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!
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GameSpot: Phil Spencer Is Exactly Who You Think He Is
- Thread starter ManaByte
- Start date
That's weird. I wonder what I've been playing on my Xbox all this time...
User Banned (3 Days) - History of continued Trolling & Console Warring
I'd hazard a guess that it isn't Crackdown 3.
I can't imagine why some would consider the gaming community toxic.
I was pretty skeptical of Phil at first - I often felt like he was just saying what we wanted to hear. I feel stupid to have felt that way though because at this point he seems pretty genuine and at this point he's certainly backed up his words with his decision making. His spiels on stage can be cringey but, eh, most press conference spiels are.
It's taken time but he's been doing a good job captaining Xbox as it recovers from the disastrous direction MS initially took with the xbone. After a gen of barely using my xbone I'm excited to see what next gen holds with the lessons learned, Gamepass and these studio acquisitions.
It's taken time but he's been doing a good job captaining Xbox as it recovers from the disastrous direction MS initially took with the xbone. After a gen of barely using my xbone I'm excited to see what next gen holds with the lessons learned, Gamepass and these studio acquisitions.
Are you going to pull Tomb Raider off PlayStation for a year? 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 ?
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.
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.
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.
always liked his talks on GB@NITE, and the stuff Xbox is doing(BC, Game Pass) is really good. will read the article asap.
preach it.
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.
I agree. I normally stay out of this nonsense but it gets so old having people who obviously don't have an interest in a platform weighing in with their little snipes because those with a legitimate interest are trying to have a discussion. It's really juvenile in my opinion.
I'll say the same thing I've said in other threads. As someone who genuinely enjoys gaming as a medium, regardless of the platform, it's exciting to see that we may be moving into a generation where there will be no losers. All three platform holders are seemingly firing on all cylinders, and as a consumer, I'll be able to reap the benefits of a strong Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, and PC.
I wouldn't be surprised if we looked back at the next generation as a Golden Era of gaming.
I wouldn't be surprised if we looked back at the next generation as a Golden Era of gaming.
What's up with this answer? did another question get asked in between here, what's with the stream of consciousness?
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.
Kaz is the other one I admire, took the disaster of the PS3 launch and turned it around, riding on the razor's edge for much of the PS3's life, cutting out fat, laser focused on games. It was great to see and MBA students will read about it for years in Case Studies.
It's a pretty interesting business imo and I enjoy following the executives of these companies
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Some of you are so needlessly toxic, it's just funny. Between this and the last few Kojima threads, think I might have to avoid positive thing said about industry person threads too.
Ya'll are never afraid to rain the love on Reggie or Miyamoto or Yoshida or Iwata but whenever there's good word about Phil "he's just doing it for the money".
It's embarassing.
I mean...Xbox topics get torn down almost instantly here unless you go to the OT pretty much so thats not too surprising lol
Been gaming for a long time. Phil seems like a good guy...I'd like to play some games with him.
Also kind of related I saw the gears 5 going gold and thought cool...then I remembered I have game pass and will be playing it in less than a month and thought bad ass.
Also kind of related I saw the gears 5 going gold and thought cool...then I remembered I have game pass and will be playing it in less than a month and thought bad ass.
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.
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.
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.
I'm surprised by this kind of feature article being on Gamespot. Can't remember the last time I saw something like this on there.
Phil Spencer would get the Pinto gag.
I'm primarily a PS4+PC gamer, but I must say Game Pass (PC) even in its infancy has won me over. If Phil had anything to do with that—which I'm sure he did—then he's good people.
There were playing fire with fire and the PS3 being such a mess for developers to work on certainly helped their cause. Sony also mandated every game that came out later to have exclusive content.
Sony was also very bullish prior to that with GTA deals but those deals didn't have the scrutiny because Sony was selling so well. Ironically this is exactly how it is today.
Minecraft was already on the Playstation, Microsoft paid to delay Tomb Raider. That is the big difference. As you can see Phil has a totally different attitude than those at Sony, who continue to be about what's best for their business than about their consumers. This explains why EA Access took so long, why console crossplay is still an issue and why Minecraft doesn't get the same updates. Phil has also said time and again he wants less walls and is not a fan of the Tomb Raider deals that were not made by him.
Just went through that article and the original story, Phil isn't the head of MS. That's Nadella.
I know a lot of people say that Phil just talks and that he still needs to produce more first party games. I will just list the things that I personally have liked that he's done since taking over in 2014.
-Removed the paywall requiring gold to use netflix, hulu, youtube, etc.
-Backwards compatibility with Xbox 360. As well as free X enhanced updates
-Acquiring Minecraft as well as doing the right and smart thing to keep it multi-platform
-Acquiring Gears of War and making a new studio for it
-Encouraging cross platform play
-Backwards compatibility with original Xbox games
-Xbox one X
-Acquiring studios more studios (Ninja Theory, Playground, Double Fine, Obsidian, Compulsion Games, Undead Labs, inXile, etc.)
-Created new studio The Initiative
-Created new studio for Age of the Empires and possibly for other RTS games.
-Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate and for PC as well
-Xcloud
So yes we have had a lot of bumps in the road. Games like Scalebound didn't work out while games like Crackdown saw the light of day. Studios such as Lionhead, press play were closed down or spun off. And the first party output turn around was not produced fast enough for this generation and has yet to be seen for the next just yet. But I can say over all this is the experience I would want on my Xbox for the most part and I'm satisfied with him as the leader to represent the brand.
-Removed the paywall requiring gold to use netflix, hulu, youtube, etc.
-Backwards compatibility with Xbox 360. As well as free X enhanced updates
-Acquiring Minecraft as well as doing the right and smart thing to keep it multi-platform
-Acquiring Gears of War and making a new studio for it
-Encouraging cross platform play
-Backwards compatibility with original Xbox games
-Xbox one X
-Acquiring studios more studios (Ninja Theory, Playground, Double Fine, Obsidian, Compulsion Games, Undead Labs, inXile, etc.)
-Created new studio The Initiative
-Created new studio for Age of the Empires and possibly for other RTS games.
-Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate and for PC as well
-Xcloud
So yes we have had a lot of bumps in the road. Games like Scalebound didn't work out while games like Crackdown saw the light of day. Studios such as Lionhead, press play were closed down or spun off. And the first party output turn around was not produced fast enough for this generation and has yet to be seen for the next just yet. But I can say over all this is the experience I would want on my Xbox for the most part and I'm satisfied with him as the leader to represent the brand.
ya it comes off awkward and reticent... especially transcribed in text.
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.
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.
I mean, unfortunately every company had shitty folks working for them. The best you can do is train, educate, and weed out the cretins.
https://www.google.com/amp/s//ninte...nt-abusing-employees-calling-noe-retards/amp/
I can certainly understand the criticism. But as far as I recall Phil has never been one of these types. In Japan bullying, harassment, and almost mandatory after work drinking sessions are still a cultural norm of sorts. It's a grey area where to take the hard line and what people accept and ignore.
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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.
And this isn't really a secret in the wider company.
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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.
People also forget about the woman in charge of Minecraft. They're doing well there too