Has Phil Spencer Been Good For Xbox? - Luke Reacts

👉🏼 LINKS: linktr.ee/lukestephens 👈🏼
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Luke Stephens is a Content-Creator and Streamer that co-streams on KZbin and Twitch. This channel has Live Stream clips and highlights in addition to the streams themselves. Check out Luke's main channel & other content by going to: linktr.ee/lukestephens !!
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#gaming #LukeStephens #ps5 #xbox

[@fcukugimmeausername]

11 years later and I am still baffled by Microsoft decision to unveil the Xbox One the way they did. A TV box that can record The Price Is Right? Who the hell did they think they were marketing that machine to?

[@cursedmonkey1033]

And all the rest of it, remember? Bundled with a Connect, always online, no physical disk... it's the reason I got a PS4.

[@fcukugimmeausername]

@@cursedmonkey1033Uh, Kinect, I've tried to forget that disaster. It's kind of funny in a way, that Microsoft spent all of that money, billions of dollars to save the Xbox brand name during the RROD days, only to completely throw all of that effort away overnight by thinking people would want record Television onto their gaming device...

[@DribbleP]

They wanted it to be the center of the living room why you could plug your cable through it but xbox forget that people by consoles to play games not TV

[@shecklesmack9563]

And zero reason to own an Xbox of any kind since that day.

[@illestcatnnebraska7331]

At least that console launched with games… what did the Series X launch with ?

[@doclouis4236]

Phil Spenser, the man who turned Xbox into a subscription service.

[@BB-pb3hv]

And made Sony make a subscription service aswell 😮

[@leoanderson3035]

@@BB-pb3hvSony had ps now for years before. I hate all of the subscriptions…especially to just play online

[@valor3918]

@@BB-pb3hv made EVERYTHING a sub service imo, not just Playstation. Ubisoft+, EA Plus+ etc. I'm shocked Nintendo haven't done anything.. Yet.

[@Zalkova]

Xbox was always a subscription service did you forget the original Xbox?

[@Pablo_Sky_youtube]

@@valor3918 Nintendo's classic catalogs are also subscription-based services.

[@helygg8892]

Hes always struck me as the manager that gets along well enough with employees and is relatively liked by everyone in the office, but when you bring new ideas or big problems across his desk, he just sort of ignores them because he's trying to make it to retirement with little to no bumps in the road.

[@joshjmilli]

The only variable that needs to change to make Xbox better is the games. I swear so many people will regain interest if they started churning out bangers like in the Xbox/Xbox 360 days

[@Evorexwolf]

Never gonna happwn sadly. They are double down in Dei and Esg. Look up who the type of people they hired for their gamea and how they work with Sbi.

[@SS-qu9nn]

@@Evorexwolf Spot on . 100% correct. I think they have completely lost their way and are more concerned with some SJW BS instead of hiring creative minds to make great games. If WokeBox doesn’t come out with something creative in this next generation, the gap between Xbox and Sony/Nintendo is only going to grow.

[@Evorexwolf]

@@SS-qu9nn sadly it will never, right now is literal for xbox: make it or break it and that was LAST year. I expect absolutely nothing good coming from xbox, it'a a dead brand. Regardless of Hardware they sell, they cannot even make games and I do not trust or expect anything. Xbox themselves gave me buyer's remorse. I seriously wished I bought a ps4 10 years ago rather than an xbox, but it is what it is.

[@schikey2076]

this... i dont care about their consoles or their exclusives... they just need quality control on their game studios

[@Evorexwolf]

@@schikey2076 Bingo! But they will not. All this rdna 2 stuff and velocity tech is dumb since clearly whoever is in the high chair telling everyone what to do. Does not know themselvss either.

[@willnatmartin]

The launch of the XB1 had a better library than the PS3, so the PS3 had a bad launch too, but they turned it around with great exclusives, so no excuses for Phil.

[@nexusvideo]

Totally true. The launch titles for xbox one were leagues better than the ps4. The online drm controversy scared away would be customers from the beginning.

[@MrBeesknees95]

​@@nexusvideo And the price - it was £100 more because of the Kinect

[@RiderZer0]

I remember when we used to get great halo games, fable games, gears of war, etc. Xbox was magical. To see where it sits now is so absurdly depressing idk how anyone keeps their job

[@WeKNOWTHETRUTHITSUNDISTPUTED]

Phil has to have dirt on someone high up at Microsoft he’s ruined Xbox in so many ways granted he had help but still

[@RiderZer0]

@@WeKNOWTHETRUTHITSUNDISTPUTED also after the many failures of 343i there was no sense of urgency or a need to give their most valuable franchise to more capable hands. It’s sad.

[@WeKNOWTHETRUTHITSUNDISTPUTED]

@@RiderZer0 yes I was kinda hoping they would change halo to another studio but pride or something idk just have 343 work on something else

[@JonathanTacoman]

All those are ran by different studios now. Bungie , epic and Lionhead have moved on from xbox exclusives. Lionhead is dead ☠️

[@RiderZer0]

@@WeKNOWTHETRUTHITSUNDISTPUTED it could be they don’t have a better studio 💀 I mean think about it, they have fable to PLAYGROUND the racing studio lol

[@TheodoricFriede]

Call me crazy, but the DAY after the Besthesda deal went through, and we didn't get an announcement that Obsidian would be making the next Fallout game tells you everything you need to know about the 'Xbox Savior.' Hes just as incompetent as every other suit in the industry.

[@schikey2076]

sorry but people overhype Obsidian too much ... the only reason Obsidian can even make Fallout New Vegas is because some of the original creators were there ( Chris Avellone)... just look at Outer Worlds and it's super clear to see at this point. people forgot game studios without their key figures are just powerful ships without their good captain...

[@TheodoricFriede]

@@schikey2076 ...The Outer Worlds was good though? And the original Creator of Fallout worked on that game (Tim Cain)? And it was made on a shoestring budget?

[@L_Lawliet1907]

@@schikey2076 Uh Chris Avellone worked on the DLCs for new vegas. He's not the lead game director

[@captainziggy82]

Always cracks me up when people try to credit Phil as the sole reason Xbox is still around, I understand the situation but dude was on the team when they tried to turn the damn thing into a cable box lmaoooo they dug their own grave dude.

