Xbox CEO just gives up

[Rozalia1]

 

Not going to transcribe the thing as it would take too long but I'll sum it up with no added comments from myself.

 

1: Will appeal CMA decision. Finds it baffling the CMA would take issue on Cloud gaming. Whatever the case, buying ABK was just an accelerant, they still have their strategy.

2: Disappointed and upset with himself on the matter of Redfall. Apologises for the state of Xbox.

3: Refuses to steer developmental teams in another direction. It was their creative decision. 

4: Delays would not have helped Redfall.

5: It was a surprise people hated Redfall so much, their internal metrics said everything was fine. Their mock reviews had the game double digits higher.

6: They get all the numbers on Redfall (crashes and such), they aren't out of proportion for a game that just launched and are what they'd expect.

7: Committed to get the 60 frames update done for Redfall and fix other issues.

8: Admits to being way overpaid for the role he has.

9: Admits that Xbox knew that Redfall was going to run at 30 frames on console when they were doing 60 frames videos. Says it is a lesson learned.

10: Seems to admit that eventually he is going to have enough "knocks against him" that he'll get fired.

11: Thinks the Xbox showcase will be great and that they should finally be through the Covid issues.

12: Xbox isn't about "one game to rule them all", it is about diversity.

13: They did a bad job with Redfall in helping out the developers. Promises that they did a better job with Starfield as that game wasn't as far along in production when they started helping.

14: At the Starfield direct they will state if the game will be 30 or 60 frames.

15: Xbox has a different vision. States that there is no way for them to "out console" Sony or Nintendo.

16: Doesn't name Sony but states that they've got deals signed with third parties to make things very difficult for them, but admits that ultimately it is their fault that can happen.

17: People say that you just need to make great games and people will buy your console. This is simply not true.

18: States that their loss in the PS4/Xbox One generation was the worse generation to lose due to digital lock in. Seemingly that dooms them going forward so they need to find new gamers.

19: There is no world where Starfield is a 11/10 and it makes the console market share shift.

20: There is no future in Xbox trying to be a better green version of the "blue guys". Play anywhere and Gamepass is their way.

---

 

Spencer is known as a PR man who does well on interviews but this one was baffling. Almost has an air of a man who thinks/knows he'll be fired soon so he can largely just say whatever. The most damning part is highlighted above because it is such a defeatist and simply untrue statement. The PS3 turned the generation around and overcome the 360 because they focused on 1st party games while the 360 didn't. Nintendo has heavily underpowered hardware and yet they've done so well because their games are king, to the point that their quality is so trusted that the games can be evergreen priced. If Xbox management has no faith in their games changing their fortune then that should be major alarm bells for anyone invested in that platform.

[Zephrese]

All I can really say is... yikes. ?

[Ghost]

Phil's brain:

[Deadly_Ha_Ha]

Xbox sucks lol

[Creasy007]

This is an exciting train wreck to watch unfold. 

[No longer here]

Damn rip xbox.... I was big on Xbox 360 as a kid because of great multiplayer games (Halo, Gears of war), but as I grew up I learned Sony  was the way to go for sure.

[GUDGER666]

No 17 lol, he having a laugh or just in denial? 

[da-Noob123]

I sense a disturbance in Force and not just because it is May the 4th

Edited May 4, 2023 by da-Noob123

[Dreakon13]

Was skimming through the video looking for the point you said about enough knocks getting Phil fired, just because that'd be kind of a weird and amusing point for him to make... but I couldn't find it lol.  I'm sure it's there.

 

I give Phil some credit, he's being honest about Xbox being in third place and how he see's the future.

 

 

23 minutes ago, GUDGER666 said:

No 17 lol, he having a laugh or just in denial? 

 

He's saying that Xbox lost the generation (PS4/Xbox One) where people really started building their digital libraries.  Now, unlike the old days where new consoles had different cartridges and discs, the libraries didn't carry over, and it was a blank slate or a new race with a chance at a different winner... that the Xbox is just perpetually in third place because there's no game they could make big or great enough to switch people over and/or abandon the libraries they've accumulated elsewhere.

 

It's the Steam on PC issue... people have thousands and thousands of games in their Steam library, and at this point, there's virtually no way for another PC storefront to come in and take it over.  No one is going to give up their entire digital library to switch, and it's even more dramatic for console considering the cost of entry.

Edited May 4, 2023 by Dreakon13

[FlashbekBR]

1 hour ago, Rozalia1 said:

14: At the Starfield direct they will state if the game will be 30 or 60 frames.

30.

[yowzagabowza]

I really do hope Xbox ends up being like, a service or something and just gets the fuck out of any other aspect of video games. 

They have done absolutely nothing positive for the hobby in the entire time they've been around.

[Maxie_M0us3]

2 minutes ago, yowzagabowza said:

I really do hope Xbox ends up being like, a service or something and just gets the fuck out of any other aspect of video games. 

They have done absolutely nothing positive for the hobby in the entire time they've been around.

If it wasn’t of Xbox 360’s Xbox Live, we wouldn’t have gotten Trophies system, and that Sony stepped up their PSN features on the PS4. 

[Helyx]

2 minutes ago, MaxieM0us3 said:

If it wasn’t of Xbox 360’s Xbox Live, we wouldn’t have gotten Trophies system

 

Trophies might have eventually been a thing, but I'll definitely give credit to Xbox's online infrastructure and services. 

 

19 minutes ago, Dreakon13 said:

I give Phil some credit, he's being honest about Xbox being in third place

 

I rank Xbox just below mobile gaming at this point. (5th place)

[Zephrese]

8 minutes ago, yowzagabowza said:

They have done absolutely nothing positive for the hobby in the entire time they've been around.

