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[Nydius]

Since this will be where the discussion on his comments migrates, I’m going to quote what I wrote in the other thread:

I see he had to throw out some obligatory red meat for the rabid fanbase and their constant Xbox persecution complex.

As if Microsoft didn’t have a “discreet focus” on limiting Sony’s access to COD content when they began moneyhatting timed exclusive DLC back in the 360 era? Or they didn’t have a “discreet focus” on removing products from PlayStation when they bought a multiplatform developer group and immediately told them to can development on PlayStation versions?

Anything to pass the buck and play victim.
“It’s not our fault guys, Sony keeps targeting us!”

Mmhmm.
Sure Phil.

Throwing in the towel while playing victim at the same time. Microsoft’s current state is entirely on Microsoft themselves and Phil was there for most of it. Not as the head of the division but in other executive positions that gave him more pull in the company than, say, some random junior developer.

 

[Hayabusabruh]

He's right though. Why would you buy a console just cause it has a bunch of great exclusives?

 

[Stare-Bear]

I can't watch the vid its too cringey for me to bear But ....why go on this show at all. Stay home and work man, I don't get it.

Unless you are trying to convince regulators and win an appeal....

Makes the acquisition even more of a scam. If it's not to sell consoles then what is it for? To put everything on Game Pass?

 

[Astray]

Phil's Don Mattrick moment.



Although, arguably this is worse.

People know I've been critical of Spencer, but this moment of his, while historic in its own way, is nowhere near as bad as Mattrick.

Mattrick came off as a kind of dick when he said what he said, Phil had the energy of a guy who is at his wit's end.

 

[Davevil]

Xbox's fans now

 

[Damian black]

The problem is that you gavent even fucking tried phil. When was the last great only xbox game that wasnt a racing?
There hasnt been a single new big franchise that stuck around in ages.
They try once and immediately give up.

 

[SeraphJan]

I see this the exact opposite.

Great games are the only thing that could save them, instead of their overly focuses on disruptive tactics that they thought would work against their competitor which is what ultimately in the process of destroying their console business.

The best way I could describe their current strategy is like strapping a suicide bomb onto themselves, it will intimidate its opponent or maybe even done some real damage to that opponent, but that doesn't necessarily mean their own victory.

 

[Matt_Fox]

It's clear Microsoft's ambition is - or was - to dominate the subscription and cloud gaming space (and I think any smart fella realises that friction-free cloud gaming is the future of this industry, not clunky consoles, pizza-oven hot graphics cards, wires and coolers everywhere).

The collapse of the ABK purchase was integral to that strategy so I'm not surprised Phil is feeling pretty chastened.

 

[Kurotri]

Maybe Nadella really should have closed the Xbox division down like he wanted to. Not saying to remove competition, I just wish there was someone competent to fill that gap instead. Then again..who?

 

[adamsapple]

Talk about a disingenuously worded topic that isn't what he said in the interview at all.

 

[killatopak]

How can he say that when Nintendo basically wipes away your whole digital library every generation including the whole DS/3DS yet the people still flock to their games.

Wii U? There wasn't a must have game their until BotW/MK8

 

[Banjo64]

He’s done man. So are Xbox as a brand.

For the figurehead of the division to come out with this absolute drivel, that we know flies in the face of reality and past evidence. Just wow.

Absolute capitulation.

 

[Klosshufvud]

What a loser. Still pretending he's the hopeless underdog with daddy MS's billions to spend. Nintendo and Sony do more with less. You talk that no great games will save you. But you haven't even attempted the strategy of great games yet. Xbox has been a disappointment for years now. The interviewers were too soft on his bullshit. Like Sony deals is why Xbox is losing? Come the fuck on. You spent 10 billion making sure PS5 won't get Starfield. You're not the underdog here. You're not the victim. You lost, despite having more resources than the competition. It wasn't unfair. You were just lesser.

 

[Pop]

Halo deserves better.

This is embarrassing

 

[Die Namek Ability]

The silver lining in all this is they didn't get there hands on Activision/Blizzard at least fans of those companies can rejoice.

 

[MALpractice311]

He threw in the towel. He should be fired. If he was my boss, id want his head.

Honestly, I think he may want to be fired. Has anyone checked to see how big his golden parachute is?

 

[fred420170]

making a defeatist statement that they are fine where they are

Well... That can not be aimed at regulators approving Activision/MS deal, no way.

Cos ya know our boy Phill

All bot sincerity of course

Just a guy giving an interview

What he said is pretty much true. However, if I was to bet, I have a feeling he's saying this because there are some very quiet conversations going on with the CMA and the UK gov. right now. I could be wrong but his postering looks like they are making themselves look weaker than they are. A few things he called out rings some bells like "competitors making third party deals that xbox can't due to contracts" their position with market share related to the competitors... I could be totally wrong who knows..

 

[NickFire]

Now I'm starting to feel like Microsoft should just become a publisher and put their games on all platforms and ditch the Xbox hardware.

I suspect that the bolded was the entire purpose of him doing this interview.

