Phil Spencer Goes Down Under

M

mrcorbo

Foo Fighter
Veteran
http://stevivor.com/2016/09/xbox-phil-spencer-brand-leadership/

The first of multiple articles based on an interview with Phil Spencer.

This one covers:

  • The motivations behind the decisions that led to the Xbox One - “The goal that the team had was to figure out how could we sell 200 million game consoles,”
  • The new direction he decided on when he took over - “When we came in after two-and-a-half years ago and started running the Xbox program, I centred us back on not trying to become something other than a game console. You don’t earn the right to be relevant in other categories of usage for the console until you’ve earned the gaming right, so let’s go make sure that’s what we deliver,”
  • How people are using their Xbox Ones - “I’ll say when we look at what people do on the console today, video usage is as high as game usage, so it’s not like people aren’t watching YouTube and aren’t watching Netflix and Amazon and anything else that’s there...
  • Microsoft's commitment to gaming - “Today, if you sit down with Satya Nadella, the CEO, Amy Hood, the CFO of the company, they will talk about gaming as a core capability of Microsoft, not gaming as a bridge to somethings else, but gaming into itself,” he continued. “It’s not just Microsoft, you see Google investing time in gaming, you see Facebook buying Oculus, you see Amazon buying Twitch, you see multi-billion dollar transactions going on at the gaming space, not so you can go be something else, but because gaming is a very high engagement, high monetization use on any electronic device that you see.”
Go read the article to read all of this in context + more (and the guy does deserve the click). The next article will cover "virtual reality, Project Scorpio and more".
 
OK, maybe I should have titled this thread "Phil does Australia" or something because there's yet another, longer, article from NZGamer with Phil Spencer here: http://nzgamer.com/features/1490/phil-spencer-interview.html

Seems dumb to create a new thread for it. Maybe one of our friendly neighborhood mods could lend a hand?

A couple of things from this article. Xbox One S and Xbox Scorpio were "kind of" designed in parallel and he doesn't want the Scorpio to be disconnected from the rest of the Xbox One line by too much of a price delta. The latter statement really solidifies for me the expectation of a $450 to $499 price point for the base-model Scorpio as that would be the next "rung in the price ladder". Xbox One S @ $299, $349, $399 -> Xbox Scorpio at $449($499), $499($549), $549($599) depending on storage size.
 
Last edited:
mrcorbo said:
you see Google investing time in gaming
Click to expand...

What? They do?

I have the feeling Google invests in gaming as much as apple. As in they open up an e-store and let people sell their games in there.
 
Shifty Geezer said:
Google provide Live/PSN type services and backends. Achievements, leaderboards, networking, controller support.
Click to expand...

Naah, there's really no unified/standardized controller support.
The only controller support they have is "hey we support bluetooth HIDs" which have to be manually implemented by the game developer or a third party that emulates said input into ghost touch inputs.
Which is crap.
 
Well via youtube they are now pushing heavy to compete with Twitch for livestreaming marketplace.

They have Geoff Keighley and others doing weekly streams.
 
Pixel said:
Well via youtube they are now pushing heavy to compete with Twitch for livestreaming marketplace.

They have Geoff Keighley and others doing weekly streams.
Click to expand...

They are doing a rather inept job at it currently, however. A lot of long time YouTube personalities are pretty pissed off at them, but they don't have options for moving their channels elsewhere except when it comes to streaming. Just recently one channel brought to light that a long time copyright troll (Studio71_2_1 which is part of Studio71 [https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/5493sb/what_the_hell_is_studio71_x_x/]) is certified by YouTube. They go around claiming copyright ownership of random streams to hijack revenue for those videos. It's not a recent thing, they've been doing it for quite some time now. Do a search for Studio71_2_1 on reddit. They might also operate under various permutations of that name.

Then there's the whole ill thought out YouTube Mentor thing which if it goes through will allow random people on the internet to censor not only commenters on videos but the videos themselves if they wanted. And what happens if those random people abuse that power? They get their power removed for a day or two and then they can presumably resume doing it if they wish. It's one thing if the channel owner wants to moderate their channel, but it's another if someone they don't even know, who isn't even in the employ of YouTube, can moderate their channel. Imagine how fun things would be here if random Beyond3D forum posters were allowed to moderate the forum.

Either way, YouTube has been trying to wrest streamers away from Twitch for many years now. Their recent actions aren't going to help them be any more successful at it than they've been the past few years.

Regards,
SB
 
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YouTube Mentor? Wasn't it YouTube Heroes?
The heroes' video was the most disliked video of all time. That was fun to watch.
 
Seeing a bunch of websites reporting a $600 price for Scoprio. Seem disingenuous to use that number when it would be the max price at best.

Entry level (500GB) Xbox One S is priced at $300...I don't see entry level Scorpio exceeding this by $200 even if 1TB is the base model.

Scorpio will start at $450-$500.
 
mrcorbo said:
http://stevivor.com/2016/09/xbox-phil-spencer-brand-leadership/

The first of multiple articles based on an interview with Phil Spencer.

This one covers:

  • The motivations behind the decisions that led to the Xbox One - “The goal that the team had was to figure out how could we sell 200 million game consoles,”
  • The new direction he decided on when he took over - “When we came in after two-and-a-half years ago and started running the Xbox program, I centred us back on not trying to become something other than a game console. You don’t earn the right to be relevant in other categories of usage for the console until you’ve earned the gaming right, so let’s go make sure that’s what we deliver,”
  • How people are using their Xbox Ones - “I’ll say when we look at what people do on the console today, video usage is as high as game usage, so it’s not like people aren’t watching YouTube and aren’t watching Netflix and Amazon and anything else that’s there...
  • Microsoft's commitment to gaming - “Today, if you sit down with Satya Nadella, the CEO, Amy Hood, the CFO of the company, they will talk about gaming as a core capability of Microsoft, not gaming as a bridge to somethings else, but gaming into itself,” he continued. “It’s not just Microsoft, you see Google investing time in gaming, you see Facebook buying Oculus, you see Amazon buying Twitch, you see multi-billion dollar transactions going on at the gaming space, not so you can go be something else, but because gaming is a very high engagement, high monetization use on any electronic device that you see.”
Go read the article to read all of this in context + more (and the guy does deserve the click). The next article will cover "virtual reality, Project Scorpio and more".
Click to expand...
I think Phil Spencer has resurrected the Xbox One. That interview just highlights the leading figure of Phil Spencer. I had never seen such a drastic change, such a hit of rudder in a videogames company...

Going from a video console that was totally dead, totally defeated, like the Xbox One, to one that makes a comeback, that resurrects, and that today is seen as a product more attractive than the competition's....

He is being rewarded by all his efforts because of the great sacrifices he has had to make with the Xbox One.
 
Cyan said:
I think Phil Spencer has resurrected the Xbox One. That interview just highlights the leading figure of Phil Spencer. I had never seen such a drastic change, such a hit of rudder in a videogames company...

Going from a video console that was totally dead, totally defeated, like the Xbox One, to one that makes a comeback, that resurrects, and that today is seen as a product more attractive than the competition's....

He is being rewarded by all his efforts because of the great sacrifices he has had to make with the Xbox One.
Click to expand...

The decision to drop Kinect and adding backward compatibility were massive in turning Xbox One around. Elite controller was also nice.

Xbox One S has finally made the hardware attractive and it has a UHD drive/4k video output.

I think he has completly reversed it to the point where Xbox may be the top selling console over this fall.
 
Cyan said:
I think Phil Spencer has resurrected the Xbox One. That interview just highlights the leading figure of Phil Spencer. I had never seen such a drastic change, such a hit of rudder in a videogames company...

Going from a video console that was totally dead, totally defeated, like the Xbox One, to one that makes a comeback, that resurrects, and that today is seen as a product more attractive than the competition's....

He is being rewarded by all his efforts because of the great sacrifices he has had to make with the Xbox One.
Click to expand...

Those terms are a bit more glowing than what I would use and I think you may be overestimating the appeal of the Xbox One S, but I do think he has done a good job righting the ship. As for a prior example of a "hit of rudder", how about the job Kaz Hirai did turning around the PS3?
 
mrcorbo said:
Those terms are a bit more glowing than what I would use and I think you may be overestimating the appeal of the Xbox One S, but I do think he has done a good job righting the ship. As for a prior example of a "hit of rudder", how about the job Kaz Hirai did turning around the PS3?
Click to expand...
that could be another example, although the situation of the PS3 was not as disastrous as that of the Xbox One, although it was very complicated, and they even managed to beat the X360, exclusives wise, the last years of X360, where MS left their greatest console to date a bit orphan of games.

 
Had existed a top 10 Personality list of 2016, Phil Spencer would be the number 1 for me. He is an example of how things are well done, pure talent, made very important decisions, very very difficult ones. And all of them the right decisions. He resurrected a totally putrid corpse and transformed it into a swan.

He has class, if he feels like he has to congratulate Sony or Naughty Dog, or Nintendo for the NES MINI or the Switch, he does that.

Xbox has gained status thanks to him. With him leading, with him in charge of the Xbox project, an user can be sure that the new console is going to be worth it. Because of the simple fact that the captain, the true artificer, the thinking head behind all that project is Phil Spencer.

He is a reliable person. Why? Because all the decisions he made, he made them well.

An example, decisions wise. The great great personality of this year 2016. And I would say it's worthy of studying. I mean it's worthy of studying in the university what Phil Spencer has done.
 
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