Xbox head Phil Spencer on the surge in demand for Xbox Live

Phil Spencer, head of Xbox and executive vice president of gaming at Microsoft, joins "Squawk Alley" to discuss the surge in demand for its subscription service.

[Vasto]

We love you Phil!

[Software_Lover]

Funny you are, but nah!!

[RazzerRedux]

Dat man crush

[Ricegum]

Vasto

Are you Aaron Greenberg? Genuine question.

[rainslacker]

Funny. I've asked him that on several occassions, or made jokes about it.

[NeoGamer232]

Microsoft has gone through a transformation the past 5-10 years.

They have gone from arrogant money hoarders not listening to the market to an extremely agile organization responding to almost everything the way the market is going. Whether it is Windows, Office (now Microsoft 365), Azure, their PC devices, or XB.... All are in an agile mode and innovating their respective markets to try and become market leaders.

Satya should get the credit for all the turnarounds. Since he took CEO Microsoft is a much different company. He has piece by piece put the right people in place and rebuild every business unit they had.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

It's why I've invested in them. They are doing a lot of good things.

[caddytrek]

Get back to me when they stop being arrogant.

Then get back to me when they stop with all the double talk.

[neutralgamer1992]

Neo

They did all that because they got humiliated with Xbox one so they are trying extra hard to show they have changed. If you go back to beginning of this gen many 3rd party publishers had placed their confidence in Xbox one because they already had a install base from Xbox 360(and Sony played catch up for the whole gen)

It's very hard to have loyal fanbase and lose them as fast as Ms did Xbox one. Now Sony is in the same boat it is easier for them to sell a ps5 to current PS4 owners because try are part of the same ecosystem. It's very hard to ask gamers to leave their friends and huge library of games to jump to another brand

Contrary to what many believe most people still only buy one console (hardcore gamers may buy more than one but vast majority of the market share comes from casuals)

So yeah nice to see Ms change for once but I don't think there had any other option. They finally invested in first party so hopefully they will give them the freedom and resources to bring out some amazing games

For such a long time Ms didn't think games are what sold consoles especially exclusives but they finally came to that realization. You want people to buy your console offer the games they want to play

As a OG Xbox owner I am glad to see them come back. That's what made them special against PS2 they came in and we're all about hardcore gamers but overall they changed and I don't think for the better

[rlow1]

True that, he deserves a lot of credit and his overall strategies have really permeated through the company. But you still rely on the people you choose to take whatever part of MS they're in charge and make the right day to day decisions. Thank god Ballmer left when he did.

[Lexreborn2]

is it really a "Demand" when its a Requirement?

[gamer7804]

demand: the desire of purchasers, consumers, clients, employers, etc., for a particular commodity, service, or other item.

so yes it is demand, even if it greatly enhances a capability or the user experience.

[Gaming4Life1981]

It's not a requirement, its plenty of people who play on xbox and don't have xbl. I dont see how people have either console and dont have xbl or psn but then again I'm super competitive.

[yomfweeee]

I think you're confusing "Live" with "Live Gold". Almost everyone has Live which is free. Gold is the paid upgrade.

[Nyxus]

I don't have any multiplayer subscription, since I only play singleplayer games anyway. Used to play a lot of mp last gen but I'm kind of done with it.

[rainslacker]

You have to set up a XBL account to use the console. Many of their games on PC also require an XBL account. Quite a few of their other gaming services require it in some form as well.

They dont have to be paid accounts, but if you want updates to their games or services, then you have to be signed up to at least the regular version.

It's reasonable to assume that if they get more customers, the demand for at least the basic XBL account is going to rise. Just tacking the requirement onto minecraft boosted their numbers pretty heavily a while back

[Donnie81]

I don’t see why people pay for Xbox live or gamepass ultimate. With little effort I earn it for free via Microsoft rewards each month

[RazzerRedux]

Yep. Rewards pays for my Game Pass on PC. Pretty easy to do.

More people need to do this:
https://www.microsoft.com/e...

[ocelot07]

Wow going to take a look at this. Free PC gamepass each month for little work sounds good to me.

[RazzerRedux]

Yep. Basically I use Rewards to buy a Xbox gift card which Game Pass draws its fund from.

Can't beat getting every Microsoft first party game absolutely free. lol

[Donnie81]

Absolutely it really is a great service.

[Donnie81]

Ocelot07
I do it for about 10 minutes on my lunch break every day that’s about all the time I dedicate to it. One thing though if you want to get max value out of the service you gotta use Bing. Look into it though I bet I make 40$ a month

[rlow1]

Yeah I've used that as well. Nice deal.

[omegaheat]

It's called advertise revenue. Whether you got your Microsoft rewards from searching on Bing or grinding on Xbox, you earned Microsoft more money. It looks free on the outside, but in the background there's more going on with monetized ad placement.

[Donnie81]

I works for me. I like bing and like free $

[caddytrek]

This past week has done nothing but highlight Phil's and Microsoft double talk...

Oh we don't want to talk about numbers, of course as soon as they have a number that isn't the fact they still get outsold month after month 4:1 by PlayStation and 6:1 by Nintendo they can't wait to talk about numbers.

[Father__Merrin]

There's no such surge. This alleged surge is because of lockdown it will go quickly

[timotim]

Did you even watch the interview???

[TheHateTheyGive]

Double talking phil. If xbox live allowed free to play games to be played for free like sony, pc and nintendo does i would be praising phil, but its his typical smoke and mirrors, same with gamepass, he does not say if them 10 million is on xbox or pc. I cant respect a guy like him. I love xbox so much, but this guy is a legit compulsive liar.

[Ausbo]

10 million is combined Xbox and PC. It’s not that hard to figure out.

[TheHan]

So far Phil’s been doing a great job! Keep up the good work, even if theirs people who just wants to see Xbox fail.