 

[Punished Miku]

Talk about a disingenuously worded topic that isn't what he said in the interview at all.

Phil Spencer is a liar too honest to be running Xbox
MS is a monopoly a dead brand

 

[LordOfChaos]

goes on to say that making great games wouldn't help Xbox compete.

Could...Could you maybe try first?

This seems like ludicrous reasoning. Sony and Nintendo are doing great on the strength of great games.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Great games in the early Xbox and 360 days put them on the map to begin with.

I gotta say Phil looks awful in this interview. He’s apologetic but he really seems like he’s completely in over his head and this is a very dark time for Xbox and he sees no way out.

He also deflected Sony’s success down to “exclusive deals” again while he’s trying to buy up the entire industry and was involved in many exclusivity tactics. It’s sad man.

No, Sony won the same way you guys won early on with the 360.

Great games.

If you build it, they will come. It’s not any more complicated than that. You don’t need to be number 1 or 2 in console. 360 was still third place when it was all said and done, but it was a much stronger third place than where they are now. There’s no shame in that.

GamePass and xCloud are great initiatives but if you don’t have amazing games it doesn’t matter at all!!

This is basic stuff. Good games is the foundation for which the rest of your business depends on. I’m sorry but he needs to go.

 

[kyussman]

This is gonna shake the Xbox faithful to their core.......they are going to have to release a couple of new controller designs to get them back up again.

 

[Sleepwalker]

And you want to hoard publishers and ips exactly what for then? Griefing?

Just go third party if you think you can"t compete anymore.

 

[Madflavor]

"We're not in the business of out-consoling Sony, or Nintendo. There isn't really a great solution or win for us."

This is your CEO for Xbox? I don't care what Phil Spencer's past accomplishments are, he's had a decade to turn Xbox into a powerhouse with high quality first party titles, and he's had nothing to show for it. Gears hasn't been good since GoW3, same with Halo with Halo 3, and Redfall has been an unbelievable disaster. No sane person is going to think Starfield is going to launch without any serious problems. Think about the last time Xbox had an exclusive must own title. I'm not about your own personal experience where something like Forza was a must own for you. I'm talking on a broad spectrum where a big exclusive title landed on the Xbox with rave reviews and GotY potential. Actually think about it, because it's been an incredibly long time. But most of all, the fact that he's got this defeatist attitude speaks absolute volumes of the situation. He's the CEO. Part of his job is to sell Xbox. This is a man who has just openly admitted Microsoft's Gaming Console cannot compete with Nintendo and it's direct competition Sony. If Phil Spencer isn't gone by 2025, something is seriously wrong over in Xbox Land.






It absolutely IS true you dumb son of a bitch.

 

[M1chl]

MOTHERFUCKER, you are trying to buy Activision and saying that "good games wouldn't help" W H A T

Consider...alright this is not twitter

Xbox deserves better, it is time for him to go, because saying shit like this, helps no brand. Satya do your thing

 

[FunkMiller]

Talk about a disingenuously worded topic that isn't what he said in the interview at all.

I've literally included a write up of the entire exchange, so everyone can see the full context of his words.

 

[feynoob]

Heisenberg007
Been saying for a while and even stated in their sale thread that no way in hell Xbox will compete with PS5 until they get market share of have brand loyalty. They are irrelevant outside of US and UK.

They can sell a lot of consoles and it won't mean that much against Nintendo and switch.

Xbox had too long draught which affected their image. They need to fix that this gen, before start talking about competing with PS.

And if they want actual competition, cancel day1 pc. That can move their systems and provide value to their console. It's something they won't do at this stage.

 

[adamsapple]

Phil Spencer is a liar too honest to be running Xbox
MS is a monopoly a dead brand

Xbox is a schrodinger's platform, it is dead/monopoly led by leaders who are incompetent/masters of PR as the need arises.

 

[GeoramA]

Sure, Phil. Same BS lines that he probably used on the CMA.

 

[Bojanglez]

I suspect that the bolded was the entire purpose of him doing this interview.

It did seem as if he has begun astroturfing ready for this.

 

[Sorcerer]

This is gonna shake the Xbox faithful to their core.......they are going to have to release a couple of new controller designs to get them back up again.

Microsoft can't even get the overdue Elite 3 out the door. LOL!!! But they can paint controllers real nice I guess.

 

[GymWolf]

"There's no world where Starfield is 11/10 and people start selling their PS5s"

Their objective should be to convince people to buy an xbox or a pc even if they already have a ps5.

Does this dude believe that every nerd on the planet has only one console?

Of fucking course people are not gonna sell their ps5 no matter how good your games are.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Phil Spencer is a liar too honest to be running Xbox
MS is a monopoly a dead brand

Damage control and handwaving by the most fanatical is part of the problem.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

And some people wonder why I don't trust MS/Xbox.

 

[SlimySnake]

Delusional.

Don’t make your consumers pay $500 for your consoles if you don’t intend to support them with your first party video games. This explains the multiple lean years Xbox has had since he took over. He’s not interested in actually making video games. There’s probably why he bought Minecraft instead of actual gaming studios back in 2014.

