The group stage of ESL One Katowice 2018 is almost over and teams like OG have ended their run. The playoffs for the event will start off with six teams out of which two teams namely Fnatic and Vici Gaming have qualified for the semifinals. Team Secret, Team Liquid, Virtus.pro and the winner between EG and Newbee will face off against each other in the quarterfinals.
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.
Because Sony paying for an exclusive deal in each major genre didn't factor into the decision of ppl going over PlayStation instead of Xbox?
Let's see:
who had an exclusive deal for the biggest shooter PS4 or Xbox?
Who had an exclusive deal for the biggest fighting franchise PS4 or Xbox?
Who had an exclusive deal for the biggest RPG franchise PS4 or Xbox?
But let me guess Sony's words about COD type of game making a bigger profit compared to exclusive and forcing consumer habit into changing console only work when it's Sony vs the CMA right?
Microsoft had exclusive deals with popular franchises throughout the 360 era so I don't see your point.
@Petebloodyonion You typed a paragraph to make yourself sound uneducated, well done on wiping your memory of the last fifteen years of gaming. Let me remind you. After the PS3's disastrous start, it made the greatest comeback with not one or two, but multiple GOTY quality titles (Killzone 2, God of War 3, Uncharted 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, The Last of Us, etc.) and the launch of PS Plus as Xbox 360 was stagnating. Then we don't need to revisit the total self-destruction that was the Xbox One launch to give PlayStation a massive boost going into the last generation, which they followed with some of their greatest games of all time, i.e Bloodborne, Uncharted 4, and God of War, as well as the launch of Spider-Man. Remember E3 2016? The PS4 is where Sony won the majority of its new fanbase over and Xbox lost theirs due to their own stupidity and lack of games investment. Sony's streak continued when they announced the digital edition of the PS5, while MS announced a flaccid Xbox Series S to hamstring the new generation. Cheap sells, but it doesn't sustain a generation.
Now, after ALL the above and more, you want to cry about some exclusive deals that went Sony's way as if they are the big picture?
Let's not forget that Microsoft had EVERYTHING going for it in the 360 era, with massive IPs like Gears of War, Halo, Forza and Mass Effect on their machine and the cheaper console that released a year before the PS3 AND all the exclusive deals for the Call of Duty's and such. It's their utter failure to make good games or good decisions about their brand that led them to where they are now. They are not a gaming company. Get that through your head.
I remember hearing "Play it first on Xbox" ad naseum in trailers during the 360 era, like with Call of Duty dlc.
Microsoft has more than enough to buy game exclusivity... the factor in MS failure is its own bad decisions, not other companies good decisions.
*** 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?
Ryan must be huffing gasoline to believe this tripe he wrote, that, or he got a nice kickback from bro Phil. I loved the look on his face when IGN covered that exclusives would find their way to XBOX; he looked so baffled.
And why is it nonsense regarding Sunset Overdrive?
Last I checked Insomniac did shop around for a publisher for Sunset Overdrive and I am pretty sure that they also went to Sony due to past relations the same way that Microsoft Turned down Remedy Alan Wake2.
Many outlets did point out that Spiderman uses lots of core principles from Sunset Overdrive so I fail to see what's wrong with the statement just like Remedy's Control is built on Quantum Breaks's foundation
Here's food for thought Why did Sony go with Insomniac for Spiderman instead of their 1st party studio? I doubt that Sony throws money out to any devs that don't have a concept :).
***And why is it nonsense regarding Sunset Overdrive? ***
Because it has nothing to do with Phil and the remark I quoted said it only was because of Sunset Overdrive. That's why. Essentially they're geniuses for making Sunset Overdrive but idiots because without it they couldn't have made Spider-man. It's a dumb statement that speaks from both sides of one's mouth.
The whole context itself shouldn't be in an article about Phil to begin with. But, no, let's try and flex on this by calling them amazing and yet incompetent at the same time. Amazing for the game that failed, but Spider-Man was only a success due to their failure.
I swear.
***Here's food for thought Why did Sony go with Insomniac for Spiderman instead of their 1st party studio?***
*points at the entire Ratchet and Clank portfolio of games*
Sony wanted to own Sunset Overdrive IP, but Insomniac wanted to retain IP ownership which is why that didn't happen, but apparently they still don't have full ownership of the IP so I don't know what true answer to why it didn't happen is.
Sony went with insomniac for spiderman because of infamous.proven track record of creating acclaimed open world super hero games.
Sunset Overdrive was not a game Sony was interested in, it doesn't fit their MO, and they were right as it wasn't that successful. I played it, it was sort of fun but really wasn't Insomniac's best work. But obviously as a creator you learn from any game you make.
They went with Insomniac because the team pitched a good idea, Marvel was ready to get serious about their games, Microsoft turned it away, Sony owns the Spider-Man rights..millions of reasons but obviously you have comprehension problems and like Phil enjoy spinning like a washing machine.
How something came about is less relevant than opportunity, timing, and the publisher eye to see what will be a hit and make it happen.
@Christopher
So when MS releases crap games like Redfall, CrackDown 3, etc. It's Spencer's fault! When MS cancels a project like Scalebound It's Spencer's fault! but when MS publishes a great game well it's because of the great devs.
I agree that Insomniac could have made a great Spiderman without having made Sunset Overdrive but I do believe that Sony went with Insomniac because of how easily they could translate Sunset to Spiderman.
And to further my point why didn't they go with their own Superhero studios Sucker Punch because...
