Phil Spencer blames capitalism for games industry woes.

Spencer said publicly traded companies have to show constant growth or else nobody will give them money. "I don't get [the] luxury of not having to run a profitable growing business"

[LG_Fox_Brazil]

I don't know Phil... You've being running, and some will say ruining, the Xbox brand for 10 years now, you know?

[Profchaos]

I'd say he'sade the best out of a tremendous cluster fk of a situation he was thrown into after Don tanked the Xbox brand from Kinect to the launch of the X1.

The only reason Xbox isn't in the Ms graveyard right now is because of Phil.

So I don't agree with everything he's done but I can see why these drastic pivots and moves have been made

[VenomUK]

You don’t hear Nintendo CEO Shuntaro Furukawa blame capitalism for the phenomenal success of the Switch.

You don’t hear now-departed PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan blame capitalism for the roaring success of the PS5.

[Cockney]

He was head of games back in don mattricks day so he should be held accountable for his involvement, the back half of the 360 gen and start of xbone lack of games was all him

[Rynxie]

The reason Xbox is not in the Ms graveyard is because of the money they are throwing around to keep the brand alive. Don was just a yes man, the stupidity of the Xbox one was MS doing.

[romulus23]

We are well past Don Mattrick at this point, people need to stop using that tired excsue. The issues with xbox for nearly the last ten years have been solely on Phil.

[Plague-Doctor27]

The PS3 tanked Sony and they recovered during the same generation. The Wii U tanked Nintendo and they delivered a record setting console only a few years later. At the launch of X1 it was keeping pace with the PS4 and in the US was occasionally beating it.

[jwillj2k4]

All he had to do was say “the way forward is to make great games.”, drop the mic and make it happen by any means necessary. If you listen to the interview he gave after redfall came out, you’ll hear him say he thought the game was good to go and the internal team rated the game 85 out of 100. 85!! This shows how out of touch he is. He’s literally an empty vessel just collecting his check, running the division off of data-driven analytics, he doesn’t care about xbox and now pulls a Trump, blaming the clouds for his failures.

[Cacabunga]

Says the biggest capitalist company.. this moron should stop talking

[sinspirit]

No.. Phil was in charge of European studios and Kinect implementation since 2008. Those European studios he was in charge of were then full time Kinect developers as he was now in charge of all XBox game studios in 2010. This is why game quality has sucked ever since he was in charge and directly why the legendary Lionhead and the actual Rare devs are not there anymore. Phil is actually more to blame than anyone for the bad game quality and the Kinect push. And especially for the terrible XBox One launch.

He was the spearhead implemented employee for Kinect and Microsoft's new vision. The others were the talking heads appointed by XBox. And, honestly watching some of those old interviews it seemed like those XBox employees were possibly maliciously complient by telling exactly what Microsoft's new agenda was with Kinect and always online without dressing it up.

And directly on topic. No, Phil. Capitalism is voting with your wallet. XBox doing bad financially is in fact because of bad products, disappointments, failed deadlines, and especially lying, misleading, and broken promises for products. If you just released really good games and tried to innovate then you'd had a lot of sales.. oh and GamePass is losing out on a ton of sales which can not be recovered from a few microtransaction purchases, monthly sub costs, or even whales. The math is simple when you could have sold a $70 game 5 million times but instead maybe sold 1 million tops and now have to recoup a quarter billion of revenue from lost sales potential of the one title alone. But now you also don't want to release a lot of first party titles because of the direct loss in sales revenue from day 1 GamePass, and you don't want them to release really good games that take a little more time and money to make because you want them to be cost effective for GamePass release. So you intentionally plan to release a lot of AAA shortcomings at this point because the AAA badge is needed but you can't do it too well or GamePass will never actually profit. Even though they had said GamePass is profitable, it is absolutely not by much and never will be. And, they said that Zune was profitable a long time ago but they combined it with an entire category of products when Zune itself was bleeding money. They lose far too many direct sales that even the most generous math can not see how they could be making much money if any at all to make up for this business practice. This is what happens when marketing and trend chasing fool a business into pursuing the wrong thing to stay relevant when the clear answer all along was that they always did good when they just supported developers making genuinely full and good games.

[Babadook7]

I kind of agree with you, but Phil is partly to blame.

I blame Peter Moore (for leaving). Everything went to pot soon after.

[PapaBop]

How many years ago was this now? I'll give him some credit for what he inherited but lets be honest, he hasn't exactly done anything praise worthy and has done a terrible job managing the studios Microsoft owns.

[Eonjay]

I thought he said it was Gen Z. I can't keep up.

[Hofstaderman]

Its Gen Z who are extremely capitilist. Lol, Phil is a clown of note.

[fr0sty]

He's kinda right, shareholders expect constant growth, which is unsustainable, but it is what they expect nonetheless. That's why, even though the games industry is healthy as it has ever been, because it isn't growing, everyone in the industry is panicking. Even though we're still selling just as many consoles as ever, they expect each generation to just keep on growing and growing, and when that doesn't happen, they start to freak out.

This is true of any industry, and it's why anytime a company goes public, their products usually end up going to shit. The shareholders expect more and more and more growth, cuz they want that stock price to keep climbing, and so eventually corners start getting cut, wages start getting cut, employees start getting cut, they start cutting away everywhere they can to try to squeeze a little bit more money out of the product, until they ruin it, and then they move on to the next product.

[buffig]

Yeah, but everyone knows how capitalism works. This part didn't need explaining. The problem is that they bought massive plublishers for a gazillion dollars, to the detriment of the industry and now he's acting like he has no choice but to fire thousands of people because he just found out about nasty capitalism

[TheEnigma313]

Why I'm glad companies like Valve stayed private.

[senorfartcushion]

This would still be capitalism

[SyntheticForm]

He'd never blame himself, so he's trying to score points with the kids by blaming capitalism. One of the biggest capitalists is blaming capitalism for his and Xbox's failure.

[fr0sty]

I agree with you, which is why I said he's "kinda" right... he's right in the fact that capitalism is behind a lot of investors freaking out that the games industry, while still healthy, is not continually growing unsustainably, but he's also being hypocritical in the same breath after buying half the industry and then laying off thousands of them, and using his own business practices as an excuse to cover for his failures.

[mandf]

It won't be until halo and gears are on playstation that xbox fans see phil for who he is. A snake fighting only for himself. The video game industry means nothing to him just his paycheck to those who believe phil is passionate and loves video games you are part of the problem. You never hold ms accountable.

[Minute Man 721]

Halo and Gears only when Microsoft drops outta the console market

[-Foxtrot]

They don't need to drop out of the market for that to happen

They will always have some kind of console going forward but Halo and Gears could only be a few years away at this rate.

Next gen might look completely different

[Tacoboto]

I'd actually hope for Halo to come to PS and Nintendo at this point.

The community rejected a mictotransaction option so MCC is no longer maintained - no new revenue streams and Microsoft listened. Infinite is on Content Updates now instead of Seasons - dwindling playerbase and less excitement. If MS wants the franchise to thrive, that's free money and the same could essentially be said for Gears bringing them abroad.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

@Tacoboto,
To be fair, Halo Infinite had a rocky start to begin with, I think they improved for a while, but fell behind again.

[shinoff2183]

The writings on the all in huge fking letters. Just read it.

[phoenixwing]

I don't blame Phil for that in the slightest. If you were offered to be an executive of a company 9 out of 10 ppl would take the job for the salary and give little crap about how they feel about any given product they sell. He's not wrong that capitalism drives greedy companies but you have to take the good with the bad.

[staticall]

@phoenixwing
But the person is doing a bad job and the company (including customers) are suffering because of that, how can you not blame him? The reason for high paying is the decisions you make and the responsibility you take for your actions steering the company in the right direction (if company is doing bad, it's your fault; if company is doing good, it's because of your decisions).

It reminds me of that South Park Bill Owens parody ("Follow that egg" episode), a governor who wants all the money and recognition/respect, but doesn't want to take any responsibility, how backwards is that?!

[Petebloodyonion]

@Staticall
Agree but what are your metrics for doing a bad job?
Is Microsoft's share value tanking due to its decision?
Is brand awareness worse than in 2016?

As someone who works in investment, this is how I see it and why Spencer's still around.
1) Grow the Xbox brand awareness by including PC and Gamepass making it a stronger brand by name versus 2015.
2) Showed a plan to evolve profitability by having multiple sources of recurrent income with Gamepass, PC gaming, streaming, and now other platforms
3) made new market integration possible via PC and cloud.
4) Can make hard decisions for the good of the company like cutting jobs.

[staticall]

@Petebloodyonion
I would say, we shouldn't look at Microsoft themselves, they have a ton of revenue streams - Windows sales, hardware sales, Office sales, Azure, government contracts, certification programs, etc. We need to look at Xbox - hardware sales are in decline (Xbox 360 > Xbox One > Xbox Series S + X combined). GamePass subscribers aren't growing enough and, according to the Microsoft docs, are at plateau. Games sales are abysmal (both physical and digital, thanks to "Day one on GamePass"). Xbox exclusives doesn't exist anymore (every game is coming to PC). And it didn't start yesterday, this was happening for a long-long time.

In my eyes, brand recognition doesn't mean much, if it doesn't translate to console sales, because Phil took away every reason to buy Xbox console for a regular customer (i used to own Xbox 360 and saw 0 reasons to own Xbox One or Xbox Series).

I would also argue that he didn't make any hard decisions, at least when it comes to games: Crackdown 3, Redfall, Halo Infinite - he was saying that those games are looking fine only to be laughed at on presentation/release. But i would consider that a low blow, because he did cut some jobs. But not from top management (who are responsible for the decisions).

In my eyes, as a console owner/gamer, doing good job as a platform holder = supporting your console with high quality exclusive games (like Nintendo and Sony are doing). I'm fine with releasing the games afterwards on PC, but not right away (otherwise, what's the point of a console?!). Extra services are fine (like PS+ or GamePass, or cloud stuff), but they wouldn't be a reason to buy a console for me. Phil is overfocusing on extra services, not on games. And it doesn't work out and haven't worked out for what, 10 years already? Sorry, i feel like i'm rambling at this point.

[purple101]

https://twitter.com/zuby_te...

[Nooderus]

He's a Microsoft executive. Duh

[S2Killinit]

Agree except I think the real snake is MS itself. They are a terrible company. This clown is just the hired man for the job.

[phoenixwing]

Thats basically what I'm trying to say and if you really want to get down to it. It's the board of directors for the company who makes this stuff happen.

[jznrpg]

@Phoenixeing it’s his job as the head of the division to tell those people I think you are wrong and for success we need to this - that’s literally his job. MS motto is a big problem and Phil going a long with it is also his fault. He’s the one guy who can say something.

[Abear21]

Agreed they are the problem.

M$ doesn’t care about the quality of the game, they care about the profitability of the game.

When you work for a Co. like M$ you know this. It’s all about money—not the “art” or what’s healthy in the industry for devs and/or the consumers.

[M3talDiamond]

First its Gen Z now its capitalism but we can all agree that it definitely isn't Phil

[JackBNimble]

If it wasn't for capitalism there would be no xbox or Microsoft for that matter. But as the head of xbox division it is his responsibility no matter good or bad .... that's what it means to be the boss. If that's to much for him, then he needs to resign.

[-Foxtrot]

Kind of funny because when it comes to capitalism Microsoft is one of those great big American companies that just screams it.

They spent billions on Minecraft, Zenimax and Activision yet couldn't afford to save all those jobs they cut. With the money they make within a year they could have, someway.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

They've been swallowing up a lot of AI companies too and spending big on that area.

[S2Killinit]

If MS gets into AI they will cause the end of humanity the way they are causing the end of console gaming.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

@S2Killinit,

It's between Microsoft and Google, the chances are one of those two will take the AI crown considering the amount of cash they're throwing at that sector. I suppose Microsoft might be the worst out of the two, but Google hasn't been exactly great compared to the old days when they threw around their old adage of "do no evil".

[Silly Mammo]

MS is making millions of dollars annually with the Xbox brand. Unfortunately, they're spending billions on acquisitions too

[8bitAssassin]

Game Pass games are not free.

[Christopher]

He also blames his bank account balance on capitalism.

[PhillyDonJawn]

I don't think it work like that. MS is the parent company. The branch has its own budget to maintain.

[thorstein]

Making millions, taking million dollar salaries and bonuses but it's the dev in the chair that's preventing profit?

Yeah okay, Phil.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Right...Phil have you thought of taking personal responsibility?

[MrDead]

Oh do shut up Philip, the amount you've been paid for being a total failure in the gaming industry could support multiple studios... and not forgetting you work for MS, a company that has gotten so big and bloated that it needs to control entire industries or fire tens of thousands to see any meaningful growth.

MS needs to be broken up.

[Knightofelemia]

Phil can't make up his mind. It's either capitalism or Gen Z for game industry woes. The XBox brand has been suffering under his leader ship. XB1 and the current Series Xboxes are doing poorly in sales. How are you going to fix the current state of XBox Phil?

[Hofstaderman]

Why not both? Let them combine and form the MegaFailPhilZord..

