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Mango Pilot

Alt account
Banned
Apr 8, 2024
480
Why do I care if he is or isn't? I'm happy with my Xbox, Game Pass and don't hold Microsoft stock.

Feel bad about people losing their jobs but the amount of ink spilled on this is weird.
 

kxs

Member
Jul 25, 2022
339
Xbox leadership (Spencer, Bond, Booty) has been insufferable over the past few years. Their "we want more people to play" shtick is tiring.

I find the games media have been too chummy with these folks. Outlets like IGN, Kinda Funny, Giantbomb had interviews with Spencer and treated him with kid gloves.

The coverage circa 2020-2022 made it seem like Xbox and GamePass was going to take over the gaming landscape. This never materialized.

I can't believe Spencer and Bond that that recorded video talking about how only 4 Xbox games are going multi-platform when it's an open secret that most Microsoft published games will eventually be multi-platform.
 

bloodyroarx

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
3,917
Ontario, Canada
I think for a lot of people, they were willing to look pass some things due to numerous circumstances.

This particular situation definitely feels like a case where he isn't going to see that kind of pass from the community though.

This

Kinda always seemed like issues were based on extenuating circumstances but this this is just his and his teams fault 100%
 

HellofaMouse

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,355
Xbox never made a great game since he got to his position. And most of their "consistently good" games had disappointing entries since then.

He was one of the people responsible for the xb1 fiasco. Hes not a good leader for the xbox brand and hes never been.
 

dusan

Member
Aug 2, 2020
5,635
It's not effective to throw out these headlines after waiting for Phil's hundreds of lies.
 

Danielsan

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,793
The Netherlands
Xbox has been awful under his management. Feels like Xbox has had a game drought since the 360, despite countless acquisitions. Hi-Fi Rush was such a memorable standout game from Xbox, and then they decide to close down the studio. Absolute insanity.
 

MistahS

Prophet of Truth
The Fallen
Sep 2, 2018
3,770
We need to look at what Matt Booty's been doing in his position as well. Halo development was in disarray, Everwild development started over, trailer for State of Decay 3 was made without input from Ubdead Labs who were shocked to see undead wildlife in it and they hadn't implemented that into the game. How do they justify keeping him around?
 

Habs

Member
Mar 10, 2021
1,552
Game Pass might only be one big good thing but for me it is so big that none of his other wrongdoings mattered to me. But the mass layoffs and studio closures are inexcusable.
 

Markratos

Hermen Hulst's Secret Account
Member
Feb 15, 2020
3,073
I've always thought Phil Spencer is the best thing that could have happened to Sony since Mattrick. The man is good at some things, but in my opinion he is a disaster at managing his own studios: I think the Xbox catalog has been overpromising but underdelivering for years.
 

Shogun

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,442
If he was anything like the character he's been cleverly marketed as he would resign. Couldn't run a fucking bath nevermind multiple game studios.
 

Banamy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,489
Nah. I don't give him a pass, but at least at the head of Xbox is someone who advocated for Xbox when MS wasn't going to, is an actual gamer, and is trying to disrupt the industry in making Xbox a success.

If yoj think Phil "did" this, and is solely responsible, then you're incredibly naive.
Yuuuuuuuuuuuup.
 

Nyaghoggua

Member
Apr 3, 2024
311
Beyond "make money" I'm not even sure what their strategy is and I try to pay attention so on that basis alone, he has failed.

Why would you shut down Arkane and Tango instead of just scaling down their projects first? Maybe let them work on more games they want to actually make? The real baffling one for me is Roundhouse. Why acquire them after Bethesda basically sabotaged them (Human Head) and stick them on Elder Scrolls Online duty? At least they get to stick around. Do they want to become the Netflix for games? Because Netflix isn't just putting out tentpole first party "content" (god I loathe that term). They have smaller projects too. Not everything needs to be or should be some AAAA project with a budget in the hundreds of millions. Personally I would've allowed them to make Arx Fatalis 2 or something before shutting them down entirely. Hell, do a Battlespire-inspired Elder Scrolls spin-off. That would've sold well.
 

Billfisto

Member
Oct 30, 2017
15,321
Canada
Do people not understand what "give a pass" means?

Most of us know how corporations work. People were just stupidly believing that Phil was different. They were "giving him a pass" because he publicly adopted the trappings of being "one of them". The article is saying that people should stop being stupid and realize that he's just more corpo scum. The only difference between Kotick and him is that Kotick didn't pretend to be anything else. It was all marketing.
 

--R

Being sued right now, please help me find a lawyer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,045
People still blame Don Mattrick so it's not gonna happen. But Phil shouldn't take the blame alone, this is the entire c-suite's fault on both MS Gaming and MS itself, including Nadella at the top.
 

