The article I linked specifically calls out the Xbox team as one of the teams that have it worst.
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GameSpot: Phil Spencer Is Exactly Who You Think He Is
- Thread starter ManaByte
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The article I linked specifically calls out the Xbox team as one of the teams that have it worst.
I had put faith in you to change, expected better not sure why but expectations are meant to be broken
Hi, Shannon Studstill has a major role for Sony. Head of Sony Santa Monica, remember the studio that made 2018s best game? She was responsible in large part for that game.
Siobhan Reddy is one of the founders of Media Molecule and has overseen development on all their games, as she is studio director. Angie Smets is an executive producer and part of the management team at Guerrilla Games. So yeah, not only do they have women taking on major roles, they are also delivering award winning games. Cut out the good ole boys club accusations.
No, you're wrong too.
Very few game companies are doing well when it comes to women in positions of leadership.
MS has, what, 3 female studio heads out of 15 studios? And Sony is just as bad.
Seriously, how low is the bar that 20% is acceptable?
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Don't women make up around 20% of the industries workforce? So that seems expected, no? Though I know that is a problem in itself, one which the bro culture rep the industry has probably doesn't help.
I was literally just thinking yesterday "what if Phil is just a made-up persona of what Xbox is trying to rebrand itself as". Like, they put him in charge and told him to be all gamer-y to appeal to gamers and make him seem like one of us. Guess none of that's true and he's just a really cool guy.
Phil will go down as one the industry's greats, there isnt anyone with as much power as him in gaming, and hes brought significant change to the industry because of it. Gamepass is a game changer, but for me, when he unveiled the accessibility controller, he reached legendary status.
To be fair how many women apply in this field, do you think it's more than 20%
Sony used to have Amy Henning too. I was talking about E3 stage prescence and who does Nintendo have?
Another high praise video dedicated to Phil from Inside Gaming, well worth the watch with plenty of info on the changes he made and promises delivered.
The industry seems to love him.
- Banjo in Smash
I remember when Phil replied to a tweet about using Banjo in smash, about 3 yrs ago, he was positive about it and as usual, we got posts about him saying meaningless things to project a positive, albeit toothless image, and yet they're silent everytime he delivers. Hope modding get stricter on these specific distractions and derailing. Get over Phil, hes a celebrated leader, lets focus on the topic in discussion rather then his ( proven good ) track record.
The industry seems to love him.
- Banjo in Smash
I remember when Phil replied to a tweet about using Banjo in smash, about 3 yrs ago, he was positive about it and as usual, we got posts about him saying meaningless things to project a positive, albeit toothless image, and yet they're silent everytime he delivers. Hope modding get stricter on these specific distractions and derailing. Get over Phil, hes a celebrated leader, lets focus on the topic in discussion rather then his ( proven good ) track record.
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Agreed. Phil has made notable improvements and after the debacle that was Mattrick I'm glad the brand has a positive figure associated with it. Not to mention he is moving things in a positive direction.
Of course I can't praise Phil without acknowledging that he has thus far failed at the one thing that matters most - video games. In the end that's all that matters, so here's hoping things take a turn for the better.
I'm always a bit skeptical about PR people being all flowers and sunshine, but I haven't seen any reason to doubt that Phil is passionate about gaming and helped convince Microsoft at large to stay in the game.
Looking forward to an increased software output in the years ahead and playing these games on my PC!
Looking forward to an increased software output in the years ahead and playing these games on my PC!
That story of Phil's two friends he met online is absolutely heartwarming. Gaming is just the best, man.
I've owned the Xbox and the 360, don't own a X, don't see a reason to, but I like Phil. Sounds a like a nice guy.
When I met Phil at Tokyo Game Show one year, I asked for his business card, and he said "Sorry, I ran out. How about this? Put your name and phone number into my speed dial, and I'll do the same for you" and he handed me his phone.
No joke. Dude is a class act.
No joke. Dude is a class act.
Would prefer more focus goes back to Shuhei Yoshida :( I have no idea why Playstation thought it was a good idea to reduce his forward facing presence.