[rlow1]

Capitalism isn’t the problem. Making good games that are fun to play seems to be just not Xboxes problem but the industry as a whole. But for Phil to take the lazy view of blaming it on capitalism. Is so undefined in its meaning, it reminds me of a kid saying a dog ate my homework. At least that old age sorry excuse does a better job of describing situation then the analogy Phil used. Instead of blaming capitalism, shoot straight from the hip and say all this monetized nickel and dime operation crap has gotten old and sucking the fun out of gaming. At least, that’s how I see it.

[RhinoGamer88]

Phil, capitalism made you very wealthy for a very mediocre performance.

[SegaSaturn669]

If this man should have learned anything, it would be blame Don Mattrick. SMH!

[Popsicle]

He already used that excuse without naming Mattrick specifically. It was around the time Redfall came out and Phil started whinging about how the X1 generation was the worst possible generation to lose because that is when consumers became locked into a specific ecosystem. I am just watching to see how creative his next excuse will be. He has turned excuse making into an art form.

[SegaSaturn669]

The next he should blame is Edward Snowden -- great scapegoat.

[Petebloodyonion]

I hope that the majority of posters in this thread who established that Phil's a liar, a snake, can't make up his mind, etc.
can explain: Why, Sony, Epic, EA, Embracer, Riot Games, Sega, etc. had to make massive layoffs this year?
but without saying: profitability, capitalism, or the need to make money since that's been evil Phil's response.

By the way here's the whole list of layoffs in the gaming industry including studio closure.
https://gamingonphone.com/n...

[Hofstaderman]

Why are you still harping on the Sony layoffs. Your statement serves rmto point out that Sony was not the only co pany to engage in layoffs. The topic on hand here is Phil who has headed the XBOX division for over 10 years and under whose watch has degraded to such a point that exclusives are being released on its direct rival console. And Phil was part of XBOX leadership before he even became the chief, so lets not blame Mattrick.
If you guys called him out way sooner perhaps you would be better off.

[Petebloodyonion]

Simply because the question was about the GAMING INDUSTRY and not about MICROSFT.
Last I checked Sony, EA, and all others from the list make what we call the industry.
And no, the topic on hand isn't about Phil's tenure as head of MS, it's about this article and Phil's answer to what's the cause of the current game industry woe.

(Did you bother to read the article?)

[staticall]

@Petebloodyonion
I would say the word is «Mismanagement» and «Greed» (don't confuse greed and capitalism though). Top management is making terrible decisions that cost the company more money and earning less than expected. Sony's live service plans comes to mind; Epic, for some reason, bought Bandcamp and sold to Songtradr (owner of 7digital and other music stores), SuperAwesome they only bought to own Kids Web Services (and they kept them); Embracer bit off more than they can chew, now they're trimming off non-essential companies (yet are already thinking of buying more). I'm not following Sega, Riot or EA, so can't comment on those, but i'm thinking, i'm not that far off with "mismanagement".

But, to Sony's credit, at least they fired, i mean, replaced, Jim Ryan. Can't say the same for Microsoft and other companies though, especially Embracer (they are an embarrassment).

Oh, and Microsoft specifically is to blame too, thanks to their effort in consolidation department and buying multiple publishers. Yet, again, Phil and his goons are keeping their positions. But you keep bringing up other companies to save Microsoft face, that'll surely help. /s

[shinoff2183]

The fact Phil hasn't been fired makes me believe the company as a whole is on board to become a 3rd party publisher

[Petebloodyonion]

I'm not bringing companies to save MS's face I'm just pointing out that a lot of ppl are throwing stones at Spencer for his answer to a straightforward question.
Since he's lying (according to the majority of posters here) regarding the state of the industry it would be logical that said ppl reveal the truth no?

At least you provide an answer in the words of mismanagement and greed but I would like to point out that greed is exactly what Spencer mentioned as the obligation to create profit due to Shareholders' expectations that you will make profit.

"companies that are in the industry that have to show their investors growth—because why else does somebody own a share of someone’s stock if it’s not going to grow?"

[attilayavuzer]

No one's even attempted to read the article here either. There's such an enthusiasm for any semblance of Microsoft struggling on this site that's it's not really worth trying to engage meaningfully. The full quote is just him saying that MS, Sony, and developers are having trouble because the console market as a whole is stagnating. They all feel confident that it'll continue to grow again, but public companies aren't allowed to not grow for any period of time without consequences. It's the most lukewarm take on the gaming industry right now. These gaming sites have fanboys by the balls now with their click bait titles though.

