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Xbox How would you judge Phil Spencer's tenure as the head of Xbox so far?

How would you judge Phil Spencer's tenure as the head of Xbox so far?

  • A (fantastic, little to no complaints)

    Votes: 12 11.4%

  • B (mostly very good, some complaints, but the overall takeaway is largely positive)

    Votes: 53 50.5%

  • C (mixed bag, there's some great stuff, but also a lot of fumbles)

    Votes: 26 24.8%

  • D (mostly very bad, there have been some wins, but much of it has been errors upon errors)

    Votes: 11 10.5%

  • F (terrible, little to no wins)

    Votes: 3 2.9%
  • Total voters
    105
Hero of Hyrule

Hero of Hyrule

Frieren the Slayer
Pronouns
He/Him
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Phil Spencer has been heading Xbox for the last seven years now. That he has done a lot to keep things going for Xbox is undeniable - he turned things around on the hardware front, he pioneered Game Pass, he led some major acquisitions for the company, and he is essentially the reason that Xbox is still a thing and not a brand that Microsoft divested of, if accounts are to be believed.

However, the flip side of this is that Microsoft's showing on the games front has really, really slipped under his tutelage. The first few years that Spencer was in charge still saw some games release, but especially in the last few years, Xbox has had repeated fumbles with their annual lineups, repeated fumbles with the games they do release: they mostly end up reviewing very poorly, (although there are exceptions such as the excellent Forza Horizon games, the two Ori games, and Sea of Thieves once they managed to turn that one around); they generally tend to have little to no hype or buzz in the zeitgeist (very few Microsoft games ever take over like a new Sony or Nintendo release does); the few wins they do have (such as Halo Infinite) somehow end up managing defeat from the jaws of victory, after the victory (seriously, this especially is baffling). Their marketing is poor, they consistently end up being no shows at major industry events (or where they do show up, they end up overshadowed by Nintendo and Sony). The sales of Xbox have not necessarily gotten better (it is impossible to truly gauge the extent to which here is any difference at all in Xbox sales, since Microsoft does not report these numbers anymore, but they are a consistent third place player in the market, not only outsold by Sony, but also lapped by Nintendo who were coming off of a system as dismal as Wii U, which did far worse than any Xbox ever has).

It's really a mixed bag here, to be perfectly honest, at least in my opinion, and I was curious to see what others might think, particularly in light od the discussions I have been seeing on the internet in light of Microsoft's no-show at TGA, and them promising that next year will be different again, this time for real (as they have been for the better part of a decade at this point). How would you judge Phil Spencer's tenure at Xbox?
 
Great spokesman for Xbox, and great on the services front with Gamepass. At the end of the day though what's at the heart of this business are the games themselves and their first party support has been bad for years without signs of improvement in managing their studios. Instead Microsoft's solution is to just buy even more studios, so they're losing my confidence on their ability to manage game development.
 
He took over at a very dire time for Xbox and all his moves have been long game plays. The only Xbox game I bought this year was Powerwash Simulator which is dire. I personally don’t like Game Pass as a concept and will never support it, but it has made gaming more accessible so that’s good for now anyway.

Hopefully 2023 is finally the year for Xbox. I’d really like three strong competitors out there because we all win then (not counting M&As).
 
0
a B

the biggest problem right now is a whole lot of promises and nothing to show for them. 2023 is a make or break year
 
0
He still hasn't delivered on truly great first party AAA games for Xbox. They still lag behind PS.
 
0
It's a bit hard to judge because I don't know what in particular he's in charge of, but Xbox in general seems to be in a decent spot. The weakness is, as others have pointed out, the games haven't really come out yet. The pipeline seems very promising, but at a certain point the games have to actually start coming out with more regularity.
 
0
He's been talking the talk and largely walking the walk, but like others have said, he doesn't actually have results yet.
 
I've got some pretty big problems with Game Pass conceptually, and Microsoft seems to be struggling to produce games, despite the excessive acquisitions they've been doing, so it's not exactly looking great from my perspective.
 
Yeah, B sound right. The poor first party output is the obvious knock against him, but he's recovered the brand quite well after the flop that was the Xbox One's launch.

Their current pipeline of XGS projects will shape his legacy though. No matter how strong Bethesda's upcoming output is, people will always consider that "fake success" due to the acquisition. He needs the core studios of XGS to return on his investment for people to really attribute first party success to him.
 
He has done a lot of good for the brand overall. Xbox probably has the best platform of the three consoles in terms of online infrastructure, cloud tech, and the online storefront. There's backwards compatibility and great prices for older digital games with free 4K and sometimes 60 fps enhancements for them. There's a lot to love except the first party exclusive triple A line-up, which as of yet is next to non-existent on Series X. I bought mine in 2021 and have bought two of them overall. I'm sure things will improve but the pace of those big games is terrible and absolutely surpassed by both Nintendo and Sony.
 
