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Xbox head Phil Spencer says console tribalism is ‘one of the worst things about our industry’

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Microsoft’s biggest competitor isn’t Sony or Nintendo

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Microsoft and Sony are often considered direct rivals in the game space, competing for players through new consoles and exclusive games. Brand loyalty and “console wars” for some players dictates whether they’ll grab a PlayStation or Xbox. Extreme fans have even escalated their affinity for one over the other into harassment. But Microsoft’s real threat isn’t Sony, Nintendo, or any other company, says Microsoft’s head of gaming Phil Spencer. “We’re in the entertainment business. The biggest competitor we have is apathy over the products and services, games that we build,” he says.

Speaking to The Verge, Spencer says he finds toxic brand loyalty to be distasteful and despises the idea that companies like Microsoft “have to see others fail” in order to achieve their goals. “That tribalism in the industry, if there was anything that would ever drive me out of the industry, it’s actually that,” Spencer says. “When a team releases something into the market for … the world to tear it apart on the internet, it’s just such a brave thing for a team to do. I’m never going to vote against any creative team or any product team to do poorly because I have a competitive product. It’s not in me. I don’t actually think it helps us in the long run in the industry.”

Instead, Spencer says it’s more important to focus on how the industry is doing well as a whole. He points to advancements like crossplay — where players can jump into the same games with friends on any console — as ways the company has worked against these tropes of bitter competition.

“But there is a core that just really hates the other consumer product,” Spencer says. “Man, that’s just so off-putting to me ... To me, it’s one of the worst things about our industry.”

You can listen to or read Nilay Patel’s full interview with Phil Spencer here.

 

FunkMiller

Member
Absolute douchebag. Feeds it when he think it’ll benefit his brand, decries he when he thinks it won’t.

Can’t believe people like this cunt, I really can’t.

I never get angry at XBox fans, but when it comes to assholes like this feeding their console war frenzy, that’s another thing entirely.
 
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SoraNoKuni

Member
Another backflip, when they are marketing they cater to that group exactly. Yet when it backfires it's bad.

The most awesome powerful beast machine that decimates planets using pure RDNA2 TFlops didn't actually deliver so fanboys should stop judging us.

Please.

I think the "tools" were there all along.
 

reinking

Gold Member
He is a massive hypocrite.
I would like to give Phil "Lie Di-" Spencer and Jim "Lyan" Ryan the benefit of doubt. I believe that they both believe the BS they are selling when they say it. Unfortunately, it tends to mean nothing once the interviews are over. Good liars convince themselves that the lie is true.
 
While he's right... this is incredibly rich coming from the gaming platform holder who both fuels the fires of platform wars the most with their disingenuously worded PR soundbites, as well as interacts directly with (and in the process signal boosts) some of the most toxic brand loyalists on twitter (like MisterXmedia and Timdog).

Don't virtue signal when you're actively participating in the toxicity you're currently trying to call out. You're pretending to be noble but you're actually part of the problem.
 
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Fahdis

Member
Wasn't Microsoft buying up all its Rivals in the 90's so they could have a monopoly in the OS software industry?

Whatever the case though, I like the new branding for Xbox. Everywhere and Anywhere. I was a Sony dude until I got a PC and realized fanboy mentality. Sony, is the one that's not forward thinking anymore... and Nintendo... well...
 
While he's right... this is incredibly rich coming from the gaming platform holder who both fuels the fires of platform wars the most with their disingenuously worded PR soundbites, as well as interacts directly with (and in the process signal boosts) some of the most toxic brand loyalists on twitter (like MisterXmedia and Timdog).

Don't virtue signal when you're actively participating in the toxicity you're currently trying to call out. You're pretending to be noble but you're actually part of the problem.
/thread
 
Dear diary,

Phil Spencer was mean to me today and i got sad. Just last week, he came by and kicked my puppy, the big jerk that he is. I for one think he should be burned at the stake for being a big bad meanie.

Down with the Spence for he is an evil man that says bad words.

I will now cry myself to sleep and hope to wake from my slumber in a Spencer free world. Pray for me.
 
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