Xbox Veteran Suggests Recent Decisions 'Probably Aren't Being Made By Phil Spencer'

Spencer, Bond snd Booty are being punished for their abysmal mistakes and handling of Xbox this generation. And rightly so.

phil spencer’s is just a mouthpiece , i don’t think it’s entirely his fault at all. M$ is way bigger than him

It really doesn't matter if it was his decision, his actions before and after are equally inexcusable. Don't tell studios to do what they want if your bosses aren't on board with it and own up to it once you make a mistake.

Spencer has created a situation where neither the community nor his employees trust what he says. That's on him and nothing he does now at that company will fix it.

It's sad but I'm over this now nobody died it's business move on no matter how much people bitch and moan and blow Phil's things up nothing is going to change what happened it's over the end!

There's been numerous reports of infighting at MS over Xbox and what they need to do. We had people leak out all the potential games on the table to go to other platforms and now this. I believe that it is now Microsoft gaming, no longer Xbox, and as they've shown historically MS isn't worried about doing a 180 on a dime if excel shows it's good for the bottom line. That's what's happening now. I wouldn't be shocked if Phil is gone by the end of the year.

@SolarSailor What do you mean "no plan what to do with them?" The plan has always been pretty obvious and buying ABK was not Spencer's unilateral decision.

Not quite sure I follow you, @RedShirtRod. What is it that you think that Phil Spencer has done? If he tells a studio to make the games they want, and then weeks or months later, his bosses tell him (or them) to do something different, how is that Spencer's fault? The article clearly states that the changes and decisions are being made by people above Spencer. So how is it his fault?

@nomither6 He's a CEO; that is a large part of his role. He's the public face of the company. All CEOs are beholden to the board.

Phil has been eerily absent and gone in the wind while all this has been going on. Just like he was when they wouldn't clear up the rumours about games going over to PlayStation.

He's probably working on his next big PR speech to make it seem like everything in Xbox land is fine and dandy and they'll rise again like a phoenix to become bigger than god or whatever crap he'll come out with that'll turn out to be another piece of crap in the next two years.

He has mismanaged Xbox plain and simple. All the other big names are defending him but where is he to defend himself? Coward.

Where were we told that it was Spencer that sought to buy ABK, @SolarSailor? Phil Spencer may have supported the purchase, he may even have been the one to pressure Microsoft, but to my knowledge we don't know that to be the case. It could just as easily be that ABK approached Microsoft and offered themselves up (as we know they did to other companies). For all we know, Spencer may even have been against it internally. Just because Phil Spencer is the public face of Xbox, and he stands front and centre to impart news, it does not mean that he necessarily either supports or agrees with what is going on. If his bosses tell him to do it. That is what he does. It is as simple as that.

That's one possibility, @GADG3Tx87. It is also possible that Phil Spencer wants nothing to do with all this. That it has all been taken out of his hands. That he completely disagrees with it all, but that he is being told from on high this is what he, and Xbox, has to do.

If he is not fully behind these decisions, which is entirely possible as many of the decisions fly in the face of what he has previously said, then perhaps he does not wish to step forward to defend them...

I'll be curious to hear what Phil says when he eventually crawls out of the rock he's hiding under. Seeing that the studio closures were very opposite his vision for xbox, this is likely something he was against. As someone who has been in similar positions, the best you can do is make your pitch and show the upside, but ultimately, you don't get to make the final call. When it doesn't go your way, you then have to break it to people, and it's incredibly uncomfortable. You question whether you want to continue or just quit because it's too much.

I'm certainly not defending any decisions here, just offering a perspective. Phil will eventually speak about it, or he'll quit because it'll be too much for him. The next few weeks of actions or inactions will be very telling.

I'll be curious if the official Xbox podcast goes into it. I also wonder if this will effect previously announced plans for Phil to speak after the June showcase.

I think Microsoft gave Phil and the gang a chance, let them have their vision.
Release on all devices on day one, game pass and console sales etc.

And let’s be honest, it’s been a flop from big stand out AAA games, to console sales and now very slow GP take up. Studio management etc.

If I was in charge of Microsoft I would pissed as well with them. Every year things seem to get worse and lower, it’s was only ABK extra revenue that took them out off minus 4% following an even worse quarter before.

@Fiendish-Beaver @FraserG
Maybe, but I just grew tired of all the broken promises and lies. And the feeling that he's never been held accountable for any of it. I feel like Xbox is in a worst position than the damage Don Mattrick left and as the head of Xbox it's his responsibility. Just my thoughts.

Anyone that thinks replacing Phil Spencer is going to result in a complete turn around at Xbox is completely delusional, as is anyone that believes Nadella, the board and stakeholders at Microsoft aren’t the ones driving decision making at the company.

The major difference between Microsoft and Sony right now is that PlayStation has been the most profitable division at Sony for years while Xbox hasn’t ever been at Microsoft, despite years of investment.

If you’re a stakeholder with Sony, it’s very obvious that you should continue to invest in PlayStation. If you’re a stakeholder at Microsoft, why would you continue to invest in xbox when there are other areas like AI and cloud-based infrastructure that are generating considerably more growth with little to no risk?

