Xbox One X

I don't get it. Shouldn't we be celebrating the fact the Phil is the only one in his position with any big console, to ever talk to the people with the sincerest honesty? Yeah, Xbox still needs to deliver. I get that, but he's literally saying "give us time, as we genuinely can and want to deliver." AAA games take time. Hopefully he's not all talk, but daum, let's see what they have at E3, at least!
 
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I was very negative about the direction of Xbox after last E3. Then they revealed the strategy behind Game Pass and promoted Spencer. Xbox is different now. Won’t happen overnight but it’s silly to think it’ll take 10 years to start showing their 1st party investments. They’ll invest. Question should be about whether they can execute. Rare and 343 need new leadership. Lionhead collapsed. Spencer himself struggled with 1st party execution so question is does he know how to find the right people who can do it better? Loftis and Bonnie Ross haven’t been getting it done for starters.
 
OneBadMutha said:
Bonnie Ross haven’t been getting it done for starters.
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karmakid said:
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Lol.

Josh Holmes (listed as previous lead for Halo 5) left the studio and while he never mentioned her by name, he described the chaos around Halo 4 and 5. Sounded like nobody in leadership could get that studio moving the in the same direction. He admitted it burned him out and said Halo 5 should’ve been much bigger in scope but they spent literally half the development arguing and unable to gain momentum. If someone described that at my company for major expensive projects, they’d be overhauling leadership. Maybe Josh was the problem but fact that the situation repeated itself for Halo 4 and 5 means responsibility is owned up the chain.
 
GordoSan said:
Shouldn't we be celebrating the fact the Phil is the only one in his position with any big console, to ever talk to the people with the sincerest honesty?
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That's a little much.

Yeah, Xbox still needs to deliver. I get that, but he's literally saying "give us time, as we genuinely can and want to deliver." AAA games take time. Hopefully he's not all talk, but daum, let's see what they have at E3, at least!
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I don't hear anyone deriding Phil (at least here). The only caveat, afaic, is that he's said this for several years, and the results have been lacking. I agree that we should wait for E3 and see what they announce this year. I think that is most people's position.
 
OneBadMutha said:
They’ll invest. Question should be about whether they can execute.
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Good point.

Rare and 343 need new leadership. Lionhead collapsed. Spencer himself struggled with 1st party execution so question is does he know how to find the right people who can do it better? Loftis and Bonnie Ross haven’t been getting it done for starters.
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Yes. I'm not sure this is Phil's strong suit. He is very good with expanding services, BC, and hardware, and also with community relations, but I'm not sure how strong he is at managing and guiding game development, in telling the good from the bad, in having the right vision, in being able to cultivate a stable of highly talented and creative developers, etc. It's tricky and challenging work, no doubt.
 
OneBadMutha said:
Lol.

Josh Holmes (listed as previous lead for Halo 5) left the studio and while he never mentioned her by name, he described the chaos around Halo 4 and 5. Sounded like nobody in leadership could get that studio moving the in the same direction. He admitted it burned him out and said Halo 5 should’ve been much bigger in scope but they spent literally half the development arguing and unable to gain momentum. If someone described that at my company for major expensive projects, they’d be overhauling leadership. Maybe Josh was the problem but fact that the situation repeated itself for Halo 4 and 5 means responsibility is owned up the chain.
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Is he one of the original bungie guys that stuck around or is he the one who onced worked for marvel?

Where was this interview?

IMO I believe 4 was an honest and great first attempt by 343 since it was a mixed bag of devs/employees from all over the industry. 5 while still a very good game the advertising and arg just blueballed those who followed it, it was a total misdirection of what they assumed the story was gonna follow. I really wanted to have a love hate feels for Locke but he just came off as kinda meh.

And they totally show have had “the created” be the cliffhanger that lead to a new trilogy as a reboot.
 
karmakid said:
Is he one of the original bungie guys that stuck around or is he the one who onced worked for marvel?

Where was this interview?

IMO I believe 4 was an honest and great first attempt by 343 since it was a mixed bag of devs/employees from all over the industry. 5 while still a very good game the advertising and arg just blueballed those who followed it, it was a total misdirection of what they assumed the story was gonna follow. I really wanted to have a love hate feels for Locke but he just came off as kinda meh.