LiamRobertson said:
He has done a lot of good for the brand overall. Xbox probably has the best platform of the three consoles in terms of online infrastructure, cloud tech, and the online storefront. There's backwards compatibility and great prices for older digital games with free 4K and sometimes 60 fps enhancements for them. There's a lot to love except the first party exclusive triple A line-up, which as of yet is next to non-existent on Series X. I bought mine in 2021 and have bought two of them overall. I'm sure things will improve but the pace of those big games is terrible and absolutely surpassed by both Nintendo and Sony.
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this is the main reason why I gave it a B and not an A.
I also think it will improve in the next couple of years, but as of now, things are not looking great in that regard.
 
0
The amount that went into BC for Xbox is commendable and MS has grown its first party prowess by an immense amount under phil, but I think Moore was still the best
 
0
It's cool that he responded well when Jeff Gerstman asked when they're going to stop releasing broken games but I think you could still essentially ask the same question today despite having spent years and billions of dollars seemingly trying to fix the issues behind that question.
 
The blueprint and foundation from something great is there. The construction is still largely underway but there is uncertainty about the end project. We know games are coming but the delay of delivery creates a sense of unease and uncertainty. Xbox Series has survived due to GamePass, thus far; but they need to deliver the goods in 2023 and, barring any delays, they should begin to deliver on the software promise in the first half of the year.

Based on what we have right now: I'd give him a B. He inherited a mess with Xbox One and has made some smart moves.
 
He’s kind of like that ringer new coach you bring in to do a complete team rebuild. Or maybe GM might be an even better comparison. You expect him to radically shake things up and completely focus on building the brand and product back up, and he’s done that very well, just hasn’t quite gotten the results yet. All the pieces are in place, now he just has to get that winning season. And 2023 is when things should start to come together with Starfield leading the way.
 
0
He has created a positive buzz for the Xbox brand that hasn't been around since the 360 days. Gamepass has been a major shakeup for the industry. While recent NPD results may not reflect it, the Series hardware has proved to be popular for long time fans and new players. If you told me ten years ago that I would own an Xbox, I would have called you crazy.

While the first party software was excellent last year, 2022 has certainly been light in that regards. For a company who's big push is a subscription model, it is important that MS produce a constant stream of games. Phil and crew bet big on Starfield for this holiday season, but the game ended up getting delayed to next year. On one hand, that is really good to see that Microsoft and Bethesda take quality seriously and don't want to just push something out to meet a deadline. On the other hand, Xbox put all their eggs in one basket for 2022 and it didn't work out. With the growing umbrella of studios and publishers that Microsoft has accumulated, at some point software droughts should be less and less. Granted I'm sure that COVID takes some of the blame for these delays, but Microsoft should improve their project management (without implementing crunch of course!)

Overall, I give him a B. Like Nate said, Phil took over a dumpster fire and made some big moves. The games need to start delivering sooner than later though.
 
I love what they're doing with accessibility w/r/t controllers.

Other than that, they've been awful at producing games. Halo Infinite was a multiplayer disaster and 343 is pretty much an awful dev that has destroyed their flagship IP. They murdered another promising IP, Crackdown, with two bad followups. They have only been reliable at getting Forza games out of the door.

Obsidian is going to be great for them because Obsidian has been metaphorically blooded and will be producing games until the Big Crunch happens (and maybe even after that). I assume the Bethesda purchase should make things better for them, too.

Up to now, though, Spencer has over promised and underdelivered. We don't even need to compare their output to Nintendo or Sony here. They have done bad on their own merits.

I was in the Xbox ecosystem for the OG Xbox and 360 and loved it. I am interested in re-entering it, but they refuse to give me enough of a reason to do this.
 
0
the xbox series x is actually my favorite console to play games on, but there's just not enough to justify me using it for very long compared to the other platforms or my PC

even on the 3rd party side of things, this generation is slow going, but MS not having any notable first party titles to draw me in really hampers its potential
 
0
I don’t really think about Phil, but I think it’s cool that he’s managed to turn Xbox around after XB1. Game Pass is a cool, disruptive concept (I just wish I could actually use it).

The first party games are a bit lacking but stuff like Psychonauts 2, Forza Horizons 5 and Pentiment are way more up my alley than what Sony has, with the bonus that I can buy them on PC if I want. Really happy with that.
 
Biggest issue is games. There is like nothing good first party outside of Forza.

Game Pass imo is clearly their priority and I guess they are doing well on that front in terms of selection.

But I would like to see more first party games. The wait until next year thing is very true. I feel like most of their games have been talked about for 2-3 years.
 
0
They clearly need a stronger first party lineup, but how anyone can look at the big picture since Xbox One times and give him an F is beyond me lol
 
He's been good however it took too long for them to sort their First Party output (still is!) that should have been the main priority from the start to invest in new games and teams even with his limited control at times back in 2014 - 2016 when MS was considering chopping Xbox or sell it off. But at this moment at time he is alright, he has an eye on where the industry should be next and what to invest in to help boost the platform.
 
0
Before this era of Xbox I had little interest in it but Series S (bought refurbished for £180, same price as Wii in 2006 but still has current gen features like SSD) & Gamepass (£110 for three years of Ultimate) have turned it into to my main TV console. Still flaws and I absolutely expect the price of Gamepass to go up significantly one day but that's easily a B from my perspective even if Xbox continues fumbling on getting first party games out so long as they continue to have a stream of good games on Gamepass.
 
0
Yeah I agree with everyone who says lackluster first party lineup under his tenure. Pre-Spencer, Xbox first party was amazing. Great diversity, games rarely get delayed, MS funding outside projects... We even got some first party JRPG's for Xbox 360, ffs, and they were among the best in the generation. I miss that Xbox and Phil doesn't seem to be interested in bringing it back. He seems perfectly ok with minimal first party lineup.
 
B. Microsoft has a serious problem with their first-party output but I was still tempted to vote A, simply because of the massive difference in brand perception since he took over. It really is night and day.
 
I’d say B. There’s a lot left to be desired, but Game Pass in its current form is undeniably great. The adaptive controller is undeniably great. At times it feels like they’ve achieved everything except the one thing they need to (publish a handful of new, great games every year). They haven’t quite sorted that part out, and I do find it frustrating that their answer to catching up to the competition is to throw money at gigantic publishers. But again, any subscription plan where you can catch up on bangers for a cheap monthly cost is a big win.
 
As someone who's stuck with Xbox for a long time now, even through the objectively dogshit years of the Xbox One, I'm more optimistic than I've ever been for the platform, and a lot of that has to do with Phil Spencer.

But fuck man, they need to show some games. All this talk about so much that's coming, all the rumors, but radio silence. Them showing up to The Game Awards with nothing while Sony brought FF16 and Death Stranding 2 was inexcusable. No Redfall, no Starfield, no Avowed. Not even Hellblade 2 for the third time. It's always "wait until next year". I know I'm going to put more time into Starfield than every PlayStation exclusive combined but damn. It would be nice to see it again.

2023 SHOULD be much better with Redfall, Starfield, Forza, and the Xbox release of Ghostwire Tokyo as the bare minimum but they really need to start getting people more excited.
 
Forza Horizon is one of my favorite game franchises ever so I guess he gets the credit for it?

Don’t care much about Halo or Gears.

Gamepass is a great service for people who can’t afford to regularly buy games.
 
NarohDethan said:
Gamepass is a great service for people who can’t afford to regularly buy games.
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Erm, and everyone else haha. I’ve expanded my tastes considerably and further take the step of buying games if I want them in my permanent collection / to support smaller teams.
 
0
9-Volt said:
Yeah I agree with everyone who says lackluster first party lineup under his tenure. Pre-Spencer, Xbox first party was amazing. Great diversity, games rarely get delayed, MS funding outside projects... We even got some first party JRPG's for Xbox 360, ffs, and they were among the best in the generation. I miss that Xbox and Phil doesn't seem to be interested in bringing it back. He seems perfectly ok with minimal first party lineup.
Click to expand...
There's two parts to that.

1. Phil/Microsoft broke the bank to buy up some studios to expand first-party output.
2. Phil/Microsoft are not spending as much on first-party exclusives developed by external partners, possibly because of all the money spent on acquiring studios.

So now Microsoft is in this situation where they have a bunch of established studios now under their ownership, but most of those teams won't see their first Xbox exclusives release until next year at the earliest. Psychonauts 2 was a notable release, but multiplatform due to preexisting commitments.

Really, the main thing about Phil's tenure is he's put up the money, but until the exclusives start coming down the pipe, it's going to be difficult to determine if the bets he made will pay the desired dividends.
 
0
I think MS didn't need to kill off Windows Mobile and could've had an Xbox Mobile Game Pass. Akin to Apple Arcade. They also could have a mobile platform that wasn't tied to Apple or Google, and without the baggage of Android.

I think beyond that, I think Phil Spencer has been doing okay. I think a few more Japanese studio acquisitions would be good as well. Nothing like the big studios but maybe a few of the smaller ones.
 
0
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