[RNTody]

@attilayavuzer Did you join the comments section to self-own yourself? You cannot make the comment that Microsoft is struggling along with the rest in the same year that they spent almost HUNDRED BILLION on buying up publishers that already release games on their platform, INSTEAD of investing in their own developers, in the creation of new games, in sustaining their studios or creation of new technology to bolster the Xbox brand, or to prevent layoffs.

They are the worst offenders here, because they'll lay off hundreds of workers but significantly increase their profits through ownership of the Call of Duty IP and others which they will release on rival consoles. They have added nothing to the industry or the development teams, only carved a way for them to indulge on the Call of Duty, Candy Crush and etc. cakes.

Point: they are the embodiment of capitalism, not the victims of it.

I'm sorry but Microsoft cannot act as if Sony and Nintendo aren't their competition because they're in the empire business, and then cry the same fouls.

We all know the reason for lay offs is because capitalism begets bloat, more development costs, bigger games, bigger teams, more and more when it's not needed, aging or redundant work force etc.

The reason for the comments here is because Phil loves to run his mouth in interviews, either engaging in double talk, blatant lies, hypocrisy (i.e Helldivers 2) or casting blame on everything instead of Microsoft's own decision making.

Personally there would be more cause for alarm if games like Spider-Man and God of War sold multiple millions that they do and were still deemed below sales targets and unprofitable.

[Petebloodyonion]

@Tody
No, he can make a comment that is RELATED to the ARTICLE.
Unlike you, he did take time to read the article because if you did took time to read it, you would know that it's about Phil's answer to WHY is the INDUSTRY currently struggling.
Or are you saying that MS's decision to buy Activision in early 2022 is the reason that Sony, Embracer, EPIC, Square, Sega, and others had to cut jobs in 2024?

[RNTody]

@Pete Woah, hold the phone. Did you just accuse me of not reading the article and then you totally failed to read my comment? Good one. I gave a clear set of simplified answers as to why there are so many lay offs happening, it's a net effect of capitalism, I won't rehash it since it's a small paragraph you can just read.

I did actually read the article, and my comment is based on A) the above commenter lumping MS into the group of those having trouble and B) the irony of Phil Spencer commenting on this, which the article itself points out on more than one occasion. Clearly you didn't read it either. There's even a joke about "don't hate the player."

So again I come back to, the industry cutting jobs is not exactly a cause for widespread panic. Bigger, better, more, and aging/bloated workforces eventually isn't sustainable as at some point growth will plateau or decline for a period. What WOULD be a cause for concern, as I clearly mentioned, is if triple A games were deemed failures due to unsustainable budgets or sales projections. Yet, the major players continue to make extremely profitable games.

Dead Space perfectly encapsulates this. Dead Space 1 was a success, but Dead Space 2 and 3 subsequently declined and then failed because EA upped the budget, costs and advertising expenses, overestimating how many copies would sell and failing to understand the games target audience. That's a capitalism fail story.

Sony buying Insomniac, providing them resources, investing in their studio and giving them creative freedom led the developer to transform from the Ratchet and Clank guys to one of the best in the industry creating Sony's best selling blockbuster series and GOTY material. Capitalism success story.

Microsoft spending almost hundred billion to effectively do nothing for the industry or its own developers or promote growth whatsoever, merely to eat into profits via ownership and multi platform releases - smart capitalism move, good for their profits, terrible for the industry and gamers and quality of games.

So, Phil talking about this is ironic.

He's trying to push the agenda that the model of make good product --> sell good product is dying, but this is a falsehood as Balders Gate 3 and The Witcher 3 and God of War and Spider-Man and Elden Ring and Nintendo's library and countless others prove. The problem is and has always been bloat and excess and unrealistic sales projections and mediocrity - all to convince you that microtransactions, deluxe editions, mobile monetisation methods, Games Pass are "needed" interventions to survive....then God of War Ragnarok gets a free Valhalla DLC and Balders Gate 3 doesn't do any of those predatory practices and you start to wonder.

[Hofstaderman]

Even Sega shifted to a third party publisher with much more dignity. They acknowledged that they messed up, apologised and clearly communicated their intent. Three things this slimy used car salesman is incapable of doing despite damning evidence that XBOX is on the very same route.

[Hofstaderman]

Whoa all these fake accounts..

[Hofstaderman]

I do so enjoy you taking the time to set up email adresses and creating fake accounts. I love living in your head. Cmon man we can do this in perpetuity. Like Batman and Joker.