And they totally show have had “the created” be the cliffhanger that lead to a new trilogy as a reboot.
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I can’t remember exactly where I heard his last interview. It was a podcast but wasn’t a big name podcast like IGN. He admitted the studio was split on both Halo 4 and 5. Like 4 was a miracle that they pulled it together. Sounded like they went back to infighting for Halo 5. Their studio sounds as split as the community. It’s why I’m hoping the spinoff can rectify that for both the community and studio. Have one studio stay true to Halo’s core and another do whatever creative thing they want with the benefit of the Halo branding.
 
Andy said:
Good point.



Yes. I'm not sure this is Phil's strong suit. He is very good with expanding services, BC, and hardware, and also with community relations, but I'm not sure how strong he is at managing and guiding game development, in telling the good from the bad, in having the right vision, in being able to cultivate a stable of highly talented and creative developers, etc. It's tricky and challenging work, no doubt.
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Just my opinion as an outsider, Spencer has good vision and good high level strategies. His heart seems like it’s in the right place as he shows a clear understanding of gamers. When it comes to the details and executing, projects haven’t lived up to expectations under him. Meyerson has been a pain for the Xbox division as he didn’t have a big picture holistic view of their portfolio and needed everything to pay for itself in a vacuum (which explains the heavy emphasis on Halo, Gears and Forza with smaller budget stuff in-between). But the demise of Lionhead and Platinums first failure from one of their AAA teams directly happened under Spencer. I said this years Crackdown, Sea of Thieves and State of Decay would be very interesting because they are he first big projects that spent 95% of their development time under this leadership team. So far, 2 of those games look like they’ll fall well short of the expectations and the one that looks good (State of Decay) played it extremely safe.

Sony has found a template that’s working. Horizon ZD had major development struggles but they got back on track. The developers of God of War had half the staff layed off and canceled their original project but got back on track with a game that didn’t use the same formula as the previous games in the franchise. Sony’s management has clearly found a formula. They give their developers space but when there’s trouble, they have figured out how to right the ship. Every game is highly polished with similar great animations and visuals. I think each business needs some assemblance of a structure and the creativity has to happen between the lines. Sony has found the balance that Microsoft is far away on. They need to bring in more leaders who can fix it. I don’t think they can from within. Spencer, Ross, Loftis and co have had a large enough sample size to prove they need help.
 
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Andy said:
That's a little much.



I don't hear anyone deriding Phil (at least here). The only caveat, afaic, is that he's said this for several years, and the results have been lacking. I agree that we should wait for E3 and see what they announce this year. I think that is most people's position.
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Considering that Phil has stated that he owns a PS4, PSVR, and Switch, as well as having enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn and plenty of other games not on Xbox, as well as saluted salesmarks thereof.... I think that in a word where corporate espionage is a real thing, and Coca-Cola employees can get fired for being seen drinking a Pepsi; for an executive leader of the company to encourage this kind of behavior from the top is absolutely outstanding. It also says a lot about his integrity. Yes, I think he still has to deliver (I get the SHOW ME THE GAMES!), but I think that he definitely deserves some time to get it right, too. I also agree that Microsoft probably has to deliver big this year or else the masses will call BS on him.
 
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OneBadMutha said:
Just my opinion as an outsider, Spencer has good vision and good high level strategies. His heart seems like it’s in the right place as he shows a clear understanding of gamers. When it comes to the details and executing, projects haven’t lived up to expectations under him. Meyerson has been a pain for the Xbox division as he didn’t have a big picture holistic view of their portfolio and needed everything to pay for itself in a vacuum (which explains the heavy emphasis on Halo, Gears and Forza with smaller budget stuff in-between). But the demise of Lionhead and Platinums first failure from one of their AAA teams directly happened under Spencer. I said this years Crackdown, Sea of Thieves and State of Decay would be very interesting because they are he first big projects that spent 95% of their development time under this leadership team. So far, 2 of those games look like they’ll fall well short of the expectations and the one that looks good (State of Decay) played it extremely safe.

