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Greg Miller: Phil Spencer retirement was not planned

Yeah, exactly, I don't know why people are so shocked about that. Retirement is typically planned and announced in advanced, and this was everything but that, it was way too sudden. Sarah Bond's resignation just feels like a response to his "retirement", which I could certainly understand if it was something she didn't agree with.

Right, especially someone that high up. When my last CEO retired, he announced it a full year in advance so that it didn't freak everyone out and also to help make the transition smooth for the incoming CEO.
 
Philly gon' be alright. He gonna sleep tight on them millions he's made over the years. I guess he can be mad he didn't go out on his own terms. But meh...

Have a career, Philly Spencer!
 
I see no reason why Greg Miller shouldn't be trusted on this. He was a big shot at IGN and clearly has industry connections.
 
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. :pie_thinking:
However, speaking of echo chambers, some people on this forum really have an outsized obsession with "Xbox influencers."
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Yeah. No one like "Xbox influencers" having sex with his friend Phil Spencer.
 
I see we are moving from the "you are wrong, that's a conspiracy theory" to "okay, why does any of this even matter" in a world record speed run on certain parts of the net.

I love when narratives shift.
 
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Beginning, most likely, with axing future hardware plans, the single biggest financial albatross around the gaming division's neck.

Is that right? I'm just asking. I would've thought the biggest albatross would be the huge developers/publishers they have swallowed, with all their operating expenses. And those would be the targets of cuts.

I understand that taking a product through R&D is expensive, but presumably they have already spent most of that money. Would continuing to develop Magnus at this point really that much of an albatross? I thought it was meant to be a rather low-key, unsubsidized niche device, appealing to a limited market, so a limited run.
 
Really? His kinda funny video that streamed yesterday generated over 60k views though 🤔

Yeah, I was taking the piss live viewers varies from a few hundred to a few k and then videos end up with 10s of thousandss of views. That's not much when you think about it. Some of the viewers might be bots too but we would never know.
 
Does he actually think that people believe he genuinely retired on his own terms?

That weird dance that corporations do with their communications is getting tiresome. They spit out a lie, we know it's a lie and they know we know it's a lie and somehow we all have to accept being lied to.
 
Does he actually think that people believe he genuinely retired on his own terms?

That weird dance that corporations do with their communications is getting tiresome. They spit out a lie, we know it's a lie and they know we know it's a lie and somehow we all have to accept being lied to.

Agreed. It's because appearances matter to corpos and people in press (and certain influencers) will be painfully obtuse and austically literal with what was "officially stated".
 
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Which part? Getting forced out but then pretending it was just an early retirement?
Actually seen it both ways. I work for a very large corporation and it has been happening a lot lately. Long term leaders decide to retire, but the company wants to hold off on announcing. A date is set and they control the timing. Others get a package and are told they are retiring. If they want their package, they follow along.
 
Actually seen it both ways. I work for a very large corporation and it has been happening a lot lately. Long term leaders decide to retire, but the company wants to hold off on announcing. A date is set and they control the timing. Others get a package and are told they are retiring. If they want their package, they follow along.

My observation has been mostly the other way. When our last CEO retired, he announced it a year in advance as to not freak everyone out, explained what the transition plan was, and assured all the employees that there would be a smooth transition from himself to whoever the new CEO will be.
 
"Trust me bro" is a nobody with zero connections making claims that they know something. This ain't that. If you think Greg Miller is full of shit then that's another thing altogether.
As much as I dislike Greg for being a fucking bitch and selling out his best friend for what essentially came down to social media points Greg isn't some random
 
TimDog was saying since last year that Phil was leaving. I think they decided to fire him earlier than planned but he was going to leave anyway.
 
TimDog was saying since last year that Phil was leaving. I think they decided to fire him earlier than planned but he was going to leave anyway.

I think he would've left on his own after the 25th anniversary year of the platform was finished tbh. The mothership wanted him gone sooner.
 
If Spencer really was pushed that abruptly, the only cause I can think that justifies it was that he wasn't following an order, or he missed his projections to such a degree that Nadella lost faith.

When Bonnie Ross was pushed, it was because she burned $500 million on a Halo live service that forgot to make the live service part.
Spencer's track record is slipping, but there isn't one event recently I can point to that would be the straw on the camels back. Happy to be educated on that.

I see it more likely he was handed new orders and wouldn't execute them. So, Nadella brought in someone who would.
 
What are your thoughts on Microsoft potentially divesting Activision, Bethesda and other content heavy subsidaries and selling them to private equity? Some have argued that the cash could be used to further AI investments.
But Microsoft don't actually need a quick money grab so why would they sell them instead of keeping the ips?
 
If Spencer really was pushed that abruptly, the only cause I can think that justifies it was that he wasn't following an order, or he missed his projections to such a degree that Nadella lost faith.

When Bonnie Ross was pushed, it was because she burned $500 million on a Halo live service that forgot to make the live service part.
Spencer's track record is slipping, but there isn't one event recently I can point to that would be the straw on the camels back. Happy to be educated on that.

I see it more likely he was handed new orders and wouldn't execute them. So, Nadella brought in someone who would.
Gaming Revenue fell by 9% in the latest earnings report. That is significant. My guess is, numbers are not looking any better since that report came out or maybe even worse. I do not believe this was Spencer making a last stand against the evil corporation. He has embraced that corporation his entire career. If anything, he was allowed to step down and save face. ABK was a make or break for him. It did not work out as well as it was expected to. What makes it worse, I would hate to see where MS gaming would be without it.
 
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If Spencer really was pushed that abruptly, the only cause I can think that justifies it was that he wasn't following an order, or he missed his projections to such a degree that Nadella lost faith.

When Bonnie Ross was pushed, it was because she burned $500 million on a Halo live service that forgot to make the live service part.
Spencer's track record is slipping, but there isn't one event recently I can point to that would be the straw on the camels back. Happy to be educated on that.

I see it more likely he was handed new orders and wouldn't execute them. So, Nadella brought in someone who would.
The big event finishing Spencer was CoD bombing,
 
Xbox has been a clusterfuck of bad decisions for years. I'm surprised Phil wasn't reigned in years ago. His plans never made financial sense.
 
Of course it wasn't planned, but that misses the entire point of his firing.

He was fired because for over 10 years, he failed to make Xbox the #1 product in gaming. You can fault Satya Nadella for a lot of things, but getting rid of Spencer isn't one of them. Nadella made the decision that any rational person would make; you were given close to $100,000,000,000, and you failed to use that money to make a successful product. You've failed on a level that is incomprehensible to 99% of humanity.

Aaron Greenberg is next. You can't be an executive at a trillion dollar company and fail to execute. It sucks to say this, but a bunch of people at Xbox are going to be fired because of Phil Spencer's decisions.
Amazingly, at Microsoft, it seems you can, for about 15 to 20 years, be an abject failure, until you get a golden parachute and everyone has to suffer for your incompetence.
 
One might think that lying is in Microsoft's DNA...
I think it is just contempt for their customers even more than their employees… so not sure how people astroturf and stan for them as much as they do when they have a corporate history of the opposite…
 
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I think it is just contempt for their customers even more than their employees… so not sure how people astroturfers and stan for them as much as they do when they have a corporate history of the opposite…
That's actually a good question. If someone were constantly lying to me, I wouldn't celebrate it.

But some people are just very special, it seems^^
 
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