Seven Years In, Phil Spencer Has Succeeded Immensely In Helping Xbox Turn Things Around

"Our mission is to build a world-class team, work hard to meet the high expectations of a passionate fan base, create the best games and entertainment, and drive technical innovation. As we continue forward, this renewed focus and mission will be a foundational part of how I lead the Xbox program," he said at the time.

Spencer has made dramatic moves as Head of Xbox, including spending $10 billion on acquiring Mojang/Minecraft and also ZeniMax and its subsidiary studios and franchises. Those investments could pay, or in the case of Minecraft are already paying, significant dividends for Microsoft. With ZeniMax now under the Microsoft fold, Microsoft takes ownership of franchises like Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Doom, and more, and brings on eight new first-party studios to help bolster its exclusive lineup going forward. Microsoft was criticized in the past for not doing enough in terms of first-party game development and exclusives, and that argument is likely to fall apart now with all the moves Microsoft has made.

....

The future is unwritten and uncertain, but Spencer has demonstrated again and again that he is a capable, forward-thinking leader who is committed to Xbox and growing the brand. Link

So, it has been 7 years since he took the reign. What is your take on his performance?

The outcome of this gen will be the test.

My take...

Me loves my GamePass and will likely buy my XSX this holiday season. :D

moving in the right direction.

its now time to unleash the games to cement xbox as the no1 console on the planet.

you cant play sales cows...

Unlike Don Mattrick, Phil has seen the importance of games.

Wish he would've created more studios than bought but oh well, I'm glad Age of Empires is back.

What is the advantage of creating a studio versus acquiring?

Creating new studios and IP is what I consider healthy in this industry.

Sure you can acquire Bethesda. But less competition = less healthy.

Better create new studios and try to draw talent to your newly formed studios by offering certain benefits/perks.

But of course that kind of way forward thinking is too much effort for billionaire companies :)

Acquiring is much worse for gamers. Zenimax and their studios did not need MS to make the games they want to make. They were already a very successful company. Now there will be exclusivity to games that all gamers would have been able to experience as multiplats. MS putting the money into new studios and new IPs would have been much better for gamers. It's better to add to the pile than to claim a portion of the existing pile for yourself.

I think he's done a good job of turning Xbox in the right direction. I also thought his dismissal of toxic console wars, (Much to the ire of hardcore brand boys) was great. His expansion to PC, and effort to expand genres in games where also solid moves.

When Don Mattrick was head, I pretty much dismissed anything Xbox because he damaged the brand so bad. Between the 360's 54% RROD death rate, his shitty comments to concerns his customers had, and the fact that Seamus Blackley (who worked on the Xbox design) said Mattrick had no faith in Xbox, there was little to like about him.

That being said Phil's still a corporate talking head. I'll continue to judge him by his actions taken, and not his spoken promises because every good salesman has a "good guy" persona when trying to push a product.

APRIL FOOLS!

My thoughts exactly, when Bethesda makes a new Dishonored or DOOM, than they will simply be the same multiplat games they always were, but now locked behind a certain system.

Same thing happened with Tomb Raider, when MS bought exclusivity for that.

much easier and much quicker to acquire than it is to build your own IMO.

I think it's definitely going in the right direction. Xbox is offering a lot of value and has a lot of studio's now. I'm happy for developers to take their time and bring out quality games.

GameFly isn't available outside the US.

Like everyone said, MS should have or rather Phil Spencer should have used the time to build new gaming studios creating new jobs and opening up new doors for new IP games and acquiring isn't really doing anything new, it just creates more harm then good. Seeing MS spending millions on Bethesda & soon to be Discard isn't how you do business, that money could have been use for building new studios for MS is what's wrong. This isn't me saying buying Bethesda was a mistake, just wish we could see more what MS can actually do for the company and the only thing that's new coming from Bethesda is Starfield. This is why innovation is dying.

MS has no games isn't the word, just not enough new IP exclusives is what's the problem. MS has games, just not engaging new exclusives. Phil did what he could for Xbox One even though the damage was already done to it. At least Phil gave us Xbox Play Anywhere and creating Game Pass was a nice step in the direction IMO.

Well let’s see, coming in 3rd last gen and PS5 is out selling the Xbsex/s all around the world, I say Phil has done an excellent job.

I get what you are saying however when it comes to business, acquisitions yield quicker results. The less competition comment is a bit blurry. The level of competition changes just slightly in the context that each studio will no longer be directly competing with MS studios but internally competing.

I feel you on this but the media and gamers were yelling at the top of their voice for exclusive games instead of promoting non exclusivity. This is the result of such a frequent outcry.

I would like a point of reference when it comes to the idea that it is better to create new studios than acquire.

I’m pretty happy with what he’s been doing myself. There’s plenty of good stuff provided on the Xbox platform for me to enjoy and take advantage of. There’s been some notable Japanese games that have made their way to Xbox such as Dragon Quest, Phantasy Star Online, Yakuza, and more. Hopefully we’ll see this continue.

Should be thanking the guy at the top, you know, the one with the background in services. Phil does what he is told at the end of the day.

Ummm no it didn’t, the wii-u did.

I don't see much difference yet other then he likes to spend money.

Not taking away anything from him ... but it was going to be hard to be worst than Don Mattrick.

I am pleased with Xbox's current strategy.

Really happy to see them getting away from the traditional gaming console way of doing things. Trapping games on a certain set of hardware is lame. I like the QoL features like cross-buy and cross-save. Game Pass is an awesome service at the moment (I'd say I want to see more of it, but we all know what happened with Netflix - enjoy it while it lasts).

I would love the industry to move to a one-license system. This hardware-platform shit is such a drag.

I'm sorry, but the Switch destroyed the precious XB1 when it came to sales. :(

Xbox will do a lot better this gen than the last one. They had to go a different direction.

But the switch technically wasn’t in the same gen as the x1, the wii-u was however, and didn’t come anywhere near the x1 in overall sales. Let’s not act like the wii-u didn’t exist now.

I enjoyed the original Xbox had some great games and 360had good games not as good as the original Xbox 1(only for 2 years it RROD on me). So far I still have no interested in XsX because all games are 3rd party and no original ips since 360 that interest me. Talk is cheap and that’s all it is Phil is giving us

Turned what around?

Hardware Sales - 3rd place

Gaming Division Revenue - 3rd place

First Party Software Sales - 3rd place

If going from 3rd to 3rd is something to celebrate, then sure, Phil has done a swell job! But being “consumer friendly” by giving away software, allowing consumers to play your games without purchasing hardware, all while spending billions on studio acquisitions, *checks calculator* isn’t going to move any of those needles.

Maybe Phil should have bought a studio that has a game that will be ready soon. It doesnt help that they are giving away revenue while playing the waiting game. It’s been 7 years and Phil still seems unprepared to reposition Xbox. Did he not know in 2014 that they had a software problem? 2017? 2019?

That is an odd statement when you consider the following acquisition occurred on the listed dates

2014 Mojang Studios

2018 Compulsion Games, inXile, Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Playground Games, Undead Labs

2019 Double Fine

Maybe you are not objectively evaluating the situation.

He’s done a much better job than anyone else that was in his position. Just my opinion.

He's done an excellent job.....so far. Quite satisfied with their ecosystem, BC feature, and ease of transition into this generation. Though I need an XSX if I can find one.

I'm just praying there'll be more games (on a consistent level) being created from these acquired studios, not just from Bethesda.

@goldenelementxl:

cows and their sales and profit,but when thats all you got..that drums gonna get banged hard

HaH

@bluestars: Can google automatically translate bluestars post from now on? I haven't seen one in months that even remotely makes sense.

How much of this was Phil's move? I assume Nads is the one calling the shots or budgeting bigwigs.

I wouldn't say he's "turned it around" so much as pushed it in a different direction - one closely aligned with the supposed original vision of the Xbox brand and platform.

Phil Spencer has taken the Xbox brand from the joke of the industry to arguably the industry leader in terms of ecosystem expansion and subscription models.. No other game company is doing what Xbox is doing across consoles, PC, and cloud..

He did so by taking Xbox from a position where it was Microsoft's side project to a seat at Microsoft's big boy table.. In terms of Microsoft's interests, Game Pass is being positioned right there next to Windows, Office, and Azure.. That's exactly how $7.5 billion was dropped on Zenimax, $10 billion being negociated for Discord, with even more acquisitions in the rumor mill..

Microsoft, a TRILLION dollar company, has finally started to take Xbox seriously and these moves will be the norm moving forward.. That's all due to the efforts of Phil Spencer's Xbox division..

For those that are commenting on "acquisitions versus building" in terms of studios, sure building studios would have been great.. But if Microsoft spent money and time to build studios from the ground up and gamble on a new IP that may be available 10 years from now, you same people would be complaining about that.. An acquisition of Bethesda means they have studios and IPs that are ready today and that's obviously the better decision.. These choices weren't made in a vacuum..

And for the one guy still talking about "3rd place" (as if that kind of metric actually matters when all companies involved are no longer competing on an apples-to-apples playing field), please stop.. All three are on diverging strategies that play to their own strengths.. Some people need to graduate from the "console wars" of old and pay attention to current events.. Sony already won the console war with the PS4 and everyone has started to move on in the aftermath..

At the end of the day, Phil's Xbox is playing a long game that's finally starting to pay off.. All this before Xbox Games Studios has even started shifting into gear..

That was easy.

If you want to compare him to his disaster of a predecessor then Spencer has been a God-send for Xbox. I like some of the directions Xbox has gone to under his reign like how backward compatibility has become a priority and how Xbox games are finding themselves outside the Xbox ecosystem.