The recent decision making at Microsoft has all the hallmarks of a board looking to cut risk and grab as much return on investment as possible over as short a time as possible.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Phil step down at the end of the year and for Xbox to cull any other studio that isn’t generating the profits demanded of them by the board and stakeholders.

I have no idea where this leaves Xbox, but recent decisions don’t instil any confidence in the idea that Microsoft see value in Xbox as a brand. I think we’re moving towards ‘Microsoft gaming’ and an organisation that has more in common with ‘EA at their worst’ than anything else.

I really hope I’m proved wrong, but I’m not feeling much optimism.

I know when my boss tells me something that I HAVE to do. I do it. I may not like it. I usually don’t like it. But I do it.

And I’ve been in many situations where I even pushed back against my management and still had to do things I didn’t want to do.

We don’t know and may never know the situation here. But if Phil is boxed in and has to obey his superiors, it’s hard to say ALL the blame lies at his feet.

If he’s at all like the person many have reported about, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him leave Microsoft on his own sooner rather than later.

Time will tell.

The author can 100% believe what he wants, Xbox is where it is because of uncle phil. It would be unfair to put the blame on him completely as MS is a mega corporation with no shortage of talking heads, but uncle Phil has had a huge part to play in this.

As someone already pointed out, he became the head of Microsoft gaming a couple of years ago and was happy to take the title. He must have known then plans to move away from the Xbox brand.

I agree, but those decisions are being made due to Phil's inability to improve Xbox's standing in the market. The NHL never took over ownership of a successful franchise, they took over for ones that were collapsing due to mismanagement. It's the same thing happening here.

@OldGamer999

‘And let’s be honest, it’s been a flop from big stand out AAA games, to console sales and now very slow GP take up. Studio management etc.’

All true, but Xbox has been raking in massive profits, so uncle Phil hasn’t been a complete failure and at the end of the day the money is all those above uncle Phil care about.

@Fiendish-Beaver He is not a line worker or middle management. He is the CEO of their gaming division. It's his job to explain to his bosses how the gaming industry works and how closing these studios in such a way would have serious financial consequences.

There was no possible outcome of closing Tango Studios that wouldn't destroy trust in the community, and we've seen time and again the gaming community is very loyal to who they trust. Spencer should have done everything in his power to explain to the board how this would push customers away. If that didn't work he should have pushed to get ahead of the fall out and released a statement that would try to appeal to their community and not just a PR word salad. If Spencer can't convince the board to do either than he's not fit to be their CEO.

I wouldn't be surprised if we find out Phil Spencer has been axed and is on garden leave. He's been completely absent during this whole passed week

The funny thing is that the majority of the console owners are casual/third-party players that don't read gaming news and are not console exclusives supporters. The only exception is Nintendo with some huge sellers like Mario Kart. The online outrage that supposedly dictates the fate of the companies belongs to less than 1% of their user base. Forum posters think that every piece of news is going to consolidate or destroy a company, but they won't change anything. Online outrage seems like a huge thing because we are reading it, but it's merely anecdotical.

People really need to stop standing up for Phil Spencer, this is the same person that wanted to use share manipulation via a former Microsoft board member to force Nintendo into being acquired. He is a vile person and the sooner he's fired the better.

if i where working at an xbox studio, i would be looking for another job and not doing my best work. the fact that xbox has most of the game ips i look forward to has me worried.

im always seeing phill playing fallout 76. he might already be fired.

@Banjo- @OldGamer999 @themightyant @FraserG @SolarSailor

It needs to be reminded on here so we can get this message out to some of the ones that aren’t as in the know as we are. Remember: ABK was bought for KING! It was said out loud many times not COD or Tony Hawk.

MS wanted into mobile and to build a store front on iOS and Google the only way they could do so is to get a cash cow game in Candy crush. This is a point i never see said online or by YouTubers. I repeat ABK was bought for King mobile studio.

Now MS has to figure out what to do with the AB part of ABK.
So there was a plan as to why they went with this buyout and mobile makes more money than all other gaming platforms combined.

@Banjo- agreed. 99.9% of console owners would have no idea who Tango are or that they've shut.

@HonestHick Yes. Mobile and Cloud are the only markets that are growing, not to mention that the PC market is much more important than the console market. Microsoft is looking for two things: growth and first-party content.

@Dimey Indeed.

I feel like I'm watching a community being collectively deflowered.

This is all spin. If Phil didn't know what was going on and that this would happen, he's astoundingly thick. He knew - you don't get to that level in business without being one of the players. MS has always been like this, as has every large corporation as long as they've existed. And you'll all forget in six months.

@Banjo- 100% and they can get there cause the Ip’s they have now are giants. But it’s going to have growing pains of who they keep and what they need them to work on that some gamers might not like or understand.

I said it before. The narrative shifted after the January showcase when ABK integration was developing. It's typical Sataya Nadella. Once he gets involved & doesn't like a product. It's no secret Microsoft want out the gaming console hardware. It's game over. Look up the death of Windows 10 mobile. It's so similar it like history repeating. The whole we will make phones for fans etc . Open platforms. We will bring software to who wants it. Ring any bells.