Sony has found a template that’s working. Horizon ZD had major development struggles but they got back on track. The developers of God of War had half the staff layed off and canceled their original project but got back on track with a game that didn’t use the same formula as the previous games in the franchise. Sony’s management has clearly found a formula. They give their developers space but when there’s trouble, they have figured out how to right the ship. Every game is highly polished with similar great animations and visuals. I think each business needs some assemblance of a structure and the creativity has to happen between the lines. Sony has found the balance that Microsoft is far away on. They need to bring in more leaders who can fix it. I don’t think they can from within. Spencer, Ross, Loftis and co have had a large enough sample size to prove they need help.
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Appreciate your insights. You seem plugged into their studios and what they're doing. You definitely know more about the situation than I do. But based on what I do know, I agree with what you're saying; it makes sense.

One thing I notice, from my own outsider perspective, is that so much responsibility seems to get focused on Phil Spencer. If something good happens, Phil gets the credit. If something isn't coming together well, Phil gets the blame. It seems a little distorted. I know he's in charge, and I know "the buck stops here," but you don't really see the equivalent thing at Sony or Nintendo. If something goes well, people don't praise Shawn Layden. They praise the development team, or they praise Sony generally. If something is lacking, people don't focus on what Shawn Layden needs to do. They harp about Sony. Same with Nintendo. Good things happen, Nintendo in general gets praise, not an individual leader; same with blame. But at MS, everything is about what Phil is doing, for good or ill. It's kind of odd.
 
At the end of the day it comes down to money. Is 3rd place still profitable for Microsoft? If so then their strategy is working just fine. It cost Sony a ton of money to make all these awesome 1st party games exclusive to their system, and PSVR was a big investment too. When everything is balanced at the end of the year how far behind Sony is MS really?
 
Andy said:
Appreciate your insights. You seem plugged into their studios and what they're doing. You definitely know more about the situation than I do. But based on what I do know, I agree with what you're saying; it makes sense.

One thing I notice, from my own outsider perspective, is that so much responsibility seems to get focused on Phil Spencer. If something good happens, Phil gets the credit. If something isn't coming together well, Phil gets the blame. It seems a little distorted. I know he's in charge, and I know "the buck stops here," but you don't really see the equivalent thing at Sony or Nintendo. If something goes well, people don't praise Shawn Layden. They praise the development team, or they praise Sony generally. If something is lacking, people don't focus on what Shawn Layden needs to do. They harp about Sony. Same with Nintendo. Good things happen, Nintendo in general gets praise, not an individual leader; same with blame. But at MS, everything is about what Phil is doing, for good or ill. It's kind of odd.
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I lay a lot of the blame for their lack of originality when it comes to software at Spencer's feet, he was the GM and then corporate VP of Microsoft Studios when everything went south on the games front. I know it's not all his fault and he wasn't the head honcho but I would think someone with the positions he held at the time had a pretty significant say in what was and wasn't approved.

You are right about it seeming like it's all about Phil with MS, then again I think he's the one that pushes himself out there a lot of the time.
 
Andy said:
Appreciate your insights. You seem plugged into their studios and what they're doing. You definitely know more about the situation than I do. But based on what I do know, I agree with what you're saying; it makes sense.

One thing I notice, from my own outsider perspective, is that so much responsibility seems to get focused on Phil Spencer. If something good happens, Phil gets the credit. If something isn't coming together well, Phil gets the blame. It seems a little distorted. I know he's in charge, and I know "the buck stops here," but you don't really see the equivalent thing at Sony or Nintendo. If something goes well, people don't praise Shawn Layden. They praise the development team, or they praise Sony generally. If something is lacking, people don't focus on what Shawn Layden needs to do. They harp about Sony. Same with Nintendo. Good things happen, Nintendo in general gets praise, not an individual leader; same with blame. But at MS, everything is about what Phil is doing, for good or ill. It's kind of odd.
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A lot has to do with the state of Xbox when he took over. It’s like a general manager of a sports team taking over a franchise in disarray. If he gets it back to respectable quick, he earns equity and leeway. Spencer took over a really bad situation and pivoted as quick as he could without Microsoft giving him a blank check to bail the division out. Now he’s the boss. The equity will get used up if the 1st party doesn’t do something bold soon. Booty is now overseeing the studios. Xbox fans will have to hope Spencer’s first major appointment is a good one.
 
de3d1 said:
Blinx: The Time Sweeper $9.99

Breakdown $9.99

Conker: Live and Reloaded $9.99

Hunter: The Reckoning $14.99

Jade Empire $9.99

Morrowind $14.99

Panzer Dragoon Orta $9.99

SSX 3 $9.99


These games are available now to buy and will be available to play on the 17th. It's exciting, like we're getting 20+ remasters to chose from in a month.

