Polygon spoke with Spencer during the annual Game Developers Conference, and though the conversation ranged from the possibility of a handheld console to the trouble with closed platforms, one theme was inescapable: What the hell is going on with the games industry? And how will video game makers and publishers — Xbox included — get out of it?
Under his leadership, many have lost their jobs and fewer games have made it out the door.
people should call for his resignation, he has literally flushed xbox down the toilet.
another 3 studios closed today, thats it now, get out
Well purple101 you'd have to convince Observer and the other Xbox faithful that these studio closures and the fallout from the acquisitions is a bad thing and a sign of what's to come, and I don't think you're going to do that.
Nobody has managed that feat.
Obscure and Zeref have been summoned to the floor to give their account of these proceedings.
I 100% blame 'nice guy Phil' for the death of Xbox. The thing to realise is the Xbox Series S & X are performing WORST in console sales and game sales than the much criticised Xbox One - how can this be?
His two big mistakes were 1-not developing enough exclusives and 2 - always trying to beat PlayStation. If he made more exclusives over his decade reign and not tried to 'win' then classic Xbox would still be here in a profitable third place. Instead he tried a series of different projects to win and he ended up ultimately destroying Xbox by changing its relationship with its most loyal customers. What did he do?
* Phil spent a decade only release new iterations of Halo, Forza and Gears and not investing in creating new first party studios and IP. He mishandled Scalebound and shutdown Lionhead Studios.
* Phil tried Mixer, a streaming channel that could be used to promote Xbox dominance with free giveaways...
* Phil tried to create a streaming service that he regarded as too superior to consider PlayStation and Nintendo as competitors! But would instead compete with Netflix and Google...
* But his worst mistake was Xbox Game Pass - a multi billion dollar investment that could only work if completely dominated the worldwide gaming market - but it didn't. Instead it changed the culture of Xbox gamers so they resented spending on third party games as they were now trained to expect everything for free. Now all the games Microsoft had invested so much in were not only NOT making money from other platforms, as ever, but they were now NOT EVEN making money from Xbox customers.
If Phil Spencer had just concentrated on making new games and not non-stop gimmicks to beat PlayStation, I genuinely believe the Xbox would be an attractive platform with regular exclusives like Halo but with others too that would give it its distinct identity and maintain a profitable existence. Phil's been in charge for over a decade, the blame lays at his feet.
Nah idiots like those 2 are lost causes. Just look at the idiotic floundering comments already being posted.
Last MS financial results for FY24 Q2 which is the company's sales data through Dec. 31, 2023. According to the earnings, gaming revenue is up 49% year-over-year.
That doesn't sound like he flushing it down the toilet and that also makes very unlikely he loses his job any time soon.
Revenue up due to acquisition... Spending 10s of billions for new companies of course revenue is up. They don't tell us profits but they wouldn't be shutting down these divisions if they were in the black. Pretty sure they're shifting so radically because their current state has been an abject failure
This is 100% due to Activision Blizzard. If that deal had not gone through, Xbox revenue would be flat, which means a game like Starfield failed to move the needle.
@crazyCoconuts
While I agree that Phil and team have gone back on their word. Especially the last six years of promises.
But I disagree on your logic about the revenue.
They bought the companies to boost their gaming division revenue. In that regard they were very successful. They are owned by MS so your point is moot.
They made all that money and still doing studio shutdowns...
It's bottomless pit of money MS wants. There's no amount of money MS can make to save their own studios. They're doing it out greed and general incompetence. Calling Phil's head won't mean anything or do anything for MS. They'll still destroy regardless.
Damn idiots don't know how to read revenue reports. Revenue was due to folding in Activision Blizzard Revenue. They were up 61% due to Activision Blizzard with 62% increase. So they only went up 1% over last year. But idiots going to be idiots thinking Spencer is helping Xbox right now. Lol
Phil needs to go. His time is over. When you oversee layoff after layoff after studio closure after studio closure, it's impossible to keep going forward and have people - employees and fans alike - trust you in any way.
Especially after HiFi Rush hit their metrics. I guess we know what to expect for Ninja Theory next once Hellblade is out, and Machine Games once Indiana's out & Todd Howard focuses back on ES6.
Ninja Theory won't last after HB2. Because it won't hit some impossible metric in order to be a success at MS.
Expect NT to be gone in a years time also. Where the hells the advertising for Hellblade 2? Another MS issue they do to themselves bunch of clowns.
Their first-announced Series game going out like this. Their marketing so far has just been a daily tweet or two the last week.
And now this will overshadow everything up till and through its release. Maybe Ninja Theory will get the same dignity as Tango and bow out with a better PS5 port.
Just watch Outer World's 2 also be dead on arrival without Playstation and Nintendo gamers buying that game you can expect Gamepass to kill that IP too. Ditto for making that contract to exclude Playstation gamers from getting Indiana Jones too. Remember how Tomb Raider sales were on Playstation after the 1 year exclusivity? Expect even worse for Indiana Jones too
It's not just Phil (Phil is just the dumb kid taking the money) and Kotaku is NOT the voice to listen to as shi7 sites like Kotaku helped contribute to modern gaming toxicity and disinformation. Kotaku staff = Much like Phil, and yes need to go.
MS has been posting record profits, you think they give a crap about games and gamers? Think again.
What a prat.
People gave him and Matt Booty the benefit of the doubt for a few years due to the mess they inherited but a decade on and all they've done is ruin gaming for everyone.
The only success they've had is MS Flight Simulator which was developed by a third party anyway - and Forza Horizon which by pure coincidence went downhill in quality the second Playground were acquired (imo) and that's all I can think of. Everything else they've touched has been ruined.
It's genuinely staggering how either of these two guys are still there.
Phil didnt even inherit a mess, he was equally responsible for it because he sat on the executive so the kinect and XBONE roadmap vision was also on him. Mattrick was the convenient public scapegoat back then but now theres no one to place the blame on.
If they're to keep anyone, I'd hope it would be Sarah Bond. She's at least consistent, constantly doing quick tweets with green emojis where she can, repping the brand, saying the next hardware will be the biggest leap ever (whatever that means).
Phil Spencer openly minimizes Xbox by going out of his way to congratulate competitors and talking about how great playing non-Xbox devices are; if only Xbox had someone that could even pretend to like Xbox for being Xbox.
This is the point I always found frustrating, the whitewashing of Spencers reputation when he got promoted. He was involved in the slide into mediocrity of the 360 generation!
The worse is yet to come and their fanbase don't know it yet, someone at MS posted and deleted a tweet saying all their main ''exclusives'' Halo, Forza, Gears etc will be heading to PS soon so grab a front seat ticket and some popcorn and enjoy the show;) The crying will be hilarious.
Yeah he is absolutely responsible for the abysmal state of Xbox. I can't tell Mattrick and Spencer apart at this point. Both have been horrible executives for the Xbox brand.
Phil's responsible for this generations mess. Phil was the one following orders under Steve Balmer and Don Mattrick.
Don even admitted he messed up on camera with the Xbox documentary
Let's keep the facts straight. Everything currently now is Phil's fault.
In an Interview with Game Rant, Neil Newbon discusses the performance choices he made portraying Baldur's Gate 3's Astarion, and why some decisions were risky.
Brendan writes; "Head of digital product development Dan Ayoub tells us about the toy maker's plans to get back in the game."
“You can’t succeed unless you draw in customers from other publishers and other platforms. And because you’re not finding new customers with the games that you’re building, everybody’s kind of fighting over the same-size pie.”
People are going to twist this into him saying that Sony is bad for exclusives but what he is really saying... what he is trying to shout from the hills to the Xbox faithful, is that Xbox can not remain exclusive if you want them to ever take risks or make big games again. The back and forth game the PR team plays with the fanatics has to stop. Spencer doesn't know what Sony or Nintendo is going to do , but he is taking the Xbox games and putting them everywhere and thats how its gonna be. Going multiplat is the only way to GROW. Full stop that is what he is saying.
I don't think Phil Spencer is the one you want to ask this question. Are you sure he wasn't the one who asked it?
I won't bash Phil as much as I think he and his leadership team deserve, however, the data is showing the XBOX WW sales are nearly life support levels. Redfall failed - Star Field decent. What about those issues?!
Nothing is really wrong with the industry. More like: what the hell are video game makers doing? I’ve very rarely have I seen the disconnect between what gamers want to play, and what makers are trying to sell this wide.
What's the point on invest $500 on a ecosystem, that you will have on another console plus the other console exclusives. Why this made sense for Phil, get new customer but losing the old ones.