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[James Sawyer Ford]

I think any time you acquire Minecraft, Zenimax and Activision, you are going to be nominated by default. He's getting things done and thats what people like to see on resumes.

But if you look a bit deeper, cracks begin to emerge but I dont think thats what these awards care about. it's more of a big picture kind of thing.

Yeah

I mean, if they had Timdog as gaming CEO, gave him a blank check, he'd do all of these fanboy wishlist things too LMAO.....oh yeah? Let's just buy out the entire industry and give games away for free.

Now....if he had developed groundbreaking games/studios that generate yearly GOTY caliber titles like the competition does, that is ACTUALLY very friggin' difficult to do...and maybe he wouldn't be in a position to where he needed to bring out his thermonuclear blank check options.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Really all you're saying is "no it sucks." That's fine. Guess everyone nominating him is wrong.

Most of them nominating him are big corp shills, and like I said, he's been at the head of xbox like 2-3x longer than the average gaming exec tenure.

So him winning awards is more of a longevity thing than it is about his great performance.

 

[Punished Miku]

Yeah

I mean, if they had Timdog as gaming CEO, gave him a blank check, he'd do all of these fanboy wishlist things too LMAO.....oh yeah? Let's just buy out the entire industry and give games away for free.

Now....if he had developed groundbreaking games/studios that generate yearly GOTY caliber titles like the competition does, that is ACTUALLY very friggin' difficult to do...and maybe he wouldn't be in a position to where he needed to bring out his thermonuclear blank check options.

No one gives you anything. You have to be trusted and respected enough to propose projects that people feel are worthy of investment. I don't know what you even think people in his position do, but you seem deeply offended that MS is investing money.

 

[SlimySnake]

At this point, I must be the only one who sees right past his slimy smile.
"we all play we all win" bs is destroying the industry and people eat this shit up
GP will lead to massive gaming devaluation if it's too popular.... like netflix

There is a DF clip floating around twitter where Richard brings up how they track sales data and Xbox game sales have crashed. He said sales are down 80%!!! I brought this up when I saw that Forza Horizon barely managed to crack the top 20 and still ended up behind flops like Back4Blood and a 2019 game like mortal kombat 11. Halo didnt even enter the top 20. Halo used to sell 3.3 million in the first weekend alone. Is gamepass revenue going to be enough to offset an 80% drop in sales?

Halo is a dying franchise, but if Starfield doesnt do Elden Rings numbers and fails to hit 10 million in the first year, i bet they are going to rethink their gamepass strategy if they arent already. They pretty much HAVE to release Starfield on Steam and I think they will get 5 million sales there easily, if not in the first month alone. Bethesda has always had a huge PC fanbase. But anything below 10 million for Starfield is going to look really bad on Phil Spencer since Gamepass is his baby.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

No one gives you anything. You have to be trusted and respected enough to propose projects that people feel are worthy of investment. I don't know what you even think people in his position do, but you seem deeply offended that MS is investing money.

Being trusted and respected is just part of the job as CEO. I think that Nadella has so much money he doesn't care to actually hold Phil accountable, and Nadella is clueless on games so he's just willing to run with it.

I am not deeply offended at all that MS is investing money. But they aren't investing in the right things and are just pissing money away unproductively. Phil Spencer should have been shown the door years ago.

 

[Punished Miku]

Being trusted and respected is just part of the job as CEO.

Obviously. So why are you comparing him to TimDog like he's a total moron?

 

[Unknown?]

This is as silly as Ben "Helicopter" Bernanke getting the Nobel prize in economics.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Being trusted and respected is just part of the job as CEO. I think that Nadella has so much money he doesn't care to actually hold Phil accountable, and Nadella is clueless on games so he's just willing to run with it.

I am not deeply offended at all the MS is investing money. But they aren't investing in the right things and are just pissing money away unproductively. Phil Spencer should have been shown the door years ago.

Thought I remember seeing a month or so ago that game pass is profitable

And I sure don't consider MS buying things like Act/King or Minecraft pissing away money

Maybe I missed something else in the conversation

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Obviously. So why are you comparing him to TimDog like he's a total moron?

