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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
Voted awful.

Used-car salesman vibe in every interview, with carefully worded lies as his fallback. He's a phenomenal bullshitter. But once you realize that he's had power over games at Xbox for almost a decade now, his new good-guy image falls flat.

I honestly commend the Xbox team for being able to undo (roughly) 50% of the damage that Philip Spencer, Don Mattrick, Yusuf Mehdi, and Aaron Greenberg did. But I can't even begin to imagine how people working there feel when they see that the guy who put Xbox on life support is now being hailed as a hero of the brand. It's probably the same vibe that Starlight and the rest of The Seven have when they see Homelander cheesing on TV.
 
D

Deleted member 801069

Unconfirmed Member
10/10 for the purchase of Bethesda alone
 
It's alright, your Xbox will still work tomorrow, you will be ok.
I know it will, the only Xbox that really had issues was the 360.

That aside, how can you even say that about Phil? He's done a lot, even for PS diehards like yourself.



Not that you play Minecraft, but the gesture is there. He's going to honour Deathloop and Ghostwire too when he could whip them straight off of PS at any time he wants. He has also basically quadrupled the amount of studios Xbox had since he took over. That alone ensures Xbox will have a constant stream on exisitng and brand new IP for many gens to come.

Look i get it, Xbox hasn't been stellar on its game output since the 360, but you're being a tad harsh for no reason other than to be edgy. He's had to sort out a lot of the mess that was left behind, and it's not his fault that Xbox is where it is. Anyone looking objectively can see Xbox has hit a turning point. It will take time for the big hitters to come, but they will and they'll be coming thick and fast once those studios are firing on all cylinders.
 

longdi

Banned
Took Xbox One from failed start, from brand reset, to the biggest competitor going forward, starts with massive advantage over the mega-tech entrants from Google,Amazon,FB,Tencent etc.

Has convince Sadeya to splash the cash, gaming has a future in MS. Gamepass is the future, and boy the work done on maintaining that ecosystem, no one comes close.

Aim to always have the most powerful console, not beaten on price and timings. Brave enough to launch a second lower power console, unheard of before.

10 years on, Phil will be regarded as the visionary that started the next evolution of gaming business model.

What more can you say? 🤷‍♀️
 
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GHG

Gold Member
I know it will, the only Xbox that really had issues was the 360.

That aside, how can you even say that about Phil? He's done a lot, even for PS diehards like yourself.



Not that you play Minecraft, but the gesture is there. He's going to honour Deathloop and Ghostwire too when he could whip them straight off of PS at any time he wants. He has also basically quadrupled the amount of studios Xbox had since he took over. That alone ensures Xbox will have a constant stream on exisitng and brand new IP for many gens to come.

Look i get it, Xbox hasn't been stellar on its game output since the 360, but you're being a tad harsh for no reason other than to be edgy. He's had to sort out a lot of the mess that was left behind, and it's not his fault that Xbox is where it is. Anyone looking objectively can see Xbox has hit a turning point. It will take time for the big hitters to come, but they will and they'll be coming thick and fast once those studios are firing on all cylinders.


He was there even throughout the Mattrick era. To make matters worse he was head of Xbox games studios during the Mattricks era. Everything that has happened with Xbox's first party for the best part of a decade lies soley at his feet. He's had time to sort it out but he didn't and now he's resorting to throwing cash at externally established studios to try and remedy the problem. It's a shame his charisma with the press hasn't rubbed off internally with the studios he's been tasked with managing this whole time.

Mattrick was just the fall guy, he didn't create the mess on his own.
 
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He was there even throughout the Mattrick era. To make matters worse he was head of Xbox games studios during the Mattricks era. Everything that has happened with Xbox's first party for the best part of a decade lies soley at his feet. He's had time to sort it out but he didn't and now he's resorting to throwing cash at externally established studios to try and remedy the problem. It's a shame his charisma with the press doesn't rub off internally with the studios he's been tasked with managing this whole time.

Mattrick was just the fall guy, he didn't create the mess on his own.

He might've be the head of XGS, but that does not mean he had the final say, not even close. For a start, the Microsoft CEO had final say, and Mattrick was the head of Xbox overall and had more say than Phil. It's a bit disingenous to suggest otherwise.

I'm not sure you understand how company structure works, he wasn't just allowed to go buying whatever he wants and greenlighting this and that. That's just not how it worked at the time. Even when Phil took over, he didn't have full say over Xbox until Nadella promoted him further.

