Phil Spencer Remembers The Xbox One Launch And What They Got Wrong Out The Gate

Phil Spencer remembers how it was an event that was very much focused on Xbox as a TV platform

[Jin_Sakai]

Who wouldn’t remember that catastrophe. Can’t wait to see next generation consoles and the launches themselves.

[bouzebbal]

No exclusive no decent software no future.. As simple as this..
X1 launch problem was only DRM and always online.. No one doubted the games back then.. A more advanced kinect, 1St party and some classics back.. People were actually happy.

[akaFullMetal]

Yeah happy.......that's why pretty much nobody preordered 2013.

[JesusBuiltmyHotrod]

lol...pre-orders were so bad Ms had to reverse everything..not many were "Happy:.

[indysurfn]

he may say he remembers. But last time I checked they came out THIS YEAR with xbox one ALL DIGITAL with no disc drive. https://www.xbox.com/en-US/...

[Pickledpepper]

@jesusbuiltmyhotrod
Your right about that, they needed a kick in the arse and they still do.
It took the low pre orders to show they had it totally wrong.
Hopefully they have got the message and actually start turning out some great games, they now have the studio's and I'm sure more will follow.

I do game on multiple platforms but my preference is Xbox, I guess is because I mostly play multiplates.

And for the record I did pre order and I also pre ordered the ps4 and switch, what can I say, I'm a gamer.

[GtPawnSacrifices]

Me neither. Pretty sure Scarlett will reveal next E3.
But anyone heard any news on a PS5 drop? (Personally i’m hoping for something at Gamescom)

[RpgSama]

I sometimes feel that if Phil Spencer would stop releasing comments every couple of days most people wouldn't even remember there is an Xbox

[indysurfn]

LOL. You may be on to something there.

[UnholyLight]

The beauty in that disaster is it will make Xbox stronger learning from past failure and being given the smackdown by the PS4 this gen. There is good from failure and from all the Sony fanboys screaming MUH GAMES. It should give Microsoft a real awakening for the next gen. I fully expect them to go in guns blazing this time around.

[Godmars290]

Hahahahahahahahahaha...

MS had plenty of warning well before the launch of what the reaction would be thanks to a leak, and didn't react till pre-orders rock-bottomed.

They cannot survive such a continued level of non-awareness.

[Silly gameAr]

They thought they were the industry leaders at the time, and could dictate how the industry would be. I'd say that backfired. Now they're spending a lot of time trying to prove that the new console will be more traditional, and do what the X1 should have done in the first place.

After this gen, I'm surprised that MS still has a lot of loyal followers. Not only loyal followers, but followers that think that MS will dominate, because they finally decided to do what they're supposed to do, and that's provide games. We'll hust have to see how well they do, but I'm skeptical of anything MS does now in days.

[JesusBuiltmyHotrod]

They thought they were industry leaders.....that alone shows how clueless they are, not to mention shows what MS would do if they were.

[ThinkThink]

I don't care if Microsoft dominates, if fact, I prefer them in 2nd. It makes them work harder for my money. That said, I do prefer Xbox this gen over ps4 but that's just my personal preference in the games I play and the services I use. Definitely looking forward to the next xbox!

[UnholyLight]

Well at the time post 360 they really were. They were just quite wrong with how the consumer would react.

[indysurfn]

Gormats290 your right. They 'knew' they was just trying to force it. They had many test market polls. And several times made interviews and had bad reactions. But they wanted to do what they wanted to do.

[rainslacker]

I dont think most people believed the leak. I know Adam orth set some people off with his comments, but it was really only the hardcore Sony fan boys who gave it any grief.

Hell, I said many times back then that MS wouldn't be so stupid as to try to release the xbox with what was rumored. I fended off a lot of the criticism against xbox back then.

I was incredulous when it was all confirmed true, and actually worse than what I would have thought with the DRM.

What was worse that every new piece of new news that came out seemed to make things worse, then of course, MS had to open their mouths, which doubled the problems.

I find it hard to believe that MS thought they wouldn't receive push back. They focus test everything. I think maybe they didnt realize the extent of the criticism, or how strongly people felt about such things. Probably thought that all the criticism attached to MT or connected games didnt affect sales, so going console wide with worse ideas would just blow over. It might have if they were the only choice, but when sony was coming out strong, and firing on all cylinders on the marketing side, there was no reason to just accept what MS wanted.

[Godmars290]

It wasn't the leak, it was its E3 confirmation with MS reps only making things worse each time one tried to fix it.

[rainslacker]

There was some commotion before E3 due to Adam Orth's comments. That's what I was referring to. The confirmation wasn't a leak, just them confirming that they were going to do it. It was prior to the confirmation that a lot of people didn't believe the leak, but a lot of fan boys took it upon themselves to say it was true. It ended up being true, but I felt before the confirmation, that seemed like a really bad idea and MS wouldn't be that stupid.

Of course, history turned out differently.

[IamTylerDurden1]

The launch was horrendous, but it isn't the only reason that Xbox got dominated by the competition this gen. I feel like people use the launch as an excuse for the entire generation at times.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

The loss because Sony offered better hardware for a lower price at the beginning then Sony started getting really good exclusives mid gen and the hits kept piling on.

[Rude-ro]

They lost because they were not making any relevant games.
Their announcement stage presentation was exactly the same as the previous 4 years. A halo tease, a forza, a fabled, and cod.... the only difference was a gears of war because they did not make or own the game... they then bought the rights to get it back into the loop.
They lied about “cloud power”, teased with 4K while the console, in no way, could ever provide that resolution, and they did their third party monopoly tactics with titanfall and tomb raider...

It has been over 7 years since Microsoft has made a new AAA game, they made fun of indies, poked at Sony for teasing games too soon, and had their media partners trying to downplay how weak the Xbox one was, and fluffing up 720p graphics...

But sure.. the ps4 was cheaper too.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Neither had relevant games early in the gen. What's with this revisionist history?

I guess you forgot Resolutiongate, TV TV, 720p box, etc the first 2-3 years in the gen.

1080p $400 PS4 better performing 3rd party games

Vs

720-900p Xbox that cost $500

[Atom666]

People have odd memories. I'd argue that Xb had the more compelling games lineup 2013-2016. Once we got to Fall 2016, PS4 1st party started to really accelerate, while Xb's went completely dry.

$100 more expensive, weaker hardware, and continued belief re: DRM and used games killed it imo. The subsequent exclusive drought kept it at the bottom.

Remember this survey:

https://www.forbes.com/site...

Resolution was the top reason to buy a PS4.

[DaDrunkenJester]

Ryse, Sunset Overdrive, Titanfall, Dead Rising 3, killer instinct.

I thought those were much more compelling then knack and killzone. Infamous was decent, I didn't like it more than 2 bit it was okay. The first good game the ps4 got was Bloodborne, but up until then it was the indie station and relying on better looking and performing 3rd party games, and being cheaper.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

"then bought the rights to get it back into the loop.
They lied about “cloud power”, teased with 4K while the console, in no way, could ever provide that resolution, and they did their third party monopoly tactics with titanfall and tomb raider... "

That's very nit picky stuff that casual gamers don't know or don't care about. What you said at first was truth not enough big AAA games compared to Sony and the reveal were the reasons for X1's downfall. Because the casuals only care what console has to offer, games and the biggest one of all price. Everything else afterwards they don't care about and they really don't care about nit picky stuff about a console.

[Srhalo]

Yeah, talk about revisionist history. Xbox lost because they wanted to pump out a console with always online DRM strapped with a mandatory monitoring device... err I mean Kinect.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Nobody was going into Walmart saying OMG DRM BOX they were saying the OMG HEARD THR GRAPHICS SUCK AND IT COST $500

[CorndogBurglar]

No, the launch isn't the ONLY reason, but it's a very big reason. I owned both an original Xbox and 360. I never personally owned a Playstation. But the launch announcement for Xbox One was so bad, from their non-focus on games, their price, their "required" Kinect that bumped up the price, and quite possibly the biggest reasons....their DRM policy and always online console that turned into a brick if it didn't check in with Xbox Live every 24 hours. Then their terrible PR after the announcement as well as basically admitting they were lying about things like the Kinect being a required part of the hardware that made the Xbox One function.

All of those things made it really easy for a loyal Xbox fan likenme to jump ship to Playstation. Plenty of others did the same.

The funny thing is I did that with plans of always getting an Xbox at some point this gen if they turned things around even a little bit. They ended up doing away with the DRM and always online console as well as selling a Kinectless console. But they didn't offer any games all gen. I'm not a racing fan so Forza is never a draw for me. I love Halo, but they've only released one new Halo game all gen. And Gears is okay, but not enough for me to buy a console, not to mention they've only released one of those this gen too so far.

So yeah. They ruined it at launch, then did nothing to draw anyone back in. But make no mistake, the terrible launch is what started it all and there are plenty of people that never looked back after that.

[DarXyde]

You know who else remembers?

Pepperidge Farm.

[ApocalypseShadow]

There are elephants in the world that wish they could forget DRM2013.

I'd bet Microsoft wished they made Kinect to be more like Men In Black's neuralizer.

People thought PS3 launch was bad. This was the worst launch ever. Was worse than Sega Saturn.

[CrimsonWing69]

We all remember, Phil.

[WickedLester]

Are interviews the only thing this guy does every day? Every morning I log on here, all I see are new Phil Spencer interviews.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

He's gotta stop - reeks of insecurity.

[Srhalo]

Well... xbox is pretty much dead they aren't even selling a million consoles a quarter world wide.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

Is he doing more harm than good though? I'd say the former, nothing he says has any substance.

[monkey602]

It's long past time Phil put up or shut up but people just keep giving him a platform to spout nonsense from. Definitely my choice of most annoying gaming personality followed quickly by Randy Pitchford

[343_Guilty_Spark]

He did secure several new high profile studios...so not sure what you're talking about

[monkey602]

Of 8 acquired studios only 2 didn't already make Xbox games exclusively anyway. It'll be years before we see any thing of their projects. We were promised a focus on games many years ago and here we are coming to the end of a generation with only 1 Xbox Game/studio getting universal acclaim. How could you NOT know what I'm talking about!

[Atom666]

@monkey

Obsidian, inxile, Double Fine, Ninja Theory, and Compulsion weren't making Xbox exclusives.

[monkey602]

I actually forgot about Double Fine. Compulsion were supposed to be making Xbox exclusives long and ever ago. I was in the Irish head office for Microsoft and they were touting We Happy Few to be the next big thing. It was going to change how we think about games and it was going to be incredible. Only on Xbox.

Yeah that didn't quite work out

[rainslacker]

If you were running a website, wouldn't you take an interview from an industry leader?

That said, he never says much of substance, and most of it boils down to, " we'll be good one day. Pay attention to us because we still want your business...even if we dont do much to earn it"

[badz149]

@rainslacker

Phil is not an industry leader LOL

[Atom666]

1 interview. From 2 months ago.

Games Journalism in 2019.

[ReadyPlayer22]

These were literally recorded at E3 and GameSpot/others are releasing them now

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

Good guy Phil 'I'll just keep saying what people want to hear' Spencer, they defended and perpetuated the message fairly hard. It was only pathetic preorders and gaming community displeasure that made them change policies.

Truly pathetic PR continually coming from the mouth of xbox. He's gotta stop doing interviews, wait for a decent game to release - then talk.

ms/xbox seem so jittery, not a company that's very comfortable with where they're at.

[Juusterey]

Lol
most people realised while it was being announced

[scoot_n_loot]

Definitely was lacking, particularly the launch lineup. The only really great games I remember from the launch window were titanfall and Battlefield4.

Looking much better next go-around. Having Halo Infinite out of the gate will be huge. If they can have a couple more great 1st party games ready in time for launch they'll be in a much better position to steal back some of that lost market share.

[Thundercat77]

Worst console launch in gaming history.

[Italiano1234567]

Remember how silent the crowd was when he announced the price meanwhile the crowd went nuts the whole Sony conference

[Father__Merrin]

The price was a barrier because of bundled k8nect hence Sony rode away with early sales. Then xbox had no games even though in 2014 n4g fans were saying they are around the corner

[rainslacker]

I thought the first year of the x1 had a reasonable selection of games.

[SlagWolf]

Short version would be every thing

[boing1]

And new mistakes are waiting to be made.

[Stanjara]

He remembers all the anti consumer schemes that Msft tried to pull on people. It didn't work.

[mogwaii]

It was an unprecedented disaster, I can't see them rising to the top next gen, more gears of war and Forza just ain't cutting it these days.

[AK91]

https://www.youtube.com/wat...