I hope to god this is a wake up call to Phil’s fans here on gaf who continue to defend him. I want all of you calling for his resignation. Riky, darkmage, adsmsaaple, denchdekard, punishedmiku, I’m calling you all out directly.

 

[Dr. Suchong]

Xbox's fans now

That's jumping in.
Should be "Jump out! "

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Honestly most of it just sounds like the usual please pity us we're so weak narrative that Microsoft's been pushing during the ATVI acquisition process. He's just following the script.

When you're third place in the console marketplace, and the top two players are as strong as they are, and have, in certain cases, a very discrete focus on doing deals and other things that make being Xbox hard for us.

You mean like when they buy entire publishers to block their whole IP portfolio from appearing in your competition?

It's just not true that if we go off and build great games, all of a sudden you're going to see console share shift in some dramatic way.

Funny how this is exactly what happened in favor of Xbox during the first 4 years of the X360, and then what happened to Sony during the first 4 years of the PS4, but all of the sudden this isn't possible?
And how would he know if this shift wasn't going to happen? There hasn't been a single great year of strong titles for Xbox since he took over.

 

[Die Namek Ability]

Bad start?!? SE closed the whole damn studio LOL

Seems like MS could learn a thing or two.

 

[Thirty7ven]

The reality is that the bar has been set by Sony and Nintendo and they should be doing everything they can to strive to match them in terms of quality and frequency of releases. At the very least they should be doing and trying their best. Give the division a fighting chance, that's how you compete.

Admitting defeat and somewhat giving up like this is a very strange thing to do.

It's not about wanting a winner, it's about wanting every competitor in this space to be putting their best foot forwards.

No wonder he's happy to release Redfall in the state that they did if that's the mentality.

At the end of the day Microsoft has to play to their strengths. And their strengths are not hardware, nor are they best in class entertainment. They should move in the direction of providing cloud infrastructure for the future of gaming, cloud game development suites, etc

They could be helping the whole market while becoming a core aspect of it instead of trying do everything. Their games should be everywhere.

They could become the biggest gaming company in the world pretty quickly.

 

[saintjules]

Figured this should probably have its own thread, given the implications of what Spencer is saying.

Timestamped video from Kinda Funny Xcast:




Here, Spencer basically says there's no way the Xbox can compete with Sony and Nintendo, and then goes on to say that making great games wouldn't help Xbox compete.

I find this attitude utterly baffling, and I think we're now at the point where this dude needs to step away.

Whole quote here, provided by Heisenberg007 :

 

[Boglin]

So at some point if things continue progressing the way they have been, would it be considered anticompetitive for Sony to continue making exclusivity deals?
Not that I really feel sorry for Microsoft after they themselves leveraged those deals so much during the 360 generation and early last gen.

 

[Dr. Suchong]

 

[Warnen]

I can see xbox just turning into PC/cloud sub service and maybe show up on other consoles. To bad I really enjoyed halo single player but maybe can't make stuff like that anymore unless you shoehorn in gaas shit. Congratz Sony and Nintendo

 

[SkylineRKR]

I said in the other thread he's not entirely wrong, but its a stupid thing to say as a figurehead. And besides, he did purchase Zenimax and Activision recently. Those are not small time investments for a lost cause.

At all times he should be competitive. Peter Moore would never have said this for example. Even if PS5 sells 200 million, then try to expand the gaming market by all means. Release X-men vs SF with ram cart. But seriously, try to differentiate yourself like both Nintendo (handheld hybrid, Mario etc) or Sony (high quality single player games, experimental projects) do. Activision and Zenimax aren't going to be the answer.

Its honest, but you can also take it too far. And besides, underneath his honesty we know what kind of deals they arranged and tried to arrange in the past. Phil is no saint either.

 

[adamsapple]

I've literally included a write up of the entire exchange, so everyone can see the full context of his words.

Yep, it just highlights even more that the topic title is not something in the interview at all and a heavily skewed statement to give off a whole different message.

 

[Ev1L AuRoN]

Man, I'm speechless. Not even Don Mattrick would have the courage to utter those words.

Didn't him see Sony struggle through PS3 and the infamous hacking of the PSN, starting to developing their internal studios and becoming a major contributor to their catalog, Sony on PS1 and PS2 was totally dependent on third party support to move units, on PS3 they saw their market share collapse, all the major titles multiplat and performing better on the 360. Having quality games that you can't play anywhere else is what bring Sony back.

Nintendo pretty much survives thanks to their outstanding output of great games.

I think the ABK deal broke him, he truly believes that the only way forward is to own COD...

 

[ResilientBanana]

I guess I’ve lost my faith in Xbox then. Time to move on, I suppose.

 

[RedC]

I see the embarrassing takes in this thread continue...

 

[Dr_Ifto]

Why does he state if people have game libraries as a deterrent for getting a new console if you offer an instant game library with Gamepass? Its all postering for the CMA

 

[GrayDock]

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. People wonder why Xbox is what it is now?! That's your answer.