I'm sure Phil is sitting back, looking at this thread as he flicks through the latest edition of "Sensible Chuckle" magazine.
PS. Hi Phil!
PS. Hi Phil!
Well, Xbox is still lacking in games so not sure what you mean.
That's weird. I wonder what I've been playing on my Xbox all this time...
"One of the first calls we got after the Minecraft acquisition was from Sony saying, 'Are you going to pull it off PlayStation?'," Spencer said. "And I'm like, 'Why why would I do that? People like playing it on PlayStation.'
Yeah I totally cant see why. Nobody is doing any shitty console war posting. Nope. None of that right Kyoufu ?I can't imagine why some would consider the gaming community toxic.
Yeah I totally cant see why. Nobody is doing any shitty console war posting. Nope. None of that right Kyoufu ?
That was a quick response.
You know you can be realistic and still appreciate the guy, right. It doesn't have to be some gushing, "OMG he's for the Gamers!!!" type of thing.
I like Spencer, but I'd really like to hear his take on why they can lay off all those Mixer employees but can pay Ninja $50M.
preach it.I can't imagine why some would consider the gaming community toxic.
I don't care what he's like really. I do know I buy less games on Xbox than I did 17 years ago.
He has presided over increasingly positive developments for the division. He should be able to speak competently about the negative aspects of his tenure as well. That's good leadership.What is the point of this comment? Every company does layoffs from time to time. I remember Sony laid off like 10,000 after they had a successful launch of the Playstation. They also laid off some employees working on VR games last year. It's business.
Cool to hear from Schafer on the topic, he's one of the people whose opinions I respect most in this industry. I really hope he and other teams like Ninja Theory benefit massively from being first party now. They deserve all the budget they need to make the cool, unique experiences they're great at.
Also jesus this thread sucks, these are the type that really make me reconsider staying on this forum. It's people racing to try and post their negative reaction they think is clever without even reading anything, and it just gets so tiring to read.
"I hear that a lot," Spencer told me. "That I only care about cross-platform play because we're 'losing.' There's no way for me to disprove that other than to say it's not true. These decisions aren't part of a strategy to eke away at number one's foothold or something. It doesn't mean that I'm perfect at this job. Obviously, you can get smarter people to do this job. I mean, I don't even have an MBA. There's a ton of things that I'm incapable of doing. If you put me as head of Microsoft Office or something, it would seem totally disingenuous. That's not what I am."
I don't know, Xbox was in a bad place and Spencer seems like he's turning it around. He at least got Nadella to give it a chance, it's a feel good story, I admire the guy.Era's fascination with corporate executives is the most bizarre thing. I honestly don't get it. Even though I think a person like Kojima is snorting a bit too much of their own hype, at least Kojima is a creator and his following is somewhat warranted. With Phil Spencer, it's just the most fanboy thing, and it's sad how defensive people get when you remind them that making money with the Xbox brand is his job.
Nah..Are you going to pull Tomb Raider off PlayStation for a year? Why why would I do that? People like playing it on PlayStation.
Are you going to pull Tomb Raider off PlayStation for a year? Why why would I do that? People like playing it on PlayStation.
My bad I should have said Phil is such an awesome guy for keeping Minecraft on PS bc he likes to see PS gamers happy.
Terrible post downright awfulAre you going to pull Tomb Raider off PlayStation for a year? Why why would I do that? People like playing it on PlayStation.
This is a huge assumption."One of the first calls we got after the Minecraft acquisition was from Sony saying, 'Are you going to pull it off PlayStation?'," Spencer said. "And I'm like, 'Why why would I do that? People like playing it on PlayStation.'"
Kinda shows what Sony would do in that situation to be honest.
I mean...Xbox topics get torn down almost instantly here unless you go to the OT pretty much so thats not too surprising lolI'm getting tired of him to be honest, seems like people talk more about him than Xbox games around here.
Under rated post.
I don't think so, it just sounds like he takes people casting doubt on decisions made personally which is both positive and negative. I think as the head of a brand you should be able to filter stuff like this because almost everything has its detractors. I find a lot of the time in these interviews he seems to give the impostor syndrome spiel which again is pretty out there for a corporate executive. It's not necessary to come out and say "hey I'm not perfect, we can do better" etc. It's just weird in my view when he's doing a good job. Of course you're not, no one is perfect, if you can improve something then do it. The source of this brand of modesty, I just can't place it. It's him being asked questions but I also don't see the point of him needing to repeat himself on things like this especially when it's not even the question being asked.What's up with this answer? did another question get asked in between here, what's with the stream of consciousness?
Phil Spencer would get the Pinto gag.Spencer spent the next few months waking up at 6 a.m. for classes and then driving across Lake Washington in his Ford Pinto--"a car known for its potential to blow up if you got rear-ended," as he remembers it
.... Are you serious? Nearly every major game (Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Call of Duty, etc.) had timed exclusive content on Xbox 360. In some cases, like with Tomb Raider Underworld, the DLC was permanently exclusive and the PS3 version was left incomplete.