Now that he DOES have final say, you can clearly see the changes coming, and he has the full backing of the CEO whereas with Balmer, he didn't.

Am i supposed to be sad that he's buying studios? Who cares? it means financial stability for those studios and more games for me, you just sound salty as fuck over it.

Notice how you don't complain about Sony buying ND or Insomniac or any of the other studios they bought, you're still licking their boots and doing pr for them.
 
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GHG

Gold Member
He might've be the head of XGS, but that does not mean he had the final say, not even close. For a start, the Microsoft CEO had final say, and Mattrick was the head of Xbox overall and had more say than Phil. It's a bit disingenous to suggest otherwise.

I'm not sure you understand how company structure works, he wasn't just allowed to go buying whatever he wants and greenlighting this and that. That's just not how it worked at the time. Even when Phil took over, he didn't have full say over Xbox until Nadella promoted him further.

Now that he DOES have final say, you can clearly see the changes coming, and he has the full backing of the CEO whereas with Balmer, he didn't.

It's not about greenlighting anything, it's about optimally managing what you already have.

He failed to do so and the result was a generation of (mostly) stinkers from Xbox game studios and a few high profile closures/cancellations. I'm not expecting him to have been perfect with his management, that's not realistic and nobody ever gets it 100% right but he didn't get enough right and the results prove that.

My biggest hope with the new studios he's acquired is that he actually just stays the fuck away from them and allows them to retain their individual company cultures while allowing them to make the games they've always been passionate about making.
 

Njocky

Banned
What matters is what Nadella thinks of him and I'm willing to bet that he will be moving on to bigger things at MS before the end of this gen.
He's taken Xbox to a point where his successor would just have to come in, follow the established strategy and not get caught with cocaine in his car to do well.
 
Bad.

Not the worst head honcho they've had, but he's been promising to turn around Xbox first party games for almost a decade now, with nothing to show for it.

Meanwhile we've had loot boxes in forza, Halo going to shit, multiplatform studios being bought out rather than new studios created, adoption of subscript services that have fostered a 'it doesn't matter if the games are shit, because they're cheap' attitude amongst its customers, while bringing a future similar to the horribly expensive and ridiculously segregation of content we see in TV/Movie/Music subscriptions, undermining of the entire reason consoles exist by making all their games have to run on PC too, and having a hobbled version of their next gen system with the XSS.

He's got the charm and scruples of a used car salesman, but as long as gamepass is cheap, there's a sadly large number of rubes that will lap it up and swear the sun shines out of his arse.
 
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Alan Wake

Member
He's done a lot. I mean A LOT. But his hand were tied for some time, he couldn't make the acquisitions he wanted at first, something he elaborated on in the recent Gamereactor interview. Change takes time, certainly when it comes to building new game studios and developing games.
 

MrS

Banned
Decent. Keeps overpromising and underdelivering but has also been involved in some great acquisitions and of course GP. We'll have a better idea when we see how big the sales gap is between PS5 and xbox series skus. If the gap is larger than last gen, decent will change to bad. If the gap is smaller, decent will change to good.
 
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I can't actually work out what he's done.

MS seems to be in exactly the same place with Xbox as they have always been, worse even.
 
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He's good as a business man but I realized he actually doesn't know jack shit about game development when he said that current-gen consoles don't hold back next-gen.
 

Hostile_18

Banned
"Decent" is my vote.

He seems like a decent, friendly down to earth person. I love his emphasis on BC and Gamepass and no doubt he played a big part in MS opening up its cheque book recently. However it has taken too long IMO to start pumping out quality first party releases though (7/8 years and still not quite there). They have the groundwork but boy has it been a long, hard recovery from the XBONE launch disaster.
 
That is an interesting take. TV, TV, TV, and heavy DRM to now and you see them in a potentially worse position? I'd like to get your rationale.

They're still in 3rd place (regarding consoles).

They treat the Xbox brand like an after thought / window to streaming subscription service.

People are dumb, it's still the same message, just in different clothes and idiot fanboys lap it up.
 
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devilNprada

Member
Took Xbox One from failed start, from brand reset, to the biggest competitor going forward, starts with massive advantage over the mega-tech entrants from Google,Amazon,FB,Tencent etc.

Has convince Sadeya to splash the cash, gaming has a future in MS. Gamepass is the future, and boy the work done on maintaining that ecosystem, no one comes close.

Aim to always have the most powerful console, not beaten on price and timings. Brave enough to launch a second lower power console, unheard of before.