Because Phil's strategy is about as moronic as a fanboy with a blank check. Again, not very hard to make some of these moves with an unlimited supply of cash to throw around. Hard to actually cultivate a studio/management structure that's good at making groundbreaking games.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Thought I remember seeing a month or so ago that game pass is profitable

And I sure don't consider MS buying things like Act/King or Minecraft pissing away money

Maybe I missed something else in the conversation

The GamePass profitability claims are vague, non-specific, and are clearly omitting ongoing Dev Costs from their operations. Some like to hand wave this away, but it is the absolute truth

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

The GamePass profitability claims are vague, non-specific, and are clearly omitting ongoing Dev Costs from their operations. Some like to hand wave this away, but it is the absolute truth

So reading between the lines its losing money?

Got it

 

[The_Mike]

EviLore we really need that Phil Spencer award for the person he's living most rent free inside this year.

 

[FoxMcChief]

If he’s not #1 on it, you know he’s #1 here, in all our hearts.

Have you guys heard about the gospel of Game Pass?

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

So reading between the lines its losing money?

Got it

I believe so. Microsoft never reveals the nitty gritty details. The profitability claims are based on Revenue from Subs minus the costs of securing outside content. But there's no way it's including the cost of Microsoft's Game Studios. But as SlimySnake mentioned, retail sales for games on GP have tanked massively. So to be completely fair, some portion of the dev costs MUST be placed against GamePass costs, which is extremely expensive and something they are not doing.

Phil even mentioned they will need to raise GP prices in the future. If GP is wildly profitable on its own that wouldn't really be necessary.

 

[SlimySnake]

Being trusted and respected is just part of the job as CEO. I think that Nadella has so much money he doesn't care to actually hold Phil accountable, and Nadella is clueless on games so he's just willing to run with it.

I am not deeply offended at all the MS is investing money. But they aren't investing in the right things and are just pissing money away unproductively. Phil Spencer should have been shown the door years ago.

This. Can anyone here really say that spending $3.5 billion on Minecraft in 2014 was a good idea? Especially since they had just killed off Lionhead studios, killed the Coalition Games new IP, and would go on to cancel Scalebound just months later? It effectively hampered them for the remainder of that generation.

Same goes for the zenimax purchase. Who asked for this? He had actually done a great job acquiring a bunch of second party studios they had a relationship with, helped coailition and Playground studios grow into AAA studios, and even created a new studio from scratch, and shouldve spent those $8 billion making them bigger and more productive. Instead, he effectively sidelined Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Playground Games, Coalition, Initiative and undead labs for the next 2 years. Just bizarre considering he had a blank check from nadella.

Contracting Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dyanmics to help make first party games is such a shortsighted move it's crazy that a CEO who get paid for seeing the bigger picture is making such a short term bandaid move and getting rewarded for it. You have to grow your studios. open up satallite studios. buy asian and european support studios if you cant find any in the U.S. if you are in it for the long term, then hire long term and kick this bs contractor habit once in for all.

 

[JTCx]

I mean, if they had Timdog as gaming CEO, gave him a blank check, he'd do all of these fanboy wishlist things too LMAO.....oh yeah? Let's just buy out the entire industry and give games away for free.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

This. Can anyone here really say that spending $3.5 billion on Minecraft in 2014 was a good idea? Especially since they had just killed off Lionhead studios, killed the Coalition Games new IP, and would go on to cancel Scalebound just months later? It effectively hampered them for the remainder of that generation.

Same goes for the zenimax purchase. Who asked for this? He had actually done a great job acquiring a bunch of second party studios they had a relationship with, helped coailition and Playground studios grow into AAA studios, and even created a new studio from scratch, and shouldve spent those $8 billion making them bigger and more productive. Instead, he effectively sidelined Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Playground Games, Coalition, Initiative and undead labs for the next 2 years. Just bizarre considering he had a blank check from nadella.

Contracting Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dyanmics to help make first party games is such a shortsighted move it's crazy that a CEO who get paid for seeing the bigger picture is making such a short term bandaid move and getting rewarded for it. You have to grow your studios. open up satallite studios. buy asian and european support studios if you cant find any in the U.S. if you are in it for the long term, then hire long term and kick this bs contractor habit once in for all.

Yeah, it's possible that Crystal Dynamics stops working with MS.

The next Tomb Raider is an Amazon game. So who is going to continue making these games for MS if they lose CD support?

