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How would you rate Phil Spencer as VP of Xbox so far?

How would you rate his work?

  • Excellent

    Votes: 113 34.8%
  • Good

    Votes: 60 18.5%
  • Decent

    Votes: 64 19.7%
  • Bad

    Votes: 53 16.3%
  • Awful

    Votes: 35 10.8%

  • Total voters
    325
the-geek-phil-spencer-xbox-series-x.jpg


Has he done a good enough job or would you prefer that he be replaced? Hope my pros and cons are relatively unbiased. If other good points are made among the replies I will add them.

+ Game Pass provides cheap access to all first party games day 1 and a steady supply of third party games.
+ Oversaw a very ambitious backward compatibility initiative.
+ All first party games come to PC and Game Pass can be streamed to Android and eventually other platforms.
+ Oversaw the creation of some popular and/or good games like Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon, Master Chief Collection, Ori, Sunset Overdrive.
+ Purchased Mojang, Bethesda and lots of other studios with upcoming games like Elder Scrolls, Starfield, Fable, Avowed, Hellblade.
+ The One X is the most powerful current gen console and the Series X is the most powerful next gen console.
+ Provides free cloud saves for all users.

+- Series S provides a cheap entry point to the next generation, but there is some worry that it will hold back the Series X or that S games will perform badly in the latter part of the generation.
+- Series X controller lacks innovation, but the console is compatible with XB1 controllers.
+- Has encouraged cross gen games which would not take full advantage of next gen hardware.

- A general lack of high profile exclusives during the current generation and the first year of the Series X, in particular the cinematic type experiences that Sony provides.
- Halo 5 has not been as well received as the Bungie games, MCC started out as a mess, and Halo Infinite has a troubled development.
- Gears games have not had the same impact as during the 360 generation.
- Still unknown whether some of the new studios will be able to match the quality of Sony’s studios.
- Has no direct answer to the $400 PS5 DE.
- No direct answer to PS Plus Collection.
- SSD will be slower than in the PS5.
 

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
10/10

convinced me to ditch Playstation after 25 years.

i don't mean that as trolling. i'm deadly serious. i've owned every Playstation since 1995 and this is the first time I'll be getting an Xbox instead of Playstation. Xbox will have the exclusives that interest me, better backwards compatibility, better performance over PS5, the better controller, and Game Pass.

Xbox OG didn't interest me. all my friends had a 360 but wasnt for me. i laughed at the XB1 when it was released. but for the Series X? yeah i'm on board.
 
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GHG

Gold Member
Snake oil salesman.

His cheerleaders do a better job than he does.

If he had come after Moore instead of Mattrick he would be judged accurately. But since people needed hope after Mattrick and he's a master of PR spin which has meant people have taken to him.

If we judge him on results rather than his words then he has failed.
 
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Desudzer10

Member
Everything that they've done after E3 2013 has been as pretty damn good. The elephant in the room will always be more new and better exclusives, but to me that's all Xbox lacks.
 

GHG

Gold Member
provide an example of this.

how about we wait until 2022 and see how your little prediction works out?

For me it's not so much as whether there will be games. With the number of studios he has at his disposal it would be impossible for there not to be games.

IMO the most important thing is the quality of said games and whether they are consistently up to the standards that we have come to expect from platform holders over the years.

So it's now a case of wait and see.
 
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Its a step up from the historically bad Xbone launch. But still awful. He had one job. Make it about the games. Unfortunately he made it about raw horse power, access to old games, and mediocre backwards compatibility for those old games. Perhaps he bet too much that 3rd party would cover the showcase games and the horse power would make them best on Xbox. If that's true he should have done more to make that vision happen. I think they really needed Halo and Forza. Neither were ready to be shown. Halo has obviously been mismanaged and he is responsible.

I have preordered both because I can easily afford to do so and love all games. (Also couldn't secure a 3090) Not a fanboy of any platform. Well Dreamcast maybe... but thats besides the point ;) If I had to choose only one console for Year 1. I wouldn't even sweat it at all. I'd choose a PS5. And for many reasons, but especially the lineup. Spencer have been outplayed by the incumbant. I don't have inside information as to what happened but from my perspective on the outside, I would replace him if I was Nadella.
 

turtlepowa

Banned
How about you write your own instead?
Not a fan of making a poll and literally telling people with a list that (in this case) the only real option is something in the middle, so i would have stopped right after the question if i expected objective results.
 
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Codes 208

Member
provide an example of this.

how about we wait until 2022 and see how your little prediction works out?
Crackdown 3 is a prime example of this. Took years for it to finally come out after the hype he gave for it and it ended up a shitshow. Even halo, their flagship series, isn’t immune to this. we waited years for infinite and now the wait awkwardly continues due to the general mismanagement of the series.

so yeah, I *could* wait until 2022 and see if he actually delivers (Which I would say he hasn’t so far) or I could just play exclusive games on playstation next month knowing there’s already a slew of expected high end exclusives down the line like Horizon 2 and GoW5


For me it's not so much as whether there will be games. With the number of studios he has at his disposal it would be impossible for there not to be games.

IMO the most important thing is the quality of said games and whether they are consistently up to the standards that we have come to expect from platform holders over the years.

So it's now a case of wait and see.
Yeah that’s the general premise of my joke. We got games, but nothing that I would call system seller aside from gears. And gears 5 wasn’t even that good (and I loved 1-4)
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
I love him when he’s working, but I can’t stand him when he’s speaking. We’re at the point where you literally cannot trust a word out of his mouth. I don’t know how shareholders don’t drag him over the coals.

I think the last few years of Xbox, minus some Series X promotional/first party struggles, speak for themselves. They’ve turned things around in a huge way.
 
He had one job. Make it about the games. Unfortunately he made it about raw horse power
I'd have to agree. I feel like he really took all the whining about XB1 games having lower resolution than PS4 to heart and focused too much on 4K and most powerful yada yada for the One X and Series X.

There are still plenty of promising upcoming Xbox games, but they are very late.
 

Allforce

Member
Has always come across as the kind of guy who chews out a barista at Starbucks because his coffee takes too long.

Never understood the appeal other than "he's not Don Mattrick".

Basically goes for every XBox exec, a bunch of 50 year olds wearing leather jackets and skinny jeans on stage trying to be the cool aunt/uncle.
 

Mmnow

Member
Are we talking about the Phil Spencer who actually exists, or the Guy Fawkes dummy that has been created here?

I'm happy with the direction Xbox is going in. It makes it a true competitor to Sony in the way the Xbox One couldn't be, but also a force pushing the gaming industry forward. In a way that will be beneficial? Time will tell, but the very act of moving is positive.

The games situation at launch is unfortunate, but overblown. I have enough games on both systems to keep me going for years - something shiny would've been nice, but those will come.

I think he suffers from too much enthusiasm for his product, which sometimes means it gets oversold. This is a problem with Xbox overall, but it's also a problem with how they're viewed. I don't think they realise the mind gap between themselves and Sony in terms of the lengths people will go to defend Sony and attack Xbox. Sony gets the benefit of the doubt where Xbox doesn't and they constantly fall victim to this. This is something they need to handle internally but haven't.

Gamepass is a stroke of genius. There's no two ways about it. It gets downplayed by a very small majority, but there's a reason it's increasingly popular among just devs and customers.
 

sincarra

Member
I've completely avoided the Xbox platform since he took over, and I don't see that changing as long as he's in charge.

Xbox and early 360 were more my speed.
Same here. The original Xbox with Robbie Bach and Ed Fries and Xbox 360, when Peter Moore was in charge, are what I think about when someone says Xbox. There’s nothing currently that appeals to me or that draws me away from Nintendo or PlayStation, so for now I’ll continue to primarily play on those two platforms.
 

reinking

Gold Member
With the lack off NEW first party titles for the Series launch I can only say good. At least they were able to salvage the launch by changing the message to "generations" of games.
 

Akuji

Member
provide an example of this.

how about we wait until 2022 and see how your little prediction works out?
xD same comment. people been waiting for games since xbox one release.
everyone says give him time ... how many years did he have?
hes not doing the most terrible job, but surely he does not do a very good job either.
 

Concern

Member
I say good. He's made some good moves with the 1x and xsx development. Good on acquiring more studios and removing the tv focus.

What im not fond of is the xbox one still getting exclusives. The gamepass strategy feels forced. And I'd like if exclusives were still mostly console based.
 

Warnen

Don't pass gaas, it is your Destiny!
took Xbox One from a disastrous launch to the more powerful console last gen with the best deal in gaming. Brought console gaming day and date to pc, sitting on the most powerful next gen console, making smart purchases to shore up a lacking 1st party output. got the brigade wetting there nappies every few days.

Doing a bang up job to me
 

quest

Not Banned from OT
He has done great he found a business model that finally got the CEO and board to invest in first party studios. Once he got proper funding he has made all the right moves. Bought financial challenged studios with upside and giving them the creative freedom to do as they will. The hard part is waiting on the results ie games. It sucks the first year is empty but studios are not making quality games in 2 years. We also don't know if starfield is ready for next fall. Now they just need a few more studios to round out the diversity with a asbo and blooper type purchases.
 

Codes 208

Member
Better-than-Don-Mattrick out of 10
fixed.

Honestly this is his claim to fame and it wasn’t even that high of a bar.

though credit where it’s due I do like how ms is being more open to things like BC and crossplay. But the lack of new high budget first party games for years is what finally swept me to opting for a ps5 this coming gen.
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
Excellent. After Xbox One launch fiasco he managed to pretty much resurrect the platform as a good device to play. It could be better? Yeah, as pretty much anything... nothing is perfect unfortunately. But imo he has doing way more good choices than bad ones.
 

Kadayi

Banned
Certainly launching Xbox without any heavy hitters is not ideal, but we're living in strange times at the moment and so it is what it is. However at the same time from the outside perspective as PCMR, albeit people are reluctant to acknowledge it I think that there have been some smart moves done with both Gamepass as well as being friendly with Valve and Steam (which I'm suspecting might well manifest itself into something hardware related down the road) and albeit a lot of people are pouring scorn on the S, I'm actually thinking that the price point on that coupled with Gamepass presents a real opportunity for the Brand to expand its player base into a more casual market beyond Dude/Bros. Then you've got the developer acquisitions to consider and what that may result in. Ultimately though, we've got to wait and see and reassess in a year or so time.
 

iJudged

Banned
Aside from sporadic FUD, it's no secret Mattrick left a mess. Looking at it from that perspective, he did an excellent job, did a complete 180 and brought his vision to life, successfully and that must be recognized.

Few things to note, yes, no next gen or new games at launch, super disappointing, but I see the acquisitions and the effort and games are coming....eventually. Something I can live with as I am not a one console individual like some of you warriors, I'll have the PS5 for the exclusives and I have my PC for other things as well, and I am looking forward to firing up the multiplats on XsX, though.
 
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Hudo

Member
him giving Age of Empires support and a fair shot is something that I'll always be grateful for. Can't wait for Age 4.
 

CatLady

Selfishly plays on Xbox Purr-ies X
He has done great he found a business model that finally got the CEO and board to invest in first party studios. Once he got proper funding he has made all the right moves. Bought financial challenged studios with upside and giving them the creative freedom to do as they will. The hard part is waiting on the results ie games. It sucks the first year is empty but studios are not making quality games in 2 years. We also don't know if starfield is ready for next fall. Now they just need a few more studios to round out the diversity with a asbo and blooper type purchases.

Asobo and Bloober are 2 I really want to see and expect to see, hopefully soon - I still don't know why they aren't already part of XGS.
 
Not great in my opinion. Comfortably the worst Xbox generation out of the three so far. A lot has been said by him & others then I look at what has actually been put out there content wise and in particular compared to some of what the competition has released and it’s not been good enough too often.

I knew , the longer the generation went on , that the “wait till E3” retort would eventually be turned into something to mock and ridicule with by people. It’s like Halo Infinite and XSX, I thought it was really poor of some fellow fans to use COVID-19 as a major excuse, considering the amount of time to prepare a new consoles launch and the games, once Infinite got delayed, what else have they got in terms of big releases for launch window ? Ports of Gears Tactics day one and Flight Simulator 2021. It says a lot when a considerable amount of your news and discussion is how older titles work on the system. I’m just glad the Falconeer is there.

What irks me most is that I want him and Xbox to do well, to be the best along with Sony and Nintendo for our money. I think that’s been forgotten by some, they should be competing and striving not playing it down by dismissing it as “console wars”. Disingenuous as fk that. They forget themselves when too many put them on unnecessary pedestals.

Nothing would please me more than to see them being great again, with this guy I don’t know.
 
Phil gets the job done. The way he's able to shape Xbox brand and recapture consumer trust over the last 7years while simultaneously gradually acquiring studio after another. He's done a great job so far, it's now the studios in his possession, it's now their turn to do right by him and deliver greatness on Series X!
 
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