Phil Spencer's 'No-BS' Approach Convinced Obsidian To Join Xbox

Really?!?!? There are many positive things to say about him but I would not describe him as no BS. It depends on your definition. He is a master at PR and Spin. I’m surprised anyone describes him as a straight shooter!

@themightyant it’s a shame. I’d like to see Xbox embrace that side of him and let Xbox be represented in more of a straight forward way. It would be refreshing in the industry.

Obsidian is definitely one of the best studios under Xbox. Them and Double Fine imo.

Cannot wait to see what the Outer Worlds 2 will be when it exists, and I’d love to see them work on Fallout again.

I still need to play outer worlds but these guys seem to have a good humor about them and make a wide variety of games... always good to have a studio making multiple genres from a business sense. And great for the teams to be able to bring different ideas to life. Really a win win win because players get more unique stuff to play

I'm sure that monutain load of money helped too.

Obsidian is fast becoming the jewel in Xbox's crown akin to Insomniac with PlayStation. A good consistent run of high quality releases, interesting games with different gameplay approaches and of course that far off dream of New Vegas 2. Pentiment alone has me hyped for November, that game couldn't be more my cup of tea.

@Stocksy
When an Executive is talking publicly that is 100% PR. They are coached and trained to give a message that the PR folks tell them to give. Assessing any executive based on his public media comments is ridiculous at best.

These executives are usually a lot different for internal conversations and business conversations. I've learned through many decades of business experience that when an executive speaks publicly you just ignore it. When they talk internally, that's when you want to listen and assess them.

Think Obsidian is a little bit of a dark horse in the Xbox Game Studios stable. Everyone is talking about arkane and Bethesda but these guys make fantastic games.

@GADG3Tx87 I read the whole piece thinking this too. It is amazing how “No BS” someone starts to look when they start handing you bags of cash. 😃

Obsidian is one of those battle-hardened tried and true studios behind some of the most well received stuff for a long time, going back to before they were Obsidian and still made up Black Isle.

Their problem since the end of Black Isle has always been money, and only money. KotR2 was always considered better than the Bioware original in most ways except it's bugginess, and the fact that it just ends randomly before it's obviously done....they ran out of money. Alpha Protocol was a better Bioware game than Bioware was making, but.....lack of money. Money is the only thing they've needed to shine all this time.

As for Phil, I still don't get why some think he's disingenuous. I never get that from him. Sure, PR statements are PR statements and the content is the required company line for a variety of business reasons. That can't be separated. Even Iwata had to do that often. But those are still two incredibly genuine, down to earth people.

Phil is responsible for the tone and handling of those messages, but the content is a company script many people have a hand in.

My favorite ms studio, Pillars of eternity and outer words are gems, I can't wait to see avowed and outer worlds 2 on UE5! Those guys are so talented and with MS money and freedom to create I think they're going on top.

"You acquire a studio for what they're great at now, and your job is to help them accelerate how they do what they do, not them accelerate what you do," ...... Phil Spencer, head of Xbox.

I'm very glad Xbox bought this studio. And Phil's personality is a reason why he won an award for his services to the games industry. He has a passion for games first, making money form that second. He wants to sell you an experience you'll enjoy having, not just sell you something to make money per se and please the share holders.

I hope Avowed will be current gen instead of next-gen.

@Arxagelos 343 says hi.

Obsidian: "You know, I saw this really cool guy who always tweeted about how awesome the games on his service was and though, this is a guy who is no BS. Now look at us, we're part of the family, haven't put out anything of real consequence yet, but he keeps talking about how our beta of Grounded is great. Honestly, the pat on the back from our boss is nice and completely lacking BS."

The majority of people who don't like Phil Spencer seem to be the same people that take issue with his clear business acumen and their perception that said acumen somehow interferes with his ability to deliver quality gaming experiences. The guy runs a very profitable entertainment arm of a massive business. While Microsoft and Xbox might not be number one in gaming now (or ever) there's no denying that he has an incredible budget behind him and seemingly 100% faith from the MS board.

Phil and his team took the ashes of the disastrous Xbox One launch, the relatively weak Xbox One years, and

1. created an unheard of (in gaming anyway) subscription business model

2. acquired numerous studios of varying sizes (with more on the way it would seem)

and 3. more or less turned around the public perception of the Xbox brand

One doesn't do those three things if they're full of BS.

I own all 3 consoles and play all 3 mostly equally but the only gaming executive out there that comes across as a real human being with ANY interest in my chosen hobby whatsoever is Phil. If it's a lie, well, he's a Brando-level actor.

@PanFriedSoup LOL, kind of funny, kind of true...but I feel bad laughing at Obsidian...they're still the most productive team at MS. Grounded is a small team at Obsidian, apparently, while OW2/Avowed use the main teams. Yeah, those are a long way off.... But I'm amazed that despite all that, sure, Pentiment is a tiny looking game that could have been an indie, but regardless, Obsidian still came out of nowhere and managed to have XGS's only 2022 first party release even if it looks like a budget indie, while working on 2 AAA RPGs and Grounded as a side project.

Grounded makes me sad because it has all the components to have been an instant classic sleeper hit, had it only not been an MMO shooter royale service thing. They could have made something really special with what they have. It has a whole humans inside A Bug's Life thing going for it and there's so much story that could have been done with that.

@swedetrap From conversations I've had with people that dislike him, they somehow find him to be a fake liar, corporate lackey who's entire likable persona is fictional and designed to mislead people about the terrible corporate overreach to buy the whole gaming industry with enormous money and then eventually rip off players, just a shrewd, conniving businessman who says whatever it takes to get the sale held up by a "shill" media that's created a cult of personality around him, and sheep that believe it.

I honestly don't know how one gets that perception listening to him, or watching what he's done, or how he interacts with others in the industry.

The only indication I've ever seen that would lead me to question if who we think we see is who he really is is the fact that post-launch he was on the phone with Jim Ryan about how to handle preorders in the future. The doubt that casts as to if those two are colluding together is the only negative or questionable thing I've seen about his public personality.

Yep didn't have anything to do with Microsofts infinite amount of cash 🤷‍♂️

@swedetrap Exactly - he's a professional in a business environment, and he's a job to do. You can do that and be a fan of something at the same time, and to be able to do both, still be considered 'authentic' by devs/insiders and still be successful enough to finally wake up MS to Xbox's potential, makes him even more impressive.

He's the most likable person in the industry but of course he can't improvise and make things up when he's the boss of a business this size, if that's what some people expect. I think people love him because of his charm and personality but we can't deny that he has catapulted Xbox to fame after Xbox One's troubled launch so he basically has it all, except for the fact that he gives the studios too much freedom that turns into chaos eventually. Perhaps too kind?

@NEStalgia That wicked perception that I also have read on here and Push Square is enough to make a film or video game, a perfect villain, the perfect neighbour who is a serial killer...

Regarding Grounded, I hope that the final version has some adventure content or something more traditional because I agree that the setting and the general idea are great.

Also, what is the other AAA RPG? Avowed and...?

The biggest disappointment for me has been The Initiative that turned to be a bunch of artists arguing with each other and having been rescued by Crystal Dynamics.

Obsidian, Playground Games, Turn 10, The Coalition and Ninja Theory are doing great. Even 343 has improved and apparently are not a mess now. I love State of Decay 2 so I hope that Undead Labs are doing well in spite of recent rumours.

@Banjo- LOL, it's true. I mean a big businesss is a big business and leadership does questionable things at times, but I don't know how anyone could get an impression of Spencer that, as far as a business executive goes, he's not thoroughly grounded (no pun intended) and not sitting in a leather chair stroking a white cat the way we'd picture, say, Bobby Kotick, or Andrew Wilson.

They said something about adding the story into grounded for release, but I still expect they mean in an MMO sense, and not a real adventure. With a tagline of something like "join thousands of other players in the backyard" or something like that, it's pretty clear it's solely an MMO setup. Which is still sad, because it really does have immense potential as a memorable adventure game.

AAA RPGs: Avowed and Outer Worlds 2.

I guess you could say The Initiative......
puts on sunglasses
Didn't take the initiative........ yyyyeaaahh!

I've yet to see signs that 343 could find their rear ends with both hands and a map, so.....time will tell

@NEStalgia Well, you can't deny that 343 finally fixed Halo Infinite... with external help LOL. I was very excited about The Initiative until I realised what I mentioned. Outer Worlds 2, of course, I have to play the first one. I finally started Octopath Traveler! I just checked my Game Pass play later list and chose it. I already have three characters but I don't want to say much until later on because I loved Bravely Default until the part when you have to repeat everything over and over and over. I still haven't beaten it, didn't you tell me to answer something to the fairy in order to shorten the game, I mean, to shorten the repetition loop? What was it? I think I am close to that chapter.

@Banjo- and coop campaign when? 😂

Hmm, no, I don't think I'm the one that told you about a shortcut, unfortunately. I slogged through it until I couldn't take it anymore

Hopefully you get on with octo more than I did. The tiny dungeons and damage sponge bosses that just won't die never clicked for me. And I was super hyped for it...

@NEStalgia I mean the story of the game 😅. I know that you didn't like Octopath. I remember now who told me how to shorten Bravely Default, it was on NL. Three sentences for three games LOL.

Phil Spencer is the real deal for sure. I was a hardcore PS gamer, left XB in 2014 for PS. In 2019 I added a XB console to my PS4 and in 2020 when the new Gen consoles launched I sold both my ps4&XB1 S and bought myself a Series S and subsequently ended my relationship with Sony PS. This was all due to Phil Spencer and his GP idea of making games availabe to as many gamers as possible world wide and keep it affordable, That sold it for me. Sony PS imo is greedy, trying to sell their lame excuse of not being able to add 1s party day 1 release on their new gaming service, being apprehensive that it'll affect the quality of their games as a result. Wtf, anyone buying that excuse deserves a greedy PS and should stick with them, cause sooner or later it's gonna bite them in the butt. Thankyou Phil and XB for showing us gamers u really care, it's s not all about the money like with PS, period!!!!!!!!!