[dumahim]

What will he blame next week? I'm guessing bad coffee.

[where-eagles-dare]

I have it on good authority that Pips excuse for next week is, 'The dog ate my homework!'

[TheTony316]

Says the guy who spent 100 billion dollars to buy half the industry.

[Chocoburger]

Alright so if capitalism is to blame for Xbox under performing for the past decade, then please inform us what's the reason why Sony and Nintendo are doing so well?

PS4 over 120 million consoles.
NSW over 140 million handhelds.

Seems that the industry is healthy. For some.

[NotoriousWhiz]

Doing well is not good enough for capitalism. It has to grow. PS4 has not grown compared to the PS2, and the PS5 likely won't either. Xbox doing poorly has nothing to do with capitalism, but the problems with the industry at large do have to do with capitalism.

Playstation's marketshare tanked after the PS2. From 160 million to ~85 million. The marketshare they lost went to the Xbox 360. They've been slowly regaining that marketshare ever since.

If you add up the total consoles sold between Playstation and Xbox, that number has not changed much since PS2 generation. Playstation's growth has been fueled by getting people off of Xbox.

On other note, I'd be curious to know about software sales since then as well.

[FGHFGHFGH]

PS4 sold the most software of any console.

https://www.tweaktown.com/n...

[NotoriousWhiz]

^ Cool. Good to know that software sales are likely rising.

[PhillyDonJawn]

He aint lying. The company I work for raise the target plan 10% every year and have increased prices 10-20% every year for the last 5 years

[gold_drake]

i cant haha. everhthing he says is so ridiculous xDD

but he sure likes his million dollars kn his bank account eh ;)

[Barlos]

But is he not capitalist himself? And come on he works for one of the biggest and richest corporations on the planet. If that's not capitalism then I don't know what is.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for capitalism, but I think Phil is being just a teensy weensy bit hypocritical here.

[Jingsing]

Phil Spencer blames [insert anything but himself here]

[Yppupdam]

He blames capitalism...how stunning and brave of him. For his next trick, Phil will blame "The Patriarchy" for low sales. LOL, how current day of him.

[CrimsonGuardVII]

Rotflmao,the irony is thick with Phil, he wouldn't even have a job if it wasn't for capitalism, granted he more cronie capitalism then genuine capitalism.

[RNTody]

"Capitalism is the problem"

Also spends almost a hundred billion on owning third party publishers that release their games on his platform anyway instead of investing in new games, new studios and their current studios.

[Skuletor]

If Capatilism is the issue, shouldn't XBOX be thriving, since they have more money than their competition?

I think he's Phil of sh!t.

[Fonsecap]

I guess that the problem are Xbox exclusives are lacking in quality, last gears and halo were not great, the Forza games are good, but after these they don't have anything else and most players don't see the value on game pass, I'm a subscriber but on pc...

[RiseNShine]

So it's capitalism fault, possibly climate change, the pandemic and inflation too, so it's everybody's fault but his, of course. Nex time you don't like capitalism, don't get in charge on a multibillion company division, they tend to you know, depend on capital to function.

[rippermcrip]

Company is worth 3 trillion and he's crying about people not giving them money?

He doesn't get the lucky of not having a profitable business? Yes, that is generally how it works.

[romulus23]

No one has the luxury of running a non-profitable business that doesn't grow in some form or another, what is this dude on about?

[anast]

Now he's throwing MS and his entire identity under the bus.

[Zenzuu]

"Powa of Da Cloud" - Nothing came out of that

"World's most powerful console. 12 teraflops of Power" - PS5 Basically trades blows with it on multiplatform games and kills it with their first party games

"We're focusing on building world class 1st party studios" - Yeah, I guess by his definition is forking out money and buying studios.

"Xbox top selling console" - When they're selling well

"Hardware sales numbers are not important" - He downplays the importance of hardware numbers when they're not selling well.

The amount of PR and damage control and excuses is laughable. Phil would definitely be suited to join the team at Apple.

[XBManiac]

"It is you, not me".

[Scissorman]

Imagine taking 10 years and spending billions of dollars to go from 3rd Place to 3rd Place.

[CrashMania]

Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of Phil says.

[metalhead]

Xbox fans are total nationalists for keeping games on their system. Consoles are just boxes, we should all be allowed to enjoy any game we want on them. The switch is a unique experience which is why you kind of need one for those games but a PC, PS, or Xbox shouldn’t have to matter. It should only be based on what interface and controller you like best. That’s what Roku and Amazon fire stick does.

[shinoff2183]

You can't say all that and just give Nintendo a pass. That's complete horse sh

[S2Killinit]

This is a joke right?

[DarXyde]

My head is about to explode.

There is so much I can say about this... Instead, I'll just say, "you've got a point, Phil. But you're the last person who should be the messenger."

But you wanna know the worst part of this? It's likely just a capitalist pandering to the younger generation that is far more receptive of anticapitalist messaging. The fact that this is coming from one exec at a trillion dollar company is straight out of The Onion.

[Travesty]

When I was in school I wasn’t indoctrinated by Marxist. So explain to me how capitalism is the reason? You had a good console in the 360 despite the horrible rrod rate. You had a large base of fans.. what did you do? You introduced a console that was inferior to the PS4 and more expensive, and you alienated your fan base with an always online concept that didn’t mix well with your audience at first. After the first couple of years new games weren’t as frequent.

Sony could have been in the same situation if they had not listened to fans and to devs for that matter. PS3 was a good console, probably one of my favorites with the amount of game content. It wasn’t great at first and in fact it was hard to develop for and games that were multi-plat underperformed at first. They were losing exclusives left and right due to the sales that were lagging behind the 360. They swallowed their pride, made an easier dev kit for developers and things began to change. Introduced a price drop, and their first party games begin to take off and sales begin to grow.

Image of brand is a big sale that’s built on reputation.
Why can a Toyota Tacoma be the best selling midsize truck every year and not be the most capable truck when looking at power and towing from others in its class?
They make a truck that’s good in all the areas, not the best, but they make it dependable. Ask an auto mechanic, a lot of them would agree Toyota makes a good motor and truck. So because of positive brand image, it’s the most sold mid size pick up and the highest resale value. They give their audience what they want and that’s the bases of any business. Creating a brand image.

[VincentVanBro]

Xbox has an issue with projecting its struggles as industry wide struggles. Microsoft is like a kid losing to a video game over and over and trying to explain to you that it's the game's fault, meanwhile many other players are doing just fine. They've stumbled through failure after failure and now they want to talk like an industry leader, and its pathetic.

[blacktiger]

I'm lost, Microsoft is not a capitalism?

[shinoff2183]

He isn't wrong in no company seems to accept where they are at. It's always growth growth growth. What happens when this is where we're at growth wise for a little while. Fking greed. I agree with Philly boy on that part. Xbox I where it's at due to him though. Daybone titles on gamepass was a huge mistake.

[AAWELLS09]

Xbox has been my primary game console (I've owned all Playstations as well) since 2006 and have never thought of abandoning them but, I'm not a fan of the activist crap they've recently been spouting/mandating and if they keep this path they're on, I absolutely will switch over to PS as my main. They MUST keep identity politics out of gaming if they don't want to lose everything. The saying "get woke go broke" has been proven several dozen times over the last few years. I'm not saying that if I leave it'll suddenly go broke but over time people will grow tired of it and stop supporting it. You cant favor one group of people over another so leave it all out or you'll alienate at least half of your customers who will look elsewhere.

[InUrFoxHole]

Phil is the man! By far the best thing for xbox

[Abear21]

If this is where they are with him, I hate to see how it’d be without him.

Xbox wouldn’t still be circling the drain…they would have officially been flushed down it by now!

[InUrFoxHole]

What are you drunk? You don't have to wonder. Just take a look my man

[Abear21]

I blame their own marketing department and lack of self awareness of brand image.

Xbox promises a more powerful console and delivered on that, however, forcing Series S parity shot themselves in the foot and forces more work for devs. Instead of unleashing Series X power, their games are held back by forcing like versions on a weaker system.

Xbox lost to Sony from a hardware standpoint this Gen, partly due to Series S, partly due to Dualsense controller, but mostly just because Sony’s machine is easier to develop for and has better games.

Even with all of that…If Halo wasn’t rushed out the door and games like Starfield, Flight Sim and Redfall were allowed to be finished completely and release only on Series X things might be different for Xbox

[SpacedDuck]

Who's to blame for Halo going from a top 5 IP in gaming to a laughing stock?

Bonnie? Okay, who's fault is it for not firing Bonnie 2 games ago?

Buck stops with you Phil.

If you guys could actually make good games in abundance vs a random good game every 6-10 years maybe you wouldn't need to lay people off.

[InUrFoxHole]

While I agree with your statement when infinite first came out, you have to be completely honest. Halo Infinite is crazy good. It's funny that no man's sky is talked about as a great game that started off bad but halo just gets the bad game treatment

[ROCKY28]

XBOX has been a powerful game system since inception and will continue being strong way after your
dust in the wind!

[InUrFoxHole]

Yeah but they shouldn't get a pass on everything they've done wrong. This isn't sony

[babadivad]

Yeah, it COULDN'T be the dog shit product you're producing...

[Tankbusta40]

Man, I wish I could be a failure at something and then scream catch phrases like "capitalism" "racism" etc as a way to blame my failures on something else

[glenn1979]

I heard that Nvidia is going to power the next xbox , they wont use Amd this time

[PiNkFaIrYbOi]

Any sort of business private or public is all about making money. If you don't make money you can't continue the business.

Triple A games are imploding right now because of how the industry is being run right now. The budgets for the games are inflated to stupid amounts that these companies will probably not be able to make back. They are taking longer and longer to make and with companies like Sweet Baby Inc. and those that hire them it makes for subpar games.

Phil has always been a yes man for Microsoft, he says whatever gamers want to hear but he does what Microsoft wants him to do. He has no power, just a title and the money that comes from it.

Realistically Xbox would be better off as a publisher than in the console market right now and it seems that they are going that way anyways.

[Tankbusta40]

Its also a problem in the film industry as well...they start shooting with an unlimited budget and no set script. There is zero structure and the only solution is to either throw more money or shut down studios. You cannot kick the can down the road and expect success! Projects must be planned out and put on schedules.

[PiNkFaIrYbOi]

Yeah, Hollywood is burning down and it won't get any better any time soon for them. Most forms of entertainment is either imploding in current time or has already been decimated by the stupidity that is/has been going on for the past decade or so. Comics are basically destroyed from it and not sure if they will be able to pull themselves out of the the utter failure they have become.

[Juvia]

Phil Spencer out there reminding us why we turned away from XBOX in the first place.

What a complete tool.

[Murdability]

I blame Phil Spencer

[mastershredder]

Hey Phil, how much was your bonus? and that's a cause and effect of what again? What's that word again? I forgot.

Also, sounds like you are admitting something. Delivery dude. The delivery...

[AdonisIsBeast]

Lmfao

[8bitAssassin]

I blame Microsoft for destroying the landscape of gaming and not putting a good enough effort giving their player base something unique from everyone else.

They tried to bully the market and the games spoke for themselves. Now they are spending millions on games, just to say they're on Game Pass. Pat yourself on the back for this one.

[TheCaptainKuchiki]

As if he doesn't work for the most capitalistic company of the world lmao

[Pyrofire95]

I'll take any excuse to blame capitalism, so sure.

[DivineHand125]

Wow, A lot of people here are making their anti-Xbox bias not see the true meaning behind what Phil Spenser is saying.

For many years persons who align with social democracy have argued against the current form of capitalism where each company is expected to increase their profits each year so they can continue to attract investors.

Phil Spencer believes the gaming industry hasn't really grown because, at the end of each generation, it is roughly the same total amount of hardware being sold between the 3 companies. This is why we see them trying to find more ways of monetizing their existing base, laying off employees, or not passing on savings from hardware iterations to the consumer.

The woes of the gaming industry are not an Xbox problem. It is an issue affecting every publicly traded business.

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

Sony and Nintendo manage to compete… why can’t the mega-corporation M$, of all companies?

[Reaper22_]

Phil Spencer is in charge of xbox, not Microsoft. If people don't understand that I don't know what else to tell you. There are always gonna be layoffs. It's the nature of the industry. Microsoft is far from perfect but so are sony and Nintendo.

[46player]

What a loser!

[Rols]

I would have thought if you make games and consoles that sell well and make a profit then you don’t keep having to MS head office to bail out XBOX.

[Einhander1972]

I would be embarrassed to be an xbox fan.

The things he says are just embarrassingly transparent.

It's the same thing with this guy over and over, blame anything but himself or Microsoft, and try to steal credit from everyone else. (saying things like Nintendo and PlayStation owners are xbox users ect.)

Phil you are the capitalist that is ruining gaming, as soon as Microsoft gets out of gaming things will start to get better for the industry. You are the problem.

[Auron]

Probably blame yourself and your pathetic team where INCLUSIVITY and controllers are your main focus and not you know.. games.

[SoloGamer1]

wow.. so is he proposing Socialism instead? Nah.. youve just made bad decisions has xbox head, Phil. Simple as that. lol