[@Grimjr7]

On the team and in charge of the team is not the same thing. The Xbox One released in 2013 Phil Spencer didn't get put in charge until a year after that, probably because of what happened in 2013.

[@nsbm159]

Go tell your boss to do something he doesn't wanna do let me know how it goes

[@cheeks3211]

@@Grimjr7 He was still a manager and was part of the committee around xbox one. Don mattrick was the head honcho but phil was still a high up manager. If you knew this was a bad idea I would of raised a red flag.

[@captainziggy82]

@@Grimjr7 lol Phil was part of the leadership team at the time, he was one of the people that got Xbox One in the situation it was in. He wasn’t head of the department, but was definitely involved and clearly pushed for. Go back and watch the coverage leading up to its launch.

[@cheeks3211]

@@nsbm159 He managed studios? Like all the mistakes on software and where studios went project wise came to his desk for approval. The xbox one though had a bad launch and bad messaging stink on it. At the end of the day it still did better than where xbox series is at and where their games are at. You can re-build your brand if you have great games. Thing is during spencer's tenure as a studio manager and as xbox ceo he axed tons of studios with legacy. Sony has done this too. And those people are now not at the company or in a position to over see them.

[@danieleberly9629]

To be honest the only reason Xbox did as well as it did with the 360 to start was because they launched it a full year before Sony got the PS3 out. Even then Sony screwed up with the initial price of the PS3 which continued to put 360 ahead even with the whole red ring of death issue. Yet by the end of that generation Sony still came out on top of Xbox. Xbox got lucky back then. Then they completely botched the announcement for the Xbox One. Didn’t help that they basically decided not to make hardly any games for it either. Now we are where we are years into the Series lifecycle after buying up studio after studio and creating Gamepass with nothing to show for any of it. Because again they didn’t do the one thing they promised to do… make games. And what few games they have released have all been bad with literally like 2 exceptions.

[@joshjmilli]

Xbox did have really good games though. And I think there’s something to be said about how far ahead they were with online connectivity. Xbox Live was so much better than PSN, PlayStation only just caught up in that department with the PS4.

[@codeen66]

It wasn't "just" because Sony screwed themselves. Look at the exclusive games the 360 was getting early on compared to playstation. Also xbox live became so intuitive and popular it became the go-to platform for multiplayer games. The issue is Xbox has completely lost that identity.

[@bedtimestories1065]

Curious, what 2 exceptions? I don't even know many Xbox IPs tbh. I just don't buy games much so I don't pay attention. One Xbox game I LOVED was State of Decay 2.

[@stefanhatcher6486]

Phil Spencer has been nothing than a joke and I'm really surprised he's still at Microsoft

[@cursedmonkey1033]

If i were him, the first thing I would have done when Xbox bought Zenimax was set up a dedicated studio to churn out Fallout and Elder Scrolls games. All that profit potential, and hes happy to wait years for new games. To just sit on them.

[@ZarathosDaimaoh]

If he did that , at some point unless those titles were banger , it would dilute those franchise and have diminishing returns . Look at the state of some of their former powerhouses , like Halo , Fable , Gears . They did not even farm those really that much , but they crumbled with only a few bad or deemed less interesting entries . They don't even boast numbers for those anymore , just gamepass launch players essentially . Of course Besthesda can still ruin stuff on their own .... but it's less a risk than churning out their franchises

[@iekue]

​​@@ZarathosDaimaoh it does feel like they farmed the halo/forza/gears trifecta since its the bulk of the stuff they released. Sure it wasnt as frequent to really milk, but when those are basicly the only thing u release since the 2nd half of the 360 era till now..... Sure thers a few exceptions like Sea of Thieves, but thers not that much else.

[@headshot531]

i think he had faith in bethesda and their new IP starfield which was a huge mistake. he shouldve pressured them into making elder scrolls first. now with starfields failure theyre definitely forcing them to make it next no matter what.

[@iekue]

@@headshot531 Nah thats utter bullcrap, Starfield had already been worked on for years and years, u don't just go throw that in the bin because "go work on TES6", thats just utter stupidity what ur advocating there. Forcing them to make TES6 lol yea thats how it works right? lol. They arnt forcing anyone, TES6 already was slated to be next regardless. Ur just sayin nonsens.

[@iagosplace]

nah he just needs to go in there, slap todd n tell him to get bethesda off the creation engine and onto unreal because Elder Scrolls 6 n Fallout 5 will flop if they don’t switch

[@jordanw24]

Over promise and under deliver = Phil Spencer’s time at Xbox…

[@Marshmallow-ht8me]

Xbox has been trying to catch up to PS since 2001. This notion that PS4 started the domination of PS is wild.

[@iekue]

Its only percieved that way because 360 ruled the US, where most major game media are from. Rest of the world ps3 blew 360 away, but sentiment is still to a lot of ppl that 360 "won".

[@theone5404]

360 have it a run for us money, especially with the Nintendo Wii as a major competition. Microsoft Xbox division is doing something right. Xbox is making way more money than Playstation and Sony as a whole.

[@codeen66]

The issue isn't them choosing to focus more on software than hardware. But the fact they are going to continue making future hardware while porting their software pretty much everywhere is whats confusing. Either stick to the core, console identity or go completely 3rd party like SEGA and leave the hardware space. This in-between crap just frustrates and confuses gamers on all sides. For that, Phil Spencer does deserve ALOT of blame.

[@gdotleejr]

A lot of ppl don’t want to admit this but GAMEPASS is the reason Microsoft/xbox are In this situation. If they would have just focused on their first party studios, continue their excellent work with indie devs, made great games, the video game market wouldn’t have this amount of uncertainty looming. The $80 billion they spent on acquiring other companies could have made great games. Nobody was saying exclusives were bad for the industry until the Xbox one era!!!!

[@DribbleP]

game pass wouldn't even be thing if xbox was on par with sony and nintendo In hardware sales game pass was created out of the failure of xbox

[@Sassssky]

​@Dribblepi55 its all marketing too. Psnow was first and had more games lol. But xbox didn't have games to promote so it was "GAMESPASS IS THE BEST DEAL IN GAMING" 247 365 from xbox marketing. In my opinion it's not even a good deal in general lol.