Definitely getting Morrowind, Jade Empire, and Conker. Breakdown was a super underrated gem, I still have the hardcopy.
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I’m really excited about this group of games. Outside of God of War and State of Decay, I think I’ll be playing all BC games until Red Dead 2 comes out.
For whatever reason, BC has made me realize that I liked game design better last two generations. This gen things have gotten too formulaic.
 
Not sure why MS needs to wait till E3 to announce new games. Do it tomorrow.
 
JinCA said:
I lay a lot of the blame for their lack of originality when it comes to software at Spencer's feet, he was the GM and then corporate VP of Microsoft Studios when everything went south on the games front. I know it's not all his fault and he wasn't the head honcho but I would think someone with the positions he held at the time had a pretty significant say in what was and wasn't approved.

You are right about it seeming like it's all about Phil with MS, then again I think he's the one that pushes himself out there a lot of the time.
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I definitely can see your point and do agree, though in large corporations there are decisions that just come from above that you have to run with. I have seen it personally in small companies that I have been involved with.

You have an established program, board wants it gone, hire new guy, can the program, new guy gets the blame.

not saying any of this happened with phil when he was in games or moving up, just a thought.

Though as a gamer for 30 years and primarily xbox the last 15, I am very pleased with where the company sits right now and hopefully the direction it keeps going.
 
Hedon said:
Not sure why MS needs to wait till E3 to announce new games. Do it tomorrow.
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...Don't people (and "journalists") already like to claim that such and such company "won" E3? I think that announcing tomorrow would be a really bad plan.
 
MS knows they need to deliver this E3. With God of War scoring into the stratosphere ,Spider Man is sure to do the same, MS really doesn't have a choice.

As I said before, it was the same way before the release of the X, and they deliveredin spades. It'll happen again with the games this E3. First party games are the focus now. Live was first, hardware was next. All that's left is software. They'll deliver... Telling you, bruvs; expect some MAJOR announcements during E3.

If MS drops the ball, they've had it.
 
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GordoSan said:
More humble-ness from Phil:

God Of War PS4: Xbox One Boss Congratulates Sony On Review Scores

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/god-of-war-ps4-xbox-one-boss-congratulates-sony-on/1100-6458219/
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The main issue with this being Sony heads would never congratulate him back, not because they are jerks but because.....they have no games to congratulate him for.

I'm a long time Xbox fanboy, but these are interesting times. Me and the boys right now are hooked on PUBG and sadly it's kind of a mess on Xbox. Everyday someone in the group is like come on guys lets just build gaming PCs...
 
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GordoSan said:
...Don't people (and "journalists") already like to claim that such and such company "won" E3? I think that announcing tomorrow would be a really bad plan.
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With global trade shows now getting new game announcements and some companies holding their own events later in the year like PSX it would seem that "winning E3" is becoming far less important than it used to be. You can win E3 showing games that aren't coming out for 2 or 3 years so how meaningful has it ever really been anyway?
 
Dread Fox said:
The main issue with this being Sony heads would never congratulate him back, not because they are jerks but because.....they have no games to congratulate him for.

I'm a long time Xbox fanboy, but these are interesting times. Me and the boys right now are hooked on PUBG and sadly it's kind of a mess on Xbox. Everyday someone in the group is like come on guys lets just build gaming PCs...
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That's bs..They were quiet as a mouse when Forza Horizon 3 reviews came out.
 
Thought I'd try Ghost Recon: Wildlands out sine they had a free weekend going, ended up spending the vast majority of my Saturday playing the game, and I wound up buying the Gold version while it was on sale. I know it's been said before, but that game is incredibly beautiful on the X. Probably the best looking open world I've seen on a console, draw distance is crazy, you can see sooooooo far. I'm still happy with how the X brings new life into older games, particularly since you can usually buy those games on discount by the time they're enhanced!
 
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