"Xbox head Phil Spencer took to the stage during Microsoft’s Build 2016 keynote address to hype up the latest developments in Windows and Xbox gaming. As expected, the presentation centered around the Universal Windows Platform, Microsoft’s recently-announced initiative to unify Windows 10 and Xbox One for developers, and how easy it is to turn any Xbox into a dev unit.
The change is being pitched as a way to empower developers, with Forza creators Turn 10 Studios leading off the segment by talking about how the UWP has enabled them to code the game once for both Windows 10 and Xbox One, promising to launch all future titles simultaneously for both platforms.
“Windows 10 provides the most productive and efficient development platform for developers of all sizes,” explained Spencer. The goal is to minimize the amount of redundant work that developers will need to do in order to optimize their games for a variety of platforms. To that end, Spencer announced that both Nvidia’s pro." By Will Fulton
Nathan Brown: "Phil Spencer spoke to the press at GDC last week, offering some context/spin on Microsoft’s recent manoeuvres, while dropping a few now-customary hints about the Xbox division’s future plans. I take one issue with this: I am no longer sure Xbox has much of a future to speak of. Moreover: I think Phil Spencer, for so long cast as Xbox’s saviour, may ultimately be remembered as the man who killed it."
his decisions over the years were definitely questionable at best.
but MS let him be the head of xbox for this long, so they either dont have anyone else for the job or .. we'll i dont rly know any other reason haha.
Phil's top skill is keeping his job, growing his net worth to over $25million, all while underperforming...
IGN: "Ten years ago on March 31, 2014, then-Xbox Game Studios boss Phil Spencer was named Head of Xbox. And he inherited quite a mess. You all know the story; there’s no need to beat the horse corpse for the ten-thousandth time. The brand was in disarray after what can, without hyperbole, be called a pretty disastrous launch of the Xbox One. So how far has Xbox come under Spencer’s tenure? And where’s it going from here? Let’s look back and then look forward."
This is a Fluff piece hidden behind more obvious criticisms from the past. No mention of the flatlining console sales. Sales that are worse than the Xbox One generation that Phil has admitted was a complete failure. The stagnation of GP subscribers, a lot of which have been forced to sub to the basic if they want to play online. The firing of nearly 2000 employees. The desperate need to sell beloved exclusive titles to competitors to try and raise profits and there'll be many more to come as he tries to soften the blow to the faithful, bit by bit as he does his many PR tours throughout the years to come. I know they mentioned the righting of the ship after Mattrick, but I really feel like this was a Fluff piece.
*** Insomniac’s critically acclaimed and commercially successful Spider-Man series wouldn’t have happened without it.***
Shut up. Just shut up.
This article is hard to read without feeling nauseous on the author's attempt to bend over backwards to make statements like this to praise Microsoft or things having absolutely nothing to do with Phil at all. Somehow, Phil is amazing because Insomniac made their own game and that own game of theirs is the only reason they could make a good Spider-Man game. The only reason. Insomniac couldn't have done it otherwise. That's because they can only make games they're familiar with and are incompetent but also brilliant.
***The Xbox Series X is a great machine that has plenty of horsepower, looks awesome, and works as whisper-quietly as it does reliably. Meanwhile, Spencer’s strategy of lowering the price of entry for the new console by offering a non-4K version of the Series X in the form of the Series S also seems to have paid off, with Xbox doing better than it ever has.***
What nonsense is this?
The Xbox 360 launched in 2005. It was a great machine with great games. I never owned one since I could only afford one console and I went with PS.
Microsoft ended prodcution in 2016. This guy took over in 2014, after Xbox One launched.
What has happened since? Recently, a merger with layoffs. A new console that isn't competing globally. A dynamic shift from what made Xbox a staple of console gaming.
You can be an Xbox fan, but this guy is what went wrong.
By undoing the bad decisions that were placed on X1? Wow, such an achievement....
When he was head of Xbox in 2014 MS cut allot of the budget for Xbox. Means no buy for new studios the first 4 years. Like idiots MS are they shot themselves in the foot. You would think a tech company like them they would think ahead and have games ready later X1 early and beyond this generation.
Now we're seeing games released later in the gen but it's too late I'm afraid. They over paid for ABK over compensated because they can't get games out and see higher revenue streams.
All this could of been avoid if they bought studios in 2014 and they wouldn't be in less of a mess.
The Microsoft Gaming CEO wants consoles to be more like PCs.
This is actually an interesting proposition.
Apple is currently facing some legislation issues for exactly that.
Since they restricted me from commenting on the last major article I was gonna say Phil wants multiple store fronts on their console. Which would give the console more games, options and different ways to buy and consume.
He talked about a handheld
Expansion and meeting where Gen Z wants to take their games where ever, download somewhere and go and connect with their friends.
"This notion that Xbox can only be this one device that plugs into a television isn’t something we see in the Gen Z research. Because nothing else is like that for them,” he said.
“Some of them will have an iPhone, some will have an Android, but all the games and everything is the same. I can still get to TikTok on both of them, at least for now.
“All of their stuff is available wherever they want. So for Xbox, our brand pivot — as we attract and maintain relevance with a younger audience — is ‘Xbox is a place where I can find the great games I want to.’”
How is plus this any different than what they've been doing? They're targeting Gen not millennial and definitely not Gen X as they're old and are car from the demo. It's Z, instant access, multiple devices, f2p (sadly)
More lies, Phil you don't care about gamers.
You want Epic on xbox because no one buys games on your platform so you have nothing to lose, and your long term goal is to force other platforms to accept other stores on their platforms including yours, lowering their own revenue while you subsidize your own xbox business until all your competition can no longer maintain themselves.
I have said from the beginning the FTC is fighting the wrong fight, instead of trying to block Microsoft from buying publishers what they need to do is force Microsoft to split up and divest its hardware and it's cloud business from it's PC software (windows) business.
Countries have laws that prevent people from dumping cheap grain or iron ect. into markets and making it so other companies can't compete, this is exactly what Microsoft is trying to do, flood the market with cheap games and hardware until no one else can compete.
Of course he would, this would get Xbox games tbag publishers wouldn't ever consider Xbox for, but, it would also get him PlayStation games, he wants sore badly, because PlayStation publishes their games to Epic Games store so, he's trying to find work arounds to get games devs don't want to publish on Xbox. Read what Euro game devs are saying about Xbox, they're getting ready to abandon it and Game Pass is showing the truth, it's flopping there too. Euros are smart, they don't want any of it..These are Phil's final attempts to see what he can do to stay relevant in the hardware market, he's desperate here, big time but this is a desperate attempt and a way to try and land games publishers don't trust Xbox with, he's a deceitful one, but it's only going to make publishers more mad because now you're insulting them and trying to pull the wool over them. By their honor they're seeing this and you'd find how honorable they are. This is also showing just how well Game Pass is really doing. (It's not). He wants Steak for the same reason. Microsoft may as well go back to making and selling PCs at this point. Phil, gave it, dude. Ya failed
X1+W10= Slightly bigger and slightly more open ecosystem
while not steam store, MAc stores all, why not Sony's PS4, why not Nintendo as well or smart TVs or Smart players there so much potential it they want to be "Open" in the truest sense expand it all.
Greatest news in gaming for awhile. Glad MS is for the gamers and allow more people to play their games.
So far they are delivering on those promises to make it an open ecosystem.
More games are coming. That's always a good thing. I still will be playing most of my games on my XB1. Don't have to deal with the Window Store or any of the feature issues PC gamers had to deal with before in the past. Microsoft needs to get all that stuff fixed before they open the flood gates of games to the PC.
If I am a developer I'm making my game using the UWP.