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Should Phil Spencer be replaced at the head of Xbox?

No I don't agree with all the phil hate. He's a PR dude that likes to be positive when things are shit, but who doesn't honestly do that.

I'm confident in their future. If by 2023/2024, the output is still dogshit, I'll agree he needs to go. (If he's not already gone by then)

343i needs some major restructuring though. Bonnie Ross absolutely needs to go.
 
He's been in charge for 6 years and constantly promised us better games and a clear vision for why anyone should buy an Xbox through all that time, only to never deliver.

He doesn't make games. I think if you want to judge an executive at the very top, you should look at him delivering on things he is actually in charge of.

He delivered multiple new studios. He delivered Gamepass. He delivered a powerful new system.

It sucks that Xbox first party is still floundering, but by all accounts they have funding to make whatever they want. He doesn't actually manage the development of the games. I'd look at the people that do though.
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
No.

He’s been head of them while they’ve been making amazing decisions and products. Anyone taking pr quotes as anything other than pr quotes needs to be a bit smarter.
 
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Vawn

Banned
I hope not! Dude sounds genuine and cares about the Xbox brand. You want Don Mattrick back again? LOL!

Don Mattrick was in charge for Xbox 360. Spencer has been in charge basically all of Xbox One.

Yeah.... he may not dress like a guy in a mid-life crisis and have the PR sway of Phil, but he did a lot better running Xbox imo, even accounting for the confusing transition between generations.

I always feel like Phil is just telling people what he thinks they want to hear, regardless of whether it's true or not.
 
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Not all of us are concern trolling, you know if you are a fan of something and have spent considerable money over a long period of time only to experience what’s been offered in recent times, I don’t think it’s totally unreasonable to hope to see better things going forward.

It cracks me up the snide jibes particularly on social media who stated the game was fine and to stop hating/true fans are loving it , think it’s awesome and now some of them say what a great decision the delay is. Fuck sake.
 
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Don Mattrick was in charge for Xbox 360. Spencer has been in charge basically all of Xbox One.

Yeah.... he may not dress like a guy in a mid-life crisis and have the PR sway of Phil, but he did a lot better running Xbox imo, even accounting for the confusing transition between generations.

I don't ever feel like Phil is ever telling people what he thinks they want to hear, regardless of whether it's true or not.
Don Mattrick personally pushed Kinect and shaped the entire direction of Xbox One, and launched it so poorly he had to resign. Xbox One, and Kinect is Mattrick all the way.
 

oldergamer

Member
“I honestly think we’re in the best launch lineup position that we’ve ever been on Xbox,” Spencer said.

News of July 20, 2020.

From my point of view Spencer has not kept any of his promises so far, he only knows how to sell smoke year after year. It is time for someone else to take over.
no.
 

Vawn

Banned
Don Mattrick personally pushed Kinect and shaped the entire direction of Xbox One, and launched it so poorly he had to resign. Xbox One, and Kinect is Mattrick all the way.

Or you just NEED a scapegoat. None of this is falling on one person. Same for Spencer.
 
Head of Xbox buys studios to create games. Sony fans wants him gone. Makes sense.
you know what I think MS should just close its gaming doors and let sony have a monopoly on the console space lets see how happy all these fanboys are when a sony takes the apple rout and have a ps6 cost $3K. Remeber when everyone said e3 was pointless and look at the landscape of gaming news now enjoying those rumors LOL
 
Or you just NEED a scapegoat. None of this is falling on one person. Same for Spencer.
Mattrick literally got promoted to his position because he was behind Kinect and it was initially so successful (one of the most successful product launches ever). Read up on it. It's a fact. Then he launched the entire next console around Kinect being the centerpiece.
 
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Ivan

Member
Current free agent:

2002988337.jpg
Just took a title with Liverpool after 30 years...
 
No I don't agree with all the phil hate. He's a PR dude that likes to be positive when things are shit, but who doesn't honestly do that.

