
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has been unusually quiet amidst all of the Microsoft controversy going on right now, and this radio silence from the typically-open Xbox exec seems to have driven some Fallout fans to start 'trolling' Phil in-game.
As spotted over on Twitter, 'P3's Camp' appears to have been nuked within Fallout 76 - Bethesda's online multiplayer Fallout spin-off. There are even clips of players walking through the nuked area in-game, with "Phil Spencer's camp burning" following the in-game event.
Here's an overhead map view of the incident, along with a clip of Phil's burning camp out in the Appalachian world of Fallout 76:
As we alluded to at the top of this article, Phil has been very quiet this week — which is unlike him — and as far as we're aware the Xbox boss hasn't made any comment about his wrecked Fallout 76 camp just yet either. We'd imagine the 'CEO of Microsoft Gaming' has a lot more on his plate right now over at Microsoft HQ, and it's probably a good idea he avoids this radiated land for now.
What do you make of this Fallout 76 trolling session? Drop your thoughts down below, right next to this in-game nuke.
Comments 30
I wouldn't be surprised if he retires time to give someone else a chance. However, I'm not sure Xbox can be saved.
Well done for the person who nuked his camp it's well deserved for being a rotten liar. Gave me a good laugh 😂
Glad to see the gaming community staying together in there disgust.
That's kind of funny ha
Well, at least it's not death threats.
I’m not a mean spirited person but this did make me laugh 😂
Unfortunately, none of the closures this week were probably ever under Phil Spencer’s control. Xbox is most likely having decisions made by the Microsoft puppeteers at the moment.
It's really d8fficult a present to feel sorry for Phil Spencer but it's the current state of the industry. Look at most media outlets. There gets to the point where netflix were innovative but then others jump on the bandwagon and netflix has to innovate again at the cost of subscriber's so was always gonna happen to games industry now flooded
This is a harmless yet hilarious way to send a message.
Probably best for him to stay quiet. How do you make a comeback after all this disaster that’s been going on?
This is really funny
I'm starting to wonder if he's getting fired too. To have NOTHING to say after everything that's going on is just weird...
@AccessibleDaydream I agree that cuts would have been dictated to him from higher up. But Phil would have been able to help decide where these cuts were made, and they chose to shutter those studios over other options. It's not as simple as he didn't have a hand in it.
All of this is out of Phil Spencer's hands right now. He is no longer in control of Xbox. He is simply the figurehead charged with imparting the instructions he receives from on high. Likely as not Phil knows that the decisions being made fly in the face of what he knows to be good for the Xbox brand. It is unlikely he is actually supportive of any of it, but it is currently his job to do as he is told, whether he agrees or not. I say currently, because I honestly think that there is only so much a person can take of being used as a fall-guy for decisions he disagrees with. There is only so much that anyone can take, and in recent times (including the podcast in which he revealed the names of the first wave of games to hit the PlayStation) he just looked like a beaten man. A shadow of his former enthusiast self. I feel sorry for the guy, and can see him leaving pretty imminently. Unfortunately, I think we will probably end up with a Microsoft yes-man in his place. Hopefully that person will have some detailed background in gaming, but I would not be shocked if it was not just some senior Microsoft executive parachuted in to simply do all of Microsoft's bidding with little knowledge or care for the impact it will have on Xbox as a brand. These are genuinely sad times in Xbox's history...
All the recent controversy makes Xbox look worse than it did in 2013. After all these years of people saying "he's just trying to fix Don Mattricks mess!" And yet it's looking like Phil will end up leaving Xbox in a worse state than when he got it. Some people seem to worship him because he wears gaming t-shirts, but I've always believed he's nothing but talk and full of corporate double speak.
Queue the next generation when we get 10 years of "But, but... Sarah Bond is just trying to fix Phil Spencer's mess!"
I don't see Xbox recovering. Not this time. Especially with more reports of incoming cuts, price increases and porting their first party games to other platforms.
Xbox is a shadow. Microsoft Gaming Studios is coming.
Gotta be hard to be one of us, when all signs point to, you're one of them.
@AccessibleDaydream Then what's the point of his CEO role? If the decisions he and his team take for "the better health" of the brand don't do the job then it's obvious people above will take over.
@Fiendish-Beaver I don’t buy any of that. Xbox is where it is now because of uncle Phil. I’m sure he’s not agreed with every decision but he’s had a huge part to play in Xbox being where it is now. He said years ago exclusives are against what gaming is and look where we are. Xbox studios have become a laughing stock with no direction or firm management, that’s also on him. I’m sure there’s other things. I don’t feel sorry for him and the millions of $’s he’s made over a decade.
Uncle Phil’s biggest accomplishment is convincing some gamers he was one of them, he’s always been a corporate stooge. Like I said in another thread, unless he resigns and speaks out, I’ll hold that opinion of him.
I think he is going to stay out the way of this and continue executing stuff in the back ground.
Then reappear to announce good stuff at the showcase in June.
Or maybe both then retire after saying Xbox is going in a new direction or Microsoft games are and leave.
I must admit, this story did give me a laugh.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think that’s a bit mean. ☹️
He has largely turned Xbox around from where it was following the Xbox One launch, @Fenbops. It is the recent decisions that are causing all the problems, and I don't believe he is the author of all of them. I guess until his autobiography releases (assuming he does one) we won't know the intricacies of what has taken place. I think a persons position on Phil Spencer is coloured by how they think Xbox has gone from where it was 10 years ago when he took over. Xbox has a Hell of a lot more Studios now than it ever did, and Game Pass too, but I guess those that don't like Spencer would not care to credit him with that. They just look at more recent events and lay that at his door, despite the possibility that he was not in control of those events.
Now, I have no more insight into this than the next guy, so the recent events that have plagued Xbox could be entirely his fault, but the truth is, we just don't have the full picture...
I agree that the attack on Spencer's camp is rather mean spirited, but on the other hand, it is quite symbolic of the current situation. While I've suspected this for some time, it has sadly become increasingly clear to the entire world that the problem with the Xbox brand isn't Xbox, it's Microsoft. We have seen multitudinous mind-boggling decisions demonstrating a near utter lack of understanding either video games or the video game market through the years. It's been said before and it'll be said again many times more, whenever the higher-ups at Microsoft get directly involved in the decisions of the Xbox division, it's always one step forward made by the Xbox division and several steps backwards made by Microsoft. One would think they would learn from their mistakes, but good grief they don't at all. I'm sure Spencer does what he can, but ultimately, people like Nadella and others have their priorities so twisted at this point that they seem blind to the reality that they are nuking the Xbox brand much in the same way Spencer's camp got nuked in Fallout 76. I guess all we can do now is wander amongst the ruins and dream of what could've been and will most likely never be. Microsoft should be ashamed...
I think this is fine and not like death threats to him or his family as is usually the case.
How petty and juvenile. And that will have very little effect on his day.
Phil's silence, to me, says a lot. Microsoft's silence says a lot in a different regard. If Microsoft wanted Phil to make a statement, Phil would have made a statement. If Phil wanted to defend what's happening of his own accord he would have.
I think we're seeing the internal war, and I think Phil has nothing to say because he has nothing nice to say. He's watching everything he's worked on for over a decade be wrested away from him and turned into something else while he's left to play puppet. I really am expecting within the next few months to hear Phil "retire to spend more time with his family". The business Phil was trying to run is simply not compatible with the boardroom sharks now issuing orders.
If Phil is out, I think the heart of what most of us liked about Xbox ends there. Even if a box still exists, it won't represent the underdog trying to offer value and features anymore. Maybe they can hire Jim Ryan to replace him. I hear he's available and is a great fit for their corporate culture.
We don't know that he has failed those below him, @Savage_Joe. Spencer could well have battled hard with Microsoft before being forced to close the studios. After all, Spencer works for for Microsoft, not the other way round, so if they tell him to close the studios, that is what he has to do. It's that or be dismissed, and all that would achieve is someone else taking his place, and then closing the studios anyway...
@NEStalgia beat me to it. I thought the silence is the strangest point. Every other time he has been front and centre.
The gaming community has become so immature lately. It needs to stop to be honest and grow up.
There is not a word that you wrote that I disagree with, @NEStalgia. Well said. It amazes me how some people simply cannot see what is happening right before their eyes. How can they be so short-sighted, and so naïve?
@NEStalgia
Could not agree more. You may also jest about Jim Ryan , but I wouldn’t be surprised if he really did turn up with the ‘direction’ Xbox / Microsoft Gaming is now taking. It would complete the transformation perfectly lol.
@NEStalgia
This is seriously the best answer to date. And so true.
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