 

[FoxMcChief]

At this point, I must be the only one who sees right past his slimy smile.
"we all play we all win" bs is destroying the industry and people eat this shit up
GP will lead to massive gaming devaluation if it's too popular.... like netflix

But didn’t Xbox just say they’re raising the price of their games? You know, for the suckers not on game pass.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

This. Can anyone here really say that spending $3.5 billion on Minecraft in 2014 was a good idea? Especially since they had just killed off Lionhead studios, killed the Coalition Games new IP, and would go on to cancel Scalebound just months later? It effectively hampered them for the remainder of that generation.

Pretty sure it was 2.5 billion and a quick search show Minecraft generated close to 500 million in revenue in 2020 and 2021 alone so yeah looks like a pretty good investment imo

 

[Punished Miku]

Hard to actually cultivate a studio/management structure that's good at making groundbreaking games.

I dont even think that is his job right now or really the concerns of people handing out business awards. Games come from artists, directors and producers. The people above them can greenlight or veto game ideas. The people above them can try and give more resources to studio heads. The people above them are making big deals that affect the whole company in content, staffing and services like Phil.

Studio management is done more on the ground level and its different for each studio. Each one has their own work culture. Its not dictated from top down. Sucker punch works differently than Naughty Dog. The most anyone like Phil is doing that affects content like in your fantasy is giving them money and time. Thats it. I genuinely think you have no clue what his job even is or why he's being recognized multiple times from different organizations.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

I dont even think that is his job right now or really the concerns of people handing out business awards. Games come from artists, directors and producers. The people above them can greenlight or veto game ideas. The people above them can try and give more resources to studio heads. The people above them are making big deals that affect the whole company in content, staffing and services like Phil.

Studio management is done more on the ground level and its different for each studio. Each one has their own work culture. Its not dictated from top down. Sucker punch works differently than Naughty Dog. The most anyone like Phil is doing that affects content like in your fantasy is giving them money and time. Thats it. I genuinely think you have no clue what his job even is or why he's being recognized multiple times from different organizations.

He's the friggin' head guy of Xbox.

Of course it's his job to ensure that the Game Studios are being adequately run. The buck stops there. If Studio management is not being run well on the ground level, who has the clout to make the necessary changes? It's Phil. Yet Matt Booty still has a job.

 

[Punished Miku]

He's the friggin' head guy of Xbox.

Of course it's his job to ensure that the Game Studios are being adequately run. The buck stops there. If Studio management is not being run well on the ground level, who has the clout to make the necessary changes? It's Phil. Yet Matt Booty still has a job.

This is not what any of these awards are about. Not even slightly.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

This is not what any of these awards are about. Not even slightly.

Microsoft is in the business of selling games/consoles/services, so yes it is directly about that.

 

[SlimySnake]

Pretty sure it was 2.5 billion and a quick search show Minecraft generated close to 500 million in revenue in 2020 and 2021 alone so yeah looks like a pretty good investment imo

It was announced as a $2.5 billion deal, but I remember seeing the $3.5 billion number when it eventually closed. Kinda like how Activision deal was announced as a $69 billion deal but then later it was revealed to be around $75 billion.

Regardless, even if it was $2.5 billion and it paid itself off in 5 years, it was not a good deal at the time. Especially not for the day one xbox one owners who bought the console on the promise of new IPs, third party deals like scalebound, sunset, titanfall, ryse that all went MIA after the minecraft deal. They punted that entire generation. Some 7 years plus the last two. Glad that they are able to bring in half a billion every year, but MS makes $40 billion in profits every year so it's not like they were hurting for more revenue.

 

[Punished Miku]

Microsoft is in the business of selling games/consoles/services, so yes it is directly about that.

Its not. Literally a fact that its not. He's been recognized over and over for different reasons than youre acknowledging.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Its not. Literally a fact that its not. He's been recognized over and over for different reasons than youre acknowledging.

It's a business award. His business is in games. Game development is part of that.

This isn't rocket science.

 

[Punished Miku]

It's a business award. His business is in games. Game development is part of that.

This isn't rocket science.

None of the awards are concerned with game development.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

None of the awards are concerned with game development.

Okay. What's your point?

Mine is, he shouldn't be given an award for GamePass. There's nothing unqiue about it. It's blank check business strategy, that is likely ushered in BECAUSE their first party studios are in such bad shape.

