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Should Phil Spencer be replaced at the head of Xbox?

thelastword

Banned
The guy is so full of shit I think he's either Peter Moore or Peter Molyneux in a mask.
I like Peter Moore...He seems like the cool uncle you have that's always cheerful and bangs alot of young wahmen......Peter Molyneux, can't say I have anything against him personally, but he sounds like a trusty priest who lies through his teeth. He does it so well you would never know well after you've been violated....

Imagine being mad at PR for spouting generic PR crap.
Phil is not PR. Greenberg, Major Nelson etc are for PR. Phil is there to make sure things work, great games are delivered, that people do their part to deliver on the promises PR gives.......That's what you should track him for, not PR.

JIm Ryan is not about posting a million interviews and belly-dancing on twitter. He is all about ensuring first parties are well funded, that he secures his company's strong lead in the market by being even more brutal/aggressive than this gen with third parties and first....He is about ensuring that the PS5 is the best piece of kit they can muster with the best OS features and hardware innovations. He is about delivering on new IP's, lots of exclusive games from day 1. Most importantly, he has already marked out a bevy of games for the entire gen on PS5, has secured some IP's. He will rework some old franchises and secure some new ones....

Whilst others were hyping TF numbers and talking up games they knew were not ready, Ryan was putting together the best kit he could for developers and gamers and securing a tonne of exclusive software and new IP's........That is the difference. PS does not need PR persons, because the execs ensure that the games are it's biggest PR mouthpiece........It's like Guile says in SF5 "No need to talk, let's do this"

Mark Cerny
He doesn't belong to Sony. And money speaks a very harmonic and beautiful sounding language ya know. He understands tech and he understands gaming. BOOOOM problem solved

You heard it here first. Next Xbox developed by Cerny :messenger_crystal_ball:
Boy, if Cerny ever develops an XBOX console.....He will be the greatest thing since sliced bread......An Engineer torched and formed in Hades fiercest flames and bathed in the pits of Tartarus...His legend will know no ends then, As of now, he is just a who lies about the real TF count, RDNA2, hardware RT etc......

Years of PR training.
Makes sense.......So he's like that old blonde guy who cries inside instead of out.....A mask if you will. Says what he's meant to say, not what he really feels...Cloak engaged....
 

Gediminas

Banned
i hope not. phil is idiot and thats good for Sony. more money for sony, more games, better games and etc.. i hope we gonna see sony domination this gen too.
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Lol, talk about making excuses for him šŸ˜‚

Spencer has been responsible for Xbox Studios since 2008 and the whole division since 2014 but heā€™s only accountable since 2018? šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø

Yeah, MS didn't give him real financial support until 2018. We'll see the fruits of that investment in 2022.
 

SaucyJack

Member
Yeah, MS didn't give him real financial support until 2018. We'll see the fruits of that investment in 2022.

6bLXQoA.gif
 
He's the best thing to happen to xbox and doesn't get half the credit he deserves. He came into a completely broken business with absolutely no good will in place after it had rightfully been taken out back and shot by Mattrick. Xbox are giving gamer what they want except for 1 thing and that,s major exclusives, but the real facts are most gamer want more than just exclusives. Reasonably priced games on console (game pass), playing with friends (clearly the champions of cross play), xcloud is dropping soon as part of game pass, smart delivery, superior online (some still shits on psn).

People seem to focus on the bad stuff, the things that are missing, in xboxs case exclusives. But that doesnt mean they are doing better in literally every other catagory. If xbox had as many first party games as PS (at the same quality) then PS would look like a joke in comparison. I think PS will continue to ride the the wave of goodwill they built with PS4 into PS5 and mid way through that gen people will finally get a bit tired of the greed. In the meantime xbox, through Phils leadership, will continue to push gaming ( as a whole) forward.
 

Gediminas

Banned
He's the best thing to happen to xbox and doesn't get half the credit he deserves. He came into a completely broken business with absolutely no good will in place after it had rightfully been taken out back and shot by Mattrick. Xbox are giving gamer what they want except for 1 thing and that,s major exclusives, but the real facts are most gamer want more than just exclusives. Reasonably priced games on console (game pass), playing with friends (clearly the champions of cross play), xcloud is dropping soon as part of game pass, smart delivery, superior online (some still shits on psn).

People seem to focus on the bad stuff, the things that are missing, in xboxs case exclusives. But that doesnt mean they are doing better in literally every other catagory. If xbox had as many first party games as PS (at the same quality) then PS would look like a joke in comparison. I think PS will continue to ride the the wave of goodwill they built with PS4 into PS5 and mid way through that gen people will finally get a bit tired of the greed. In the meantime xbox, through Phils leadership, will continue to push gaming ( as a whole) forward.
nice satire comment :messenger_tears_of_joy: cherry on top was - "In the meantime xbox, through Phils leadership, will continue to push gaming ( as a whole) forward."
 

Portugeezer

Member
No, he is good. It's more about the feeling you get with him, and it's positive, but so much goodwill for him over the past few years and the games never seem to come.

XB1 exclusives were few and far between I thought the XSX would bring the megaton but most of the good shit is many years away.

Though, he gave us a focus on backwards compatibility, the feature XSX owners will be using the most this Holiday.
 
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He's not a coder at 343. He's making very broad, large scale decisions.

He's basically the guy that made MS refocus on making games, made multiple smart purchases of new studios, made Gamepass a focus with all first party games on day one, made backwards compatibility a focus. He's giving all the studios very large budgets. He's possibly funded the more powerful of the two consoles.

I still don't see anything he's actually doing wrong. It takes a long time to build top tier studios. If anyone should be in the hot seat, it's the head of 343, or the head of Xbox Games Studios development as a whole.
How can we defend him and Matt Booty when they allowed Infinite to be in this situation.

HOW COME NOBODY DID NOTHING TO CONTROL this game production?
 
I don't get the sentiments that phil didn't have money untill 2018 didn't he buy Minecraft in 2014 ? I reckon the money's always been there and he's been a top bloke at Xbox for a long time imho I'd have gotten rid of him when they got rid of don infact I'd have let all the people at the top of Xbox go at that time ... Xbox could've been in a different place by now if they had .
 

recursive

Member
Yeah, MS didn't give him real financial support until 2018. We'll see the fruits of that investment in 2022.
If it took him that long (10 years) to convince leadership to invest then he is bad at his job. You keep ignoring that his hands are deep in the mess since 2008.

At any rate forum warriors won't be the deciding factor in his fate, the shareholders will.
 

Coolwhhip

Neophyte
As head of Xbox his main tasks are:

1. First party games
2. Third party games
3. Hardware
4. Brand

He really failed at first party games. And buying more studios isn't going to magically fix it. He has had many many years now to sort that out and he just couldn't. So if I were in charge of MS and I wanted Xbox to do well, I would replace him.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
If it took him that long (10 years) to convince leadership to invest then he is bad at his job. You keep ignoring that his hands are deep in the mess since 2008.

At any rate forum warriors won't be the deciding factor in his fate, the shareholders will.

That's some vicious spin.

He convinced MS to make the biggest gaming investment in the history of the XBox brand.

15 studios, GamePass, and undercutting the PS5 on price are all fantastic moves.

Now fire him for not doing it fast enough!
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
If it took him that long (10 years) to convince leadership to invest then he is bad at his job. You keep ignoring that his hands are deep in the mess since 2008.

At any rate forum warriors won't be the deciding factor in his fate, the shareholders will.

Say what you will of Don Mattrick, but at least he made sure there were plenty of exclusive games in the pipeline for Xbox One, even if that meant that the last years of the 360 didn't have much to offer for core gamers. And Mattrick also didn't gamble on building new but unproven studios, he secured exclusive games from proven third party developers that were probably already a couple of years in development. That's how the Xbox One got so many exclusive games in its first year compared to Sony. Spencer started investing in internal studios around 2018 but none of those brand new studios will have their games ready anytime soon, since it takes 4-5 years these days to create an AAA game. So Spenser had plenty of time to build a solid rooster of first party exclusives for the Xbox Series X and he failed to do so. It's looking like the Xbox Seriex X will be off to an even worse start than the Xbox One. That's corporate mismanagement of the highest order.
 