 

I agree that Microsoft should probably just fuck off at this point, but... Halo (even if they admittedly haven't been treating it the best for some time now, but shhh).

Edited May 4, 2023 by Zephrese

[Dreakon13]

2 minutes ago, Helyx said:

I rank Xbox just below mobile gaming at this point. (5th place)

 

Well, I was paraphrasing Phil, and it's probably my third place personally.

 

EDIT: I was going to ask how it was 5th place, but I completely forgot about PC.  

Edited May 4, 2023 by Dreakon13

[yowzagabowza]

7 minutes ago, MaxieM0us3 said:

If it wasn’t of Xbox 360’s Xbox Live, we wouldn’t have gotten Trophies system, and that Sony stepped up their PSN features on the PS4. 

We also probably wouldn't be paying to use our own internet to play online, either. 

[wardragon989]

I'll be honest watched it and was super depressed.

 

I bought an Xbox 360 for Dead Rising and Halo, and stayed for the wonderful online experiences of Gears. Xbox One I wanted to enjoy Halo 4, Dead Rising 3 and I was gonna get a Series X but gamepass lets me play on the XBox One so why would I buy a new system? ?

 

I honestly feel Phil or maybe Xbox believe if you have games they will come, while the actual mentality is if you have system seller names people will come. Sony doesn't just buy the names all these names took time to build (God of War is on its 9th entry?). PS3 was super dead in the first few years and also had their faults but a price cut, big titles from first party and possibly support behind the scenes helped showcase good experiences that carried on to the next gen. If they want to succeed they need to help their studios grow.

 

Hi Fi Rush is an example. It succeed but Xbox act like it doesn't exist.

[PalaceOfLove706]

11 minutes ago, yowzagabowza said:

I really do hope Xbox ends up being like, a service or something and just gets the fuck out of any other aspect of video games. 

They have done absolutely nothing positive for the hobby in the entire time they've been around.

You’d still be buying memory cards if the OG Xbox had never been released. 

[GardenOfSouls]

Xbox end may be a problem for Sony, cuz they can get lazy. Liking or not, competition between them was always something that push Sony to do better and better games. But if it's no competition, product quality may decresse.

[Dreakon13]

7 minutes ago, wardragon989 said:

I honestly feel Phil or maybe Xbox believe if you have games they will come, while the actual mentality is if you have system seller names people will come. Sony doesn't just buy the names all these names took time to build (God of War is on its 9th entry?). PS3 was super dead in the first few years and also had their faults but a price cut, big titles from first party and possibly support behind the scenes helped showcase good experiences that carried on to the next gen. If they want to succeed they need to help their studios grow.

 

Hi Fi Rush is an example. It succeed but Xbox act like it doesn't exist.

 

I can understand where Phil is coming from.  For your example of the PS3, the industry has changed immensely since then.  If their loyalties don't keep players on their platforms of choice these days, their digital libraries will.  The only way Xbox comes back like the PS3 did, is if Sony completely implodes... like shuts down PSN, deletes peoples libraries, etc.  A few 10/10 games might get Playstation owners with money burning their pockets to at least buy their console, but it's not going to make anyone switch outright or really give Xbox an edge.

Edited May 4, 2023 by Dreakon13

[Burritoprime]

6: They get all the numbers on Redfall (crashes and such), they aren't out of proportion for a game that just launched and are what they'd expect.

 

This is the kinda mentality that I cant stand the most and a lot of developers use it, release a semi working product and take it from there, I cant stand this as it feels like a very unstable and scummy business, and the fact that he straight up said it is baffling, RIP EC Boc.

Edited May 5, 2023 by Sunnyburrito

[DrBloodmoney]

38 minutes ago, PalaceOfLove706 said:

You’d still be buying memory cards if the OG Xbox had never been released. 

You do realise that’s like saying “if Henry Ford hadn’t been born, we’d all still be riding horses to market”, right?

 

The industry moves at a pace, irrespective of the corporate players.

Some company will always do something first… but if they don’t, then it wouldn’t be long before someone else would…

 

…if for no other reason than the people who move technology forward are the ones whose names you don’t know, and who would be having the same ideas, no matter which company they were working for.

 

The market dictates where the industry goes - not Microsoft, not Sony, and not Nintendo. 

We decide.

The console companies try things, but they succeed or fail based on what we want, not how innovative they are… and the ones that succeed, do so because there is a market waiting for them.
 

Those ideas flourish independent of any corporate player… the corporate race, is just in who taps the desire first.

 

The market decided it liked consoles with harddrives.
The market decided it liked achievement systems…

… and the market decided it didn’t like always online, or Kinect, or various other innovations MS tried over the years.

 

 

Edited May 4, 2023 by DrBloodmoney

[yowzagabowza]

13 minutes ago, PalaceOfLove706 said:

You’d still be buying memory cards if the OG Xbox had never been released. 

Pfff, very unlikely and ridiculous to suggest 

[Jeanolt]

I think Phil has done so much for gaming, that is just illogical to follow this path. He stepped up in the game and put Xbox on the map again, in a moment when they were on the floor. The exclusives thing is simply not true, if you launch your console with few exclusives but they are worth their price, consolidated studios, GOTY nominated, it pays itself. When the best you can do in three years is just another Forza is time to start putting that money where it belongs.

 

I'm thankful for what he has done, as he made Xbox accesible, put streaming on the map, backwards compatibility, indirectly made Sony & Nintendo create their own subscription service (and also BC on the PS5), etc.

 

But all of this things can also be destroyed with bad management.

Edited May 4, 2023 by Jeanoltt

[MarcusPunisher]

Meanwhile, at Bethesda: