What comes first, the sacking of Phil spencer or Xbox going 3rd party?

[Deleted member 417]

Xbox is having the worst period in its history and facing disaster after PR disaster that makes the Xbox One launch look like a small mistep.

Not even Don Mattricks "we have a console for those who can't get an Xbox One, it's called an xbox 360" or Adam Orths career suiciding tweet "the electricity goes out, I won't buy a vacuum cleaner" did as much damage to the brand as the blocking of the ABK deal, the leaks of the poor performance of games and the low quality, delayed releases of game after 1st party game.

The question on many people's lips is; "Is this the end of the Xbox?". If it is, some speculate that Xbox transitioning to becoming a 3rd party publisher, possibly using gamepass as a subscription service and thus fulfilling the prophecy of becoming 'the Netflix of gaming'.

Before any of that potentially happens, Microsoft are faced with a choice; Do they replace Spencer and continue in the hardware game, do they keep him and move to become a third party publisher, or both?

The question is, Icon-era, what do you believe will come first? The chicken, or the egg? Spencer retirement or the retiring of the hardware?

Tl;Dr - Will Spencer be removed before the xbox hardware is abandoned?

 

[Box]

Phil Spencer is the greatest thing that ever happened to PlayStation, the gift that keeps on giving.

 

[Bryank75]

Phil will never be fired, he is one of those untouchable people. One of the boys club, probably the head of the boys club at MSFT.

MSFT gaming would go 3rd party before he would lose his job, I think he will graciously retire in a few years though.

If things do keep going as they are, I can see Xbox consoles not being a thing after this gen.

 

[Sircaw]

Phil will be moved on, sort of like "Off you go to guard that Alaskan outpost."

Golden handshake, a golden pension, and no word of the damage he is doing to the gaming industry

And @Night Sky my old friend, are you trying to start an even bigger fire on Twitter than what @Box just did lol

 

[Cool hand luke]

Phil will absolutely be fired as a result of these past two generations. It'll likely be an unceremonious 'parting of ways'. Watch out for language that references him 'spending more time with his family' though because that's a surefire sign it wasn't amicable.

Both events in the OP are 100% guaranteed to happen, but under new leadership, Xbox will pivot into becoming a fully fledged 3rd party publisher for the remaining platform holders.

I'm going to enjoy playing the new Fallout, Elder Scrolls and Doom games on my PlayStation.

 

[Nhomnhom]

Just imagine this guy trying to launch another Xbox. Completely absurd.

Even if it's just him announcing a pro version of the Series to me that would just be laughable given how little he has delivered.

 

[Zeroing]

For Xbox to work properly they would need to fire 80% of the people there specially the people in charge for PR and marketing, change their brand philosophy and get rid of the toxic fanboy’s.

So since I doubt that will ever happen, things will continue the same! Microsoft is busy with their new “monopoly opportunity “ - AI

More and more money will be dumped on the Xbox division because Ms believes, one day they will succeed!
Phil is an Xbox mascot! Fanboys love him!

 

[Dick Jones]

Phil Spencer is closing in in 10 years in the role. We are this close to a COD competitor I can smell it.

 

[Yurinka]

Spencer already started their transition to becoming a multiplatform 3rd party many years ago and slowly moving away their attention outside their console. First moving to PC and second to release many games and dlcs in rival consoles. And more recently, wanting to move to mobile too by wanting to buy King.

Their fans won't like MS moving away from consoles, so I think that they'll move away from consoles before firing Spencer/move him outside the gaming division to avoid giving that ugly task to the next CEO of their gaming division.

 

[Sleepy Brown]

Xbox is having the worst period in its history and facing disaster after PR disaster that makes the Xbox One launch look like a small mistep.

Not even Don Mattricks "we have a console for those who can't get an Xbox One, it's called an xbox 360" or Adam Orths career suiciding tweet "the electricity goes out, I won't buy a vacuum cleaner" did as much damage to the brand as the blocking of the ABK deal, the leaks of the poor performance of games and the low quality, delayed releases of game after 1st party game.

The question on many people's lips is; "Is this the end of the Xbox?". If it is, some speculate that Xbox transitioning to becoming a 3rd party publisher, possibly using gamepass as a subscription service and thus fulfilling the prophecy of becoming 'the Netflix of gaming'.

Before any of that potentially happens, Microsoft are faced with a choice; Do they replace Spencer and continue in the hardware game, do they keep him and move to become a third party publisher, or both?

The question is, Icon-era, what do you believe will come first? The chicken, or the egg? Spencer retirement or the retiring of the hardware?

Tl;Dr - Will Spencer be removed before the xbox hardware is abandoned?

I think Phil Spencer is going to step down at the end of this gen. His masterpiece will be the acquisition of ZeniMax Media and Activision-Blizzard. He's going to leave Microsoft after making Xbox an unstoppable force with ZeniMax Media, Activision-Blizzard, Minecraft and another ~20 AAA studios.
So no, he won't get "sacked".

 

[Cool hand luke]

I think Phil Spencer is going to step down at the end of this gen. His masterpiece will be the acquisition of ZeniMax Media and Activision-Blizzard. He's going to leave Microsoft after making Xbox an unstoppable force with ZeniMax Media, Activision-Blizzard, Minecraft and another ~20 AAA studios.
So no, he won't get "sacked".

 

[Deleted member 417]

And @Night Sky my old friend, are you trying to start an even bigger fire on Twitter than what @Box just did lol

Yes. No. Maybe. Well, sort of.

Big OT: This website is fantastic, and the best gaming site since Gaf's prime way back in the day. The troubles are MS are a blessing for a fledgling site like this, especially one that offers refuge from the miserable shills and their constant coping and blatant lies.

There are many Sony fans who are shut down and banned on other sites, many decent xbox fans who are unable to have a decent conversation about the current state of xbox because of the shills and Nintendo fans who are too busy standing outside school gates to care either way.

I want this site to thrive and using MS' current issues to send out signal flares is the best way to do it. The more hornets nests that get kicked by the threads we make and the topics we discuss here, the more likely it is that reasonable people will be aware of this site and come and join the community.

It's why I asked @Bryank75 for the ABK meme thread; not only is it a good laugh, it brings visibility to the site and hopefully more people will join.

TL;DR - use the crisis of Xbox as an opportunity to grow the site. I like this site. There's no political guff, no screeching fanboys - and when there is, we laugh them out of the forum, and no shilling. Sure, some will cry about this site as a pro-sony one, but there aren't any other sites that are pro sony.

TL;DR;TLDR - Yeah. I kicked the hornets nest.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Xbox going third party.

 

[Kokoloko]

Its funny how he’s been in charge of Xbox games since 2009 and thats when they went downhill game wise. I enjoyed the OG Xbox and start of 360.
Been pretty bleak since then.

They should go 3rd party and let someone else jump in on the console market. Dont care who, Steam, Apple, Amazon, Google. Just want MS out of it.

 

[arvfab]

My prediction:

Philocchio will take Bobby's place at ABK before he is sacked.

Whoever replaces him will probably (80%) go 3rd party.

 

[flaccidsnake]

I'd think Xbox going 3rd party would only be a temporary stage primarily to wind down Minecraft. Microsoft Game Studios is a dysfunctional publisher, that's the main problem here. So what's the strategic value to only being a publisher? They need to spin out these teams before they're permanently ruined. Hopefully Arkane isn't beyond saving.

 

[Puff]

Microsoft is expanding its "operating leverage." First-party, subscriptions, and advertising are all high-margin businesses that the company wants to expand into.
While he's "not announcing anything broadly," Stuart explains that Xbox's mission is to bring its first-party experiences and subscription services to every screen that can play a game.

"That means smart TVs. That means mobile devices. That means what we would have thought as competitors in the past, like PlayStation and Nintendo. We're going to Nvidia's GeForce Now, their gaming subscription service."

Xbox CFO Discusses Opportunities with AI, How Microsoft Measures Its Success in Games, and More | TechRaptor

Xbox CFO Tim Stuart discussed the application of AI gaming, the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Game Pass, and how Microsoft measures success in gaming.

techraptor.net

 

[Darth Vader]

Xbox CFO Discusses Opportunities with AI, How Microsoft Measures Its Success in Games, and More | TechRaptor

Xbox CFO Tim Stuart discussed the application of AI gaming, the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Game Pass, and how Microsoft measures success in gaming.

techraptor.net

The writing is on the wall that they will become a third party publisher.

 

[Cool hand luke]

The writing is on the wall that they will become a third party publisher.

Yep. Reeee and the rest of the Xbots have tried to deny it, but now it's coming straight from the CFO. I suspect they will try to change the definition of what 3rd party is for comfort, but it's as we all predicted.

 

[Umar]

They will go third party first and then sack phil later