Say what you will of Don Mattrick, but at least he made sure there were plenty of exclusive games in the pipeline for Xbox One, even if that meant that the last years of the 360 didn't have much to offer for core gamers. And Mattrick also didn't gamble on building new but unproven studios, he secured exclusive games from proven third party developers that were probably already a couple of years in development. That's how the Xbox One got so many exclusive games in its first year compared to Sony. Spencer started investing in internal studios around 2018 but none of those brand new studios will have their games ready anytime soon, since it takes 4-5 years these days to create an AAA game. So Spenser had plenty of time to build a solid rooster of first party exclusives for the Xbox Series X and he failed to do so. It's looking like the Xbox Seriex X will be off to an even worse start than the Xbox One. That's corporate mismanagement of the highest order.
In 2013 we had Ryse and Forza.

These days Forza is a tech demo and besides 3rd party you only get backwards compatibility at launch.

Oh and Netflix/Youtube
 

quest

Not Banned from OT
Say what you will of Don Mattrick, but at least he made sure there were plenty of exclusive games in the pipeline for Xbox One, even if that meant that the last years of the 360 didn't have much to offer for core gamers. And Mattrick also didn't gamble on building new but unproven studios, he secured exclusive games from proven third party developers that were probably already a couple of years in development. That's how the Xbox One got so many exclusive games in its first year compared to Sony. Spencer started investing in internal studios around 2018 but none of those brand new studios will have their games ready anytime soon, since it takes 4-5 years these days to create an AAA game. So Spenser had plenty of time to build a solid rooster of first party exclusives for the Xbox Series X and he failed to do so. It's looking like the Xbox Seriex X will be off to an even worse start than the Xbox One. That's corporate mismanagement of the highest order.
Don had financial support of corporate thanks to a successful product he inherited from peter Moore. Phil got no financial support until 2018. Corporate slashed the divisions budget thanks to Don's failure leaving phil with no firepower to do much until 2018 outside cheap things like BC. Corporate not giving phil money sooner is the reason for this mess. If he got financial support to rebuild the first party in 2015 those games would be launch games for the series x. Was phil supposed to bankroll these games with his own money lol. Secure big 3rd party games lol against jim 750 million dollar Ryan not happening. Rebuilding the first party studios was the right move a steady stream of games down the road is better than 1 timed exclusive. If a big timed exclusive is costing 3 insomniacs.
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
Don had financial support of corporate thanks to a successful product he inherited from peter Moore. Phil got no financial support until 2018. Corporate slashed the divisions budget thanks to Don's failure leaving phil with no firepower to do much until 2018 outside cheap things like BC. Corporate not giving phil money sooner is the reason for this mess. If he got financial support to rebuild the first party in 2015 those games would be launch games for the series x. Was phil supposed to bankroll these games with his own money lol. Secure big 3rd party games lol against jim 750 million dollar Ryan not happening. Rebuilding the first party studios was the right move a steady stream of games down the road is better than 1 timed exclusive. If a big timed exclusive is costing 3 insomniacs.

Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft in February 2014. Nadella made Spencer head of Xbox, Xbox Live, Groove Music and Movies & TV teams, and Microsoft Studios a month later. Nadella cut 18,000 jobs in mid 2014 but this hardly impacted the Xbox games division. The only real casualty was the closure of Xbox Entertainment Studios, the division that should have created all the TV TV TV content.
 

fybyfyby

Member
Maybe it doesnt matter anymore. If MS will be succesful with gamepass and xcloud, they dont need even hardware. They can make some game from time to time (like Valve) and they will be fine.
 

McCheese

Member
Games he greenlit when he came into his current role should all be released by now, if there was going to be any improvement to their first party effort we should have been seeing the dividends post crackdown release.

Can't think of anything of merit, horizons and gears were good but predictable staples, the rest either got cancelled or delayed.
 

iorek21

Member
This is the same situation that soccer clubs have to deal from time to time: fire the coach or keep faith in him?

There are arguments for both options: maintaining Phil ensures the continuity and future success of Xbox, whilst the ā€œnew factorā€ created by firing him could change things for the best.

In my opinion, Phi had more than enough time to at least organize a consistent exclusive roster, which didnā€™t happen in the Xbox One and it doesnā€™t seem will happen so soon in the XSX.
On the contrary, except for Ori, all Xbox exclusives this gen had some kind of problem or shitstorm, and I doubt that wonā€™t be the same case for the next releases (if they ever get finished, that is).