Then there were a ton of third party games that released a year or more later on PS3, but I'm not sure how many publishers were open about timed exclusivity deals for games during that period out of fear of it harming sales. I know that even when Tales of Vesperia got a PS3 version later on, it was inexplicably never localized despite there being a vocal demand.
But MS definitely went wild paying to secure content away from PlayStation, timed or completely. Hell the timed GTA DLC was $50 million alone.
Are you going to pull Tomb Raider off PlayStation for a year? Why why would I do that? People like playing it on PlayStation.
I think he's the head of an organization that fosters a culture of sexual harassment where almost every single woman was harassed and HR brushed concerns under the rug.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/4/1...exual-harassment-stories-internal-email-chain
ya it comes off awkward and reticent... especially transcribed in text.I don't think so, it just sounds like he takes people casting doubt on decisions made personally which is both positive and negative. I think as the head of a brand you should be able to filter stuff like this because almost everything has its detractors. I find a lot of the time in these interviews he seems to give the impostor syndrome spiel which again is pretty out there for a corporate executive. It's not necessary to come out and say "hey I'm not perfect, we can do better" etc. It's just weird in my view when he's doing a good job. Of course you're not, no one is perfect, if you can improve something then do it. The source of this brand of modesty, I just can't place it. It's him being asked questions but I also don't see the point of him needing to repeat himself on things like this especially when it's not even the question being asked.
This is a real problem at MS on the whole AND at Xbox in particular.Just went through that article and the original story, Phil isn't the head of MS. That's Nadella.
That depends if it is happening under his watch. We should also not ignore women such as Bonnie Ross who have major roles within the company. Can the same be said of its two main compeititors, what women do they have that have major status? Seems to me every E3 we see a good mix from Microsoft as far as representation but not from the other two on stage. I think in Phil's radius he promotes acceptance and equality and not the old boys club.This is a real problem at MS on the whole AND at Xbox in particular.
To be fair, it's an issue lots of tech companies are struggling with, and Xbox exists at the nexus of big tech and gaming, which has its own issues with the treatment of women. It's not an easy problem to fix, and some things take time.
But in a thread about the head of an organization with these cultural issues, it's a perfectly valid aspect of his career to address.
I think he's the head of an organization that fosters a culture of sexual harassment where almost every single woman was harassed and HR brushed concerns under the rug.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/4/1...exual-harassment-stories-internal-email-chain
Yes, this is a deep problem with Xbox's culture to this day.That depends if it is happening under his watch. We should also not ignore women such as Bonnie Ross who have major roles within the company. Can the same be said of its two main compeititors, what women do they have that have major status? Seems to me every E3 we see a good mix from Microsoft as far as representation but not from the other two on stage. I think in Phil's radius he promotes acceptance and equality and not the old boys club.
ok, so what examples are there under Phils leadership?Yes, this is a deep problem with Xbox's culture to this day.
And that there are women in positions of power at Xbox does not mean there isn't a problem with their treatment on the whole. Most organizations that have deep problems with misogyny have at least some amount of women in leadership roles. It's just that they are exceptions, rather than the rule.
There is actually some interesting research on how some women (obviously not referring to Ross here, she's great) who have beaten the odds and reached high positions in organizations where that was a particular challenge are harder on the women under them then the men are, as a sort of built-up release of their well deserved anger at their own treatment.
Like I said, these are complicated and difficult to address issues, but they shouldn't be brushed aside.
There are news articles about them (one linked here), but it's not about specific instances, it's about the basic culture of the division. Women on the whole are often not treated well, not recruited in the numbers they should be, not as easily moved into manager and leadership positions, and just overall exposed to a serious amount of sexist behavior. Many women do not stay in the organization for a long time, and work to transfer to other divisions at MS that, while probably quite problematic, are still better than Xbox for them.
I don't know if there needs to be a legal basis for firing Spencer if he isn't making money. I'm sure they're an at will company/state. And I'm also sure they can keep him irregardless of earnings.To be fair, any executive of a publicly held corporation has a job to make shareholders money. Legally if Nadella determines Spencer is not the guy to make Microsoft money as head of his department, he's got to get rid of him. Spencer's job isn't to be a saint or cure diseases. It's to make profit. Xbox isn't a charity.
The reason why people like Spencer is he's taken what was a consumer unfriendly brand that was on the verge of getting whacked and somehow convinced Nadella, Hood and Microsoft investors that a consumer focused product with transparent communication to consumers by a person who understands the product himself was the right mix to justify keeping Xbox and making it more profitable than it's been. Some consumers are just happy that when they bought Xbox One, it didn't become a Dreamcast and die...which it's been on the verge of.
On a personal note, I do want him to succeed. I'd like the biggest company in the world to learn that communicating and responding to customers works. That a service with low cost barriers for gaming enthusiast like Game Pass will work. That giving creatives autonomy works. If it doesn't work, then Xbox either goes back to more disengaged product or they will have a fire sale.
That depends if it is happening under his watch. We should also not ignore women such as Bonnie Ross who have major roles within the company. Can the same be said of its two main compeititors, what women do they have that have major status? Seems to me every E3 we see a good mix from Microsoft as far as representation but not from the other two on stage. I think in Phil's radius he promotes acceptance and equality and not the old boys club.