So, a failing of Phil's should not be turned into an award for something he was forced to pivot to.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

It was announced as a $2.5 billion deal, but I remember seeing the $3.5 billion number when it eventually closed. Kinda like how Activision deal was announced as a $69 billion deal but then later it was revealed to be around $75 billion.

Regardless, even if it was $2.5 billion and it paid itself off in 5 years, it was not a good deal at the time. Especially not for the day one xbox one owners who bought the console on the promise of new IPs, third party deals like scalebound, sunset, titanfall, ryse that all went MIA after the minecraft deal. They punted that entire generation. Some 7 years plus the last two. Glad that they are able to bring in half a billion every year, but MS makes $40 billion in profits every year so it's not like they were hurting for more revenue.

I am a pretty huge investor into properties mainly and if I can pay for something in 5 years then its a great investment.

And anyone who bought a whole console hoping for those games you mentioned Scalebound looks like shit and needed to die and from what I remember Ryse flopped and don't remember what Sunset or Titanfall did

I have a hard time imagining all those games together would bring in what Minecraft continues to bring in

Like I have said to others we can agree to disagree and I really do appreciate your input as I have always respected your posts but in my honest opinion your argument doesn't make much sense to me

 

[Punished Miku]

Okay. What's your point?

Mine is, he shouldn't be given an award for GamePass. There's nothing unqiue about it. It's blank check business strategy, that is likely ushered in BECAUSE their first party studios are in such bad shape.

So, a failing of Phil's should not be turned into an award for something he was forced to pivot to.

Its a business award. Literally the only things you CAN do are invest, make deals or change broad strategy goals or broad brand perception. He did all of that. You literally act like you don't know what his job is, what kind of actions someone in his job takes, or what any of the awards are even about. Thats my point. He deserves the awards very obviously

 

[FoxMcChief]

Okay. What's your point?

Mine is, he shouldn't be given an award for GamePass. There's nothing unqiue about it. It's blank check business strategy, that is likely ushered in BECAUSE their first party studios are in such bad shape.

So, a failing of Phil's should not be turned into an award for something he was forced to pivot to.

He’s created great relationships with game companies around the world to join in his new gaming platform. A platform that can be played on phones, web browsers, PC’s, Xbox Consoles and soon built into TV’s.

Yeah, that’s something, no matter how much you try to downplay it as a blank check strategy. You think you can walk into a tech company and ask for funds to start a subscription service, and have it praised world wide?

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Its a business award. Literally the only things you CAN do are invest, make deals or change broad strategy goals or broad brand perception. He did all of that. You literally act like you don't know what his job is, what kind of actions someone in his job takes, or what any of the awards are even about. Thats my point. He deserves the awards very obviously

Invest: He failed to invest in gaming Studios.

Make Deals: He's given a $100B handout from Microsoft office/cloud divisions. The fact that they have to use the thermonuclear option is a failure on his part.

Change broad strategy: GamePass. Because he failed at Investing adequately for the past 10 years

So no, there's no brilliance of Phil. The whole reason he went on a buying spree and GamePass subsidizing spree is because nobody would buy their consoles otherwise since he's continually failed at recapturing the magic of the Xbox/360 era where they had genuinely exciting first party titles.

 

[JackMcGunns]

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

 

[Chukhopops]

He’s created great relationships with game companies around the world to join in his new gaming platform. A platform that can be played on phones, web browsers, PC’s, Xbox Consoles and soon built into TV’s.

Yeah, that’s something, no matter how much you try to downplay it as a blank check strategy. You think you can walk into a tech company and ask for funds to start a subscription service, and have it praised world wide?

Don’t forget succeeding at getting Japanese developers like RGG, Atlus, Cyberconnect2, Spike Chunsoft, Level-5 and (soon) ArcSys to either port games to Xbox or go full multiplat.

One of the biggest past weaknesses of Xbox is now reduced to Square Enix and NIS. If you don’t see it as an achievement then you haven’t been following Xbox history.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Don’t forget succeeding at getting Japanese developers like RGG, Atlus, Cyberconnect2, Spike Chunsoft, Level-5 and (soon) ArcSys to either port games to Xbox or go full multiplat.

One of the biggest past weaknesses of Xbox is now reduced to Square Enix and NIS. If you don’t see it as an achievement then you haven’t been following Xbox history.