10 years on, Phil will be regarded as the visionary that started the next evolution of gaming business model.

What more can you say? 🤷‍♀️

You forgot he created the world in 8 days...
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
If I were doing his performance review I'd give him shit for not having a decent Series launch game ready despite his spending spree on studios.
 
They're still in 3rd place (regarding consoles).

They treat the Xbox brand like an after thought / window to streaming subscription service.

People are dumb, it's still the same message, just in different clothes and idiot fanboys lap it up.
The game streaming is a minor part of Game Pass. What makes that service different is that you download games not stream them so I am not sure what you mean there. On top of that Game pass is by the far the best deal when it comes to a subscription game service. Name a service that offers more for the money.

I can agree that PC and Xbox games need to always come out at the same time but I can't see how the Xbox is an after thought when they are the only platform holder that has made two distinct versions of hardware to try and capture the largest audience. They clearly care about the Xbox brand or they would have dropped it long ago. Their focus has shifted quite a bit but right now it's hard to argue they aren't in a better place than in 2013. How is this in any way the same message as TV, TV, TV and heavy DRM. Do you just dislike MS as a company and will hate everything they do no matter what? If that's true then say no more.
 
The game streaming is a minor part of Game Pass. What makes that service different is that you download games not stream them so I am not sure what you mean there. On top of that Game pass is by the far the best deal when it comes to a subscription game service. Name a service that offers more for the money.

I can agree that PC and Xbox games need to always come out at the same time but I can't see how the Xbox is an after thought when they are the only platform holder that has made two distinct versions of hardware to try and capture the largest audience. They clearly care about the Xbox brand or they would have dropped it long ago. Their focus has shifted quite a bit but right now it's hard to argue they aren't in a better place than in 2013. How is this in any way the same message as TV, TV, TV and heavy DRM. Do you just dislike MS as a company and will hate everything they do no matter what? If that's true then say no more.

No, I dislike their reliance on everything other than what I enjoy in a console - exclusives.

The TV, TV thing is just as prevalent now in other areas - Gamepass constantly being citied as the ‘Netflix’ of gaming, adverts all over the sluggish dashboard etc etc

They have done nothing to make me feel they are focusing their product in similar ways to Nintendo or Sony.

If you think they have then more power to you, there are 3 choices of hardware out there and for me they are a distant 3rd
 
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No, I dislike their reliance on everything other than what I enjoy in a console - exclusives.

The TV, TV thing is just as prevalent now in other areas - Gamepass constantly being citied as the ‘Netflix’ of gaming, adverts all over the sluggish dashboard etc etc

They have done nothing to make me feel they are focusing their product in similar ways to Nintendo or Sony.

If you think they have then more power to you, there are 3 choices of hardware out there and for me they are a distant 3rd
Oh well good thing you don't have to buy something you don't like. You can fully ignore Xbox and be perfectly happy with whatever other things you do with your time. Surprised to see someone who doesn't like Xbox pop in to talk about an executive in a company that makes a product you don't like honestly.
 
Oh well good thing you don't have to buy something you don't like. You can fully ignore Xbox and be perfectly happy with whatever other things you do with your time. Surprised to see someone who doesn't like Xbox pop in to talk about an executive in a company that makes a product you don't like honestly.

Because I don’t think he has done very well. - that was the question asked.

If anything he has put me off the brand
 

The Shift

Banned
I think Phil has done a decent job of setting the Xbox brand straight after the missteps from the XB1 era and that's a big win for his resume.

In saying that - I think he should have a succession plan setup and should retire from the position within the next 2 years.

Only question is who would be the successor?

Matt Booty?
Bonny Ross?
Todd Howard?

Slim pickings internally at XGS.

..I vote for Tim Schafer!
 
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Well, I don't think he's doing bad cecause their decisions have made me switch to the xbox next gen.

That said, launch window games are lacking. I do wish they invested in some extra controller features like haptic feedback and resistive triggers. It sounds really interesting.
 

dano1

A Sheep
Well somebody has to be blamed for the lack of launch software!!
I would be pissed if I was a Xbox buyer!!
That said it’s not good for either side!
 

Compsiox

Banned
He really knew what to do to turn around Xbox. Now we just need to see what these studios can put out. I think what he has done for Xbox is pretty historic.
 

Aion002

Member
Bad..... But also promissing.


Bad because of Halo Infinite (Series X has a terrible launch), they fucked up and the Xbox One is a joke.


Promissing, because I am optimistic, I don't think that he can do worse.
 
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