VGC : Phil Spencer, long cast as Xbox’s saviour, may be remembered as the man who killed it .

Nhomnhom

Nhomnhom

Veteran
25 Mar 2023
6,985
9,361
Dabaus said:
Another post from SneakerSO:


“This was already happening to a significant extent back when Microsoft was openly buying up so much of the industry. The difference now is that the 3rd party GP funding pool isn't what it used to be, and those funds went a long, long way in securing ports and marketing deals with publishers who were well and truly at their wits end with supporting Xbox.

I know for a fact that the catalyst that started the more significant conversations started that week in Feb when all hell broke loose and the news about 3rd party publishing by Xbox caught most of the exec-class of the industry off guard. Microsoft has always been aware that publishers are somewhat, and increasingly so, justified in skipping the Xbox as a platform to support. I can factually tell you that in the lead up to the new generation kicking off in 2020, the entire industry was taking meetings with Phil and his executive team and buying into the growth and vision that Xbox was laying out. The management team at Xbox/Microsoft are nothing if not incredible sales people, first and foremost. Making insane claims like how much they estimate GP will grow console users with your bespoke console strategy aimed towards targeting users at multiple income levels is an easy sell, but the math on that particular pitch always relied on the Xbox Series S massively taking off with a consumer base that so many C-Suite level folks in gaming feel exist: a silent userbase for which gaming is far too expensive to get into, but would do so at lower price points or with subscriptions, which is the same exact use case pitch that caused so many to dump billions into propping up cloud-rendered gaming (this use case will be profitable any day now).

So many lofty promises on what the user numbers and engagement metrics would look like, and everyone looks like fools now for believing it, all while one of the 4 major ecosystems is now impossibly hard to sell actual SW in.

When I used the term 'boiling the frog', I was referring to the more dedicated Xbox userbase and getting them accustomed to the idea of a broader publishing strategy for Microsoft. I doubt a 'course correction' is going to happen btw - not only is it far too late for that, but their ability to sell HW all over the world is just not at the level needed to justify their previous strategy.”
Click to expand...
It baffles me that people still haven't understood that there is no dormant audience waiting for cloud gaming or for console games to get cheaper to jump in.

It's just such a misguided premisse to base all their plans around. The closest to that audience is already the people that play mobile games or at most family games on Nintendo platforms.

Phil Spencer claims always sounded so stupid and unrealistic to me. Nobody actually asked for something like Gamepass except complete bums that don't value gaming (the demographic that Xbox has long been attracting), Xbox just did it because at that point (2017) they had absolutely nothing going on for them so they started the race to the bottom strategy trying to crash the industry and be the last one standing. In the end they just ended up knocking themselves out.
 
  • they're_right_you_know
  • Like
Reactions: Shadow2027 and Gods&Monsters
thicc_girls_are_teh_best

thicc_girls_are_teh_best

Veteran
24 Jun 2022
3,242
5,550
Killer_Sakoman said:
It is funny how they are transitioning into the wrong direction because their chronic problem is not the hardware but the software.
Click to expand...

At this point I'd say the hardware is definitely a big part of the problem because they have made it irrelevant through de-emphasizing it. Day 1 PC for all their games, advertising at the VGAs that you don't need an Xbox to play their games, the growing multiplat ports to other consoles....it's all making the hardware worthless.

They have a good amount of at least decent games now with Zenimax & ABK ownership, even if some of those might have stagnated or could be in some state of decline. They have enough studios now to create games at a regular pace. But if their biggest & best games are on other platforms Day 1, platforms way better off than Xbox...then there's little to nothing that game would do for boosting Xbox console sales.

MS have created this situation for themselves but even if they reversed on ALL of this, it's not like they'd see a major jump in Xbox hardware sales trajectory or growth for the console brand. They've sullied a good majority of their cache as far as being a traditional console platform holder is concerned and it'd take far too long & far too much money to rebuild it even half as much as it was before.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Shadow2027
Kokoloko

Kokoloko

Veteran
Icon Extra
21 Jun 2022
3,574
2,823
Lets not forget the mistake of releasing games day 1 or overall on PC.

During the 360 era games like Halo, Gears, Forza, Lost odessy, RDR were not on PC and gave more reason to people to buy an Xbox..

I think this started the death more than anything. Kinnect too but you can always bounce back from that, you cant bounce back from taking away your consoles selling point.

