Xbox Creator Says Don Mattrick Had Little Faith In The Console

@skyhighgam3r: People were saying that years ago, but people are still making excuses for Phil the Liar.

The work came to fruition. State of Decay, Crackdown, Sea of Thieves. All garbage. That's what you get with Phil.

But surely...in a few more years!

@vilified_signals: Oh why did you have to reopen that wound. I hope video game historians look back on that moment as one of the most damning for the Xbox One. Between the controversy over the design and that line about connectivity, things didn't look good for XONE at the start. I do personally think many current PS4 owners jumped the gun in "upgrading" to a PS4 in the first year it was released. I feel that even more so for the people that traded in an X360 and a hefty library of games for a PS4 back then. The two are more comparable than ever, and I can't help but wonder how things would have been if the Xbox One would have launched with the shape it is in today if PS4 would still have such a significant lead.

@sladakrobot: True. The fish stinks from the head and Mattrick only got away with what he did because that was the attitude he was able to adopt in working for the company at that time. Microsoft was kinda where Sony is right now. They didn't give a shit about the consumer because they didn't need to due to such a massive install base.

It was foolish not to think that the introduction of a new console generation wouldn't have that install base asking whether or not it was viable to keep buying products from a company that wanted to control how you consumed media because they had the impression you had already said yes to all this in the first place. All the PS4 needed to promise to be was a natural continuation of the brand. Weird though that XONE today feels more like a successor to X360 than PS4 ever has to the PS3.

@bdrtfm: Completely hit the nail on the head. Reverse Midas.

@videogameninja: That comment is way too good.

@fullyskully: You mean back then. Yes, compared to PS4 it's not doing so great, but compared to what Xbox was five years ago, it's the best it has ever been. Credit where credit is due. If Xbox One would have launched in the state it's in today, exclusives be damned, these consoles would be a helluva lot closer in sales that they currently are.

@fullyskully: its yet to be proven what Phil has done. Outside of backwards compatibility and the one x, the effects of whatever Phil is doing have not been seen yet. Sea of Thieves, terrible at launch. State of Decay 2, Dud. Halo 5, no split screen. Gears 4, pretty mediocre. Crackdown 3, terrible game even after the delays, and quantum break- trashed in reviews. Fable studio, closed it and doesn't even give them a chance to make another mainline fable game first to get back on the charts. Scalebound, cancels it. Within months of the one x launching, announces they have another system projected for 2020/21 time frame. Thus killing off a lot of their sales of the one x. I was considering buying one then decided not to when I saw they are making another system. Its a waste of money at this point. Game pass, launched to pretty much give everyone day 1 access for 15 bucks to try their mediocre games and realize its terrible then unsub, thus further hurting their sales. At this point the only glowing thing about xbox its its third party titles through gamepass... and even that is lackluster. The majority of the games on it are old games that we all beat years ago with the occasional newer one peppered in. Its not nearly as great as people make it out to be.

So, can you tell me again, beyond 360 backwards compatibility, what exactly Phil has done for this company since taking over for Mattick? Hes scrambled to get more first party studios in the past year because hes just now realizing that he hasn't done crap for exclusives since he took over in 2013. In addition, he is further burying the xbox brand by making every xbox exclusive also available on PC, thus making the brand of xbox a joke to begin with. Almost like they don't believe in the brand power of their own system and need the help from PC. What are the best xbox exclusive games and most unique on the system since launching? Sunset overdrive (exclusivity agreement launched under Mattick). Killer instinct, great game, development green lit by Mattick, and gears 4 while not the best game ever was a good comeback for the series and would have also been initially greenlit by Mattick.........

Mattick, during the 360 period, had almost as many exclusives and good games as ps3. Say what you will about him, he at least knew how to build the 360s brand and recognition, something that Phil has so far failed terribly at.

The bottomline is that the state that xbox is in now is BECAUSE OF SPENCER, he never righted the ship, he just took over for someone that accidentally tanked the company with a poor always online idea... its hard to look bad when the only place to go is up since your sales started so poorly. That doesn't mean that what hes done has had any meaningful impact beyond 360 backwards compatibility, which is literally the only thing that I use the system for now.