@Settrip
Last I checked Infamous was made by...... SUCKER PUNCH.
***So when MS releases crap games like Redfall, CrackDown 3, etc. It's Spencer's fault! When MS cancels a project like Scalebound It's Spencer's fault! but when MS publishes a great game well it's because of the great devs. ***
You're throwing a lot there and it's not like some of these aren't 'yeah, that's on Spencer' and some aren't. So, here's how I see it (for both Microsoft and Sony) and I feel my past comments fully back it up (I've gotten tons of crap for hating Sony's third-party exclusive focus right now because I don't see that as a Sony win but Square or similar company win).
For first-party exclusives: This is on Phil.I would say for Redfall and Starfield, much less so. He inherited these things and to change them so that, IMHO, they would be better, just not going to happen. But, Crackdown 3 and the latest Halo? 100%on Phil Just as 100% on Phil for Forza and Flight Sim. He has to own up to the management of overall output of his studios that he has say in when they're good and bad. You can tell how much control Phil has when he, aka Microsoft, can layoff people from the studios. If he can do that, then he has the power to make them succeed or get people who can make better teams for those studios. Same with Jim over at Sony, who I blame for so much right now that is wrong with Sony and why they have nothing to show other than third-party exclusives at the time.
For third-party exclusives: They're putting money up and that's nice, but this negative or positive outcome here comes from the developers. Microsoft publishing Sunset Overdrive didn't have Microsoft come in and make it the game it was. That was Insomniac. Unlike how they do things with Sony, who gets to dictate what game they work on (typically submit multiple ideas at a panel, Sony people decide, they make that), Insomniac made their own game. Microsoft just backed it with money, not with a panel that dictate the overall game and direction nor did Microsoft have any say at all on the dev structure or management (which they do have with their first-party studios). This is the same as Stray, FF games, Stellar Blade, etc. These games are assisted in funding and marketed as exclusives, but the dev team is in charge of making it great. Can they get feedback? Sure, but overall they have say on those games and they deserve the praise just as much as the criticism for their end game.
Scalebound? I'm not sure. IIRC this was a funding issue with some speculation on Microsoft wanting them to add co-op or MP? Not sure.
But, and remember here, Sunset Overdrive was not a great success in sales and not as well reviewed as past Ratchet and Clank games or Spider-Man games. It's the 10th highest rated game out of Insomniac per Metacritic even ( https://www.thegamer.com/in... ) [Edit: Actually, that's an old list, it's now not even in the top ten]. So, why are we praising the 10th best game of the company and thereby Phil? It doesn't deserve that level of praise or noteworthiness, let alone it doesn't deserve to have any praise coming from Phil other than putting up money and still preventing Insomniac from doing what they wanted, which is the own their own IP.
*** And to further my point why didn't they go with their own Superhero studios Sucker Punch because... ***
Because Insomniac is better. Plain and simple. Better studio (one of the best rated studios for over a decade) and better games out there for the audience they're trying to reach.
@Christopher
1) I don't need to look at your history to know that you do stick to your values :) I may disagree with you on certain topics (like this one) but if I take time to reply to you (even with my bad English (sorry)) it's because you do take time to construct a good argumentation. So for that Kudos yo you
Now with that said..
I'll just say this for your whole reply. I agree that Spencer is far from perfect and he has tons to account for,
for example how badly he handled Sunset Overdrive's marketing buzz (something Sony does pretty well) but on the plus side he did manage to secure a well-received game (81 Metacritic) from a known Studio.
How it fails to sell should also be attributed to Phil (And that's for another article)
As for your last quote, Insomniac is a better studio
I would like to recall that Sucker Punch made the Sly Cooper series on Ps2, made the acclaimed Infamous series, and Ghost of Tsushima. all of their games (except Infamous 1st Light) scored over 80 on Metacritic.
So I doubt that Sony doubt Sucker Punch's capabilities.
@Outside_ofthe_Box
The whole Sunset Overdrive situation is so odd isn't it?
We got told they went with MS because for once they wanted to own the IP
Yet in the Insomniac leaks we then found out that Microsoft owns publishing rights for any sequels made
"Microsoft owns the rights to publish two sequels for Sunset Overdrive. These include “any associated DLC, ports and derivative games (e.g., mobile companion experiences, web-based experiences, and hand-held experiences)"
So they can't port the game to PlayStation, they can't make DLC or anything else for the game
The question is, why the hell did they go with MS if owning the IP means f*** all? Did they get swindled or something? Did they expect it to be a huge IP where once a few sequels were made they'd THEN own the IP?
Just seems so silly when they could have just made it for PS4 and made sequels to it.
I'd give the Batman: Arkham games more credit than Sunset Overdrive as an influence and I wouldn't say Insomniac's Spider-Man couldn't have happened without that either.
Correct, the Arkham games brought superheroes into the mainstream and still influences games to this day, like Spider-Man and Middle-Earth. Sunset Overdrive obviously just gave them the groundwork for their parkour and sandbox toolkit.
But Phil is gonna Phil.
I would agree with this. I also find Spider-Man 2 on PS2 to be a bigger influence on movement than Sunset Overdrive.
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.
The 360 as a device left a lot to be desired. I mean I think it has something like a 50%+ failure rate. But they had some great games
360 was marred by RROD but still looked back on fondly because it had some truly great games.
Amazing what having good software covers up…and how forgiving and dumb consumers are. Pay for online with this Gen too, thanks Xbox for the sub model and helping ruin this industry.
