Because I like what he says. Most of the times. I like his vision for gaming. And I'm aware he's an exec of a multibillion dollar company and that the company is in it for the money. But I like his vision for interactive media.
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GameSpot: Phil Spencer Is Exactly Who You Think He Is
- Thread starter ManaByte
- Start date
Because I like what he says. Most of the times. I like his vision for gaming. And I'm aware he's an exec of a multibillion dollar company and that the company is in it for the money. But I like his vision for interactive media.
I've seen you pretty regularly in the studios OT, we both know how this ended up like this.
I mean the same could be said for Kaz Hirai or Reggie. Phil's done good work and this article is a peek behind the curtain. Not to mention imo he's talented the talk and walked the walk. We just have some people that think that games, which are 3-5 year endeavors, will just instantly materialize and every time they don't Phil is a liar.
But the games have not released on steam? Halo wars, Killer instinct from my knowledge are the only titles currently out. Halo:MCC is on the steam storepage but hasn't released yet. We have no clue how they are going to run, how people are going to play them via crossplay with steam, and how many will support it. Gears 5 will be the guinea pic I guess.
I mean I understand what your saying, as in hey they are coming to steam, and different storefronts. But them becoming available, and them actually having a big community behind them on PC are two different things.
It's up to the community to, and consumers to decide if there is life still in these IP's across different platforms.
You specifically highlighted positions of leadership and when Oluasc gives you a list you say its not valid for an organization of thousands.
I get what you are saying, the article from the verge doesn't paint a good picture at all for those experiences. Having women in these leadership positions can only help though ? The Xbox division does at least seems to be pushing diversity so hopefully there are positive changes in place.
Love you how you glanced over the first part of the comment about the delivering. I think i am gonna move on.
Well, I mean.. This is such a positive article about enjoying games worldwide and how an executive is still a gamer at heart. I truly don't understand why people have to be negative all the time. There are plenty of reasons to be negative. But.. all. the. time. It annoys me sometimes.
Gaming is a fun hobby.
I'm saying that a list of 26 women (who are not all in leadership positions) doesn't show good representation for women in a population of thousands. I never said no women leaders exist, but frankly our standards for good should be higher than "some do exist."
So games "coming soon" to storefronts means that he delivered the experience he promised? So crosslay games coming soon means he delivered?
Is that what your getting at?
Surely you can concede that it is proof that there are women in notable positions within the Xbox division @ MS, and by extension that this is a good thing? I find it alarming that you use the phrase "disheartening" when folks express the sentiment that this is a good thing and that there certainly appears to be a willingness within the Xbox Division to alter the image of the traditional "male-only" gaming industry.
This thread went exactly the way I expected it to.
A shame.
Personally I really dig the direction Phil has taken the Xbox brand.
The one X has become my go to console after a generation dominated by the playstation 4. And the next gen xbox is currently a more exciting prospect for me.
A shame.
Personally I really dig the direction Phil has taken the Xbox brand.
The one X has become my go to console after a generation dominated by the playstation 4. And the next gen xbox is currently a more exciting prospect for me.
Same here I totally agree, it has made me genuinely excited for the next gen to see which console I buy first.
My first post on this topic explicitly says there are women in senior leadership positions, as there are in all video game companies. The issue is their percentage of the population is typically very small, and their treatment is often not great.
I don't consider the current numbers good. I don't know how anyone can.
Again, we don't need to keep talking about this. I didn't particularly want to. But we should never be dismissive of these concerns, and they deserve more than being actively downplayed.
Does FOMO really make people spin positive articles into complete s**t?
Like I get that XB1 is prob in last place for home consoles this gen, but are people really so insecure that they have to stamp out any positive news about the platform just 'cause they may no own it?
What an embarrassing thread.
Like I get that XB1 is prob in last place for home consoles this gen, but are people really so insecure that they have to stamp out any positive news about the platform just 'cause they may no own it?
What an embarrassing thread.
You know first party games from MS are years already on PC with crossplay? He even the games on Steam have crossplay. So will Gears 5.
But i have a feeling from the first post that you keep moving goalposts to have a argument about delivering. So i am now really moving on. Have fun.
Microsoft do make statistics about their employee breakdown public. Around 30% are women, which is in line with other tech companies. They have close to 150000 employees worldwide. I think posting the names of 45000 women may violate some form of GDPR :)
Do you know the percentage of women applying for jobs at Microsoft (or anywhere else for that matter)?
