I may be in the minority here, but I still like Phil Spencer… I feel like he’s a good dude who has been hamstrung by Microsoft from a larger overall management angle.
He’s certainly better than Don Mattrick, but admittedly Xbox has continued to suffer even after Don left.
Every time I saw an interview with Phil, he was amicable, seemed to actually understand game dev and the challenges, and he pushed to do things like Game Pass which have largely been successful.
Meanwhile Don was the guy who tried to copy off Nintendo’s motion gaming, pushed for making the Xbox do TV shit moreso than be a fun gaming console, and essentially said “get a 360” when people complained about lack of reliable internet access potentially preventing their ability to play any XB1 game.
Unfortunately, Microsoft is bigger than 1 good dude. Remember when this one executive threatened to pull MS out of an entire nation because the CMA had an objection regarding the ABK merger? For every one Phil, there are probably 9 of these rich pricks.
Just because Don was bad, doesn’t make Phil good. He did a lot right at the start, but in the last few years he has basically driven Xbox as a brand into the ground. He’s the one that has pushed “everything is an Xbox” which basically means they have no product. Even the Xbox handheld is just a product from a different company with an Xbox logo slapped on.
He also pushed the primary focus of the company into a subscription service, rather than being a platform to play games. Not to mention, Microsoft has spent the last couple of years buying up a ton of competitors, only to shut down a ton of them and lay off the devs. Ultimately, I think he puts on this persona of being a “gamer” like you. But it’s clear by the actions of the company that he’s just another suit destroying the industry for profit.
True that no matter what - Phil IS a CEO, which means he’s not a good dude… but I guess I just look at it as shades of gray.
I think Microsoft decided it doesn’t want to do ANY kind of hardware, because of how poorly they did both in the X era, and in international markets like Japan…
And like you said - if Xbox becomes a brand rather than an actual piece of hardware, then there’s no reason to buy an Xbox.
I had a 360 starting right before Halo 3 came out in 2007, but with every single one of their games being fully multi-platform with ZERO exclusives I never had a reason to get any of their systems after my original Elite.
I may be in the minority here, but I still like Phil Spencer… I feel like he’s a good dude who has been hamstrung by Microsoft from a larger overall management angle.
He’s certainly better than Don Mattrick, but admittedly Xbox has continued to suffer even after Don left.
Every time I saw an interview with Phil, he was amicable, seemed to actually understand game dev and the challenges, and he pushed to do things like Game Pass which have largely been successful.
Meanwhile Don was the guy who tried to copy off Nintendo’s motion gaming, pushed for making the Xbox do TV shit moreso than be a fun gaming console, and essentially said “get a 360” when people complained about lack of reliable internet access potentially preventing their ability to play any XB1 game.
Unfortunately, Microsoft is bigger than 1 good dude. Remember when this one executive threatened to pull MS out of an entire nation because the CMA had an objection regarding the ABK merger? For every one Phil, there are probably 9 of these rich pricks.
Just because Don was bad, doesn’t make Phil good. He did a lot right at the start, but in the last few years he has basically driven Xbox as a brand into the ground. He’s the one that has pushed “everything is an Xbox” which basically means they have no product. Even the Xbox handheld is just a product from a different company with an Xbox logo slapped on.
He also pushed the primary focus of the company into a subscription service, rather than being a platform to play games. Not to mention, Microsoft has spent the last couple of years buying up a ton of competitors, only to shut down a ton of them and lay off the devs. Ultimately, I think he puts on this persona of being a “gamer” like you. But it’s clear by the actions of the company that he’s just another suit destroying the industry for profit.
True that no matter what - Phil IS a CEO, which means he’s not a good dude… but I guess I just look at it as shades of gray.
I think Microsoft decided it doesn’t want to do ANY kind of hardware, because of how poorly they did both in the X era, and in international markets like Japan…
And like you said - if Xbox becomes a brand rather than an actual piece of hardware, then there’s no reason to buy an Xbox. I had a 360 starting right before Halo 3 came out in 2007, but with every single one of their games being fully multi-platform with ZERO exclusives I never had a reason to get any of their systems after my original Elite.