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.
Hey, hey...Go easy on him, remember he's a true gamer and I know that because 2 reasons...1. I trust anything he says and 2. He's always wearing a t-shirt with the letters ''i'M a GaMeR''...
A decade where I don’t feel like missed out on anything not owning an Xbox. Amazing job Phil
Lies, broken promises and more lies. He has a trillion dollar company backing him, and he still failed.
He's done possibly the best job anyone could have in very specific contexts, but even then it's all asterisks.
1. Convincing Microsoft to spend $70bn after several other billions spent on studios for a platform in dead last
2. Convincing Microsoft to go all in on Game Pass offering these ever-more-expensive games for pennies on the dollar
3. Backwards Compatibility
Under his leadership, first party output quality and quantity have both drastically declined, and platform sales reflect that.
I grew up on OG Xbox and 360, but during the One era PS4 and now PS5 have become my preferred ecosystems. Third parties prefer and cater to it, and the exclusives are the best in the industry.
I do think Game Pass provides the best value in gaming, and Xbox does a lot of consumer-friendly moves (cross-save, cross-play push, Xbox Play Anywhere, BC support, releasing on Steam Day One, free cloud saves, great discounts for GPU subscribers, support for older controllers).
But Game Pass means less when the first party titles are released as if they're betas, and the consumer-friendly moves mean less when there are fewer consumers they're catering to. It's a matter of how long the good will lasts, it's only there because it's their only option to compete.
Reminder - Two months away from Hellblade 2 and there's still barely any marketing from them.
10 years and look at how well Xbox has been preforming in sales in those last 10 years.
Outside of my own views on Phil Spencer personally, this article reads like AI wrote it
Phil is a nice guy and a Jedi Master at high-level corporate politics. He and his team, their failures outweigh their successes by a tangible margin.
Honestly gotta give him his props, he talks the most shit out there and keeps Xbox in the news. Hate to say it, but he’s good at his job in that respect!
Goes without saying, you have to be an exceptional person to even get to the level where phil is or make the moves he has made.but he is very bad at this particular job.
''he talks the most shit out there and keeps Xbox in the news.''
100% !! But let's be honest, you're giving him way too much credit when it's actually the biased media especially here in the U.S. keeping the green brand and Phil in the news, without the shills from the media xbox would be even less irrelevant than what already is/has been.
I think there are a lot of things that ppl don't give credit to Spencer because it's Spencer like how PC gaming improved with Spencer
1) The state of PC gaming changed drastically under Spencer's leadership forcing even Sony into making PC games
Ppl seem to forget that in 2015 PC gaming was an afterthought with bad ports like Batman Arkham, and Mortal Kombat X being the norm when a PC port was available. Spencer's claim of making Day1 PC version of Xbox game came as a joke for us PC players due to Xbox often promising that and making stellar pieces of garbage like Halo, Gears of War, etc.
Today, PC players do get good ports (it's still not perfect) of all MS titles and MS is now one of the biggest PC publishers even when not accounting for Bethesda and Activision.
To prove my points let's not forget that 100% of N4G who didn't own an Xbox1 claimed that they didn't need one cause they had a premium gaming PC that could run Xbox games at 1080P/60 frames sec.
2) Xbox PC
Again ppl seem to forget that Xbox PC players do exist and MS can be credited for making a platform that works well with its console counterpart. Cross saves work easily between console and PC versions (no need to upload/download/validate saves) and PC game passes offer an incredible value for the asking price including EA Play
***The state of PC gaming changed drastically under Spencer's leadership forcing even Sony into making PC games***
Forcing them to do it?
***Ppl seem to forget that in 2015 PC gaming was an afterthought with bad ports like Batman Arkham, and Mortal Kombat X being the norm when a PC port was available.***
Yes, those days are totally over. 100%. PC only gets the best ports now. MGS MC, Skylines 2, Jedi Survivor, TLOUP1, Redfall, Hogwarts. All those amazing PC ports.
***Again ppl seem to forget that Xbox PC players do exist and MS can be credited for making a platform that works well with its console counterpart.***
https://n4g.com/news/259247...
Microsoft Store on PC is whack, my games on their storefront like Gears of War 4 and Forza Horizon 3 & 4 disappeared from my library despite me buying them directly from the store, their store is buggy and trash.
I agree that forcing is a strong word but let's say influence it?
https://www.windowscentral....
"Yes, those days are over. 100%. PC only gets the best ports now. MGS MC, Skylines 2, Jedi Survivor, TLOUP1, Redfall, Hogwarts. All those amazing PC ports."
Like I said good, not perfect but how many games from that list are from Microsoft and are running worse versus the console version (Redfall is bad period).
Aside from PlayStation ports, how many PC ports are now released on Day 1 instead of after consoles like in the past?
I fail to see your point about Diablo4, You are bringing a game made by Activision before the merger to explain what? That MS should have remade the whole game for Windows Store and Steam?
Yes, the game does need B.Net to start (just as many EA games do need Origin) and just as many console games do need you to log into a publisher account but it still does not change the notion that when the game starts I don't need to upload/download my saves for the majority of games.
And since you want to cherry-pick How are Sony's Helldivers 2 cross-save/progression doing?
@Skuletor
I agree that the Windows store is garbage I was talking about the Xbox PC app and the Gamepass PC app.
Again the Window store is utter garbage.