[@Kjarrigan1]

Let’s see how long exclusivity will be a thing with all the laws changing there terms to more open systems and against forced hardware/software ecosystems

[@braxtonsmith3726]

@@Sassssky it is the best deal, way more games, backwards compatibility, AAA games, and it actually runs them well. PS Now couldn’t run Fallout NV for more than 10 min

[@Sassssky]

@braxtonsmith3726 it never had more games lol

[@JohnDoe-hm9mi]

Not a single system seller game since he’s been at the helm of Xbox. Quality has not impressed me.

[@wlot28]

Can’t believe people are still giving him a pass after a decade of mediocrity

[@nexusvideo]

What is Phil's role now anyways? he got promoted and somebody else took his job.

[@PervySage723]

Sadly true

[@Spartan_83]

I would say Starfield was no matter how you feel about the games. It was the most played single-player game of 2023 and people sub to GP to play the game Amazon alone saw a 1000% increase in console sales.

[@jdbb3gotskills]

I fortunately have a PS5 and a good PC for any Xbox games I want to play. Now there hasn’t been any recently other than Halo Infinite but that got stale quick.

[@JaySee-sr1yj]

I don't get the praise for Phil other than he is likable guy and an actual gamer CEO... Since he took over from Don Mattrick, the xbox continued its downward spiral and has lost decisively to sony to the point where people are questioning whether they will stay in the console business at all (also massive brand damage). The main issue they have is that they have no good first party software (and third party is timid to put stuff on xbox because of the lower install base + gamepass which has taught xbox fans to not buy games), and haven't had any since Phil took over around 10 years ago, sony does not have this issue. The main reason I think Phil is still around is gamepass, which fits nicely with Microsoft business model as they are a service company first before anything else, however, since xbox has grown so much and is now the third largest division in microsoft there will be more scrutiny and the dynamic might change. Overall I think Phil has been bad for xbox both in terms of the brand and for the xbox fans.

[@geronimo1595]

Phil is charismatic that's all you need for most people. Once Xbox stopped focusing on the games near end of the 360 era their fate was sealed, but Gamepass has kept them afloat and ultimately led them to the publishing angle. Phil damned the consumer but found a niche for Xbox, Microsoft may end up quite happy with his work.

[@WeKNOWTHETRUTHITSUNDISTPUTED]

@@geronimo1595and even gamepass has ruined things developers that are 3rd party don’t even want to put there games on the Xbox platform because they know no one will buy it the very birth of gamepass was because no one was really buying games on Xbox

[@EddiXP]

Your comment sums it up perfectly. They are so conditioned to wait for gamepass. Also, PS Plus is a real competitor to gamepass. They actually give you free games that are actually great that you can keep forever as long as you have Plus

[@TxMondrey]

@@geronimo1595Exactly, having both x360 and ps3 I remember thinking it seems like i never turned on my 360 after Kinect launched and i didn't get one, but was annoyed by all the Kinect talk. I was like who wants to be a controller? Sounded so stupid to me, im mean if your into DanceDR when they said xbox1 was launching with it that immediately decided for me. Glad i jumped on the right ship. And its sad because I thought Rise of Rome looked amazing, but the crisis demonstration had me like I'm good. The tv grift didn't help either. I still remember one of my friends saying but i can turn it on with my voice watch this, i was like WTF is that supposed to mean smh what does it do for games!!!! Nothing

[@Coxy_Wrecked]

0:42 It actually started to crumble when they launched Kinect. Although Kinect sales were pretty good at the time, the focus on casual gaming alienated gamers that had gravitated towards XB360 for more PC-centric titles such a first person shooters. Sub-par Nintendo Wii style 'experiences' are not what your average XBox gamer wanted. Microsoft also closed many of it's gaming studio in the wake of Kinects launch. Of course the subsequent release of the feeble XB1, which also foolishly launched with Kinect didn't help matters.

[@bustanut5501]

You can't really blame Microsoft for Kinect, though. Aping off the Wii and getting deeper into the casual market was just the trend back then. Even PlayStation did it with the Move.

[@LordBeef]

I think Xbox being a console home to PC-like experience is really the selling point for me. Shooters came to console on Xbox. Bethesda-style RPGs came to console on Xbox. Survival games (including Minecraft) came to console on Xbox. Flight simulators came to console on Xbox. RTS and City-builders are a bigger thing on Xbox than on other consoles. Immersive sims have been really big on Xbox. That’s what Xbox is to me - an easy to use set hardware target that PC games come to at a good value.

[@arcadeportal32]

​@bustanut5501 I remember back in the day though, another reason the kinect flopped was a lot of people were also worried on the prospect of putting what was a camera in your living room and no way to know wether Microsoft was spying on you or not. Even if it is taking clips of your game footage, it was a bit of a worry back then. It was also around to time built in cameras started popping up in laptops and most dident have shudders yet which also spying was a worry. Bonzi buddy style telemetry has been an issue with Microsoft/Xbox for years at this point and people were rightly worried.

[@arcadeportal32]

​@@LordBeef I don't think they could do game pass easily without the xbox. I mean it does exist on PC but I am pretty sure it is only games that have a Microsoft Store PC version or need to be Cloud Streamed which is very hit or miss depending on where you live, and full stop the Microsoft Store is frozen barf on a stick if you have every tried playing any sort of major title on it before, hence why most of there games are on steam now.

[@bustanut5501]

@@arcadeportal32 True, but I think this concern only really came up with the One, right? Right after the PRISM leaks as well.

[@Vic4vendetta]

"Taking Xbox from 3rd place to 3rd place" is a savage ass bar

[@duncanself5111]

Phil couldn't organise a p!ss-up in brewery

[@GameSlayer41781]

I couldn't believe xbox one was advertised as an input device 😂

[@10191927]

There’s been rumors of an Xbox handheld since 2005, I remember Xbox ceo at the time said a handheld was on the back burner and it never materialized. But if they did make a handheld comparable to steam deck or ROG Ally, it could be a must have handheld.

[@conchobar]

Except the PC handheld userbase (Steamdeck, Rog Ally, Ayaneo, GDP, Legion Go etc) is very tiny, like 10% of the VR userbase.