I'm confident in their future. If by 2023/2024, the output is still dogshit, I'll agree he needs to go. (If he's not already gone by then)

343i needs some major restructuring though. Bonnie Ross absolutely needs to go.
2023?
If he was a coach in the EPL/NFL/NBA how long would he last?
If he was brought in as an administrator in a flailing company how long would he get?
If your livelihood relied on him to perform up to market standards would you still have him on?
Many wouldn't.

If you keep doing the same things, expecting the same results, then that is just plain crazy.
 
The best thing for Xbox? What AAA game for Xbox has he launched in 2020? What AAA game for Xbox is he going to launch in 2020?

None... Yeah, he's a real fucking messiah that guy...
what did DON have lined up for the xbox post launch you realize that every company has 4-8 year plans what was don plan past launch sell all of MS studios "which happened" and buy stock in ESPN.
 
It's been nearly 7 years.
They literally could have had a dozen AAA games out by now... Death Stranding was completed in less than 3 years... When it was first shown they didn't even have an engine lined up.

There's no excuses for this, and even worse they're not willing to pony the dough to buy third party exclusivity.
 
No, but Phil Spenser is now entering the point in his career where he has to start making profit for Xbox going forward into 2022 through 2024 which should be Xbox Series X's prime years.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
I'm not sure if this is /s or a meme, but it's been 6 (six) years since he took over.

You'd need a dime about 60x times this big to make that claim today

D-PYp5RXsAETUff.jpg

He wasn't given the resources to do anything until 2018. But we all already knew that didn't we.
 
2023?
If he was a coach in the EPL/NFL/NBA how long would he last?
If he was brought in as an administrator in a flailing company how long would he get?
If your livelihood relied on him to perform up to market standards would you still have him on?
Many wouldn't.

If you keep doing the same things, expecting the same results, then that is just plain crazy.

You can't do anything if you don't have the backing of your own boss. His hands were tied given the division was being half-assed by Microsoft up until 2017.

He has actual power now to invest, and we're seeing that investment.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Can you imagine holding a job for 6 years before you were expected to produce anything? Were his first 4 years just sitting around with a pacifier in his mouth?

He's not producing anything. He's managing and organizing resources given to him by Microsoft.

He had very little to work with until 2018, when Microsoft took the leash off him.

Games take longer than 2-3 years to produce. You begin judging him in 2021/2022, not today.

But again, everyone here already knows this. Sony fanboys are concern trolling.
 
Mattrick literally got promoted to his position because he was behind Kinect and it was initially so successful (one of the most successful product launches ever). Read up on it. It's a fact. Then he launched the entire next console around Kinect being the centerpiece.
They literally could have had a dozen AAA games out by now... Death Stranding was completed in less than 3 years... When it was first shown they didn't even have an engine lined up.

There's no excuses for this, and even worse they're not willing to pony the dough to buy third party exclusivity.
They literally could have had a dozen AAA games out by now
ok give me some examples.
Death Stranding was completed in less than 3 years
yea because kojima had this game on the back burner for year he still has concept art that he made for PT sitting around along with an entire production staff with 100+ people how many did ninja theory have o sub 30.
When it was first shown they didn't even have an engine lined up.
yea and people hated it and sold like nothing im sure if xbox made DS people would still complain.
There's no excuses for this, and even worse they're not willing to pony the dough to buy third party exclusivity.
we have no idea what sony bought in its third party deals I dont know to many people jumping up and down for some exclusive dlc skins WOOOOOOOOOOO.
 

Chiggs

Member
There won’t be an Xbox division in 6 year’s time. Might as well keep Try Hard Phil until you scuttle the whole thing.
 

Larvana

Member
It's like people forget covid is still a thing and has still a big impact on games being released, this won't be the only game delayed until next year, you going to blame phil for that too? this isn't an opinion its fact.
 