@HonestHick Xbox has become a massive tree that they are trimming because some long branches don't bear enough fruit: Arkane Austin. Mikami and the producers of Hi-Fi Rush and Ghostwire Tokyo had left Tango. That might explain why Tango is also no more.

I mean...duh? It's been obvious. We know what Phil's direction was, he's been talking about it for a decade, and we bought in as part of that. It's very obvious this is no longer his direction, and it's very clear who's direction it is.

@Nancyboy By Phil's own admission he made it to the top because he was the only one left. Everyone else quit after the X1 meltdown, so when they needed someone to take over he's who was left. I don't think he ever would have made it to the top of MS had anyone more corporate still been available.

@Banjo- At a certain point online outrage becomes so big and the brand image so dire, that the average person can't not see it. Combine it with how much of other gaming platforms everyone DOES see, and the idea of "Xbox is bad, nobody likes it" becomes "common knowledge" fast enough. Heck, it's been that way since 2013, that's the problem.

@RedShirtRod You have a valid point, however, you're underestimating the pure force of power a board and executive team at a trillion dollar company have and the god complex they embody. Nadella is right. Nadella is always right. Nadella operates off spreadsheets and the spreadsheets can not be argued with. His minions are there to execute his will. Moreover they've ingested Activisions leadership, a very very profitable Activision whispering in the boards ear the right way to maximize revenue. Anything "long term strategy" oriented Phil says will go right out the other ear.

@GADG3Tx87 I think that's the point. He has no intention of defending any of it because he doesn't agree with any of it. If all true I expect the reality is more on the lines that there have been heated conversations between him and corp and he's pretty much sitting on his hands to avoid saying something that gets him sued while considering a departure.

@theduckofdeath He's not really a "CEO", it's a sort of weird Microsoft internal role title. He's a "CEO" of a subsidiary of a public corporation. He's not beholden to any board, he's still a "middle manager" beholden to his actual manager, the CEO of the public corporation who answers to the board. He's a division president, not an actual CEO. It's an awkward symbolic title. Yes, he's in charge of "MS Gaming" but being in charge of it means nothing when the role is "carry out the CEO and CFOs orders."

He should have left, as Reggie did when there was pressure from Nintendo to pursue copyright infractors. Bowser was the man for that call, and Reggie cared about his style and reputation.

If Phil was gone before ABK adquisition, maybe he would be remembered with high regard.

@Fenbops
On a lighter note all:
Fallout 4 was the best selling April 2024 UK game digital and physical combined.

It’s a shame in the article didn’t mention the words Xbox but of course Bethesda are.
You could argue why mention Xbox, but I just think it’s a sign of the times, regarding that word Xbox.
The words PlayStation were used and the TV show. Though it was PushSqaure.

@NEStalgia I'm not sure about that bit because the real life people that I know that have an Xbox don't even know who Don Mattrick is and I mean 2013 and later. It's more what we always say, that Sony is the default console even if it's for playing a third-party free-to-play game, while Nintendo is the happy family choice.

@fbnaulin I sympathise with a man (Reggie) that don't agree with a company (Nintendo) that wants to incarcerate people for pirating a video game.

@HonestHick @Banjo-
Just to acknowledge I want another Xbox home console for next generation.
The series x and definitely the controller and some of the clever features, overall are still all the best out of all 3.
Even if we get Microsoft day one games on all consoles it will still be a great option to have an Xbox home console and the best controller in the business.

@OldGamer999 I'm not a PC player but a console player. As a I told NEStalgia yesterday, the only thing I care about is keeping my digital library and I think Microsoft is the most reliable in that sense, even if future Xbox consoles have a "PC" inside. On top of that, Xbox makes the best hardware and has the best online services and, arguably, the best controllers. That doesn't mean that I think that Xbox is perfect and I criticise what I don't like, like the hands-off approach, the fact that they answer all of the external questions and the management of studios like The Initiative and some IPs like Viva Piñata, Conker, Banjo... Ahem.

It's very interesting how Microsoft are working on the mobile and PC UIs and Phil's comments about how a handheld PC should work. They are going to create a seamless Windows experience on console, PC and handheld.

The future of Xbox is the same experience on console, PC and mobile devices and I don't think that's a bad thing at all, because it's sustainable and gives more choices to players. The only handheld PC I would buy is Xbox.

I know it's trendy to abhor Xbox even on an Xbox site like this, but I can't. I joined Xbox last generation for the first time and I have really enjoyed my Xbox One and Xbox One X more than my PS4, that I got at launch. Now, I'm honestly satisfied with Series X. FPS Boost and Backwards Compatibility are my favourite console features ever and I don't have any reason to drop Xbox as my main gaming platform. Even my Switch is Xbox-ised (not hacked) through a Brook adapter, an Xbox controller and mapped buttons in the console Settings menu, even though I've been playing on Nintendo consoles since I was a kid, something that made beating Grabbed by the Ghoulies on Rare Replay a bigger challenge than it should be.

@Banjo-
As long as they make another home console that is all that worries me.
And yes they need to sort their studios out and start getting great games out and earning their management money.

@Krzzystuff the fact that we haven't heard a peep from him makes me wonder if he isn't already going or gone...