EDIT: Microsoft definitely has the right idea facilitating these sorts of articles in the lead up to their next console launch. It's the exact thing that worked so well for Sony in 2013 (humanising the leads, admitting they were in a bad place, etc).
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Bonnie Ross - Head of 343i
Kiki Wolfkill - Head of 343i Transmedia
Shanon Loftis - Head of Xbox Game Studios Global Publishing
Helen Chiang - Head of Minecraft
Jessica Freeman - Head of Marketing Minecraft
Nina Kristensen - Head of Ninja Theory
Ashley Speicher - Head of Engineering Xbox
Karen Woessner Smith - Head of Xbox Partnerships & Lifestyle
Lydia Winters - Chief of Brand Minecraft
Mary McGuane - Chief of Staff Xbox Game Studios
Juliana Tioanda - Chief of Staff Microsoft Gaming Cloud
Arbresha Miraj - Chief of Staff Xbox Team
Sarah Bond - VP Gaming, Gaming Partnerships & Business Development
Nicole Fawcette - Xbox Marketing, Gears of War and Lead of Women in Gaming Xbox
Catarina Macedo - Program Manager Xbox, Lead of Women in Gaming Xbox
Tina Summerford - Director of Programming Xbox
Jenn McCoy - Director of Mixer
Angela Hession - Director of ID@Xbox, Xbox Strategy, Hololens
Kris Hunter - Director of Product User Research and HW Accessibility Xbox
Cindy Walker - Director of Platform Marketing, Lead of Project Scarlett
Tacey Miller - Director of Productions Xbox
Julie Lowe - Director of Marketing, Lead Global Marketing Xbox
Catherine Gluckstein - General Manager Xbox Xcloud
Ada Duan - General Manager Business Development, Lead Business Development Xbox Game Studios
Bree White - Global Product Marketing Manager Xbox
Rachel Card - Principal Program Manager, Xbox
Gabi Michel - Senior Program Manager of HW, Lead of Xbox Adaptative Controller
And a lot more lead positions across the Microsft Gaming Division ( Xbox, Live, Azure, Playfab, Mixer, HW, Marketing, etc. ).
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But Phil has never claimed that's acceptable, and he's talked openly about the need to improve their culture.
I don't think it's useful to point to the existence of problems as some sort of "gotcha", especially for decades-old organizations with thousands of employees. The question is whether an individual leader is pushing in the right direction and clearly seeing the issues. It looks to me like Phil is doing both.
Whether in jest or not, MS is doing a turnaround. If we simply define the end result is a competitive market for consumers, then I wager MS is on the warpath to reestablishing competition with Sony again.
I'll define it harsher yet perhaps more easier to understand, MS looked at the numbers, looked at the talent, and decided Mixer content that they were producing was not good. Like a network axing a show, we don't go, why did you fire the actors, or relocated the show or what not? The show wasn't bringing in the ratings. They brought a show (Ninja) in that has good ratings. Pretty simple, harsh, but Im not sure how to best put what I think its the most apt comparison than, its a tv show.
I know lots of people like calling CEOs useless and just sucking up money, and I won't contest that, but they are important and they do lead the company. Honestly, the best example probably would be AMD and Lisa Su, its CEO. Yeah, she didn't make the architecture for the Ryzen CPU, or write and maintain the drivers and documentation, she isn't making the AMD logos and stuff....but she did have the leadership role and responsibility for guiding the company, ensuring proper execution, and in a time AMD was being written off as a dead man walking, she needed to have the skills to bullshit her way through the negativity and death notices on AMD's door.
Yeah, she didn't make the architecture, but who is in charge of assuring the investors and banks keep AMD afloat with loans and collateral in a time when their revenue and profits were dropping like a rock?
If you want to contrast a company with a bad CEO.....Brian Krzanich and Intel. He let (or allowed) the company to get complacent, let the foundry portion, or the guys in charge of ensuring the silicon designed gets made, screw up by making decisions that led AMD get ahead and them fall behind. He officially resigned cause for the stated reason that he violated company policy by having a consensual relationship with a subordinate, but i would bet my house he got fired for letting Intel get tossed into the dirt by AMD.
