Yesterday, we brought news that Xbox boss Phil Spencer had formally accepted his New York Game Award; a prize that recognises industry figures who "have exhibited a significant, sustained body of work that shows exceptional artistic achievement and innovation."
We believe Phil's award is well deserved for what he's achieved at Xbox so far, although his acceptance speech focused more on the industry as a whole rather than his time at Xbox. Notably, the Xbox boss put a strong emphasis on "creating joy" for players around the world:
"Gaming was, and is about, this very echo effect of joy. Today, there's so many games, more than ever before, available to more players than ever before. But also, it can feel like there's more despair in the world, a steady stream of bad news.
Today as creators, as leaders, as world builders - our greatest responsibility is to inspire and invite joy."
The Head of Xbox then went on to list a bunch of games that many of us have likely been enjoying recently, remaining typically platform agnostic in the process:
"Halo, God of War, Vampire Survivors, Peppa the Pig - big games, small games, mobile games, indie games - each one is designed to deliver an infusion of joy in the midst of our lives. To give us so much joy people want to talk about it, to share it."
Spencer also then gave a shout out to all of the teams and individuals involved in game creation, effectively thanking them for sticking to their creative visions in a world where its easy for ideas to be shot down.
"We, all of us here today, all of our teams around the globe, we're all part of creating this echo effect of joy. Our creators who bravely and intentionally release their visions for the world, particularly in the current culture of criticism and cancellation. Our players who bravely and intentionally carve out time for our games to invite, rest and rejuvenate their lives.
And business leaders, we’re called upon to have the courage to protect and nurture this collective joy. We’re called on to incubate these experiences, create them and grow them."
We'll drop a timestamp of Phil's awards speech down below, if you want to hear all of this from the man himself. Congratulations on your award Phil, we're eager to see what's next for Xbox!