[@neolives]

If Xbox games don’t sell well on Xbox, I think they will have problems trying to sell those games on other systems. I think they made a mistake overpaying for studios that were on the downward trajectory.

[@clivematthews95]

Very true

[@Zalkova]

I hope so Microsoft finally quit the video game industry.

[@R.B.90]

It's kind of amazing that Microsoft bought 2 of the biggest 3rd party studios in the last 4 years in Activision/Blizzard and Bethesda and somehow have less exclusives than they did last generations. Even without those studios Microsoft Games Studios had enough studios to have games every 3 or 4 months and added studios that combined do the same. Yet still can't consistently develop games. How is that possible. How can you justify paying all these developers at like 40 studios and make like 3 games a year. It's mindblowing.

[@clivematthews95]

hahahaha 😂😭😭

[@bedtimestories1065]

Piss Poor Management. That's how. It is frustratingly common in all software industries.

[@schikey2076]

i dont care about "muh exclusives"... they need quality control in their goddamn game studios.... they proved that they can make good games with Hi Fi Rush.

[@R.B.90]

@@schikey2076 that's also true. The hands off approach hasn't favored them since their studios now lack a cohesive identity. When u get Sony or Nintendo 1st party games, there's an expectation and being part of the ecosystem has more sway than the individual developer. Whereas at Xbox you look to see what developer made then game cuz you know the quality changes greatly depending on the studio. They need quality control to gain that respect you expect from the other studios. Redfall should not exist.

[@matthewcampbell9956]

No. Speaks out of both sides of his mouth.

[@tio8194]

Its been over a decade, enough with the coddling. He definitely helped after the xbox one but thats it, xbox has been third place since then, with zero GOTY nominations in 15 years and counting. Its April and still no games. Over 2 dozen studios. Games announced over 5 years ago with no release dates, not even an update. Same ui and controller design as last gen. Games held back EVEN ON OTHER PLATFORMS because the geniuses at Microsoft decided to simultaneously release the strongest and the weakest console of this gen and promise parity which they’ve recently had to backtrack on. More console/controller skins/wraps promoting movies/tv shows than games. AA batteries.

[@matthewdanahy9411]

All true. And they need to do something about the series s at this point. It's just sad and holding everything back

[@yatharthrai4658]

But... he's...'a true gamer' and 'one of us'.

[@bankaispirits]

Agreed and I'm glad to see discussions like this, the dude has done alot, won't deny that but omg has it been a marathon trying to get content, along with games, the dogshit communication, and the constant switching of strategies, they shoot themselves in the foot way too many times. With all the resources they have it shouldn't take all this time for a road map and GAMES

[@bedtimestories1065]

​@matthewdanahy9411 Better to wait for next consoles tbh. Even if the Series S became unsupported today, it doesn't change much. You will not convince management to approve a massive redesign of a product halfway, or more, through development.

[@ZarathosDaimaoh]

I think the biggest change he brought was his image ... He "grifted" his way by convincing people that 'he's one of us" , with his cool factor . To be fair some of it was his natural charisma and personality , rather than a conscientious effort to fool people . But once he and his PR team noticed it , they definitively played with it . Meanwhile when you look at the actual actions and decisions .. oof it aint that pretty .

[@ChaseSchleich]

Luke's first words were "This is the story" and now I can't concentrate on the video because I have the Fresh Prince theme in my head. Damn you Luke!

[@matthewdanahy9411]

Don Mattrick was better

[@josetomascamposrobledano4618]

People will kill you for saying this. But at the same time he is also responsible for the 360. The time everyone loved Xbox.

[@hoxyheart5479]

Stop

[@SillyTwister739]

I noticed a lot of people are rewriting the Xbox One so that it seems Donny Matt is some kind of monster and didn't do a good job on the Xbox One. As the guy who did good in later part of the 360, only slowly letting things get out of hand with the rise of Kinect's success (also him) but still releasing some good games, he did a great job with the games and deals he set up for the Xbox One. it wouldn't be until mid 2015 where we started seeing what Phil would do and I think we need to compare the two for how they handled the Xbox One given that the biggest problem people had was the pre-release policies which were almost all turned around before launch (and ironically several of those policies people don't mind now) and the bad messaging from guys Larry hyrb under his watch. But otherwise he had a good game plan. Don Mattrick 1. Saw the launch of Xbox one joining sony in breaking the record of 1 million consoles sold in the first 24 hours 2. His team led to the first 15 million units of sales which others coming in during the restructuring failed to do, so of the ~50 million Xbox One sales the first 15 million were in just a bit over 1 year, a massive chunk, before the decline then the static yearly sales until 2020. 3. Killer Instinct reboot, japanese exclusive Chaos Child, Titanfall deal, Fable Legends, Scalebound deal, Quantum Break contract, Crackdown 3, Forza 5, Ryse deal, Dead Rising 3 deal, Fighters within, Lococycle, power star golf, Xbox Fitness, Max curse of brotherhood, Halo Spartan assault, Zoo tycoon. all ready and in place before the end of 2013 in the launch window. 4. Had already got the deal going for Titanfall, Kinect sports rivals, got dev for Gears remake started, had already had 343i on the Halo MCC, had the Tomb Raider and Evolve(for 2015) deals ready, Got Dance Central spotlight ready, D4 Deal, Starpoint gemini indie deal, had Forza Horizon 2 ready, greenlit the Project Spark project, got the deal for Fantasia music evolved, partnered for Kalimba and ubisofts Shape up. These all were released in 2014 Phil Spencer 1. Screamride. Made the deal for Sunset overdrive when Insomniac needed a pub. Cancelled Scalebound, Cancelled Fable Legends, delayed Crackdown 3, delayed Quantum Break, did a bad job controlling issues with Halo MCC at launch. Oversaw Halo 5 disappointment. Ori and the Blind Forest, Fruit Ninja Kinect, then went on to move support away from Kinect, and got developers to as well resulting in Kinect being dead. Closed several studios without replacing them with anything, put Xbox at the lowest studio count in the history of the brand by late year. State of decay, happy wars. Rare Replay. Forza 6, 2. In 2016, finally releases Don signed Quantum Break after long delays, Raiden V, Recore, Forza Horizon 3, releases don signed Gears 4, , new hardware revision, Xbox One S. 3. In 2017, Project Scorpio Xbox One X revision, halo wars 2, Halo wars definitive, Forza 7, BC, Gamepass, Voodoo Vince remastered timed, Cuphead deal indie, rereleasing Don Kinect Disney games but for controller only to pad out the lineup, Super luckys tale (console launch exclusive for One X), Hello neighbor (console launch exclusive), Pubg timed, acquisitions storm starts. Phil had cut off many good staff and closed studios and reduced the amount of studios under Microsoft to the lowest point (5 or so studios, 3-4 AAA) with cancellations, delays even with other games I haven't listed as there's several, while seeing a decline in top franchises, and for those games he didn't cancel he didn't over see them resulting in ok or mediocre releases, bad timed deals except for a few that didn't do much of anything, the death of Kinect burning those players, rereleasing Kinect games from the 360 with the 3 Disney games to pad out a bad lineup, and going on an acquisition spree. Phil Spencer has had almost 10 years and has nothing to really show for it. He never built the Xbox brand back up to respectability, we have had no new IPs that have done anything, the IPs we did have currently are non existent or in mediocrity. Realistically, people love to act like Phil is so great because “wow! He plays games and I can follow him on my Xbox” but the reality is, we should all be gunning for his head. Ok, so they bought up all these studios and launched Gamepass. I’d argue that Gamepass is a non-factor as they are not meeting their own internal expectations. All the studios they’ve purchased have yet to deliver anything worth note. Starfield came and went with a whimper.