No, stop. Don't use logic.

@NEStalgia @OldGamer999 @Banjo- i agree wholeheartedly. Tango lost talent and MS decided not to fill it. Look you know i love you and NES and many others on here. Y’all keep me company, more knowledgeable, and are just some of the best people i trust in all of the industry. I had to say that before i say this. Gamers love to panic and complain. Period! Take leakers for an example they get 8 out of 10 things right, it’s the 2 they missed that are talked about. Sony closed studios this year and hacked and slashed Japan studios and went to California. Seems a little more extreme than closing Tango. My point is. Business is business and we might not all see the reasons for it and understand the decisions. Some of us do understand and flat out disagree with it and thats ok also. But we don’t get to call in death threats to devs. We don’t get to slander people online that we never met. We aren’t a fly in the room on the wall watching Phil tell the board he would like to keep Tango or why he wishes to close it. This isn’t the 6th or 7th gen of video games where the options of places to play are thin. There are like 15 devices including handheld PC’s, consoles, mobile cloud and more options to take the players time and money to if they wish. I have said regardless if i agree with everything or not from MS i am sticking to using and enjoying an Xbox console as long as they make them. If…. IF MS leaves console i will build a PC. I can not play Gears and COD and others on a PS controller. It hurts my hands, i don’t love the layout etc etc. i will use that controller for their exclusives only and of course i use Nintendo for exclusives only. In closing gamers love to scream and yell on social media and try and look smart and important and good for them. But not all news be it good or bad is as good or bad as it’s made out to be. There is some grey areas to these situations that we need to respect more. I don’t wish to offend people on here but i know this post alone will turn into me sympathizing for MS or something. I am sad to see tango go but if the smaller indie dev’s have shown us anything before it’s they can pop out the next big indie hit out of no where and run with success (Hades) so i wish all at Tango to keep their heads high, get back to work soon and be a part of a game that is so awesome and received that you barely miss your time at tango. Long live the big 3 and long live our friendships on this site enjoying Xbox together and the industry as a whole.

@HonestHick Same back at you!

@Banjo- The masses don't know who Don Matrick is or what E3 executive theater showcased. But the masses know that reddit is sooooooooooo anti-Xbox. Their friend's cousin's dad's friend's uncle says to avoid Xbox it has no games, everyone hates it, PS is so much beter, etc, etc, etc.

Theres a certain point where "scandal of the moment" becomes "constant string of scandals" and the general sense of "everyone hates this brand, nobody buys it" becomes the prevailing wisdom in the market even if nobody knows why.

That's a big part of Series selling poorly. Yeah, Phil made mistakes, missed targets, zero marketing. But a lot of it is just the market already "knowing" that "xbox sucks, nobody buys it" since a decade ago. It's difficult to reverse a negative brand image once it takes hold of the market. That's why most companies spend millions and millions making sure that doesn't happen. MS has created a worse brand image really from Feb through today than even Matrick did, though.

@HonestHick
Same back at you, and totally agree about the Xbox controller being the best controller to hold and play with.

@NEStalgia
I will never understand the marketing or lack of it for the series generation since it started.
Also with the games and game pass.
It’s been like, yeah we have released all this and there you go.

I absolutely get your point, @RedShirtRod, but Spencer is not the head of Microsoft, so if his bosses tell him to jump, it is his job to ask how high, and then jump!

Spencer has made a serious of promises during his leadership of Xbox that are now being reversed. Now, it is entirely possible that he is responding to market conditions, and so is having to backtrack on his previous statements. However, it has been rumoured for several months now that there is an internal struggle going on within Microsoft, and though we do not have the specifics of that at this time, the probabilities are that you have Spencer and his team on one side, explaining the pitfalls of what they are being told to do, and Microsoft on the other, just steamrolling them, and making team Xbox go against what they think is best for the brand.

If Spencer is being told be his superiors to do something, he has only two choices; do it, or quit...

I understand that, @GADG3Tx87, but if matters have been taken out of Spencer's hands, then he has not lied, but has instead been overruled. I do agree though that this is all very, very frustrating...

100% accurate

What is less talked about is the fact that the decision to acquire ABK instead of a more console focused publisher was Amy Hood's and not Phil Spencer's, so that they could break into mobile gaming. This was handwaved during the FTC trial as MS trying to downplay the importance of CoD on console, but it's the absolute truth. There are more CoD players on PC than PS and Xbox combined. There are more Cod players on mobile than PC, PS, and Xbox combined. We know that from the very same trial.

@NEStalgia Series S|X is awfully underrated, but I don't see the hate towards Xbox in real life. It's more that the casual gaming is on PS and parents are buying Nintendo for their children. Parents don't even know what Xbox is.

@OldGamer999 I think that answering external questions is a bad choice because they answer specific questions with long-term strategy answers. Why don't Microsoft do like Nintendo and Sony, "We have nothing to comment at the moment"? Especially now that they are so big that they don't even have a shared answer.

Series X is a great console, but marketing has been small. I wonder if it's because of the difficult acquisition of ABK. Will marketing be gigantic when they launch the next Call of Duty and it joins Game Pass on day one? It'd better be.