Reallink

Member
I generally like Spencer and think Series X is (likely) very good hardware and Gamepass is awesome, but he has categorically and catastrophically fucked up managing his studios and Xbox's content production pipeline.
 
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Can you imagine holding a job for 6 years before you were expected to produce anything? Were his first 4 years just sitting around with a pacifier in his mouth?
maybe the 1st 4 years his along with the xbox brand was going to get axed MS didnt go geeze don really messed up lets give the next guy we hire a bigger budget twice the man power and more studios. I dont think iv seen a single company use that sort of logic either the brand stays in limbo or get axed there's no lets pump x4 the profit share into the brand that is failing on a spur of the moment chance.
 

Pejo

Member
He's not producing anything. He's managing and organizing resources given to him by Microsoft.

He had very little to work with until 2018, when Microsoft took the leash off him.

Games take longer than 2-3 years to produce. You begin judging him in 2021/2022, not today.

But again, everyone here already knows this. Sony fanboys are concern trolling.
I'll admit, there's a funny meme somewhere here with "Phil Spencer - UNLEASHED".

Anyways, Wikipedia states:
In late March 2014, Satya Nadella announced in a corporate e-mail that Spencer was to "lead the Xbox, Xbox Live, Groove Music and Movies & TV teams, and Microsoft Studios" as part of the Windows and Devices division.[6][11]

In September 2017, Spencer was promoted to the Senior Leadership Team, gaining the title of Executive Vice President of Gaming and reporting directly to CEO Satya Nadella.[12]
So if being "UNLEASHED" means he got his promotion, it was in 2017, which would now make it nearly 3 years since his last promotion. Fits snugly in your timeline for us to start seeing results - and what do we have?

Also, knock off the fanboy labeling stuff, I game primarily on PC. I think Sony has been a piece of shit lately for different reasons.
 
2023?
If he was a coach in the EPL/NFL/NBA how long would he last?
If he was brought in as an administrator in a flailing company how long would he get?
If your livelihood relied on him to perform up to market standards would you still have him on?
Many wouldn't.

If you keep doing the same things, expecting the same results, then that is just plain crazy.
If he was a coach in the EPL/NFL/NBA how long would he last?
Not the same the NFL and NBA trade players and coaches all the time how many game studios or game publishers change hands ever other year.....................
If he was brought in as an administrator in a flailing company how long would he get?
As long as he needs? never heard of long term planning
If your livelihood relied on him to perform up to market standards would you still have him on?
Many wouldn't.
well xbox is making enough money that MS doesnt want to shut it down so on MS end hes doing just fine LOL
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
I'll admit, there's a funny meme somewhere here with "Phil Spencer - UNLEASHED".

Anyways, Wikipedia states:

So if being "UNLEASHED" means he got his promotion, it was in 2017, which would now make it nearly 3 years since his last promotion. Fits snugly in your timeline for us to start seeing results - and what do we have?

Also, knock off the fanboy labeling stuff, I game primarily on PC. I think Sony has been a piece of shit lately for different reasons.

No no no.

Being "unleashed" means Microsoft flushing him with cash and the resources to build the XBox brand...which all started in 2018.

This is common knowledge.
 
He's not producing anything. He's managing and organizing resources given to him by Microsoft.

He had very little to work with until 2018, when Microsoft took the leash off him.

Games take longer than 2-3 years to produce. You begin judging him in 2021/2022, not today.

But again, everyone here already knows this. Sony fanboys are concern trolling.
na man you dont get it if MS and put out a AAAAA cinematic third person walking game in a year xbox failed and phil needs to be fired. "While they forget that every in house sony exclusive since the ps2 has taken on average 8-10 years to make.
 

PaintTinJr

Member
No he's doing a good job. Mattrick was a suit.
I'm pretty sure he was a developer in the past, I remember playing 4D sports Racing, 4D sports Boxing and 4D sports tennis on an old 80286 PC - software 3D mind, nearly a decade before a 3dfx card- and I believe they were by his company IIRC.
 
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