Phil Spencer, long cast as Xbox's saviour, may be remembered as the man who killed it

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."

[gold_drake]

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.

[-Foxtrot]

Basically when we had that awful Xbox One reveal in 2013 and Don Mattrick was thrown under the bus as the companies scape goat Phil was pretty much the only one they had who wasn't a typical looking "corporate suit".

Despite the fact him being the head of Microsoft Game Studios and gladly going along with the lack of games nearing the end of the Xbox 360 life where it was basically Kinect, Sports, TV along with the same 3-4 IPs like Halo or Gears he was the best person they had for the job.

They didn't have anyone else basically and from that day onward he was seen as good guy Phil turning the studio around when all he was doing was reversing the silly decisions made and going along with whatever the higher ups or the board wanted for Xbox. Didn't make a difference in the end because everything they "reversed" with the awful Xbox One reveal ended up being implemented in small different ways surgically in recent years with Gamepass.

The guy apparently is such a huge gamer yet played Crackdown 3 and Redfall, thought they were good and released them anyway in those states.

[PapaBop]

Not a typical looking corporate suit? The guy straight up looks like a used car salesman lol. To be fair, after Mattrick, I think anyone with half a brain could succeed him and look semi decent, whenever I think of his name, I immediately remember that "this is how to share your games" video from Sony.

[S2Killinit]

when I look at him, its cringe. The guy dresses casually to fool people. But he is as corporate as it gets.

[fr0sty]

His cocky smirk I've always found to be incredibly annoying...

[MrDead]

I would say his "why bother making games when others are already" decision is what has lead them here. MS does this, but they just buy companies that they want to do a thing then asset strip it and dump it, you can't do that in gaming.

[Tody_ZA]

He's the head of Xbox because Microsoft isn't a gaming company and they haven't done anything for gaming in more than a decade. They're a parent company looking to buy more kids to raise as investments. They will profit off ownership, off their games releasing on other platforms, because they can't create anything themselves. Slowly they'll make Xbox as a console completely irrelevant under the mantra of play anywhere. That's why Phil is still there. He shares their corporate vision of making bucks and doing nothing for the gaming industry.

[TwoPicklesGood]

Lol such click bait

[ChiefofLoliPolice]

Truth hurts don't it....

[SubtilizZer]

“If they don’t have a story these days they’ll make one”
Drake.

[RhinoGamer88]

Phil's top skill is keeping his job, growing his net worth to over $25million, all while underperforming...

[SeTTriP]

Gotta respect it, he went from a gaming studio head to making 70billion dollar deals...he is the main character I gotta admit.he looks fun to hang around too.

[MrDead]

...why do I feel like I need a shower after reading that? One of the grossest thing I've heard, S tier blowing bubbles grovelling.

[jznrpg]

I don’t respect moves that make gaming worse long term

[XBManiac]

(Phil 'wait for next year' Spencer)
Microsoft made the 71,933 millions deal because it was already started and, with Microsoft, it is not possible to go back and stop it. Does anybody think that deal would be an option in 2023 or 2024, with the nowadays sitiation of the industry? And in 2022? No, nobody would pay that money for Activision-blizzard-king... because it would not be recovered in more than 20 years of really hard and good work. Everybody are selling for less, not buying for more (Embracer, Tencent...). But bad decisions in a company like Microsoft are impossible to fix. It is like a very big Ministery, where if something starts, it can't be stopped. It happened before and Microsoft will do the same again, as they have enough money to burn... well... I hope, because if Microsoft dies... it will be the end of our known world. What could substitute it?

[_Decadent_Descent]

I mean, that does take a certain skill. lol

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I guess he has skill as a salesman, look how long he managed to get people to wait on Xbox.

[S2Killinit]

Incompetence and greed

[PhillyDonJawn]

Nyxus been on a role with these phil Spencer opinion articles lol

[TheEnigma313]

He's definitely killed it. His obsession with Sony killed it. He had all the momentum when he took over coming off of the 360s success. He has failed upward smh. It all started with forced kinect, tv, and drm, and arrogant attitude with the xbox one. It's sad because og xbox and 360 actually helped push the industry foward.

[shinoff2183]

Absolutely. If they didn't extremely drop the ball mid 360 xbox would be bigger. Gaming would be a little different as in both systems really needing to be bought.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Imagine if the brand had kept on the upward trajectory that the 360 established early on, at least they brought good online services and features to the industry.

[XBManiac]

Microsoft people did not learn a shit of 360 early days... well... wait... early Xbox 360 and later firs gen Xbox people are not in Microsoft since mid 360 days...

[Gamerscore2077]

There’s no debate on this particular matter. His decision making as head of the Xbox division has killed the system.

[Knightofelemia]

Listen to Phil you will be dead last. Two Xbox generations under him have and are under performing. And are dead last in sales.

[S2Killinit]

And less relevant by the day.

[badz149]

to be fair to Phil, the Wii U was last place last gen haha

[SpacedDuck]

Whoever is in charge of firing Phil should be beyond scared that despite Microsoft giving away every first party game with a great consumer friendly subscription the Series X is still getting demolished in sales by the PS5 despite their gaming drought and awful subscription models.

It's pathetic how few quality games Microsoft has been able to pump out the last several years.

[Tody_ZA]

Let's review some highlights:

- "21 exclusives" E3
- Games Pass taking priority over creating games
- Game Pass reaching a plateau before expectations and boasting "value" over any first party quality releases
- Billions of dollars spent on publisher acquisitions that haven't managed to shift any Xbox unit sales, thus the smokescreen before beginning the long journey of multi platform releases for their games to increase revenue via ownership
- No new IP or GOTY level games in more than 10 years
- The Initiative has yet to release a game or even the release date of one to justify their supposed AAAA quality development
- Scalebound cancelled
- Oversaw the decline of all of their major and secondary franchises, i.e Halo, Gears, Crackdown, Forza
- "The Power of the Cloud" and all its gaming benefits of delivering ten Xbox's of power that has never been seen
- Passed on the opportunity to publish Spider-Man or some other game from Marvel
- Failure to secure any major third party exclusive deals in recent years
- Cried about Helldivers 2 after cancelling PS5 versions of games from publishers they acquired
- Threw their weight behind failures like Redfall, Starfield
- The Xbox Series S
- The Xbox Series S vs the $100 more expensive Digital Edition PS5
- The Xbox One X will probably go down as the most pointless console release of all time given the timing of its launch
- Becoming known for PR double talk and blatant lies from one interview to the next
- The "Nice Guy" persona which arose and then tanked with the aggressive monopolisation attempts and spin
- "Xbox could be dead by 2027"
- The death of Xbox console sales and end of Microsoft reporting any real numbers in favour of reporting meaningless stats like bullets fired or aliens killed

Yeah, think you may be right about this in a few years time when the fanbase runs out of excuses for this non-gaming company.

[XBManiac]

Add the "Baldur's Gate 3" has not enough quality for Xbox under Bonnie Ross opinion... as well as others that included hundreds of millions in promotion of games that really suck.

[Chocoburger]

Excellent list. I also remember Xbox defenders claiming that MS was "saving up big games" for the Xbox One X launch, which of course never arrived (unless if you count Crackdown 3? Yikes!).
Then a couple years later, the defenders claimed that MS was "saving up big games" for the Xbox Series launch, which of course, never arrived. Xbox Series was the first console release in history to launch without a single brand new game.

NOT. ONE. NEW. GAME. UNDER. PHIL. SPENCER'S. LEADERSHIP.

What?! How could they possibly have been unprepared for new software for their console launch, when their mid-gen launch also saw nothing noteworthy, and their previous base console was slowing down in first party releases!

If that isn't cause to fire Spencer, then I don't know what is!

[Tody_ZA]

It's obvious to anyone who isn't an Xbox fan that Microsoft isn't a gaming company, not with the shockingly bad track record you mentioned. Whilst Nintendo and Sony continue to deliver GOTY level games or reinvent their IPs to stay fresh or release new IP or grow their studios, Microsoft simply wants to profit off ownership and subscriptions. Xbox fans have just taken a generation and a half to realise that Microsoft does nothing for gaming or developers, because they're too busy being happy with the "value" of Games Pass.

Yet the reality is, PS Extra achieves a similar model without sacrificing investment in developers and new games and IP, PS Extra isn't a substitute for Sony acting as a gaming company. And like any subscription service, it cannot sustain itself forever in the absence of new games and sales of those games. Any sane person would rather have one GOTY level game than 50 decent ones. Not to mention that subscription models are bad for the growth of gaming. Even take PS Extra - I was about to buy Tales of Arise on special and then it got added to PS Extra, now I'm just playing it via my subscription. I love the hell out of the game, I would have gladly bought it. These subscription models should only exist to give players opportunities to play games that have flatlined in sales, revive interest in dead games, or keep them playing older or other games until the next big release. They should not exist like Games Pass to cannabilise sales of brand new games and take the place of investment in new games and studios. The model won't sustain itself.

Microsoft's other problem is that they have no plan for their Xbox console releases. Not one console since the Xbox 360 has added anything noteworthy to gaming. Their only triumph is backwards compatibility which I'll give them wholeheartedly. Yet since the Xbox One their consoles have been utter failures, their big thing with the Xbox One was Kinect which added nothing to gaming and basically just gave you Google voice commands to control your console over pressing a button. Anything besides games.

With every PlayStation Sony adds something innovative or game changing or simply evolves on what they did before. With the PS4 it was the share button and the touchpad and VR, and with the PS5 it was DualSense, 3D Audio, the SSD, the Portal, VR2, PlayStation Link.

Microsoft doesn't have that track record or any new games because they simply have no interest in it whatsoever. They're looking to passively profit for the next decade by just having their games on other platforms or eating into other profit share with ownership of Call of Duty and Candy Crush and others.

I'm willing to bet that the next Elder Scrolls game will be on PlayStation.

[Zenzuu]

"Powa of Da Cloud" - Nothing came out of that

"World's most powerful console. 12 teraflops of Power" - PS5 Basically trades blows with it on multiplatform games and kills it with their first party games

"We're focusing on building world class 1st party studios" - Yeah, I guess by his definition is forking out money and buying studios.

"Xbox top selling console" - When they're selling well

"Hardware sales numbers are not important" - He downplays the importance of hardware numbers when they're not selling well.

The amount of PR and damage control is laughable. Phil would definitely be suited to join the team at Apple.

[S2Killinit]

How disappointed the xbox faithful must be feeling with the recent turn of events and the direction of xbox as a platform. To have defended this guy for this long to then realize he would be the end of xbox as they knew it.

[TheEnigma313]

That's what happens when you blindy follow and don't hold them accountable

[Phiidyn]

I was a huge Xbox and Xbox 360 fanboy. The XBOne I bought years after release and even then all I played was Sunset Overdrive and Halo. After that it turned into a Netflix machine and a healthy PS4 + PC combo took over my gaming time.

I spend almost all my time with the PS5 now and I haven’t played a game on Xbox in over a year. It’s actually unplugged now.

Full disclosure, I’m shopping for a cheap Series X right now JUST so I can get the backwards compatibility for my 4K TV. Been picking up scores of used multiplatform games for Xbox One and Series X because THEY’RE INCREDIBLY CHEAP! But there’s a reason for that… nobody wants an Xbox. Lol

Anyway, my PS5 dominates

[Hofstaderman]

Might? Try definitely remembered as its murderer.

[Auron]

Phil and DEI killed it for me.

[MrDead]

DEI myths have been debunked for a years now, are the Tater Tots and Tim Poole kids still going on about it?
I don't even live in the US and know how funny all the DEI bots where. 5 years old some of the articles!
https://www.linkedin.com/pu...
https://www.forbes.com/site...
https://www.forbes.com/site...
https://datapeople.io/artic...
https://academicpersonnel.u...
https://www.fastcompany.com...

[anast]

He's a hustler, not quite Todd, Reggie or Gabe , but he's close.

[derek]

An incompetent like Spencer and those around him being able keep their job should tell you how little importance Microsoft places on xbox. It was all good until the abk purchase went through now head office is going to start calling the shots.

[Father__Merrin]

Spencer has been a disgrace since day 1. Xbox is worse with him on board

[TheCaptainKuchiki]

Peopla complained about Don Mattrick as if Spencer wasn't part of his team and also said amen to all the bad decisions that were taken during XBO's launch. He's no better than Mattrick. He's even worse because at least Mattrick wasn't hiding behind PR facade like phil

[XBManiac]

Spencer WAS part of Don Matrick team on Xbox.

[TheCaptainKuchiki]

That's what I said...??

[obidanshinobi]

Phil Spencer is/was a business manager, not a gamer, he doesn't know what makes a good game, hence the poor quality of Xbox exclusives under his leadership and a focus away from them.

Don Mattrick on the other hand was a gamer and programmer, he brought loads of quality 3rd party exclusives (some timed mind) to Xbox, Gears of War, Mass Effect, Titanfall, Sunset Overdrive, Saints Row 1, Bioshock, Forza Horizon (Playground were independent at that time), Dead Rising 3, etc etc, that's just off the top of my head.

What quality 3rd party exclusives has Phil brought to Xbox?

[XBManiac]

That's why Phil included Bonnie Ross for that mission...

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Technically, Microsoft was going to kill Xbox off after the Xone announcement, but Phil convinced them to keep going, all he did was prolong its agonising death. And to be fair, they were coming from the success of the 360, so a turn around shouldn't have been out of the question if he didn't make decisions that were significantly bad for the brand. Also, it's sad that with Microsoft's money, those studios they acquired should have flourished rather than languishing in stagnation.

[XBManiac]

But... Phil Spencer was the "second" aboard for Xbox One launch and before. He was only the face that come after Don Mattrick. Phil was in one charge of Xbox before 2014, responsable for meany Xbox One launch and before "things" many did not like.

[Demetrius]

Fed up of hearing bs news, I remember visiting n4g back in 2008-09 there were games getting teased, revealed, so many details about upcoming gems nowadays its not like that damn I miss that

[dveio]

In favor of Spencer, I agree on one thing written in this piece of opinion: "He seems a decent sort."

I can't explain why, because it's just the way it is, my personal natural gut feeling.

On the other hand, I also agree on everything else written there, especially this: "... you cannot disprove this industry’s oldest truth: great games sell consoles." And this combines 1st party games and exclusively dealt 3rd party titles.

To my understanding, that's everything there is to say. Xbox doesn't have them. And that's actually not me stating that, despite writing it. But rather looking at the hardware sales.

A console becomes insignificant, the lesser people go out and buy it. Throughout the first months of 2024, the PS5 is outselling the Xbox Series again. But this time by a constant 4:1 ratio. In 2023, it already was a 2.8:1 ratio, looking at total sales.

And this is the significance not only the third party business out there cares about, in terms of with whom they are more likely to close deals with.

But this is also the translated significance of how people perceive a console manufacturer's catalogue. Foremost in terms of software, but also everything else in their ecosystem.

Well, unless you only care about combined AB/MS revenue finally beating Sonys.

But that's actually a tragic disposition as a gamer and none of the reasons we once started playing videogames.

[Chocoburger]

"May"? Replace the word, "may" with "will". He has undoubtedly ruined Xbox to the point of no return for millions of people, including myself.

I remember 10 years ago when people on message boards had a picture of him as their avatar, and under his image they had the word "BELIEVE", as in to believe in what Phil Spencer was going to do to make Xbox better. I knew it was ludicrous and laughable back then, and its even more so today!

He cancels games, claims its to make Xbox "better" (lies).
He claims that first party games released in a laughably unfinished state are "looking good" (more lies).

What we needed 10 years ago were the same group of guys who started Xbox in the first place. J. Allard, Seamus Blackly, and Ed Fries. Alas, its not meant to be, they're long gone now.