[@randompseudonym4519]

Umm...NO!

[@randompseudonym4519]

​@josetomascamposrobledano4618 Peter Moore was responsible for the strategy and launch of the Xbox 360 actually. When Mattrick became head after it had already launched, he slowly shifted the focus to casual games and Kinect. He was responsible for the Xbox One launch, though, and we all know how that went!

[@ryboutnowfunksoubrov]

I may be mistaken but isn't the Xbox division focusing more on game pass being multiplatform and less on Xbox consoles themselves? Instead of improving Xbox as a competitor they seemed to switched Xbox to a streaming service.

[@iagosplace]

as a massive Xbox fan i’d say generally yes BUT the console is the best place for the full game pass experience, the thing that sold me on the xbox was a mixture of game pass and back compat. The FPS boosts and little graphical tweaks make the back compat an absolute BEAST which in turns makes game pass even better.

[@Frost-hw9bh]

I think the biggest problem at the end of the day is that its a publicly traded company that needs to show growth, companies like Larian don't have to focus on growth at all times, they simply need to make a good game and make money from it, Xbox has to show growth and that's getting harder and harder, its not just an Xbox problem.

[@bedtimestories1065]

How was the overall economy not mentioned a single time? I know gaming is global but I doubt the US is the only country with struggling citizens. Gaming is not a necessity for adults with families. It would surely be cut out of the budget if need be. This probably isn't the biggest reason the industry isn't growing but I would wager it is a fairly large one.

[@nexusvideo]

Phil definitely had a great start and fixed the structure of the company. Things were moving in a positive direction. The issue is that the games never came. Not one blockbuster. Now we know why.

[@LegionIscariot]

The problem with the XboxOne was that it focused on everything other than games. And to this day it seems this problem has never been fixed. They spent billions left and right but imagine if those billions were spent investing in system sellers.

[@SantianoBe]

Phil has done a terrible job. Name one good thing his done? Name one new great franchise under his leadership? People are just blind because his "cool" or a "gamer". And before people say it, no, game pass isn't a good thing. Lack of quality and sustainability of game pass is truely amazing.

[@Casual_Tryhard_]

10 years and like 3 good exclusives

[@thebenc1537]

What 3? I dont remember any of them!

[@bradleylansiquot298]

I think with a subscription service you must have games that are bangers to create interest. Starfield had that hype behind it but failed to meet it. They need at least 5 big games of 9 or 10 status to right this ship and i say do so at the beginning of the generation where you can only get that experience here. Thats what people found in gears on 360. A brand new experience that was only found here.

[@TihetrisWeathersby]

Thing is when it comes to Triple A games it can be hit or miss, It's good to balance it out with smaller releases, It's one of the things I hated about Jim Ryan's tenure at Playstation; The move away from those types of games and shutting down studios to focus on blockbusters

[@glennismade]

faff is a very british term. Lots of the UK (england and scotland especially) use the word faff a lot. "Cottoned on" or "cottening on" is also a very common phrase in england and the rest of britain. I think this article was probably written by a brit.

[@aFLYER1980]

Honestly I've NEVER thought Phil was good for xbox. Everything has been worse since he took charge

[@incinaflaregameing8644]

Nintendo is proof phils subscription future is false. Just make good quality games that are exclusive like its really not that hard to understand an grasp especially with the amount of money ms has

[@jonayarrocha4009]

I can't speak for previous generations. But on this generation the guy is doing his best to make the best profit for the company while pleasing their consumers. He's recognised that competing with Sony makes no sense anymore and they're trying to do their own thing. On top of that the guy is a true gamer, that's the kind of executives we need on this industry.

[@yatharthrai4658]

I wouldn't really call someone who sang high praises for Redfall and Starfield a 'true gamer', but ok.

[@EricDFreak]

​@@yatharthrai4658 and what about they whole library of games that received upgrades for the new hardware, or the gamepass or letting studios doing smaller stuff like pertinent or hi fi rush, if you are gonna nitpick ok 2 games instead the whole vision you are dumb

[@jonayarrocha4009]

@@yatharthrai4658 He had admitted Redfall was broken on launch and apologised to the community... he's the CEO, he doesn't test the game himself. How many times did you see Jim Ryan apologising for games like Forspoken or TLOU on PC? Too proud for that. Phil Spencer loves Starfield and last year he showed that he's put +100 hours into the game. Don't get me wrong the game looks awful🤣 but it's proof that he loves gaming.

[@ZarathosDaimaoh]

But did he really do "their own thing" ? Aside from trying to build up the gamerpass , in the end they entered the same usual dance of acquiring studios and exclusives . And didn't the legal battles over activision reveal some of MS' intentions toward Sony at the time ? The issues with Phil and his natural charisma .. he says a lot of things that would sound right , some that he likely genuinely believe , but he's just saying them .. not necessarily following through them .

[@EricDFreak]

@@ZarathosDaimaoh bro did you forget that he made a bunch of games of Xbox era available and offered free updates for those games? Or that you can play anywhere those Xbox games, you don't give him enough credit to the man honestly

[@bigjarg]

I’m gonna start getting mad if I see another Microsoft paint explanation😂

[@JahonCross]

I jumper from xbox to pc months ago no regrets

[@cavior44]

Months ago 😂 Are all you people going on youtube on your phones or those shitty macbooks that can only play 6 games on steam? The fuck...

[@linkfain1]

I've been saying this for a while now but Shareholders and profit growth have been the bane of the industry for a long time. It's so frustrating that you have to show growth so that shareholders stick around. Why become a tradeable company in the first place if it's a never ending race to the bottom? The budget cuts, the creative choice cuts, the layoffs, and the restructuring. The people who suffer the most are the devs who face crunch/layoffs and the gamers who have to deal with inferior products year over year because "we didn't have the resources financially to make a better game".

[@SteadyAscension]

People may not like the direction the brand is going, but the fact we have a brand today is because of Phil Spencer. It is on record that Microsoft wanted to kill xbox after the xbox one launch.

[@applehazeva2739]

With Xbox more and more going the Open Source PC Route, we could have an actual Archivement here

[@randyvo7743]

If ask an Xbox they will say console war is not over and they did not lose ps4 era.

[@sator_project]

Phil should have rolled out Xbox branded graphics cards. Their core fans are already migrating to PC. And console warriors would love it, since they could drop 5k on a gaming PC and call it an Xbox.

[@joelhall7120]

Starfeild was going to save Xbox. But it was trash lol

[@brettwalsh2847]

The fact that Phil Spencer and Kathleen Kennedy still have their jobs show that these big organizations do not care about quality or even their fans. They find ways to disappoint fans of their brands. Unbelievable, my Xbox just doesn’t hit hard anymore and my ps5 just seems be the only brand actually trying this Gen. I wanted Xbox to knock it out of the park… they’ve struck out.

[@thetruestar6348]

Phil is the Bob Iger of Xbox is never going to leave and is going to buy things he does nothing with

[@jinushaun]

Feel bad for Phil. This all started with the Xbox One and MS has never recovered. But blaming the industry is a cop-out.

[@danielsan9850]

Short answer: yes he is. He’s the reason why the “Xbox has no games” meme exists.

[@willnatmartin]

Wow! Even after all this the Xbox Cult is defending Phil Spencer like he’s some religious figure.

[@kbthegoat824]

gaming was very healthy in the 360/ps3 era. We had so many games, companies took risks, they competed for 3rd parties putting money in 3rd party's pocket. Fast forward to the present, this subscription model, mobile model, somehow games need to be everywhere. 4th years since these new consoles came out and we are extremely underwhelmed. All these companies do is cry about profit, no risks are taken, games take forever to come out, no innovation, layoffs after layoffs when games take forever to release. In xbox case, they spent 80 billions to acquire publishers that were already releasing games on their platform anyways. That money could have been spent investing in more franchises, innovation, risks and so on, that's what keeps gaming healthy. When business guys have their hold on gaming, expect bad things. Look at companies like konami that had amazing franchises, they botched them for mobile business(because that's where the money is they say), now they want to remake their old games like mgs3 and silent hill to cashcow. That is the direction we're heading towards in this industry.

[@Zalkova]

I don't see how crippling the video game industry for the sake of forcing microtransactions everywhere and pandering to casuals is healthy.

[@johncapone8843]

I think MS should focus on xbox being multiplat and make small form factor PC's with window's OS but have the XBOX UI in the same console looking box, yes I know the console pretty much is that already but the difference could be make the box upgradable and easy for anyone to upgrade with parts made for that box

[@timvoth4106]

I think the point behind the xbox is to offer a cheap way into the eco system. As you have more cash you can get whatever device you want and play their stuff on that.

[@hellothere4431]

youtube won't allow me to reply to any comments on this channel. i am not even saying anything bad

[@TRUEMIXEDBLOOD]

$70 (not including sales task) is big ask for a game. Especially with these heavily monetized buggy messes that are "just ok" we get so frequently.

[@brokenbonesdubstep]

luke puts all my thoughts into words

[@seantan4207]

There was a lot excitement in the air in 2007 when I bought an xbox 360 instead of Nintendo’s PlayStation - with all the innovation xbox brings to the gaming industry. Why don’t Microsoft sell xbox to others who can make the hardware and then just run game pass’s. My prediction game pass will die, not because of customers but developers and publishers finding it not sustainable. Microsoft must ask itself why bother with the game console business when they realised it was not the media centre they expected. Apple took the media centre spot it is the device I used to type this msg.

[@markchambers5779]

Microsoft’s always been a software company that sells hardware and Sonys a hardware company that sells software, very important people learn this at some stage

[@gauldenj1]

Didn’t Microsoft just release new guidelines on DEI in games, this will certainly not help the revenue situation

[@SQUIRELS79]

I think the funny thing that it is said that buying PC is the answer but you can buy all 3 consoles and it still cheaper than buying a PC. When PC will be the option is when the console is not affordable.

[@neals6348]

Don't forget Phil was part of that Xbox One launch team; Xbox One launch was also superior to the PS4 and Series launches by far had a good number of AAA exclusives. The brand really crumbled and never reversed course after Phil took over and stopped delivering great games consistently. Thats always been the problem and the one thing they never address or solve

[@iekue]

Delivering great games already started to dry up in the 2nd half of the 360 era (with lots of kinect focus instead) and MS never recovered. Guess who was part of the Xbox leadership all that time? Yup, good old Uncle Phil the Gamer.

[@ClamChowder95]

I mean if you look at their catalog of games it's pretty obvious.

[@skywolf7717]

Phil is so resealant. If my company had to pay over 100 billion dollars to bail me out of my bad decisions and they still don't fire me? He must have dirt on someone within the company.

[@supbrotv]

Series S accounts for 70% or 80% of their current gen hardware sales, so without multiple SKUs they would've had a much significantly lower market presence than what they currently have. Very few people buy the new Series S consoles as their primary console, they mostly buy it to play gamepass games while their main gaming rig is a PS5.

[@jimmyv3170]

It really depends on what Phil does for Xbox. We all know Microsoft is 100% in control but what does Phil actually do? Is he responsible for keeping franchises like Halo and Gears of War relevant in 2024? Is he responsible for looking over titles like Starfield, Redfall, Halo 5, ReCore, Crackdown 3 before they come out? Is he responsible for assigning Fable to the Forza Horizon team that's never made a fantasy RPG before? Is he watching over development for Perfect Dark reboot? State of Decay 3? Avowed? Rare's game they keep rebooting? Anything? If all those are true then he's done a horrible job.

[@clivematthews95]

Very good questions

[@OG-SuperHero]

Man we really need the gears of war collection

[@prezzeruk4054]

Xbox had the same amount of time as ps, to get system selling exclusives on the xbox. They made the choice not too. Let that sink in! Then he says great exclusives dont always sell consoles!! I mean, yeah they do, thats the life blood of a console. As xbox is sadly finding out!

[@dwanrobinson]

I would say hes done alright. Ive never had a major problem with Phil. He seems ok. I think this generation of consoles is a tough one given the landscape.

[@Ramona122003]

3:36, late, but MS is basically trying to do with Nintendo does. Nintendo may have maybe one or two big games in an entire year, but they release a lot of AA titles in a quarter such as: Prince Peach, Trance Memories, and Endless Ocean.

[@chrisadamec900]

Note to self: from now on frame all behaviors in 'build' metaphors.

[@nihren2406]

The amount of people I've come across in the last 5 years or so that still don't understand Xbox's strategy has been staggering. They think Xbox still cares about individual game sales, they still think Xbox cares about how many boxes they sell. And that's no longer the case. Xbox isn't playing the same game as everyone else anymore. Selling 5 million copies no longer matters to them, they'd be way happier if they got 5 million more game pass subscribers. Individual sales are nice to haves at this point. Game Pass offers discounts if your a subscriber when you buy something, in which scenario you use Game Pass to try before you buy and then you buy, meaning they get both a subscription and a sale for extra revenue. Likewise they don't care anymore if you buy a Series S or a Series X. Those are just curated access points for their content. If you're on a phone, a PC, a handheld, a PlayStation, a Switch, that's good enough for them. It has been for years it's not new. All these acquisitions are to bolster their services and the amount of games they can release to keep people engaged with the brand and spending.

[@FoureyesZero]

In case you didn't know gamespass has failed it hasn't grown in 2 years its stuck on 23 million right now it needs to be at 100 million to work. Phill was hoping they would be at 40 million right now. Xbox also significantly overpaid for Activision-Blizzard. Games sales have also vanished because people on xbox have gamespass so they dont buy games.

[@nihren2406]

@FoureyesZero Again, they don't care about game sales on the Xbox or PC platforms. People keep thinking about success and failure in terms of game sales and Xbox isn't looking at that anymore as a metric. Also last I checked Game Pass was closer to 30mil now. It hasn't stopped growing, but the rate of growth is slower than they want it to be. A large part of that is that their release slate has been about as barren as PlayStations. They need all these studios in order to put out games more frequently to retain that engagement and entice new subscribers. They aren't at that point yet. It may not be where they were hoping it would be at this time, that's the nature of the beast. It's clear that Xbox as a brand isn't going anywhere. They're transitioning into a third party like Sega except they're going to continue maintaining their own platforms as access points for their content. Game Pass might eventually just die, but at that point they should be established enough outside of the Xbox platform that they'll start caring about sales exclusively again and they'll do well enough with just software.

[@cecarter10]

People seem to forget Microsoft has always been a software company, they've tried to do hardware in the past and it hasn't maintained. Their own company mindset is software. That's why gamepass and xcloud have had success and that's why they're not as concerned with the hardware of Xbox. Now Sony is complete opposite. They've historically been a hardware company.

[@thekidlivesnow]

I think that’s where the issue lies. They’re a software company that dabbles in games, they aren’t as hungry as Sony whom yeah makes movies, cameras, tv etc but gaming is their priority. They have higher incentive to succeed vs Microsoft. Also gaming isn’t like other forms of media where streaming is king for watching but a lot of gamers want physical and even ones that don’t, still prefer the games that’s buyable. Ballers gate 3 for example most likely won’t go to gamepass. I can even think of a top tier game that would, especially since a big portion of them are Sony exclusives. I hope Microsoft can stay as I like the competition since it forces growth but they aren’t going with the right moves

[@Zalkova]

I wouldn't call Xcloud and Gamepass a success judging how Microsoft struggle to reach 40 millions subscribers.

[@AJJJ-co2vd]

I think he's been great for Xbox. The way the ecosystem is being built and game pass. I just think giving up on console is a mistake. All things considered the Xbox series x is better hardware then og PS5. I think they need fresh dev talent for exclusives

[@clivematthews95]

They’ve been needing fresh dev talent since Phil took over, what is he good for?

[@nathandrake9737]

What's the point of a well made console if it doesn't have the games to support it?

[@villa_art]

I truly believe that they plan on going fully digital and do cloud gaming. There will probably be 1 more physically based console and then thats it. They could sell the same amount of games, and still profit more since they wont have to spend money to make an xbox device.

[@conchobar]

Phil has lead Xbox promising console owners a competitive platform only to let the Xbox platform die off and become a 3rd party publisher right when they acquire a large publisher with the assets to become what Phil originally promised. In the dating world Phil would be a tease, and Xbox gamers (Including me) would be simps.

[@Grimjr7]

I'm confused either Xbox has always been a third party publisher or they're not a third party publisher. Those are the only two options. I say this because Xbox has already had games on PlayStation before those four games were announced and Xbox put their games on PC already. This by definition would make them a third party developer already. But then by this logic PlayStation is also a third party developer then. And the other option would be that they're not a third party developer because all of their games are not going to PlayStation. Just like all the PlayStation games aren't going to Xbox. PlayStation and Xbox put some of their games on other platforms.