*** And since you want to cherry-pick How are Sony's Helldivers 2 cross-save/progression doing? ***
I'm not the one trying to give MS credit for 'a platform that works well with its console counterpart' here.
I'm pretty sure Sony can fail just as well as Microsoft, but I'm not reading an article talking about how amazing Jim Ryan is out of IGN where they praise sony for getting MS Sea of Thieves or the like on their platform like that was their idea or some nonsense.
Trust me, I have spite for both companies right now. ESPECIALLY for the people in charge at the top.
I think if Don Mattrick would have been still in charge Xbox wouldnt be as much of a disaster as it is! We thought he was bad, but then Phil stepped up and proved us wrong!
This guy is a talking head “cool dude” that is here for just that, talk talk talk and a true corporate shill that will say anything to try to take your money. This is his job.
Microsoft co founder Paul Allen recently invested $50 million into Ziff Davis, owner of IGN.
Not hard to put bullshit in its proper place, just follow the money.
10 years and nothing. Remember that unannounced game by Coalition before it was scrapped for more gears? The hype created for The Initiative and they've done jack shite. They had Scalebound which they cancelled, ironic that one as Phil was fine releasing Redfall Knowing it was an incomplete mess. They can't get HALO right, Fable STILL has yet to be released despite being known about for the last 7 years, they've bought Bethesda up and the first thing they release was a rushed out game just to say "hey look we have exclusives again!" And Starfield was a successful disappointment. If not for the stupid money Microsoft has, and their how persistent they've been swallowing up major publishers, Xbox wouldn't be a thing since last gen. Unfortunately MS have forced themselves forever into the industry with these acquisitions.
He couldn't figure out how to deliver a new IP, he failed to deliver on the in house IPs, he overpaid for Bethesda, he turned Xbox into a Roku box, and he released a mid-gen console that has held his devs back from doing anything worth while.
a bunch of remarks about how bad sony is
a bunch of "CONSOLE WAR" remarks
a bunch of "we are better than sony" remarks
empty promises
a bunch of miststeps
"THE BEAST" with a side dish of "xbox always on" and xbox as a media device
"we at xbox believe"
"we are always number 3"
god there are so many ha.
I'll point out again, that before he became the head honcho...
He was the in charge of Microsoft Studios.
He is the only one to blame for their lack of games. This started before the X1 reveal.
Phil Spencer has accomplished nothing.
The GOAT! Too early to judge on this gen but he turned Xbox one around from certain doom and it ended with very respectable numbers and output. Wasn't flawless but much better than it would've and should've been honestly. The most respectable thing he did was actually listen to the fans. We said no to the drm plans, he fixed it. We asked for BC, he did it. We asked for more power out came the one X. While no one asked for it and it wasn't the first game service, gmaepass was the most ambitious with the day 1 titles and he quickly got it to be the #1* game subscription service on the market
"We said no to the drm plans, he fixed it."
You can't be serious. If you think DRM went away you're in for a huge wake up call. If the things Spencer has done qualifies him as the "GOAT" than there's truly no hope for xbox going forward.
Did the fans never ask for consistent quality exclusive games? Is that the reason why he didn't deliver? Or the fans did ask but he didn't listen to them?
10 years of deconstruction. He really nailed fumbling and back peddling like none other in the past decade. What a complete chump.
Damn 10 years and all he has to show is game pass👀 had expectations from this guy and he has disappointed every time.
This guy proves that anyone can hold a high paying job for a decade as long as they’re experts at BS
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.
Read between the lines. The next "Xbox" will be a PC. Of course it'll support the Epic store.
There is no need to read between any lines… he was asked especially if it could happen and he said yes, comparing how its already done on PC, not everything is some sort of double meaning or hint to what they want to do, sometimes its just a straightforward question and a straightforward answer
And given how the EU is basically pushing against basically all sort of walled gardens more and more, I would not be surprised if this is what will eventually happens for all consoles anyway
There's no logical reason to put an Epic store on an actual Xbox. Epic only has PC games anyway, which the XSX can't run. This is trying to sell the future of them getting out of the console business. Xbox branded stuff that runs on a PC. There's been a lot of signs pointing to this lately
“There's no logical reason to put an Epic store on an actual Xbox. Epic only has PC games anyway, which the XSX can't run.“
Mmm what???
You do understand those storefronts could literally be selling any kind of game version? Its just game files and keys on a server, they dont sell console versions of games because there is no (legal) way to play them on PC…. Not because they can only sell PC games
Epic games (or any other storefront) on Xbox (or any other platform) would simply license with the publishers for whatever games will be in that store and you would download the version for that particular console from their servers….
Its literally just a storefront…
Dude I don't know how to say this any other way... There is literally no reason to put an Epic storefront on an Xbox console. Every game that can run on the Xbox console is already on the console store and MS has nothing to gain by disintermediatiing their own damn store.
Epic store = PC. That's what he's saying
And if the current xbox gets Epic store, you will probably only be able to play games allready ported to xbox. Unless they have some magic software that can solve the porting issue.
This would also be kinda cool, because there would be more competetion on digital sales. But I think a lot of people dream of other things when they hear "Epic or Steam on xbox".
Not that simple buddy. You still need developers permission for any version you sell. Epic games do not own games other than selling specific version which epic games of pc that's all.
With his broken logic it would actually benefit PlayStation games even more when you see the gap in sales
It's only interesting to Epic if they can get all the profits. Just look at how they treat iOS/Android. It's interesting to Microsoft solely because they know Sony wouldn't allow it at the level Epic wants and this would be a reason for people to move over to their console/hardware instead of Sony.
But, yeah, you know, Microsoft totally isn't competing with Sony. Totally.
It's an interesting proposition for the consumer period.
Apple is currently facing justice for monopolistic practices related to the Iphone despite owning about half of the market share of Smartphones.
https://www.nytimes.com/202...
What's the difference between Apple and Sony when Sony controls the majority of the market share in high-end consoles?
What's the difference between Apple's practice of making sure other devices have a harder time with an iPhone
And Sony's practice of paying for exclusivity when looking at the lawsuit " tthe company had violated antitrust laws with practices that were intended to keep customers reliant on their iPhones and less likely to switch to a competing device." ?
What's the difference between the IOS store and the Playstation store?
***What's the difference between the IOS store and the Playstation store? ***
Nothing. And it's not about market share since more money is made on Android devices than iOS. It's about the validity of a closed hardware and software system to remain as such.
The main difference between iOS store and Playstation store is physical/retail games still exist. So publishers and consumers have another option when it comes to offering/buying games on Playstation.
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)
Sony owns a 1.25 Billion dollar stake in Epic games. First it was 250 million, then after they bought into Epic for another 1 Billion. Not to mention some of their games are sold on that store, as well as Steam. I don't see how any of this will work in regards to Steam and epic on the Xbox. Even just every PC only games will have to be optimized for console.
This all seems like a really tall order. Maybe they make a PC Xbox, but the Steam consoles didn't go well when they released them. Sony are just going to allow their games to be played on an Xbox through Epic? Maybe Sony will allow it if it's true that the majority of Xbox games are indeed going to go to playstation. Then Sony might think, well, Xbox are similar to PC now, they are not our immediate competition anymore. I don't know.
***Since they restricted me from commenting on the last major article... ***
Last restriction 200d ago for 1 day. Been a lot of chances to discuss this since then. You have an alt account we should talk about?
***Phil wants multiple store fronts on their console. Which would give the console more games, options and different ways to buy and consume. ***
Phil wants to drown platforms with as many games so that the industry can move to subscriptions since platforms will no longer matter. It will also move further away from ownership and competition and let Microsoft utilize their IP power to get more for their games rather than pay platform holders for hosting and providing them, much like they did when signing agreements with UK cloud streaming companies (0% profit for the streaming companies, 100% for Microsoft).
"Last restriction 200d ago for 1 day. Been a lot of chances to discuss this since then. You have an alt account we should talk about?"
Why the hell would I waste my time on a stupid alt account? I'm sayin the last article I couldn't comment anymore.
I'll Leave the money, profits and what not to the company's. For Xbox users it'll mean more games, deals, discounts and more ways to consume from. Various store fronts.
Just so you know, words matter.
***Since they restricted me from commenting on the last major article***
Is not the same as
***I'm sayin the last article I couldn't comment anymore. ***
And regarding:
*** I'll Leave the money, profits and what not to the company's. For Xbox users it'll mean more games, deals, discounts and more ways to consume from. Various store fronts. ***
Hey, good on you for being an ill informed consumer who will have to accept the future that the companies decide for you, not the consumers themselves.
You speak as if MS is the only Platform out there. There's also Sony, there's checks and balances MS moving away from ownership would kill what little they have left already. Especially knowing Sony will do pro consumer moves (like owner ship) MS can't be that dumb to have 0 ownership across everything and subscriptions only games.
***You speak as if MS is the only Platform out there. There's also Sony, there's checks and balances MS moving away from ownership would kill what little they have left already.***
I spoke about Microsoft's plan to undermine Sony. Literally brought it up in my first comment to you above. Please, read all my stuff, not just part of it.
***Especially knowing Sony will do pro consumer moves (like owner ship) MS can't be that dumb to have 0 ownership across everything and subscriptions only games. ***
Unchecked, Sony would do the exact same thing. Let's not be ignorant here. Everybody needs to compete in the same market, not try and create new markets by undermining the market that exists, leveraging your massive market in cloud services, and throwing money at the situation to get people to move towards the Netflix of games and the new market of video games rather than the hardware market.
And, the big block Microsoft has isn't even Sony, it's Valve. Valve will be the holdout for their goals. Sony will eventually either lose enough market share to not be able to produce hardware, because they are a small company by far compared to Microsoft and gamers go where it's 'cheap and affordable' because they're dumb and are easily led astray by companies selling worse products, or they'll cave in and will allow Microsoft's content and continue to be fighting on hardware but lose out on profits from Microsoft games (and likely as well as companies like Epic or whomever else forces Sony to do what they want).
In the end, this is all profit seeking companies fighting each other, but right now, the lesser of all these evils is the system we have now. The one where publishers rely on hardware but don't dictate it and where hardware manufacturers are actually competing instead of letting one monopolize entirely and decide what is best for consumers.
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.
The government doesn't need to break MS up as long as they keep making the decisions they have been. They're failing just fine on their own
I don’t know, maybe like that 30% of sales thing marketplaces do? 🤷♂️ or whatever Epic is doing do the same with Steam?
I'd love for that to happen, but looking at it realistically I doubt Valve is willing to split its 30% cut (or 20% if a game sells +1M copies) with Microsoft unless Xbox is generating a significant amount sales. On the other hand, given how cheaper older games are on Steam compared to consoles, I doubt Microsoft are willing to lose their 30% of game sales on their own store either. Anyone betting on the future of Xbox should be concerned with Phil's strategies (or lack thereof).
MS could've spent of third of what it cost them to acquire Activision and bought Valve for almost 3x their market value and at least have an identity. Would've never worried about royalties going this route. The reason Steambox failed was Valve's stupid decision to open license OEM companies to produce their very own steambox. Same goddamn reason Trip Hawkins failed with the 3DO. MS will never top Sony in the console space but it could've secured a spot for decades to come. Now, apparently the grass is greener in mobile pastures! Have fun with that Phil.
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
But Epic games store doesn't sell Xbox games??
Whatever could the clown be referring to now?
You do realize that Sony would pull its games from any storefront purchased by MS, right? Pretty simple countermeasure...
You'd think a Microsoft console could easily let you run Windows and then have access to Epic Game Store, GOG Galaxy, Steam, EA App, Ubisoft Connect, Battlenet etc but no, they'd want to gimp it, so they'd get profits from all sales.
Well no, because that would basically make it a PC. A pretty low end PC. Whereas, by keeping it a closed system like it is now, it's a pretty high end games console, and avoids the compatibility issues of PCs. Not to mention it would open it up to security vulnerabilities and hackers
I'm no expert but wouldn't this be kind of stupid from Microsoft?
Fortnite is arguably one of the biggest if not the biggest IP right now. Don't Microsoft get 30% every time someone buys v-bucks off the Xbox store? If you bring the epic store to Xbox and buy v-bucks from epic store. Microsoft missus out on that 30% and epic gets 100% correct?
This is exactly why epic and apple are in court. Because apple wouldn't allow epic to bypass the apple store.
So, your telling me it’s about money, not about bringing great games to gamers
Huh
A turn up for the books. Great job m$, another monumental disgrace
Consoles should not be bloated and extremely expensive like PC's, sorry. I prefer to pick my console for the quality games it offers. PC's need to stay like PC's. Every time MS has a brilliant idea to merge things, they fail miserably. They had the same idea with Kinect to compete with Wii, Windows 8.1 to force touch interface and make Windows Phone and desktop OS's feel familiar, and they decided gamers would be okay with DRM / always online and no used game resale in exchange for the power of the cloud. All of that has turned out to be a poorly implemented cluster only aimed to benefit Microsoft in the end. Lets face it, they've tried many times now in the console market and ended up in distant third because consumers largely don't trust Microsoft or their leadership in large enough numbers for them to succeed, and there is good reason for that. They don't listen to their consumers, and they never lead, they always follow. There are some problems throwing money at it can't "fix", and Microsoft has found out the hard way. Welcome to 3rd party status.
He wants everything doesn't he? He wants to own every game publisher and developer, wants PlayStation games on Xbox, and now Epic on Xbox? Next he'll be saying that Steam should be on Xbox. I mean why not? He's already toyed with the idea of buying Valve and even Nintendo.
Does he even live in the real world? I'm sick of him. I used to find him funny, but now he just irritates me.
"Epic Games Store On Xbox Would Benefit xbox"
There you are phil, fixed it for you
Is anyone still buying his "we listen to gamers/its what gamers want" narrative?
I suppose they'll be part of the xbox community next
The goal behind curtain is Gamepass is coming to Epic and Steam, as negotiations MS will open the xbox gates.
Phil Spencer is ushering in a new age for the Xbox platform, one that could be appropriately titled ‘The Multi-Platform Age Of Xbox.’ It’s begun with four games coming to PlayStation and Nintendo consoles, and if recent reports are true, there’s many more to come.
Spencer dug a bit into why he’s leading Xbox in this new direction, and how part of this change comes from Gen Z buying habits, and the lack of growth in the console market.
When the first leaks began this year Phil Spencer finally was pushed into announcing the 'Xbox Business Event'! All the hardcore in the Xbox community and the extremist lost their mind about it being the end of Xbox. Then when the video when live Phil Spencer said it will only be 4 games released. Whew! He avoided a bad PR event and everybody thought things were back to normal...
IT TURNS OUT PHIL SPENCER WAS LYING TO MICROSOFT'S MOST LOYAL CUSTOMERS. He just waited a few weeks to soft reveal all in an interview where there wouldn't be video footage of him actually saying the words that Xbox is now a third-party publishing company.
Markets change, things happen and yes Xbox has to 'pivot' if it has to. But this man has done more 360s with the Xbox business model than any other console company; first Xbox is a boxed console, than a subscription service, then a cloud service, then an online store on other platforms! The fact is the Xbox Series S/X combined are selling worse than the Xbox One - how can this be? I strongly think that it's because MS Game Pass taught Xbox owners that they didn't need to spend on third-party games - hence the collapse in the UK market. Look, I get it, I know that we all 'know' Phil Spencer as he's always friendly and giving interviews.
It's now time to ask whether Phil Spencer is the worst thing to ever have happened to Xbox?
Well, as an Xbox supporter....
You're not wrong!
I think he is better off creating an identify for Xbox and pushing harder, but yeah, not happening
Just need to make good quality exclusive games, yet that seems to have been the most elusive thing for them to do.
Yeah the last few definitely have fallen flat. Starfield was a huge disappointment... I liked it but not as much as I expected
@ripper
Well console sales didn't keep Sony from losing 26% of its operating income, closing studios, layoffs, etc.....It's not like Sony is doing great with those console sales. Smh
Lmao
“It’s not our fault Xbox fans, we have no choice, blame yourselves or the young”
I thought he said a while back it was because of AAA budgets being so bloated or something
But we already know good games don't require bloated budgets....it's called government spending/mismanagement of money
Well as a consumer, the PS5 seems like the better choice if you get Xbox and PlayStation games. I guess Microsoft wins too because the can make more money off their games. And Sony wins because they get their 30%.
Apparently sea of theives was a huge successful on PS so I guessed the board has seen dollar signs and that small batch of games will probably Expand
Due to being lame. Let's face it. Xbox just isn't cool. It had a flash in the pan success with the 360 but it's been on life support for a while.
It's amazing how much Don tanked the brand with his assumption that the hardcore would always be there for us while we play around in the casual market with the Kinect and try to replace other devices with the one system.
Tv tv tv.
Had Microsoft stuck with their strong leadership they had prior to Don anything could have happened if Peter Moore stayed in power
Wasn't it Phil Spencer that said we believe in choice. Ah yes that old chestnut phrase slimey business people say. When in actuality you offer the illusion of choice by knee capping people who buy physical and digital in favor of your deep pocket subsidization of Game Pass in the hope there will only be one choice and everyone goes to you.
Once you've captured enough people you convert them to Cloud without consent and then it is truly end game.
Xbox failing is because you made it clear and transparent that is what you are doing and Microsoft famously coined the term "Embrace, extend, and extinguish" You are still doing it today and try to dress it up as some kind of lovely dovey democratization of software and gaming, just as long as everyone is paying the piper to use your servers and services.
Exactly this is the plan and has been, since mattrick tried to steam roll it and Spencer is playing the long game.
Phil quit lying.
We all know the reason your going multiplatform.
It's because you can't give xbox's away ($200 discounts and three months of Game Pass and still getting outsold 4:1 WW) and no one buys games on your platform because they only play what's on Game Pass.
Or he’s full of crap and realizes the Xbox brand is slowly dying and needs to make more desperation moves after killing their full game sales with GamePass. This is all desperation
There you go, it's not Phil Spencer's fault Xbox is going down the pan, it's because of GenZ!!!
Wow, way to pass the buck Phil!!
Actually Phi,l us millennials and gen x purchase consoles the most and we see through your bs. Just say you have run the xbox brand into the ground and stop coping.
That is a weird way of saying that Phil Spencer is directing Xbox to obscurity.
I can already picture the marketing material for next xbox console.
"Xbox Gen Z combatible console now available"
Triple A first party exclusives is how you sell consoles. It's a fairly simple formula made complicated by Corpo bros who have strayed from the path by the lure of infinite growth.
Lack of growth for Xbox you mean. Sony and Nintendo seem to be experiencing the opposite for some reason.
From 13 million WiiUs to 140 million Switch consoles... yeah, there is no growth in console gaming.
Yeah from 155m PS2's to 88m PS3 to 117m PS4s to 50m PS5 (obviously still more to sell) seems like even the mighty PlayStation with the best lineup has seen no real growth in the last 20 odd years either. Somethings wrong with the industry and you can all bury your heads into the sand all you want.
How many of those PS4 users you think haven't been able to upgrade? There could be another 100million+ waiting to be bought by current PS4 owners.
It was mostly smoke and mirrors. They bought all those exclusive games for the first half of the generation but didn’t build up their studios and grow a culture of making games. If they did it the right way I would have continued supporting them but after the Kinect came out they started showing their true colors and after Xbox One reveal they bared it all for everyone to see. They don’t want you to own games, they don’t care about consoles at all. They want to put in minimum effort and dominate the industry at the same time with their cash power but it doesn’t work that way.
If they had the goal of making great games and growing the console space they would be in a different position. They turned off too many people from Xbox and now they have to try a different approach. They can only blame themselves for their poor choices
What he actually means is ...we have been getting our arses kicked the last 2 generations and now we got smart to get our games on other platforms to get more revenue to buy more studios. I would be great to have only one console that plays all games...pc?
I just want a $500 console where I can pick up a second controller and play with my kids over the weekend.
I don't want to invest into PC with all the launchers, accounts and driver updates.
So no... I'm not interested in playing everywhere, any time or on my kitchen fridge with wifi ok Phil.
..and partly because him and his leadership team have failed to deliver time and again after a decade in charge.
They started a new generation woefully unprepared which is staggering considering their resources. Sony have hardly been much better by the way. And MS should have been putting the pressure on. Instead they've blown that opportunity and no closer to seeing these promised stream of games.
At least with Sony we got Demons Souls remake , GT7, Returnal, Ratchet and Clank, Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarok and all the second party games like FF7 Rebirth, 16, Granblue Fantasy and lot of other Japanese games that aren’t on Xbox. Right now if I bought an Xbox what would I go to buy? Starfield? Redfall? Not much else I can think of they even released let alone being good this gen. If they didn’t buy Bethesda they wouldn’t even have those games. What they hell have they been doing the last 10 years? I thought for sure they didn’t release many games during Xbox One generation because they were saving them all for this generation but they had nothing at all. They want your money with no effort at all
Oh yes I agree completely. The quality of the Sony games (and ones from their partners) have been very high. But they seem to now be in a period of transition. If MS was ever going to take advantage it was this period over the last few years but if anything, the gap has only increased.
Been saying it for years about them. Least amount of effort but looking for maximum profit. While using the media and their money to try and extinguish their competitors or buy them.
Just a horrible, mismanaged company when it comes to games.
And when he gets fired he'll get paid again with the golden parachute. It's crazy.
It's really a reflection of how bad Satya is in not recognizing it earlier.
To a extent they did ok with the original Xbox. Halo, PGR, Forza.
Did amazing with the 360. Some great exclusives. Then the massive F ups came. Kinect. Little to no exclusives towards the end.
Xbox one absolute embarrassment. Then blockbuster pass came and ruined Xbox as we once knew it. Only people to blame are the management over at Xbox. Plus the idiots that who had their heads so far up Phills backside they knew exactly what he had for breakfast.
360 was good until Kinect, and it all just fell apart. I think the last 2 years before Xbox One were pretty barren.
OG Xbox was legendary. LAN Halo parties. Modding the console with XBMP. Good times
It still amazes me how I actually didn't experience the original Xbox live spite having one a few months right until the 360 released.
The PS2 was my first dive into online MP followed by Xbox 360.
Xmbc was amazing.
That's it. I'm done with Microsoft.
I have owned the Xbox since the original. And every generation it became worse.
Looks like Microsoft is slowly killing the xbox and is trying to survive in some form by bringing the few exclusives they have to Playstation.
" I have owned the Xbox since the original. And every generation it became worse."
Was the 360 really a step-down from the OG XB for you?
360 had more games. That's true over OG Xbox. But that's only because they rushed to market a broken system ahead of PS3 launch that should have been recalled instead of an unheard of 3 year warranty to stay on the market. And with all their bribes to journalists and advertising dollars, they held a lead for awhile.
But that ended because Sony buckled down and made exclusive after exclusive to catch up. PS Move was just an add-on to the system. Not abandon the core gamer like Microsoft did with Kinect. And Kinect was actually working on PS2 before Microsoft swooped in with their money to take it away from Sony. Nintendo did what they always did: make a product that pulls gamers in while bringing something new to the industry.
But the end of 360's life had a lack of games for the core as Microsoft chased the casuals. Just like they are chasing this supposed "billions of gamers" instead of buckling down and making amazing exclusives. Especially when they are worth way more than Sony and Nintendo combined. There's no excuse why they weren't matching or exceeding their competitors with hit after hit of exclusive games.
And, buying third parties to somehow hurt Sony backfired because game pass killed their sales. They also can't support all those studios they purchased with money to make huge games if no one is going to buy them on their platform in large numbers. So, they need Sony to support them or risk selling or closing many of the studios they just purchased.
Same here. I disconnected everything and pulled the batteries out of the controller a while back after they confirmed no physical release for Hellblade 2. That was the final straw.
Excuse after excuse after excuse after excuse. He's desperate. He's super desperate l. Here's the reality of it. Years and years ago, kids talked about Xbox a lot. But this is today. Kids don't talk about Xbox and if they do, it's now associated with a sexual term. Kids play Switch on the school bus and have a PlayStation 5 at home. KIDS DONT TALK ABOUT XBOX, except in a derogatory sense that associates a sexual act with another person, which is shocking to hear kids talk that way at that age in their life. Kids don't want to play Xbox, they play Xbox because their dad was a diehard that doesn't know any better, ignorant. Habit, but they want a PlayStation because their friends all have PlayStation and talk about Sonic, Minecraft, Fortnite, and Spider-man 2. When they're not doing that, their playing Mario Wonder on their Switch on the bus. Phil, when was the last time you were in a school around kids? They don't like you, they have PlayStation and then Switch for on the go
I think MS still hasn’t realized these types of PR talk is adding to their failure. People are not as dumb as MS thinks. Yeah you can fool a lot of people for a long time, but not forever. Eventually they see through you.
The trouble is squire, the extremist end of the XBox community ARE that dumb, they have propped up the Xbox brand at every turn for years and bought every lie spat out by MS.
Hell, I cannot imagine another company surviving if their product had the same failure rate as the 360, but folk would even defend MS in this regard back in the day.
Yeah he can talk as much rubbish as he wants. We all know it's cause of him. No Gen Z. No weak gaming sales.
Ah, Gen Z. Some people you just wish you could bring back the man with the toothbrush mustache for.
Microsoft is like China, it wants to have 90% of gaming revenue like China wants 90% of south china sea with 9(now 10) dash line. XD
Make up your mind Phil! Now there's a rumor that he also wants to enter handheld PC because of its growing market.
Let's blame Gen Z for all of our failures over the last 13 years. What a joke of a brand. Xbox's downfall started with the original Kinect.
Nail in the coffin for Xbox in our household was buying dynasty warriors brand new for my daughter's 360 and with in just a couple of hours the disc became unreadable with burns and scratches and when i contacted MS support and they had the brass bollocks to tell me who was 30yrs at the time that I was inserting the disc wrong and tried to explain the process before I hung up and sold the POS to cex and the disc went in the bin because nayfkr would touch it and I never looked back
I'm sure the call handler said his name was Phil S and he was so successful at fobbing people off he became head of the dept
Hot take: XBOX could have started selling a lot more consoles if they made COD an XBOX exclusive after the ABK deal.
All MS need to do is make good exclusive games for the Xbox Platfrom the gaming community has been saying this for years but Phil wont listen. Stop blaming Gen Z and using buzzwords like "growth" the reason Sony and Nintendo are doing better than Xbox is because of their exclusives.
I wonder if they'd be in the same position today, if they hadn't cancelled Scalebound.
It's not Gen Z.
It is because your games sucks, and they are not good enough to become a system seller.
Imagine even worse sales if these games are console only.