Besides, those dozens of acquired studios mean nothing. Those are studios that never really did anything on the level of Isomniac before being purchased, and I really doubt it will change now that they are MS proprieties.
Not even going to mention that forced Initiative hype.

Phil did good on Game Pass, xCloud and other things, but is thi really what Xbox wants? Is that what consumers want?

It feels like Xbox shifted from that TV TV TV discourse just to turn into a gaming Netflix.
 
This thread is just full of crying laughing emojis and opinions. Very few facts that actually support what OP is saying , just opinions.

People saying they dont care about gamers is just embarrassing, seriously you dont have to be a Xbox fanboy to realise game pass and cross play are hyper pro consumer, it's in indisputable. That's before you even contrast it with its main competition, that has actively worked against cross play, has pushed for more exclusivity and STILL has a vastly inferior online infrastructure.

I'm pretty sure no1 over the age of 25 thinks more exclusivity and less cross play is a good thing.
 

quest

Not Banned from OT
Maybe it doesnt matter anymore. If MS will be succesful with gamepass and xcloud, they dont need even hardware. They can make some game from time to time (like Valve) and they will be fine.
No console sell gamepass period. No console sales no gamepass. Those 20 PC and 2 cloud users won't carry it. The whole xbox doesn't want to sell hardware FUD is allowed is funny. Spend 100s of millions in R&D plus advertising but they don't care lol. Stadia shows how much people care about cloud as a primary gaming device.
This is the same situation that soccer clubs have to deal from time to time: fire the coach or keep faith in him?

There are arguments for both options: maintaining Phil ensures the continuity and future success of Xbox, whilst the ā€œnew factorā€ created by firing him could change things for the best.

In my opinion, Phi had more than enough time to at least organize a consistent exclusive roster, which didnā€™t happen in the Xbox One and it doesnā€™t seem will happen so soon in the XSX.
On the contrary, except for Ori, all Xbox exclusives this gen had some kind of problem or shitstorm, and I doubt that wonā€™t be the same case for the next releases (if they ever get finished, that is).

Besides, those dozens of acquired studios mean nothing. Those are studios that never really did anything on the level of Isomniac before being purchased, and I really doubt it will change now that they are MS proprieties.
Not even going to mention that forced Initiative hype.

Phil did good on Game Pass, xCloud and other things, but is thi really what Xbox wants? Is that what consumers want?

It feels like Xbox shifted from that TV TV TV discourse just to turn into a gaming Netflix.
No it is like trying to compete against Manchester United but giving the coach 5% of thier payroll then complaining why the coach can't get it done. If your going up against a giant you need the firepower to take them down. A slashed budget for years and only 4-5 studios with no money to buy big exclusives won't get it done versus Sony.
 
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He's only been at the job 6 years.

It takes exactly 14 years to do any meaningful changes in a company. That's an internet fact.

Stop the FUD about Phil. Stop being mean to him. Y'all are Sony astroturfers if you have any criticisms of Phill!
 
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Him having the actual balls to delay Halo Infinite is the reason I want him with Xbox as long as possible. Dumb ass Mattrick would have 100% sent Halo Infinite out to die this Fall
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Yes, with a person who mandates always offline physical Banjo-Threeie, Kameo 2, Blast Corps 2, Ori 3 and Conker 2/3 as top priority games for Xbox Games Studios immediately. I do not care about any other qualifications of the person in question.
 

Wizz-Art

Member
I talked with Craig a couple of minutes ago, I said some random Sony plastic box fanboys on a forum called Neogaf are calling for Phil Spencer's head.,,

His response: HahahahhahahahahahahahHAHAhahahahahahaaha..... Hahahahahahhahahhaahahaah! They're., I'm sorry HahahahahahahahaHahhaaahahahahahaha .. . can't stop laughing.. HahahahahahahahHahahahahahaha calling hahahahahahahahahaha,.. let them call untill they way an ounce! Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha Phil isn't going anywhere hahahahahahahahahahahahaa!

Wait, let me call Satya; Listen boss, there are some Sony plastic box fanboys upset... Satya:Hahahahahahahahahahaha Craig: Hahahahahahahahaha Me: Hahahahahahahahahaha Satya: Hahahahaaaaahahahahahaha Craig: Stop it guys I can't breath hahahahahahahahahahhaha

And there you have it folks, no need to be upset!
 
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Tulipanzo

Member
I talked with Craig a couple of minutes ago, I said some random Sony plastic box fanboys on a forum called Neogaf are calling for Phil Spencer's head.,,

His response: HahahahhahahahahahahahHAHAhahahahahahaaha..... Hahahahahahhahahhaahahaah! They're., I'm sorry HahahahahahahahaHahhaaahahahahahaha .. . can't stop laughing.. HahahahahahahahHahahahahahaha calling hahahahahahahahahaha,.. let them call untill they way an ounce! Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha Phil isn't going anywhere hahahahahahahahahahahahaa!

Wait, let me call Satya; Listen boss, there are some Sony plastic box fanboys upset... Satya:Hahahahahahahahahahaha Craig: Hahahahahahahahaha Me: Hahahahahahahahahaha Satya: Hahahahaaaaahahahahahaha Craig: Stop it guys I can't breath hahahahahahahahahahhaha

And there you have it folks, no need to be upset!
2f7.jpg
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Who would be better? Consoles are great because of teams all they had to do was release Halo and even that was a problem for M$, everything was in place my Halo the one and only now against SONY firing Phil is ridicious but I love this thread and it must make SONY fans happy how about that, Jim Ryan leads SONY and is the MVP, this Phil is a sad, emotional disturbed guy.
 

Coolwhhip

Neophyte
Who would be better? Consoles are great because of teams all they had to do was release Halo and even that was a problem for M$, everything was in place my Halo the one and only now against SONY firing Phil is ridicious but I love this thread and it must make SONY fans happy how about that, Jim Ryan leads SONY and is the MVP, this Phil is a sad, emotional disturbed guy.

...what?
 
I've always had a bad impression of Spencer.
Not a leader, but a weasel that will climb using the success of others and his ability to lie.

With a team like Greenberg, Booty and Nelson this is end of the road for Phil.
Cannot BS his way anymore.
 
I mean I don't understand how people can say "they just bought studios so it takes time ". So Phil never thought about starting a second studio at 343, The Coalition, or at Playground? Their B teams could have made launch title games for the Series X.

Xbox could have expanded their gaming portfolio, allowed the talent they hired to flex their creative muscles on new IPs. Instead they force some of best developers in the industry into making the same shit that doesn't move enough consoles to be noticeable.
 
He convinced MS to make the biggest gaming investment in the history of the XBox brand.

15 studios, GamePass, and undercutting the PS5 on price are all fantastic moves.

Now fire him for not doing it fast enough!
Big investment with nothing to show, middle/low tier AA studios to fill GP with mediocre low budget games.

Undercutting PS5 price???
Nobody knows this yet.
If you refer to XSeS that only undercuts XSeX and XBox brand. 4TF next gen base console.:messenger_poop:

They can't fire him fast enough...
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Big investment with nothing to show, middle/low tier AA studios to fill GP with mediocre low budget games.

Undercutting PS5 price???
Nobody knows this yet.
If you refer to XSeS that only undercuts XSeX and XBox brand. 4TF next gen base console.:messenger_poop:

They can't fire him fast enough...

Studios purchased in 2018 aren't expected to show results in under three years.

We don't have enough information to call them middle/low tier AAA studios, especially after MS bolstered all their budgets.

Nobody knows about the Series S except for everyone who posts on enthusiast gaming message boards.

But do continue with your concern trolling.
 
This is a question to ask at the end of the coming generation, not now. Mattrick and Whitten without exaggeration nearly destroyed Xbox and thatā€™s the starting point that Spencer inherited. After that you canā€™t just magic yourself back to the glory days of the 360 in only a few years, and do so with a failed product. The new generation somewhat wipes the slate clean and marks the starting point of the real Phil Spencer tenure.

Heā€™s made the best hardware of this coming generation, developed the best services, and accrued enough studios to fix the 1st party problem. Everythingā€™s been good with the only sour point being Halo. But thatā€™s on 343 really not Phil Spencer. Although he may need to make some executive decisions regarding the running of that studio.
 
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