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[DenchDeckard]

Legit, can't believe he's gone and didn't see the 25 year anniversary out.

Satya cleaning house was not expected on a regular Friday in Feb for good ol' Philly steak

 

[yurinka]

Maybe. The way I imagine it unfolded is that Phil was planning to retire -- maybe later this year, maybe next. However, Satya moved fast to reorient the division. Then Satya made it clear to Phil that he needed to move his retirement date up, in order to facilitate the transition. Phil complied. Had he not gone along with Satya's suggestion, he likely would've been fired.

So the choice was between an earlier-than-planned retirement and being fired. I know which I would choose, lol.

MS has the tradition of making big layoffs every January. This time they didn't have them, maybe because Phil said it wouldn't be healthy to cut more in the gaming division.

Pretty likely Satya wanted to kill any plans of future MS made consoles and focus on full multiplatform and increase the AI and cloud part of the gaming division. Something Phil maybe didn't like. The funeral of Xbox comsole is coming, and pretty likely Phil didn't want to be remembered as the one who killed it.

So Satya replaced him with a shawarma capable on scaling AI and software, who doesn't give a shit about console hardware or exclusivities and is good at playing the Indian flute.

Satya had to do it before they made any announcement or big investment in the next gen. So makes sense to do it now, despite Phil saying a few months ago that he didn't plan to retire anytime soon.

 

[saintjules]

Maybe. The way I imagine it unfolded is that Phil was planning to retire -- maybe later this year, maybe next. However, Satya moved fast to reorient the division. Then Satya made it clear to Phil that he needed to move his retirement date up, in order to facilitate the transition. Phil complied. Had he not gone along with Satya's suggestion, he likely would've been fired.

So the choice was between an earlier-than-planned retirement and being fired. I know which I would choose, lol.

Phil's retirement was planned for a few years. Just how it went down, wasn't.

 

[Zacfoldor]

Sarah Bond going down too is the biggest clue.

 

[Negotiator101]

He's to far gone.

Too.

 

[Nydius]

Phil's retirement was planned for a few years. Just how it went down, wasn't.

Agree with this. We knew he had already talked about stepping away some time ago and I figured he was planning on doing so after the 25th Anniversary. Phil almost certainly wanted to be there for the 25th Anniversary celebrations because he always made a big deal about how he was there with Xbox from the very beginning.

This feels like Satya decided he was done waiting and told Phil to push that date up, or else. And now Satya has a puppet EVP in the division who will do whatever the big chair in the boardroom demands. Beginning, most likely, with axing future hardware plans, the single biggest financial albatross around the gaming division's neck.

 

[Negotiator101]

I'm not ignoring anything but simply stating the possibility along with other circumstances that occurred alongside the announcement. I've already said it is speculation.

Either way, age, timed served, benefits do not have any bearing on whether his retirement was forced or entirely voluntary.

Either way it's not the same as being fired.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

to those saying he was fired.

Is it not illegal to put out a statement that someone has retired but actually was fired, aren't they misleading shareholders?

Likely told him he had two options

Door A lets you say you retire and try to leave with your head up

Door B is you say no to your first option and we tase you and drag your still quivering body to the parking lot

 

[Negotiator101]

Likely told him he had two options

Door A lets you say you retire and try to leave with your head up

Door B is you say no to your first option and we tase you and drag your still quivering body to the parking lot

Door B doesn't sound very appealing

 

[rkofan87]

 

[Varteras]

Door B doesn't sound very appealing

Depends on what you're into

 

[Topher]

Either way it's not the same as being fired.

 

[Negotiator101]

Depends on what you're into

You sound like a man with experience.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Sony is gonna sell 100+million consoles again, There not dead. They might be messing up there studios, but the Playstation brand is nowhere in the same place as Xbox, which is basically dead

I didnt say dead as in officially dead. Morally dead. Xbox will most likely sell their new consoles or handhelds just as good, not that I give a shit about either.

 

[onQ123]

My best guess, this was discussed behind the scenes with Shareholders. Possibly early January 2026 is when discussions began or slightly earlier to have Phil announce retirement and get Asha ready for her position. Having Sarah dip was probably not expected but not a surprise to Satya.

This is an Xbox not taking off & the slower than usual Call of Duty sales without a real plan for 2026 most likely caused the final collapse.

Even though the Call of Duty sales was more to do with chaos in America during the holiday season when Call of Duty released it was still bad PR & most likely pressured them to make a change.

 

[Varteras]

You sound like a man with experience.

 

[Panajev2001a]

He's old and he probably was against AI, at least privately/internally. Of course you're going to get replaced in a big corpo in 2026 by an AI slave. MS is pretty much dead just like Sony and whatever good games come out of their pockets, its not because of their decisions.

Never ever waste a console war opportunity.

 

[Hector Hall]

Magnus Canceled or totally outsourced and the buggers didn't want to put face to that.

 

[Lionel Richie]

That's kind of meaningless. He's worth many millions of dollars; not everyone cares about working until they are old when they are rich AF. And some people get rich and want to do their own thing as well.

Nobody's logic really adds up here: someone can retire and announce that internally and the planned exit can happen immediately once announced. There's nothing abnormal about that.

We just don't know, I certainly don't trust random streamers or YouTubers.

Yeah, maybe he really just wanted to retire coming out on top as a celebrated gaming icon who changed the fortune of the brand like he did.

 

[saintjules]

Agree with this. We knew he had already talked about stepping away some time ago and I figured he was planning on doing so after the 25th Anniversary. Phil almost certainly wanted to be there for the 25th Anniversary celebrations because he always made a big deal about how he was there with Xbox from the very beginning.

This feels like Satya decided he was done waiting and told Phil to push that date up, or else. And now Satya has a puppet EVP in the division who will do whatever the big chair in the boardroom demands. Beginning, most likely, with axing future hardware plans, the single biggest financial albatross around the gaming division's neck.

Truth. They'll keep failing unless they listen to the community. Hopefully it's a change for the better.

 

[j0hnnix]

This is an Xbox not taking off & the slower than usual Call of Duty sales without a real plan for 2026 most likely caused the final collapse.

Even though the Call of Duty sales was more to do with chaos in America during the holiday season when Call of Duty released it was still bad PR & most likely pressured them to make a change.

 

[onQ123]

Truth. They'll keep failing unless they listen to the community. Hopefully it's a change for the better.

The community is actually what caused the downfall

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Truth. They'll keep failing unless they listen to the community. Hopefully it's a change for the better.

There is no community to be heard when it is an echo chamber parroting the talking points coming from the top through its shills

 

[Plague Doctor]

There is no community to be heard when it is an echo chamber parroting the talking points coming from the top through its shills

Yeah, listening to the community doesn't really work when the loudest voices in that community for the past decade has been saying " whatever Phil is doing is the right call."

I believe initially with the BC initiative, there was criticism and he did respond well, but then.... the shills hijacked the message and went into defense mode. Any criticism of Xbox was ignored as console warring.

 

[Topher]

There is no community to be heard when it is an echo chamber parroting the talking points coming from the top through its shills

If she is going to listen to any community then it should be the larger gaming community as to why they are not buying Xbox. Ignore the shills who praise Microsoft unconditionally.

 

[Klayzer]

There is no community to be heard when it is an echo chamber parroting the talking points coming from the top through its shills

Look no further than this thread posts, for evidence of such.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Look no further than this thread posts, for evidence of such.

My dude, Tim Dog himself, and the other dude (Rand AL Thor), among others, talked directly with Phil and even Nutella about what Xbox nedded to do as far back as 2013.

MS/Xbox sees it's "community" as an extension of PR and marketing; it's made up.

 

[onQ123]

There is no community to be heard when it is an echo chamber parroting the talking points coming from the top through its shills

Xbox really gave the vocal Xbox fanboys everything they asked for, Got rid of Kinect & gave them Xbox One X , Xbox Series X , they used the War chest that Xbox fans always talked about & bought the biggest publisher in the world, They engaged with the Fanboys everything & when it all failed the Fanboys blamed it all on Xbox.

 

[ByWatterson]

Greg Miller….

Greg Miller's performative politics suck, but he's connected. He's the Jason Schreier of Colin Moriartys.

No reason to doubt this.

 

[Deerock71]

 

[EchoByte]

Likely told him he had two options

Door A lets you say you retire and try to leave with your head up

Door B is you say no to your first option and we tase you and drag your still quivering body to the parking lot

do we know if restructing is coming soon?

 

[Chittagong]

Having once worked there, what happens at Microsoft is that strategies seem to get radically changed really fast in management team meetings. Like, overnight. The planning has been, however, quietly in place unbeknownst to the operative management. Then the decision is tabled, plug gets pulled and the machine unceremoniously executes a major division.

Statements are already written, operative management is swiped very quickly so that they can't collude with other employees, poach them, demoralise them, grab information…

Here the ongoing thread in the mgmt team has been that "we need to do something to this embarrassing distraction on our annual reports". Scenarios have been considered, and the chosen one seems to be something along the lines of "burn it all down, install a caretaker CEO."