But other aspects I feel are disastrous like acquiring Zenimax.

Overall he's not bad I'd say, for both gamers and the suits at MS. Although this Zenimax purchase is leaving a bad taste to me.

I feel Spencer doesn't have the Xbox brand or its gamers best interests at heart, and his actions prove that.

@Antwan3K: Nice post, and you are right that Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are no longer competing on an apples-to-apples playing field. To truly evaluate who is number 1, 2 and 3 profits would be the best indicator. This is business after all. It is hard to assess Microsoft's exact profits, though, because some derive from xbox sales, some from Windows, some from Gamepass etc.

If Microsoft can continue to build their Gamepass customer base, my guess is they will win on profits.

It is about time that Microsoft does more about their first-party titles. The Xbox One was a huge disappointment compared to 360 and the first Xbox in terms of first-party titles. It wasn't until the Xbox One X and its excellent multiplats that my interest in Xbox was revived.

It will take time before Microsoft has great first-party titles ready, but I am really excited about it.

And yes, Phil is 10 times better than Mattrick.

This gen is his biggest test to see if he's all talk or really what he says. So far he has the momentum and I'm liking what I'm seeing. But this gen Phil, Xbox and Microsoft have zero excuses because this is completely Phil's generation. Whereas the Xbox One was just Phil working around Mattrick's mess.

And yet Zenimax were asking to be bought because they were having financial issues iirc. And heck many of the developers that Microsoft purchased were in a very rough place from Obsidian Entertainment, Ninja Theory and others. People acting like Microsoft was just strong arming finacially secured developers when many were in fact stuck making AA games due to their situation or wanted to be purchased.

LOL! As a Business major since when the heck are acquisitions a bad form of business? That's what businesses in any industry do to grow. Who should a business student listen to? A trillion dollar company or some random forum user? No offense to you, but I'm pretty sure Microsoft knows what they're doing. Second discord APPROACHED Microsoft not the other way around. Discord which is a platform whose sole purpose is to BE acquired. As for innovation, Microsoft has been way more innovative than Sony on the tech side that its not even comparable in my opinion.

Either way building new studios takes a long ass time from finding a new location, finding a studio manager, employees, creating a unique work culture, etc before it can even get started into making a new IP. Just look at how long it took 343i to release Halo freaking 4 and 343i was constructed back in 2007 while Halo 4 was released in 2012. Heck we might not see the new Perfect Dark made by the Initiative(a studio built from the ground up) for a long while.

If Microsoft mostly built up studios then it would take even LONGER to see the announced/unannounced games and people more than ever would be saying "were da games at?" or "Microsoft has no games." Microsoft had a huge issue which people poked at which was lack of first party games. They addressed that by acquiring new developers(most who were struggling) to fix the issue in timely but effective manner. Just say that you're not a fan that Microsoft acquired Bethesda.

Edit: As for new IPs, I'm pretty sure Obsidian Entertainment, InXile, Rare, Compulsion Games, and a few other ones are working on fresh new IPs. You can create new Ips with acquired studios(which again is what most of XGS are doing), so I don't understand your point on that end?

Heck people forget under Phil during the Xbox One generation that Phil wasn't even giving a blank check to buy out studios but worse many of his attempts were blocked by people like Terry Myerson when Xbox was merged with the Windows Phone/Surface team. It wasn't until 2017 when Myerson left and Spencer was promoted to senior leadership role that we start seeing these big ass investments in gaming. I know this is console wars but ish ain't that simple.

He's been launching salvo after salvo making the bovine brigade stomping their hooves, gnashing their teeth, devastating the Herd.

lol :P

There has been a turn around in terms of financial input but things couldn't have been any worse than the Xbox one 2016 through to 2020. There's hasn't been a first party game since gears 5.

@Antwan3K: “the industry leader in terms of ecosystem expansion and subscription models..”

I guess they all have to be good at something. I’m sure Xbox would prefer to be the leader in blockbuster software or innovative hardware. But hey, “ecosystem expansion” is better than nothing...

You continue to live in this fairytale land where the future of gaming is moving in the exact direction Xbox is moving. When in reality, more hardware is currently being sold by the *not* competition than ever before. More software is SOLD by the *not* competition than ever before. And revenue from the *not* competition his higher than ever before. Again, when the *not* competition showed us record breaking NPD and revenue numbers. Xbox compared theirs to the Xbox One that was in its 6th year in the market, and lumped 1st party revenue with their subscription revenue. And the number was still well below the *not* competition. They’re hiding their “success” by convoluting the numbers, while the *not* competition is, in black and white, showing us they’re more successful than ever.

But after all this, I’m supposed to think Phil Spencer is doing an amazing job, and that Xbox is the future of gaming? Sorry, I need more than fanboy hype and buzzwords to sway my opinion on the topic. At some point I need to see some sort of results.