@Banjo-
Let’s hope so as I think some good PR will be good for the brand.
I’m looking forward to COD day one GP if the campaign is very good. Been ages since I’ve played COD.
IS THIS YEARS ON GP DAY ONE?

@OldGamer999 easily my favorite controller. Now if Xbox left the industry and took its games to PS, i would hope they would also sell their controllers on it as a 3rd party. 10/10 i would buy it.

@NEStalgia @OldGamer999 @Banjo- if one of my favorite information outlets is right here is what they hear is planned at the June showcase and beyond. COD is getting the big after show highlight. Why? Cause rumor per them is this is the first COD that won’t be on PS4 and Xbox one. Also it has been in development longer than any cod is recent history and is adding new movement. Whatever that looks like. Stay with me here. The rumor is MS is going to control the marketing for it, i know i know, stay with me. They are going to advertise it not only coming to GP but later in the year they will have a $199.99 bundle with COD on Series S. That could grab a lot of causals and players that are about to find out they can’t play this year on Xbox One and PS4. Will it move the needle much? Idk but it’s a smart move and keep in mind this year Sony can’t market COD, it would be illegal. It’s now MS. So let’s see if this is the marketing push they were waiting for. June will tell us more.

@HonestHick That sounds good enough. Last remarkable marketing move I saw was Series S Fortnite bundles. They really must market the next Call of Duty worldwide and also Series S, X and Game Pass in the process. They own Call of Duty now, so if they market it worse than Sony did in the past, Microsoft needs to replace their whole marketing team.

@Banjo- Yes, but casual gaming on PS instead of Xbox is because everybody else has PS. Why does everybody else have PS? Because "everybody" "knows" PS is "better" and "xbox sucks". It comes back to the same market perception of negativity to the brand. Phil was on a long, slow road to fixing that, and finally almost just getting around the corner next gen. Now thanks to corp interference? The image rolled back 8 years. And Devs of people's favorite games other than CoD are going to help kill its image. The same way EA and friends helped kill WiiU.

Also, MS answers long term questions because they're the only one that actually needs to. Nintendo and Sony don't keep changing their long term strategy every 6 quarters with vast uncertainty. Nobody knows what MS might even be thinking of doing in 2030. Everyone can predict right now what Nintendo and Sony intend to do. Only MS leaves doubt about the future, so only MS gets asked so much about the future. But even Nintendo's Furukawa years ago talked about their considering a future without hardware etc. Even Nintendo does from time to time talk long term.

Now, I don't think they'll stop making hardware, but I think they'll stop selling "Xbox" as this console platform. I think it'll just be a box that you can buy with tight integration for you to play games on. Nothing really more marketable than that. And it may be a very good product, but it won't have excitement around it, it'll just kind of exist. And maybe that's the right thing to do. But it also leaves the door open as to if it's really the best option and that will depend on price strategy and market position. If Phil's in charge? It might work out. If Satya's in charge? It'll be a cluster. If it's Activision people in charge? Even you'll preorder a PS6.

@HonestHick From my own perspective I can tell you the difference between my reaction to Xbox and Sony's closures is due to one simple thing: Expectations.

I was pretty negative on Sony's closures too. Still am. But the difference? I expected that. I've been saying since 2018 that Jim Ryan was going to destroy Playstation. I saw what he was doing, how he was mismanaging it, and knew that was the outcome years and years ago, and pointed it out daily on Push and everyone chastised or blocked me because of it. Playstation went down even worse than I imagined it would, but I wasn't surprised because that was the outcome Jim spent years engineering and I knew it. It was attributable to one man and, yes, Ken Yoshida the CEO, and Jim being a corporate yes-man that refuses to say no to executives. So when the bottom finally fell out, more spectacularly than I pictured at its worst, I was like "Yep, it finally happened. And they finally scrapped Jim. Now they can get a real leader and fix it now that (Jim's) cat is out of the bag."

Xbox on the other hand was already on the right track. It was going to be a long and slow road, but they were doing it right, because the leaders had integrity and conviction. Which is why I backed Phil's vision instead of Jim's vision. Because Jim's vision was bad and based on short term gains at the cost of liquidating the future. Phil's vision was based on plodding along in third but building a resilient battleship that would withstand time.

But now what happens? Phil's pushed aside and we get Satya's vision. Which is basically just Jim's vision except with 4 barrels. Phil's vision was fostering good devs of all sizes and mitigating dev expense and risk through subscriptions and growth. Satya's vision, like Jim's, is throw everything into the biggest homogenized blockbusters and cull everything that's not tripling results quarterly. Burn the platform, cashmoney today! And there's no real leader to come in and fix it. Nadella's the only final say. It's his terms until Windows fails. Which may be soon if they keep going the way they are.

As for the COD marketing thing.....personally that sounds very plausible, and sounds like a good plan, but I'll also say that sound like a very Phil plan. Maybe the last of his own brewed plans. I like it. And I bet Staya finds some way to undermine it for some quick cash grab. Refusing to take a loss on GP and raising prices, or breaking it up into tiers breaking the strategy. Watch this space. I was right about Jim..... don't blame me when I'm right about Satya.