There is certainly no Magnus anymore, and possibly no GamePass either. There are a handful of games that remain, and studios will be either axed to moved under Activision that can then be spun out as an independent gaming company sold to the Arabs at a huge discount. Division cleaned, annual reports improves, some cash brought home to fund Altman's escapades.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

If she is going to listen to any community then it should be the larger gaming community as to why they are not buying Xbox. Ignore the shills who praise Microsoft unconditionally.

I wonder if she even knows the actual situation Xbox is in. Her Twitter parade wasn't just cringey; it came across as either pandering or deeply naive....perhaps Phil "advised" her to "engage" with people.

I get what you're saying. But social media is too extreme. I think the broader gaming community doesn't really care what Xbox, as a brand or platform, does. People just play their games talk about then and that's is. The Xbox brand ts too damaged.

 

[Chittagong]

As this progresses it's good to ask why has Activision remained in the org chart as an organising entity. It would have seemed a redundant structure between Microsoft CEO, CEO of Gaming, and the Studios. The answer, I reckon we will discover, is that it was left as a fail safe mechanism that makes it easier to spin out the gaming business as an independent publishing entity in event the "platform" is axed. Removing gaming from Microsoft reporting will materially improve the profit margin.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Greg Miller....

Now there's a name I've not heard ina a while.

I Remember when the industry treated these people like real journalists and now they get like a 100 viewers on twitch when they stream.....

 

[Nonehxc]

Right.

As if anyone can fire Lord Phil.

They can leave at their own volition.

He is retiring cause he has set up xbox on a good path. Would like someone else to execute it.

Oh Xbox will be executed a'ight.

 

[onQ123]

I wonder if she even knows the actual situation Xbox is in. Her Twitter parade wasn't just cringey; it came across as either pandering or deeply naive....perhaps Phil "advised" her to "engage" with people.

I get what you're saying. But social media is too extreme. I think the broader gaming community doesn't really care what Xbox, as a brand or platform, does. People just play their games talk about then and that's is. The Xbox brand ts too damaged.

The thread I fell asleep making last night

 

[DavJay]

If they knew Phil was retiring a year ago you think Sarah Bond would plan her exit the same day? No way, Simon' definitely suddenly occurred that Phil or Sarah do not agree on.

I actually remember rumors saying Phil fought to keep games exclusive and when it didn't it hit Phil pretty hard. Could be a straw that broke the camels back whatever it is.

 

[bitbydeath]

Where's the evidence? What even is the actual claim - what does 'not planned' actually mean? That could mean he was suddenly fired or he suddenly retired for personal reasons.

It's so vague as to be meaningless. But it's intriguing and gets people to click on your video. Everyone thinks they know what it means, meanwhile it actually doesn't explain anything.

The evidence is last quarters financial results and Xbox being directly called out as the problem from the person who has the power to make these decisions.

 

[Topher]

do we know if restructing is coming soon?

Microsoft has said there won't be

 

[zaga]

Big surprise, the last 13 years of Xbox was not planned either

 

[Badlucktroll]

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

What was even planned at Xbox at this point? It's a typical Big Tech mess.

I don't really care about Spencer's fate (and IMO the only bad thing about his firing that is 80 billion overdue), but Sarah Bond was groomed into the gaming CEO position for almost a year and it was all thrown away basically overnight in favour of a nepo Linkedin jockey hire.

It will be vastly more interesting to know what happened with Bond and why we are having an AI (not even good one, since it's Copilot) exec instead of more or less knowlodgeable managing person.

 

[Wass0o7]

Yh no shit, no one retires the weekend after it's announced

 

[Sooner]

Only about 10 years too late to have saved Xbox.

 

[m14]

There is no community to be heard when it is an echo chamber parroting the talking points coming from the top through its shills

Yes because major corporations are notorious for listening to their "communities." Hence why Sony just shuttered the only studio likely to provide the Bloodborne remaster their fans have been desperately hoping for.
However, speaking of echo chambers, some people on this forum really have an outsized obsession with "Xbox influencers."

 

[SpiceRacz]

Vague claim, no evidence presented.

Predictably GAF loves it.

Yep. CEO at my job announced their retirement and is gone in 2 weeks. Seems weird, but it does in fact happen.

 

[saintjules]

Greg Miller....

Now there's a name I've not heard ina a while.

I Remember when the industry treated these people like real journalists and now they get like a 100 viewers on twitch when they stream.....

Really? His kinda funny video that streamed yesterday generated over 60k views though

 

[yet_another_alt]

Too late we realize that Phil Spencer was holding back a greater evil all along.

 

[Topher]

Really? His kinda funny video that streamed yesterday generated over 60k views though

DenchDeckard living under a rock, confirmed