[@silentobserver4425]

Microsoft owns a huge amount of game developers. They can literally now have their own internal GDC and have one massive round table of their best developers. Then they can invest into a new engine they own that can rival unreal engine 5 or decima or RE engine. Essentially they can start making all new game development in their own proprietary engine and even license it out like they do Microsoft Windows, office and game pass. They have too many powerful and legendary development tools, systems and companies to not bring them together in one cohesive way for their game development. They can train all new developers within their fold in the engine and use it for shooters, rpgs, driving games, open world games, and rts games. Or come up with variations of the engine to tailor to those specific gaming experiences. Microsoft needs to truly overhaul what they own into a powerful game development pipeline that is consistent and coherent. Because from an overview standpoint if they own like 30 gaming studios using several different engines and different design philosophy’s your teams are all fractured, when they truly need to be brought closer together to piggy back off each others success, knowledge, experience and overall understanding of game design and development.

[@ianp3063]

He is just one head of this gigantic hydra. I remember another head threatening an entire country during the Activision-Blizz acquisition. He's probably a positive influence but MS is too big for its own good to be viewed as the good guys.

[@NinjaFlip11]

Phil has not done a good job investing into good games

[@MrMrboy09]

The release of Xbox 1: “We have a product for those without Internet and it’s the Xbox 360.” DEAD ☠️

[@NoMadKid]

Their first major acquisition should’ve been either Epic games or Valve. Attain their PC install base, afterwards continue on with their current acquisitions.

[@Darrf]

I have a theory. Could Microsoft plan to only let people buy "their" games if they also have a Gamepass Subscription. Meaning you can't buy the next Gears of War game if you don't also have a Gamepass Subscription. This way they force you to be in their ecosystem. And they dont care whether you are on Xbox, PC, Mobile or streaming.

[@gameskyjumper1721]

what I don't get is when MS has the money to purchase ABK for 70 billion, why not use this money improve development of their own teams? Buy a high grade sound studio. Buy a building with motion capture setups. All team under Xbox can use it. Hire better engineers so games DO run better on Xbox Series X. Design better SDK. Call of duty and Diablo were coming to Xbox anyway. Overwatch is worthless at this point. And what's crazy is Palworld reached insane number count on Steam! It was available on Game Pass for ten one month. Yet people are buying copies. This says something about the Game Pass model.

[@Grimjr7]

I don't know why you think that for some reason Microsoft still can't afford all of those things even with the $70 billion dollar APK deal. Also, I'm not sure if they don't have these things cuz I do know that pretty much all of hellblade 2 is being done with motion capture. So obviously they have access to motion capture in some way. I personally think people who aren't in charge of trillion dollar companies or billion dollar companies might need to think about if they truly understand the situation when they give their opinions on how businesses of this scale should work because no offense. If you had any true insights, I would have to ask you what's the name of your company and what is its net worth?

[@TxMondrey]

@@Grimjr7 So is Hellblade 2 the new savior of xbox? Its like your implying its going to be a 10/10. Where are the other GAMES??? I have a PS5 and bought hell divers2 on steam. And if its any good i have 2$ gamepass code I've been siting on just waiting for a reason to use it. How is that helping microsoft?

[@theogofguitar]

Phil is the most personable leader out of all 3. Xbox to me hasn’t shipped a Xbox ONLY platform exclusive…in a generation. I have Xbox for gamepass, to be fair PS5 has offered little to none that wasn’t cross gen and Sony only. Nintendo drops and when they do like Tears it’s remarkable but they are on the end of the switch. Idk what MS is planning because we are like years into acquisitions and all I got is a very meh Starfield. We are 4/5 years in to this Gen and this feels like the weakest one despite have 2023 one of the best years in gaming . This feels like the death knell of traditional console wars and next gen post 28-2030 will be much different than what we are used to

[@CrashD6]

Sony *could* become a monopoly of sorts, but if they do, more people will flock to PC and Nintendo

[@thebenc1537]

What was the last big hit for Xbox?

[@Sci-Fi_Freak_YT]

I definitely think he had helped the brand but won’t deny that he has made some divisive decisions.

[@Danker19991]

Still don’t know what about 2023 was so special. Honestly one of the most mid years apart from Baldurs Gate 3.

[@MrSofly2010]

Game Pass is going to learn the tragedy of the commons.

[@maineman5757]

This video just reminded me to cancel my gamepass subscription. Thanks!

[@ChaseSchleich]

I think gaming has grown and grown a lot. The original NES only sold around 60 million units and thats back when there wasn't much competition. 10 years later the PS2 sold twice that many units even though they were competing with Nintendo and the new Xbox. 10 years after that the PS4 sold almost as many units as the PS2, but Nintendo sold just as many Switches and Xbox sold tens of millions of Xboxes. That's more and more consoles sold every generation. In the PS2 days, a game selling a couple hundred thousand copies was considered a success. Now games can sell over 20 MILLION copies even with increased competition and sales being spread out between all gaming platforms. If every game and console sold was tracked from 1982 up to today you'd see an ever increasing number. I think gaming has hit a bit of a plateau in the last couple of years, but that's because of economy issues, increased prices on software and hardware and a decrease in game quality.

[@elproctor5765]

Is there really a demand for a portable Xbox if you can play Microsoft games on the steam deck already?

[@pennywisetheclown2516]

Xbox would be fine if they would just make games but they don't do that

[@SebastianSkadisson]

He built the first XBox together with his team of engineers. Without Phil Spencer there would be no XBox. Still good points in the video. I don't know the comparable numbers but I play on Series S and love it. I don't know how it would be a bad decision.

[@0x8badbeef]

If Xbox prioritizes gaming over business that would be a start. Microsoft acquiring studios is not for gaming but for denying Sony. The problem is rooted in goals. Note all the great games. Notice the passion in them. Their natural tendency is to make them a business after their beginnings. That needs to be resisted. What stood out about the Xbox 360 for me was Xbox Live. Having a routine after work to play with friends was a game changer. The Xbox 360 also saw Mass Effect. Microsoft should have saved them.

[@marsfab8019]

Till this day I think buying bethesda was a worst mistake than always on !