Because if not...
Papacheeks, it's flat out undeniable that MS on PC is better than it has been for a while, and shows signs of continuing to improve. This isn't even debatable imo.
This is not the same as saying it's perfect and oh thank you godly Phil Spencer etc.
This is not the same as saying it's perfect and oh thank you godly Phil Spencer etc.
I own Gears 4 on PC? I own FOrza on PC? I play with people who are on xbox regularly. ACETHEOUTLAW is my gamertag it's in my resetera profile?
I rarely since I've owned Gears 4, see people playing on PC. Forza I do see more people playing on PC than gears, but they are still few. Your saying he delivered what he set out to do. I'm saying that those games currently which are only a handful that are out on PC with cross play actually have any community's around them. Not many people own gears 4 on PC, or halo wars for that matter.
Killer instinct I think is one of the most successful from what I know, along with Sea of thieves in terms of cross play.
But in any case my point is the impact that these have had is not large, and that the re-launch so to speak with gamepass and steam storefronts for up coming titles that actually have some PR behind them have yet to release.
Yes, but this wasn't the thread to go on about that...it been talked about and when you responded to Jawmuncher about it, he was talking about that issue being more on the CEO, which is Nadella. And coming out of the news from that article we had this thread with Satya addressing these concerns that you went on about. You are talking about something that has been addressed and obviously will take time to see what really comes out of it...inside of a thread that is really about Phil spencer as a person in gaming and the past of xbox and its future and relationships with other companies. It's really off-topic (hence why I reported the initial post).
What does that statistic have to do with Xbox in particular, or with the question of women in leadership?
And 30% is not good for the tech industry. It's pretty average, which means a lot of other companies do it better.
Are you actually trotting out the old chestnut of "women don't have these jobs because they just don't want them"?
Better than it has ever been?
Marginally, and only because the point of comparison is utterly shitastic things such as GFWL (and I honestly prefer late GFWL in some instances to what we have now) and the MS store.
GP on PC is pretty damn bad at the moment from a functioning and usability pov.
Again, it's the dismissiveness I have a problem with. I didn't bring up this topic and don't really want to be here, this morning, typing this. But, to be honest, I can't think of anything more relevant to a thread about the leader of an organization than how that organization treats its employees. That makes it a valid subject to bring up, and if people didn't want to engage on it, it should have just been ignored, not belittled.
And I don't understand what you mean by "obviously will take time to see what really comes out of it," because these problems have existed for 20 years at Xbox (and again at many gaming and tech companies). They aren't new.
Edit: If it seems like I'm overly passionate on this subject, maybe I am. I personally know a disturbingly high number of women who have struggled quite badly with these issues across the gaming and tech world, including many at MS, and more specifically, many at Xbox. It's a terrible thing, and while not every thread needs to be in this subject, again I'm just asking this community to not downplay or rationalize these things. We are better than that.
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It is average, which means a lot of other companies do not do it better.
Its also increasing which is also a good sign.
Listen, first you said positions of leadership, then a company of thousands and now its xbox. All I am saying is that it looks ( at least publicly ) that Xbox is doing the right things when it comes to women in gaming. Of course I am sure there are things they could do better but a lot of the leadership team from the new studios, acquisitions and projects seem to be women so that is positive.
It would make for an incredible comeback story... They are gradually getting there though, and Phil has made good on many of his promises... Next gen we should see what becomes of their exclusive output for now I expect even more inflow of top talent into their studios and a couple more acquisitions. :)
I really don't know why you think my position has changed, as from the start I have said it's about the percentage of leadership positions held by women.
Phil is absolutely the right guy at the right time for Xbox. <3
I love how he talks about playing all systems and have good friendships with folks from Sony and Nintendo. This industry is growing, so there's no need to each at each others' piece of the pie. Keep on growing the industry collectively.
I love how he talks about playing all systems and have good friendships with folks from Sony and Nintendo. This industry is growing, so there's no need to each at each others' piece of the pie. Keep on growing the industry collectively.
He's done OK with services this generation but has been pretty awful when it comes to exclusives. He was also on the exec team that thought the Xbox One launch was a good idea. In my opinion, anyone that approved of that launch strategy should have been canned immediately. Regardless, the next launch is all him and he'll be defined by it.
This is... probably the best videogame article written in the last 5 years. After such a dearth of unending trash, it's refreshing to just have a simple profile of someone with actual sources, actual interviews, that doesn't try to come with some edge.
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I really like Phil, and some of this article was really fun to look back at.
but is it just me, or has there been a REALLY big media push that's been almost weirdly glowing about Microsoft and its game division.
Like, I think they are doing good work, but to me it all seems overly rosey.
but is it just me, or has there been a REALLY big media push that's been almost weirdly glowing about Microsoft and its game division.
Like, I think they are doing good work, but to me it all seems overly rosey.
Post of the year?
How does this compare to Sony's representation at Playstation and as a company overall? Last time I checked there weren't very many women or minorities in leadership positions.
He had no control. He was head of Microsoft studios at the time, and Don mattrick was CEO I believe for the entire division. SO even if Phil put his hand up and said " this is not a good idea" it fell on deaf ears because Don had seniority and was backed by Balmer.
His goal and job isn't to make exclusives, so how can he be doing terrible on something he doesn't want to do? That doesn't fit their current strategy, and it goes directly against how he even convinced the CEO to go all in on gaming.
I think the first party output this gen has been fine at least, it's second party exclusives what have underperformed big time. Probably the second party model that Microsoft milked last gen is not there anymore and they have been forced to move to first party buying a lot of studios.
I genuinely don't understand this. That list literally helps to prove the point I was making, and it certainly doesn't contradict anything I said.
But, ok.
It will take time to see what Satya wants to do to address the concerns actually happen...I mean, the link had points on trying to be inclusive and ways to deal with it. I'm not sure if you read it or not.
You know you don't have to say "don't really want to be here"...if you didn't, you wouldn't. That's your choice. No one is forcing you.
Well, I would think that the conversations in this thread would revolve around the content of the OP, which is a post e3 interview Phil Spencer and different topics surrounding xbox and gaming. I mean...should every thread about Phil Spencer talk about this topic you are addressing? There are many topics to cover that haven't been talked about from the OP but one that's not in any of the source material should be? How many threads could turn into something that it's really not about because someone can find a reason to say it's on topic. That's not setting a good precedent.
I agree with you that women in tech and how they are treated is an issue and even an issue at Xbox (for obvious reasons) and I hope that it gets better. I also think that this thread is not the thread to bring that up in. The reason why I say that...if someone was to read the OP and the articles linked and then read this thread and this topic...it wouldn't make any sense...and that's because it's clearly off-topic.
But that's the last i'll talk about it as it continues the off-topicness. I'll read your reply if you do but I'll go back on topic with the rest of my replies.
You said MS had 3 female studio heads. That post proved you are way off.
First of all, I added this to my post after you quoted in case you did not see:
Secondly, look, again, I did not bring this topic up, but when people are presented with this kind of information and call it untrue, I'm calling that out. Because it is true, it's a serious issue, and I'm not letting that misinformation on such an important topic spread. Full stop.
...how? That list has three studio heads on it...
He didn't put his hand. He was onboard by his own admission.
I agree that female representation within the gaming industry is laughable, especially in positions of power, and that Xbox specifically has a very real and documented problem with the fostering of a disgustingly toxic workplace that women have had to unfortunately endure. Having said that, pointing to the fact that they have three female studio heads with respect to 15 studios is kind of a misleading way to push that narrative. It doesn't take into account that 7 of those 15 studios were established independent developers that were acquired under the pretense that it'd be business as usual as far as operations and creative licenses were concerned.
Obviously it's a small number with respect to a small number, and still nowhere near up to par, but in terms of studios under its banner for a decent length of time - 43% of Microsoft's studio heads were women (343i, Mojang, and Microsoft's Global Games Publishing). It'd be more appropriate to say that Microsoft's current makeup when it comes to these positions of power at their studios are a symptom of an industry wide issue, and an area where Microsoft needs to go against the grain (and the fact that this is considered going against the grain is downright disgusting) and make its workforce representative of the diversity of qualified people who are hungry for and deserving of these positions.
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Phil is the source. He's talked about what happened in interviews over the years. I respected that he took ownership of their mistakes.
Yeah, my use of studio heads was just a tool to show how small the representation really is across the organization, as it's pretty close to the same % and that's an easy, public example anyone can understand. It wasn't to imply that studio head ratio is the only thing that matters, just that 25% isn't enough.
Yep, just realized that myself a few mins ago, ty for the correction. So with Shannon's recent move that's 4, which is certainly better than 3 :-)
mama, this may sound hyperbolic but i think phil is the future of drag