Edit: Honestly the biggest thing I like about Spencer was the making of the xbox accessibility controller.
I like Phil. He seems like a good dude, like other execs/etc. (Reggie, Iwata, Cerny, etc.)
And I like the moves he made for Xbox. It's a wait and see now to see if he can deliver on them.
Only thing I don't like (so far) is Xbox Live required to play F2P games on Xbox and the whole women harassment/fiasco - that we never had a proper follow up on. Hopefully it's better now. And obviously more games (tho seems like they are otw, like lamelo).
I think Reggie is Metroid?
And I like the moves he made for Xbox. It's a wait and see now to see if he can deliver on them.
Only thing I don't like (so far) is Xbox Live required to play F2P games on Xbox and the whole women harassment/fiasco - that we never had a proper follow up on. Hopefully it's better now. And obviously more games (tho seems like they are otw, like lamelo).
I think Reggie is Metroid?
Being heard is shorthand for giving the people what they want.
I don't have an issue with fans embracing Phil as a guy who gets it and has the right vision. It shouldn't bother you, it's hardly unprecedented or compulsory.
Dude replied to my Xbox Live messages and joined the XboxEra Discord afterwards.
When I was still working at Microsoft I had a couple of very minor chats with Phil via our internal Yammer. He was really genuine and open and honest about some of the things going on in xbox. Great guy.
I have and their output is still as bad or worse than at the beginning of this gen. This may or may not change in the future but so far I have no real reason to be optimistic. The rest of the stuff they did is either irrelevant to me (Gamepass, Crossplay, Play Anywhere) or nice to have but not really something I prioritize over strong industry defining games output (BC which has also been canceled for the foreseeable future).
Fairly sure I've contradicted you on this in the past - I was at MS UK where there's probably a 50/50 split in gender, the head of Ms uk is a woman, and the diversity and inclusiveness is deepset and genuine.
Not to dismiss wider issues in the tech industry, the disgusting issues that were reported in xbox, or elsewhere in MS but to dismiss the entire company is disingenuous. The message from the top around inclusion and diversity is unambiguous and reinforced repeatedly.
For me the take home is the huge battle Phil had to keep Xbox and gaming as part of MS strategy. People say "why no games - its too late Phil". Well here is why - for 2 years it seems like Xbox was on freeze - so no spending - until strategic direction was worked out.
So can all the "Phil is all talk and no action" posts now be a thing of the past? Its clear what he's been doing.
So can all the "Phil is all talk and no action" posts now be a thing of the past? Its clear what he's been doing.
harSon had a great post in the previous topic about the "only talk" comments. Like in every spencer thread haha
At some point they were going to focus their BC efforts on Scarlett and the next gen console supporting three generations worth of games. I'm happy they are doing it now so they have a nice back catalogue of games at launch rather than making us wait months/years for updates.
Lol what? Very unlike you to not fact check your statements. MS has a lot of prominent female figures in major roles.
I mean, two of the biggest franchises in the world are run by females (Minecraft and Halo).
I think he's done a pretty good job for Xbox and it's fans recently.
Game OT's seem to be the only place to have good discussions around here.....all other types of thread are full of the same attention seeking nonsense that is par for the course on the internet.I only come here for the breaking news anyway.....that's something this site does great.
Phil Spencer is the best thing to happen for Xbox since... Xbox. I am curious to see what next gen will bring for Microsoft. So far Phil really managed to turn the ship around for One while most of the damage was already done. In a short periode of tie he has become the face of Xbox more than any other xbox leaders in the past. He is doing really well. All this is coming from a 'Playstation fanboy'.
Everyone else is ranting, meanwhile this guy did some real research. Kudos to you.
Thank you for this, I like facts over rampant internet speculation.
MS is really a class act with this and I respect Phil massively. Genuinely great dude. I can't imagine what the people who have issues with him must be like. I don't think I would get on with them at all.