@NEStalgia I thought that we had agreed that Sony has back-pedalled and changed their strategy several times this generation? 🤓 If Microsoft answers every specific question, would that be good communication when they don't have specific answers? It's better when they have a podcast where they answer everything together. They are vague about exclusivity because they don't know yet what to do, but they were specific about hardware and Game Pass.

As long as there is a console market, I also believe that there will be Xbox consoles or whatever you want to call them and, as long as they play our digital libraries, every fan will be happy. I have assumed that there won't be an exclusivity future because it doesn't even work for Sony's critically acclaimed cinematic experiences that don't pay the Xbox tax, but I don't think that it's a problem, because once the user experience is seamless among the different devices, not even third parties will care about how many consoles have been sold.

After the acquisition of ABK, you are right, things might change. They are trimming the huge tree already. Studios not doing well enough will be shut down or be merged with others. Phil's passion as a gamer will not play a role in the business decisions.

@Banjo- I thought we agreed Jim didn't really have a strategy He was coasting on PS4 success, bilking captive customers for every last penny, and then focused on PC, movies, ignoring/sabotaging VR, and just backing sequels to things and assuming spending more budget on it means more return. Then shifting to "endless live services" which seemed like a reactionary step announced to save face in the midst of MS buying CoD (which just lost money and got mostly cancelled on his exit.)

That's all the point though. MS if vague on everything because they dont' know. They haven't decided. You can't sell a product with a long term ownership term on "we don't know, we'll figure it out later and let you know." And as they're not the dominant platform in the industry, they need answers up front as to why you should leave the status quo and choose them. If they have no answers, it's another way of saying "there's no reason to." If they keep changing their answers it's another way of saying "nothing we say means anything, we'll just change it."

Yeah, that's a problem. And it's a problem only MS has. But it's a problem MS has. As the third place they need to be the market disruptor. To be the market disruptor you need a bold, clear, product vision that defines how you're going to disrupt the market and why customers should partcipate in that disruption. The OG XBox team had that down to a science. The current Xbox product? They want to disrupt things, but they're not sure how, they haven't decided, they'll figure it out later, unless they change that again, they have a few reasons, but corporate will reverse that..... They need a VISION. One that doesn't change. One that entices customers.

Phil had a vision where Gamepass and cheap hardware rewrote the narrative. It was a good vision. It was a bold vision. Sadly that vision failed. The market just didn't go for it. I get that, and why they're reversing from that. But instead of having a solid new vision and direction we get a general sense that they don't really ahve one, and whatever one they do have isn't really for current customers.

But I do agree, about the hardware continuing to exist. The only question will be what will it cost, and will it really be a more desirable option to just going PC at that point if it's really a limited PC? Price and features, and BC support will need to answer that.

@HonestHick
Well let’s hope they really do start advertising and bringing the Xbox brand and the consoles some much needed momentum and PR exposure.

@NEStalgia The only thing that Xbox don't know is how far will exclusivity or the lack of go. They do know that they will be making hardware, that games will be on Game Pass at launch, that they need first-party content to feed Game Pass and that the future of Xbox is a seamless multi-platform experience. That's a very strong vision.

About Sony, yeah, Jim has been driving Sony like a roller coaster. I thought he might had an idea where he wanted to go to, but maybe he didn't... or the destination only existed on his mind. I don't know. He seemed delusional in his emails to Phil Spencer, like not connected to the real world or not willing to accept it or like he thought he owned the whole world and was right about everything...

@Banjo- The media keeps saying that Xbox has poor messaging on mixed messaging. On the exclusivity topic, they have said ad nauseum that it will be on a case-by-case basis. The response it ask them about each game and say the messaging is unclear. Xbox will not commit to absolute exclusivity for any title because someone will bring up a quote from 5-10 years ago.

I want Xbox games to exclusive (console & PC) more than most. However, I understand that it is a business (where goals are to profit) and has overlords. The ABK deal and the nature of ABK's success brought up the uncomfortable question, "Why NOT publish our games on more platforms?"

@Banjo- I think for now they do timed exclusive. I'm curious about gp at launch. I expect that to be a technicality and split into a new tier or just higher pricing. With their new focus on aaaa blockbusters, something has to give there.

The thing is game pass is a Phil thing. Will nadella like what it does to potential sales long term? I think they'll seek to massively boost it's profits, it reduce it's value once way or another. It's not growing. Guaranteed Satya HATES it. He cares only about massive growth. It's a Phil shaped nail that will be hit with a Satya shaped hammer.

Jim...I think he honestly thought if you just keep spending more, making everything more impressive, and spending more on marketing the market will just grow and grow and grow. I thing Jim massively misread that PS growth was mostly Xbox exodus, and not exponential market growth, and spending more doesn't increase profits. By the end during the ABK thing he was panicking. He knew where things were going internally when he was parading around about ABK I think, but he was already locked to that.

@theduckofdeath Yes, Remember some Push visitors asking here why did Microsoft say that Call of Duty will be available on Playstation but not Playstation 5? Why did they say Nintendo but not Switch? Why 10 years and not more? What are they hiding? It was hilarious. Microsoft said Playstation and Nintendo because they assumed that Playstation 5 and Switch won't be in the market in ten years. Now that the acquisition has been completed, they still can't be specific about the future of exclusivity because of potential lawsuits.

Exclusivity will be on a case-by-case basis, as they said in the beginning and it makes perfect sense that they can't guarantee how long and how many games. They were as clear as possible about exclusivity and they chose words wisely because it's impossible to know what will happen 20 years later. You are completely right. Good point.

@NEStalgia Good ole Jimbo! Haha

Yeah i really hope MS suits let Phil and company get back to their plans but it seems like that money given up from the suits say’s we need our return on this and we are going to have a say in how and when we get it. Which is sad. But i am hoping it works out for the best. Cause MS will be happy in the back half of this year with COD money and the Diablo 4 expansion. But what about Avowed and HB2? That i am not so sure about. Meanwhile somewhere ole Jimbo is saying what a shame they cancelled all my gaas titles. 😂

@NEStalgia @HonestHick Yeah, he seemed desperate while touring the world and may be wondering what happened to his Fortnite wannabes and AAAA cinematic exclusives that every person would buy a PS5 for.

It's not necessary to raise the price of Game Pass because fans play Call of Duty until the next entry is released. As I explained above, it's a win-win inside and outside Game Pass. It will benefit Xbox on all fronts, even on other platforms (70%). Besides, raising the price because of Call of Duty could mean unnecessary trouble. They won't. They also re-confirmed for the 87th time that games will be on Game Pass at launch. We know about the deluxe editions with early access, but that's part of the industry and they can get away with it. It happens on all platforms since last generation or earlier and it has happened on Game Pass before. Sony did it with Call of Duty. As long as the digital edition is available on PS for 10 years (9 now?), they're fine. Call of Duty will be a hit inside and outside Game Pass, because fans will either pay the full price for it or stay subscribed for the multiplayer. That's one thing I'm completely sure about.

Perhaps Satya doesn't like Game Pass, I don't know, but he won't get rid of Game Pass because he knows its potential, inside and outside consoles, as part of the seamless multi-device future of Xbox that includes consoles, computers, mobile devices and TVs.

The new Xbox merged small studios and got rid of two, but they will keep investing in games, in first-party content, that's what all this is about. The key thing is the seamless experience, the new handheld UI, the new PC UI, everything becoming the same Xbox, plus King. That's the best thing about the new Xbox, the seamless experience, because it's good for traditional and casual gamers and it's also good for first and third parties that don't need to care about how many consoles have been sold. Xbox is almost PC Windows in terms of development since Xbox One, but now Xbox and Windows will become one.

@HonestHick I'm sure Jimbos already submitting resumes to Microsoft. He's a perfect fit for New Microsoft Gaming. I'll bet Washington will be much more convenient to commute to from London than he suddenly found Cali to be.

@Banjo- Oh I'm all in on the seamless experience etc. But game pass. I'm guaranteeing Amy and Satya will castrate it. They're looking at their Sony Numbers and seeing their sales potential and now view go as giving the store away. Within 12 months they're will be tiers or an outside price hike, guaranteed.

They don't care about console, but they'll sell gaming PCs and a handheld PC. They don't like game pass now that they have their own expensive games and know the sell. And Sarah and Phil can confirm a million times about Day 1 (not mentioning tiers) but we now know Sarah and Phil don't actually get to make those decisions.

It'll be an interesting few months. But within a year, gp will definitely change, I don't doubt it.

@NEStalgia oh lord!!! Not ole Jimbo to Xbox. That will be worse than we have now. Which is scary and a little funny to think about. I’d like to hear him talk about Xbox in his English slang. Haha
He did say he believes in generations. I suppose that left the door open.

@HonestHick Jimbo might be an upgrade from Satya though I don't think the investors would agree lol. Satya at least pleases one party, Jim pleased no one at all 😂

@NEStalgia fair point. Jimbo might not even get a job with Luna at this point. I’d love to see all new suits at MS they need it and not just for Xbox. Not even our old pal Jimbo would mess up VPN and put ad’s on the os. Haha

I said this in the comments last week! Or was it earlier this week. But still!

It was this past Tuesday:
https://www.purexbox.com/news/2024/05/former-blizzard-president-gives-support-to-phil-spencer-amidst-xbox-negativity#comment8106729

The guy who got a "billion dollar payout" has nice things to say...
:/

Yeah, I don't think that the order to cut more jobs came from this guy(Phil), but I doubt he put up much of a fight either!

@HonestHick Yeah Jim is a small fry compared to the MS clique. They're "businessmen" but technologists. They understand how to take money and use it to get more money. No matter what they pretend, they don't understand tech. They don't understand AI. They don't care or need to understand. Nadella probably doesn't know how to configure his Outlook. He's probably never even been in windows control panel. But the problem with guys like that is.... Well... This. And Windows 11. If you don't get what the product is and who its for, how can you lead it to success?

@NEStalgia i knew MS knew nothing about tech the day they made fun of the iPhone on stage and said no one will pay $600 for a phone with a calculator on it. Fast forward to today and it’s Apple that is the richest tech company in the world with working VPN but i digress. I do think on a serious note MS won’t stop trying to get it right in gaming, but at what cost and i ain’t saying just money. Like will they continue to buyout studios and trim the ones they don’t want? Will they have to throw in the towel on GP and try something else? I don’t think they stop until something starts to resemble success. But who knows with them. Every other week the news is good and then bad, bad and then good. Get’s exhausting after a while. Haha JIMBO!

Wow, I'm shocked! Satya Nadella is destroying another Microsoft consumer-oriented business.

That's his favorite hobby since he became CEO.

First Windows Phone and Now Xbox.

Microsoft should immediately kick Nadella off of Microsoft Gaming, he's disastrous.

Nadella runs business.
Phil runs gaming.

@HonestHick I confess I'm with Microsoft in still failing to understand how there's enough people willing to spend $600 on a phone..... And that's as someone that had a Palm Tungsten and curiosity about iPaq at the time!

I don't think Microsoft under nadella will try to get it right in gaming ever. They'll just keep trying to milk it by whatever scheme makes the most money at the moment. Like ea, wb,...... Activision. Phil wanted to get it right. But they don't like his ideas. They have Bobby's people now. They make money. Doesn't mean the may not get things right by accident. Even Activision made Spyro.... Though then they broke the team ... I see a pattern.

Poor old uncle Phil, innocent bystander and is one of us so we must defend him with our lives🤣

It will be interesting to hear Phil's first public comments about the situation - assuming he is still there; he has been conspicuous by his absence and radio silence for the past week

@HonestHick @Banjo-

Some interesting sale data UK April 2024.
Not sure about the USA, but consoles not shining this year so far.
Year-to-date through April the Xbox Series X|S is down just under 25 percent, the PlayStation 5 is down just over 25 percent, and the Nintendo Switch is down 38 percent.
Even the games chart UK, is filled with games from last year 2023 or older apart from Helldivers.
I think that is some of the issue but not all of it.
High consoles prices £480 in the UK don’t help.
I think PS4 and Xbox one was about £290 without deals at this time in their lives.
Not totally sure what all the gaming main three know what they are up to really.

@OldGamer999 PC sell more than consoles. Third-party games sell more than first-party games, like always, but now old games are also the best sellers and the most played. It's not about the latest console exclusive anymore. The only exception is Nintendo and its family-friendly garden, for now.

The console market is limited, so it will become a part of the whole that not only includes PC but mobile devices. The good news for Microsoft is that they have become multiplatform (Windows PC, Windows Xbox, mobile devices) and that they have a lot of first-party content ready to be marketed. The markets that are growing are mobile and Cloud, but the play anywhere approach benefits them on all the gaming markets.

@Banjo-
Totally agree with play anywhere.
But it’s not about the console market not growing its actually going the other way, down year on year up to April 2024. Those where some big drops all round compared to Jan - April 2023.

@OldGamer999 Yes. The console market might become even smaller next generation.

And why did the board see cutting these studios as the right call in the first place? Was it because Spencer has done zero management when it comes to the Zenimax studios so they were an obvious target?

I mean come on, this is the same management that has been caught playing catch up with the Fallout IP because they apparently didn't realise how valuable it was until a tv show became popular. The same management that has let 343 erode the Halo brand for over a decade. The same management that can't figure out what to do with Gears. The same management that let Obsidian make original IP's that won't be a 10th as popular as other Xbox owned IP's they should be working on. The list is endless. Phil Spencer might not have made the decision to shut down any studio but he certainly set them up to fail.

Reading your comment regarding Spencer advising Microsoft against closing Tango, RedShirtRod, I cannot shake the feeling that you have never been in a position wherein you are advising your supervisors that something is wrong, that it is a bad idea, and that there will be ramifications, only for them to still insist that you do what they say.

We have absolutely no idea whether Spencer was against this move. Whether he advised Microsoft that it was a bad idea. Or whether he told Microsoft that the community would be very much against it. Yes, Spencer could have been the one to approach Microsoft and suggest the closure, but that would fly in the face of things that he and his team have said before.

Spencer may have fought this tooth and nail, for all we know. And his silence might actually be him currently stewing in his anger whilst he decides what to do next with regards to his future at Microsoft. He might indeed be so angry at what's going on that he does not want to step forward and defend it. To me, that is the most likely reason that we have not heard from him at all.

Myself, many times I have advised those above me that their suggestions were not the right thing to do. Sometimes I convinced them. Other times I did not. On those occasions that I did not, I did as I was instructed, because the only other option was to walk away.

Ultimately, Spencer is the head of Xbox, he is not the head of Microsoft. That will mean that on occasion he will be instructed to do things that he does not agree with. This very much looks like one of those occasions to me...

Hi-Fi Crush…

When I said on here about the CMA doing their job and holding Microsoft to account, 90% of people scoffed.

Well… job cuts, closures, who knew.

I personally think the whole Activation was a big mistake and has backfired because it was too big and was not given a chance to succeed. The COD titles were a huge money maker but it massively inflated the price and if they did a deal without COD and just everything else they could of gotten all the older games and the King mobile at a fraction of the price. Perhaps I'm wrong but this is what I think the problem was.