up first.
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This is me. At the moment, XB1 is the only next gen console I'm unsure if I'll ever pick up, but just having Spencer in charge makes me much more hopefully and likely to purchase down the road.
 
Paco said:
You missed the point (I know all of that). Why would he be talking about all that over the last 6 months if it's not part of his job, as implied by the people saying he was just over first party studios.

I don't think he was just over first-party output. It would seem he was involved in anything bearing the Microsoft Studios name as a publisher, but happy to be proven wrong.
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Hes not just head of Microsoft's owned studios (Rare/Lionhead etc) but he's in charge of the output from Microsoft Studios as a publisher...

The games you mentioned are all part of Microsoft Studios, even if they don't own the studios/IPs, they work on them with the development partner and he's in charge of them from that perspective.

The developers for the games you listed are "third parties" in the sense that they aren't part of Microsoft but the relationships for those developed games are not third party and come under the umbrella of Microsoft Studios, which Phil is in charge of.

Unless thats not what you mean, but I'm pretty sure we're getting at the same point.
 
Paco said:
Where are you getting that? Nadella says...

It sounds like the Xbox division is Phil > Terry > Nadella. Elop is just over the aspects of hardware like design, manufacturing, and supply chain operations. He'll have nothing to do with the strategy of Xbox, basically fulfilling what the Xbox division's needs.
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It's written in the corporate email that Phil will report to Myerson because Elop isn't part of Microsoft yet. When the Nokia acquisition is done and Elop becomes the EVP of Devices, he'll be overseeing all Microsoft hardware, including Surface, Nokia and Xbox, just like Myerson is overseeing Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox OS.

Mehdi, Peckham, Angiulo, among others > Spencer > Myerson, Elop > Nadella
 
Nibiru said:
Phil was very much involved in the original Xbox One philosophy and has been in the company forever I don't see how him getting a job that he was expected to get shakes anything up at all. Being likable doesn't mean jack imo.
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aren't there also recent quotes from him where he says that they still think the idea wasn't what was wrong just the messaging?
 
Steverulez said:
Hes not just head of Microsoft's owned studios (Rare/Lionhead etc) but he's in charge of the output from Microsoft Studios as a publisher...

The games you mentioned are all part of Microsoft Studios, even if they don't own the studios/IPs, they work on them with the development partner and he's in charge of them from that perspective.

The developers for the games you listed are "third parties" in the sense that they aren't part of Microsoft but the relationships for those developed games are not third party and come under the umbrella of Microsoft Studios, which Phil is in charge of.

Unless thats not what you mean, but I'm pretty sure we're getting at the same point.
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You and I are on the same page. My response was to the people suggesting he was only responsible for the first-party studios (see a1right's post, which was missing a bunch of games Microsoft has published). I'm pretty certain he was over all Microsoft Studios publishing, or at least more than just first-party studio output.

chadskin said:
It's written in the corporate email that Phil will report to Myerson because Elop isn't part of Microsoft yet. When the Nokia acquisition is done and Elop becomes the EVP of Devices, he'll be overseeing all Microsoft hardware, including Surface, Nokia and Xbox, just like Myerson is overseeing Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox OS.

Mehdi, Peckham, Angiulo, among others > Spencer > Myerson, Elop > Nadella
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It says very clearly that he will report to Myerson and partner with Elop.

For example, I report to a VP in my current position, but I partner with (and actually work more with) a VP of another team to get a lot of the things I need from her team. At the end of the day I'm accountable to/report only to my VP. So long as she buys into the strategy for my team the other VP I partner with has to figure out how to deliver what we need.

Perhaps you have different experience, but I've never seen an organization where you report to more than one person.

EDIT: Really don't want to debate it. My original response was in regards to a person who said that reporting to Elop still made the situation uncertain. He clearly doesn't have Elop behind enough of the division to do anything harmful. In fact, I'm optimistic given Elop's ability to make Lumia such a great piece of hardware for relatively low cost.
 
Nibiru said:
I get the feeling that most people saying how great this is don't actually know why it's so great lol.
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and yet...

Nibiru said:
Phil was very much involved in the original Xbox One philosophy and has been in the company forever I don't see how him getting a job that he was expected to get shakes anything up at all. Being likable doesn't mean jack imo.
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just becaue he was invovled before doesnt mean that he had ultimate say in things concerning xbox. By putting him in power he will be able to do things that he just couldnt do before hand.

If people were expecting him to get the job then your "feeling" that most dont knwo why its great is premature.
 
Nibiru said:
Phil was very much involved in the original Xbox One philosophy and has been in the company forever I don't see how him getting a job that he was expected to get shakes anything up at all. Being likable doesn't mean jack imo.
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Mattrick had a huge say in the direction Xbox One took. For all we know, behind closed doors, a lot of employees might have been very against it.
 
Very good news indeed, I've liked all his interventions in the past. Congratulations Mr. Spencer.:)
 
Yusuf Mehdi who leads business strategy and marketing for Xbox.

Yusuf was working on MSN and various windows platform before.

and judging by Yusuf's recent appearances I dont think he understands the market as well as phil does and shares the sames passions as the core gamers.

I really dont understand how a guy can be head of strategy and marketing for a product the he does not love himself.

I dont know maybe Yusuf is an avid gamer, but judging by his work history and just the way he speaks about the Xbox One he does not seem to be an avid gamer at all.

I believe if you want to form a strategy and market a product you have to be passionate and extremely knowledge about the sector that product is in.

After all

would you trust

a chef that does not like food
a car sales person who knows nothing about cars
or a personal trainer who does not work out, etc etc


Maybe in a company as big as Microsoft maybe Yusuf's role is more to delegate and pick what talent goes where and the actually advertising and strategy are done by people who Yusuf thinks are best suited to the job?
 
Definitely a good choice to head xbox. It may take some time but I think Phil will get the xbox division back on track.
 
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