Also as far as I know, unlike the
of a certain studio who ruined WoW and CoD and more, he wasn’t mentioned recently on a certain set of files that were made public recently.
I know it’s not exactly a high bar, but Phil actually seemed like someone who cared about gaming in general, but he probably also didn’t get to be in charge by pushing back and sticking his neck out to save everybody else whenever it came to making the Xbox division as profitable as the suits above him demanded.
Whoever is next will be likely switching from a shovel to an excavator to dig the Xbox brand’s grave.
Like, seriously. The guy was in charge for 10 years. He did jack shit, and none of his first party studios managed to create something worth under his leadership.
A few years after shutting down Lionhead, he and Bond talked about “learning from past mistakes” so that it wouldn’t happen again. Years later, he shuts down Tango (the day before Matt Booty praised their game as something Xbox needs more of), Toys for Bob (and then, when they buy back their independence, contracts them for an Xbox game, because what is consistency?), Turn 10 (now a support studio), Arcane Austin. Rare spent half a decade working on a game that never got past its pre-production phase. He hyped Coalition as the “world’s first AAAA studio”, then unceremoniously shut it down with nothing to show for it despite working for 7 years and with outside help on one game.
343 was mismanaged for years and he never did anything to fix that, either. Of course that bit him in the ass when he bet everything on Halo Infinite, the only first party game to launch alongside the Series X, which was eventually delayed a year later. An entire year without first party games for their console. (Yes, Covid was bad for everyone in the industry, but their competition was able to release games in that timeframe). He then hoped for Starfield to save the day, which obviously didn’t happen, and by then everyone’s patience was over. 80 billion dollars down the drain for what? If I was anyone in a position of power at Microsoft, I would be pissed too.
He spent a decade pushing for GamePass and Xcloud, but never marketed it outside of niche audiences. I live in Italy and I’ve never, ever seen an Xbox ad in the past ten years. I can assure you none of my “normie” friends and family know what the current Xbox is called, let alone what the fuck GamePass is. The shit is so bad, my brother thought Cyberpunk 2077, a game that premiered on an Xbox E3 and that Microsoft had exclusive marketing rights for, was a PS exclusive. Could you believe that? Heck, everyone I talk to is surprised to hear that the Xbox One and Series offer retrocompatibility for OG Xbox and X360 games because, guess what, they never ran ads for that, either.
So many things went wrong with Xbox under his leadership, you could probably convince me he was working undercover for the competition to tank the brand. I honestly fail to think of one thing he did that worked. Like, I could go on for days. Heck, I’ll do one more: he spent the last few years attempting to merge the Xbox, PC and mobile audiences, yet using the Xbox store on PC is still a miserable experience that makes you wish you were using any other storefront. Ten years! He couldn’t find the time to fix that? Did he forget? Did he even care in the first place?
Spencer did jack shit for Xbox. The guy made promises every year, every year delivered nothing but lies, corporate bullshit and “how do you do, fellow gamers?” moments.
If anything Phil deserves his own company. If he made the call I’m sure many he got to know at Xbox and Microsoft would answer the call and make a new company with him
Hoping he would especially one like Valve. But it all depends on if he would be up for that and if everyone asked him to to show he would have huge support from day one
Exactly.
People forget that the Xbox game division is only a subset of Microsoft so Phil always had to answer to the bigger suits.
Phil actually made games. Phil came from a pretty cool era and I’ve seen him interviewed over the years by people who you only go talk to if you liked games.
As far as US game company execs go, Phil wasn’t the worst.
Also as far as I know, unlike the
of a certain studio who ruined WoW and CoD and more, he wasn’t mentioned recently on a certain set of files that were made public recently.
I know it’s not exactly a high bar, but Phil actually seemed like someone who cared about gaming in general, but he probably also didn’t get to be in charge by pushing back and sticking his neck out to save everybody else whenever it came to making the Xbox division as profitable as the suits above him demanded.
Whoever is next will be likely switching from a shovel to an excavator to dig the Xbox brand’s grave.
He did???
Like, seriously. The guy was in charge for 10 years. He did jack shit, and none of his first party studios managed to create something worth under his leadership.
A few years after shutting down Lionhead, he and Bond talked about “learning from past mistakes” so that it wouldn’t happen again. Years later, he shuts down Tango (the day before Matt Booty praised their game as something Xbox needs more of), Toys for Bob (and then, when they buy back their independence, contracts them for an Xbox game, because what is consistency?), Turn 10 (now a support studio), Arcane Austin. Rare spent half a decade working on a game that never got past its pre-production phase. He hyped Coalition as the “world’s first AAAA studio”, then unceremoniously shut it down with nothing to show for it despite working for 7 years and with outside help on one game.
343 was mismanaged for years and he never did anything to fix that, either. Of course that bit him in the ass when he bet everything on Halo Infinite, the only first party game to launch alongside the Series X, which was eventually delayed a year later. An entire year without first party games for their console. (Yes, Covid was bad for everyone in the industry, but their competition was able to release games in that timeframe). He then hoped for Starfield to save the day, which obviously didn’t happen, and by then everyone’s patience was over. 80 billion dollars down the drain for what? If I was anyone in a position of power at Microsoft, I would be pissed too.
He spent a decade pushing for GamePass and Xcloud, but never marketed it outside of niche audiences. I live in Italy and I’ve never, ever seen an Xbox ad in the past ten years. I can assure you none of my “normie” friends and family know what the current Xbox is called, let alone what the fuck GamePass is. The shit is so bad, my brother thought Cyberpunk 2077, a game that premiered on an Xbox E3 and that Microsoft had exclusive marketing rights for, was a PS exclusive. Could you believe that? Heck, everyone I talk to is surprised to hear that the Xbox One and Series offer retrocompatibility for OG Xbox and X360 games because, guess what, they never ran ads for that, either.
So many things went wrong with Xbox under his leadership, you could probably convince me he was working undercover for the competition to tank the brand. I honestly fail to think of one thing he did that worked. Like, I could go on for days. Heck, I’ll do one more: he spent the last few years attempting to merge the Xbox, PC and mobile audiences, yet using the Xbox store on PC is still a miserable experience that makes you wish you were using any other storefront. Ten years! He couldn’t find the time to fix that? Did he forget? Did he even care in the first place?
Spencer did jack shit for Xbox. The guy made promises every year, every year delivered nothing but lies, corporate bullshit and “how do you do, fellow gamers?” moments.
Also keep in mind, all those Blizzard people are now under Microsoft.
We need a global boycott of: WoW, Overwatch, CoD, Candy Crush, Elder Scrolls, Halo, Fable, Forza, Gears of war, etc.
Don’t forget Fallout.
If anything Phil deserves his own company. If he made the call I’m sure many he got to know at Xbox and Microsoft would answer the call and make a new company with him
Hoping he would especially one like Valve. But it all depends on if he would be up for that and if everyone asked him to to show he would have huge support from day one