You can see in a certain thread on another forum the amount of people that migrated from Xbox to PC during this time. And during that time all the "xbox has no exclusives now"

Silly for PS to follow the same path, taking there self worth away for sales that arent exactly amazing for most of the games on PC
 
  • Like
  • brain
Reactions: Shadow2027, JAHGamer, Gods&Monsters and 1 other person
ethomaz

ethomaz

Rebolation!
21 Jun 2022
8,376
7,061
Brasil 🇧🇷
PSN ID
ethomaz
He was never the savior… since begin 🤷‍♂️

He took more bad decisions than good.
How the anybody can be the savior with that bad track record?
 
Sunrise Ninja

Sunrise Ninja

Active member
5 Feb 2024
244
211
Dr Bass said:
This is embarrassing.
Click to expand...
Imagine how the person recording him felt
iu
 
  • they're_right_you_know
Reactions: Cool hand luke
DForce

DForce

Well-known member
Icon Extra
24 Jun 2022
288
610
I always thought Phil Spencer was trying to satisfy the hardcore Xbox fanboys instead of the casual gamers.

- DX12
- The Cloud
- Announcing new studio acquisitions during E3
- True 4K gaming
- Full RDNA 2

As we all know, Xbox lacked exclusives mid-way through the Xbox One generation. They were getting heavily criticized by gamers and the media for having "no games."

Phil Spencer knew this and he wanted to change the narrative.

@1:06:00


"50 games!"
"18 exclusives!
"15 world premieres!"

The crowd cheered because they knew what people were saying about Xbox across social media.

The reality is that many of these "exclusives" were DLC or timed exclusives.

Xbox One lacked power? Here comes DX12, The Cloud, True 4K, Full RDNA 2
No games? Studio announcements and "Exclusive" content!


This is not how you advertise to gamers, this is how you keep online hardcore Xbox fanboys happy.
 
  • brain
  • Like
Reactions: Shadow2027, The Icon, Deto and 1 other person
Gods&Monsters

Gods&Monsters

Veteran
Icon Extra
21 Jun 2022
4,432
9,057
Dabaus said:
Another post from SneakerSO:


“This was already happening to a significant extent back when Microsoft was openly buying up so much of the industry. The difference now is that the 3rd party GP funding pool isn't what it used to be, and those funds went a long, long way in securing ports and marketing deals with publishers who were well and truly at their wits end with supporting Xbox.

I know for a fact that the catalyst that started the more significant conversations started that week in Feb when all hell broke loose and the news about 3rd party publishing by Xbox caught most of the exec-class of the industry off guard. Microsoft has always been aware that publishers are somewhat, and increasingly so, justified in skipping the Xbox as a platform to support. I can factually tell you that in the lead up to the new generation kicking off in 2020, the entire industry was taking meetings with Phil and his executive team and buying into the growth and vision that Xbox was laying out. The management team at Xbox/Microsoft are nothing if not incredible sales people, first and foremost. Making insane claims like how much they estimate GP will grow console users with your bespoke console strategy aimed towards targeting users at multiple income levels is an easy sell, but the math on that particular pitch always relied on the Xbox Series S massively taking off with a consumer base that so many C-Suite level folks in gaming feel exist: a silent userbase for which gaming is far too expensive to get into, but would do so at lower price points or with subscriptions, which is the same exact use case pitch that caused so many to dump billions into propping up cloud-rendered gaming (this use case will be profitable any day now).

So many lofty promises on what the user numbers and engagement metrics would look like, and everyone looks like fools now for believing it, all while one of the 4 major ecosystems is now impossibly hard to sell actual SW in.

When I used the term 'boiling the frog', I was referring to the more dedicated Xbox userbase and getting them accustomed to the idea of a broader publishing strategy for Microsoft. I doubt a 'course correction' is going to happen btw - not only is it far too late for that, but their ability to sell HW all over the world is just not at the level needed to justify their previous strategy.”
Click to expand...
Incredible post full of inside knowledge that was SO OBVIOUS to us and Sony. How come all these publishers followed Xbox in that suicidal plan? Even up to 2 years after Activision was announced, these publishers were still cheering publicly for MS. They really thought Phil had some masterplan that would add billions of gamers in the industry.

Sony already tried with Cloud and subscriptions over a decade ago. These people don't exist.

They must hate Sony to the core. There's no other explanation why they were all so enthusiastic about Xbox strategy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Shadow2027 and Deto
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom