Agreed completely. Fucking up the xbox's standing in the market, doesn't happen without talent and a plan. And the guy in charge for 8 or 9 years now has been planning since even before that, since the last few years of the xbox 360 - so about 15 years or so?
Sure, I get that it's great console war fodder, but the reality says different.
Phil took over with the xbox one. An underpowered, over expensive console which relied on four internal studios. The investors were asking if MS should even be in the gaming buisness.
Phil then took a plan to Sayta for the future of Xbox.
That included Gamepass, investment in first party studios and IPs and moving to other key areas of content delivery like Cloud.
Since then Xbox released the Xbox One X console, which was historically one of the best consoles ever made.
It blew the PS4 Pro out of the water.
Xbox reclaimed the power crown.
They have purchased 20 extra studios including some of the most valuable gaming IP in the world.
They have tried to buy ABK, which who knows what will happen.
If you include ABK, Microsoft has nearly spent as much money on game studios than the entire market cap of Sony.
They released the XSXS. The XSX is an excellent console. Amazing build quality, quiet and good looking.
The Series S services a need for a segment of the population. Don't like it? Don't buy it.
So the "I started here graph" for Phil is excellent. He saved the brand.
Now has everything gone right? Nah. There has been issues with 343. After delivering an excellent, acclaimed Halo Infinite campaign, they dropped the ball on multiplayer content. They fucked up.
Phil put the broom through 343, changes were made and let's see how that goes.
The Initiative was a grand idea that hit a road bump. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians. They thought pulling all the ultra talented and driven people together in one studio would create a master studio. While it sounded good on the outside, on the inside there were too many strong minded people who all wanted to have their input. Personalities clashed and Gallagher pulled rank. People left and then they outsourced alot of the grunt work to CD.
Prior to Redfall, Zenimax released Deathloop to much acclaim, Ghostwire was a decent game, HiFi Rush was an amazing game and on the horizon there is Starfield, Indiana Jones, Wolfenstien 3, Zenimax Onlines new IP etc.
Their Xbox Game Studios released Halo Infinite to much acclaim, Playground released the best racing game ever in Forza Horizon 5, Psychonauts 2 was excellent and in 2020 MS won publisher of the year. Did anyone think when Phil first took over that they would win that in 2020? Nope, no one would have thought that.
There are supply issues with the XSX which Phil needs to get fixed. He is trying to balance sending silicon to produce consoles, and silicon to support Xcloud. They need more of both.
The ABK purchase has really put a block on MS doing alot of things they should have been doing. It stopped them acquiring studios that they should have bought. They pulled back on any real publicity of their upcoming games. They went radio silent to keep a narrative up for the regulators. Sony did the same thing as well. How long since Sony has had a showcase?
With all that said, you would have to be a moron to think that MS are just going to fade away, that all those studios arnt going to release their games.
But yeah, great console war fodder.