Loud Wrong

Member
Feb 24, 2020
14,985
Been saying this for ten+ years. He should have been shown the door when the other execs responsible for the Xbox One disaster left.
 
Oct 25, 2017
12,468
Underground
Took long enough. He's been incompetent for years, but people kept pretending otherwise; from media to enthusiast press to gamers/fanboys. Even on this forum, almost all criticism of Phil's decisions was handwaved, met with disdain, and moderated poorly.
 
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Babu93

Member
Feb 9, 2021
2,466
Fuck Phil Spencer. He's been just as damaging to Xbox as Mattrick, only this time around it's been death by a thousand cuts.
 

NicoNicoRose

Member
Dec 9, 2020
148
Portland, OR
Why on Earth do so many people give a corporate executive a pass just because "he's a gamer"

What difference does that make? Corporate execs are corporate execs. Every one of them is a vulture to some degree or another. It's baked into the capitalist mindset.
 

criteriondog

I like the chili style
Member
Oct 26, 2017
11,304
just got done reading it,

pretty damning summary of how much promises have been made, broken, how many layoffs, studio shutdowns, cancellations and more
 

ket

Member
Jul 27, 2018
13,189
So, Kotaku is telling me that the corporate executive isn't my friend? 🤔
 

CloseTalker

Member
Oct 25, 2017
31,479
Gamepass contributed to these people losing their jobs.
FWIW we don't know how or to what degree this is true. Game Pass out of the equation Redfall is still terrible and bombs, and Hi-Fi Rush just becomes a poorly selling traditional retail release (people are out of their minds if they thing Hi-Fi Rush sells well in traditional retail)
 

Voodoopeople

Member
Oct 29, 2017
3,893
Whilst I think this is terrible news and a stopped clock is right twice a day and all that, I'm not giving Kotaku any credit here. Xbox could end homelessness and they'd release an article saying "Xbox ignores poverty for people with homes".

Kotaku are even less your friend than any of the console mega Corps, guys. If we're in the business of calling out bad behaviour in gaming, Kotaku needs to look at itself before criticising others.

Ignoring the awfulness of Kotaku, there is clearly nothing xbox can do to convince me this is anything but a bad decision. Xbox needed interesting single player games and a presence in Japan. In one day they've killed a lot of that stone dead. It was their decision to shadow drop Hi-Fi and giving it 5 minutes in PS is way too fast. They also needed family friendly studios and let Toys for Bob go.

If Xbox are truly long term planning they must know they needed all these things to grow the business. All their recent moves are painfully short term. It the time it took Tango to make a new game we'd be in an economic upturn.
 

Doctor Avatar

Banned
Jan 10, 2019
2,666
He's a multi-multi millionaire so he doesn't need to work right?

So surely if he actually cared about the devs, and gamers etc he could just resign in protest if he doesn't want this?
 

GrantDaNasty

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,101
Phil isn't necessarily to blame for the core issues at MS (thank their board for that) Though in saying that, he still owns every decisioj tjat passes through Xbox as a division for the last 5 years at least, it's the responsibility he signed up for.
 

CosmiKu

Member
Jul 9, 2023
798
People still blame Don Mattrick so it's not gonna happen. But Phil shouldn't take the blame alone, this is the entire c-suite's fault on both MS Gaming and MS itself, including Nadella at the top.
Yeah, you can't blame one person for this chronic lack of leadership and sensible decision-making. The rot's been in place for decades at this point.

Microsoft fucks up nearly all their acquisitions, and the ones Xbox make are no different, regardless of whether Spencer is in charge or not.
 

Santar

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,274
Norway
I never understood how so many bought into the good guy Phil persona. He's good at talking, but behind all that I'm the good guy talk his goals were always just the same as the other high up bigwigs at Sony and other big publishers.
It feels like the gaming community catches on to obvious things in slow motion. Time and time again it's like ten years after when suddenly the mass gaming audience starts to slowly catch up. "Wait lootboxes might be bad for the industry?" "always online games might be a big problem for gaming?". Though that last one still has about 4 years to go.
 

Mass One

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
1,253
it was stupid to give the guy a pass to begin with
Yeah you're correct now and if you said it before was correct then.

In my opinion, I feel like society is shaking off that being polite means not hurting feelings.

It was stupid to think millionare is trustworthy and even more stupid to think a Billion-dollar company is trustworthy and has good intentions.
 

ThreeKitties

Member
Jul 19, 2023
99
I never understood how so many bought into the good guy Phil persona. He's good at talking, but behind all that I'm the good guy talk his goals were always just the same as the other high up bigwigs at Sony and other big publishers.
It feels like the gaming community catches on to obvious things in slow motion. Time and time again it's like ten years after when suddenly the mass gaming audience starts to slowly catch up. "Wait lootboxes might be bad for the industry?" "always online games might be a big problem for gaming?". Though that last one still has about 4 years to go.
Its so interesting because looking back at previous quotes from Phil about challenging Sony to have cross play, then challenging Sony to have gamepass, then gloating about having more xbox games on a Sony console this year than Sony itself... meanwhile Microsoft NEEDED all of that to gain new markets and create profits while Phil framed it as "good for the gaming industry".
 

kiguel182

Member
Oct 31, 2017
9,496
While he lead great things like backwards compat, the console redesigns, accessories and game pass it's pretty clear how he failed at building their studios and portfolios. Even with all that money. It sucks cause his vision is great but he has failed to deliver that.
 

EagleClaw

Member
Dec 31, 2018
11,029
I believe i got once a timeout for saying something like this headline.
I can believe times will also change again, so i will not state something like that.

But i will say that CEOs of multibillion dollar corporations aren't your gamer friend.
They didn't reach that position because they had beaten a high score at a game.
 

Lilalaunebaer

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,506
X8SHBEGb.png

hey guys, relax, next year is going to be xbox´s year for sure. Can´t wait to see what game he´s goint to tease with a t-shirt under his jacket that´ll never materialise.
 

RedSparrows

Prophet of Regret
Member
Feb 22, 2019
6,547
Feels weird that people conflate cutting jobs and shutting studios with 'mah exclusives' or 'Xbox has no games lol' (seriously, fucking grow up). They're not the same.

As for giving a pass - the whole POINT is there is NO SUCH THING as a 'pass'. That's not the deal, it never was. Stop buying into this shit in the first place. Spencer can do Good Things, can be a better flavour of exec, sure - that's preferable. But at heart it's a money game.
 

FuturaBold

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,542
I still can't comprehend why Xbox hasn't have one major hit or must own game since it launched.
 

Yahsper

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,579

View: https://twitter.com/kotaku/status/1787905628557689248

kotaku.com

It's Time To Stop Giving Xbox Boss Phil Spencer A Pass

Under his leadership, many have lost their jobs and fewer games have made it out the door

Give a pass? People should stop personifying corporations and acting like these people are their friend. And that goes both ways since people also need to stop like these corporations and people are your enemies. There's no such thing as console wars, there's no such things as good guys. It's all companies finding their angles to make money. It's time for gamers to accept that this is a business relationship. These people aren't plotting behind doors and wondering what hardcore gamers think, they're staring at Excel sheets all day and wondering when their next meeting is.

That said:
"Of course, this is pretty common behavior for a powerful and rich executive who is part of a massive global corporation. But Spencer has been able to (mostly) avoid criticism sharing stories of how he believes gaming should be for everyone while making decisions that directly contradict this claim."

What decisions has he been making that contradicts his claim that he believes gaming should be for everyone?
 
Oct 28, 2017
6,355
Phil is full of shit but even if they use him as a fall guy for all the bad press and poor management going on at Microsoft... nothing is going to change at the company. If they fire Phil I hope people don't think that's magically going to fix anything.
This. It's a culture problem not a single individual problem.

But Phil is the face and he's been lying to us long enough now. You simply can't trust the guy.
 

PucePikmin

Member
Apr 26, 2018
3,924
Dude has thrown a number of Hail Mary passes, and they've pretty much all ended up in the dirt. To a certain degree, I've admired the guts, but it's getting to the point where the Hail Maries are hurting the industry. We're seeing good studios being shut down. I don't think there's any particular proof the "disruptions" to the console market and other aspects of the industry he's spearheaded are going to have long-term positive effects. Again, innovation is great, but you have to have some succeses with your disruption or you're just being a bull in the china shop making a mess.
 

CloseTalker

Member
Oct 25, 2017
31,479
Phil isn't necessarily to blame for the issues at MS. Though in saying that, he still owns every decisioj tjat passes through Xbox as a division, it's the responsibility he signed up for.
I mean, he's to blame in that he's made a few wrong bets. I think he thought Game Pass would be a service so enticing that it would cause people to migrate platforms for it, and that just hasn't been the case. Meanwhile Sony is making pretty traditional third party exclusive agreements like Final Fantasy XVI which are proving much more fruitful for the brand.

Some of it does seem out of Phil Spencer's control, though. They bought a LOT of studios, and even years later those studios just aren't delivering a massively strong output of marquee exclusives.

At the end of the day blah blah capitalism, blah blah CEOs aren't our friends, all that, but I do think Spencer is trying to his best to make savvy decisions that are enticing to gamers. But he's made some wrong bets, and some of the games just haven't hit the way they should have. Halo didn't hit, Redfall didn't hit, Starfield is more complicated but it can be argued that it didn't hit. Meanwhile games like Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon are genuine successes, which is great, but those aren't really bolstering the Xbox brand
 
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