And yet this stunning achievement in Japanese gaming relations still has Final Fantasy 16 as exclusive to playstation.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Don’t forget succeeding at getting Japanese developers like RGG, Atlus, Cyberconnect2, Spike Chunsoft, Level-5 and (soon) ArcSys to either port games to Xbox or go full multiplat.

One of the biggest past weaknesses of Xbox is now reduced to Square Enix and NIS. If you don’t see it as an achievement then you haven’t been following Xbox history.

Don’t forget Capcom’s Monster Hunter Rise will be on Game Pass on Day 1. The man has built something special that the other guys are trying to duplicate, but are nowhere near there.

I can’t wait for the update that they said is coming where we will be able to cloud play all our purchased games as well.

 

[FoxMcChief]

And yet this stunning achievement in Japanese gaming relations still has Final Fantasy 16 as exclusive to playstation.

And Monster Hunter Rise is on Game Pass.

Which is the more popular series in 2022-2023, Monster Hunter or Final Fantasy? I ask, because I honestly don’t know.

 

[kiphalfton]

Is anybody legitimately surprised? Considering the way our retarded society has handled "awards" in the past two decades.

Brb...
"You get an award!"
"You get an award!"
"You get an award!"
"Everybody gets an award!!!!!!"

 

[Chukhopops]

And yet this stunning achievement in Japanese gaming relations still has Final Fantasy 16 as exclusive to playstation.

You’re probably not being honest if you don’t see going from almost 0 Japanese support at the beginning of last generation to the current situation this generation as a significant improvement.

Yakuza, Monster Hunter, Persona etc have never seen any Xbox port until 3-4 years ago.

Even SE now has more or less 50% of their games ported to Xbox.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

You’re probably not being honest if you don’t see going from almost 0 Japanese support at the beginning of last generation to the current situation this generation as a significant improvement.

Yakuza, Monster Hunter, Persona etc have never seen any Xbox port until 3-4 years ago.

Even SE now has more or less 50% of their games ported to Xbox.

that's great but it aint such a stunning achievement. most japanese games do most of their sales in the west now, so the fact that its getting ported to xbox isn't surprising since japanese gamers aren't the target audience any longer

 

[FoxMcChief]

that's great but it aint such a stunning achievement. most japanese games do most of their sales in the west now, so the fact that its getting ported to xbox isn't surprising since japanese gamers aren't the target audience any longer

Going from almost nothing to having day 1 releases on game pass is a stunning achievement, no matter how much you continue to try and downplay it.

Who would have guessed we’d see something like this in a Coming Soon section on a Xbox platform(game pass).

 

[Warablo]

Phil Spencer will bring balance to the console wars.

 

[Dick Jones]

You think MS was losing money on hardware in 2019?? Before the XSX/XSS launch?

I don’t know what to tell you.

Xbox consoles have never turned a profit for Microsoft

An executive confirms that in the Epic v. Apple trial.

www.cnet.com

I'd be interested in what you want to tell me

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

All I know is Spencer seems to be the most polarizing guy in gaming and lives rent free in a lot of people's heads

 

[Iced Arcade]

This. Can anyone here really say that spending $3.5 billion on Minecraft in 2014 was a good idea? Especially since they had just killed off Lionhead studios, killed the Coalition Games new IP, and would go on to cancel Scalebound just months later? It effectively hampered them for the remainder of that generation.

LOL what kind of cave dwelling do you live in

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

Its not. Literally a fact that its not. He's been recognized over and over for different reasons than youre acknowledging.

Right, two gaming achievement awards, the current Bloomberg 50 induction, and the lifetime achievement award are different reasons.

Even this OP in the image it doesn't say anything about studios, just that he won because he negotiated the biggest tech AND gaming deal in history. So a different subject.

 

[FoxMcChief]

All I know is Spencer seems to be the most polarizing guy in gaming and lives rent free in a lot of people's heads

I just think that Sony fans are upset that they are losing out on games. I mean, if I was a Sony only gamer, I’d be sad to miss out on all future Bethesda and Activision games.

But all they have to do is sign up for game pass every once in a while and play the games on a web browser. No need to buy an Xbox. Web browser xcloud gaming has been perfect for me. I just got a Victory Royale in Fortnite on it, on my work lunch break.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

more awards than games ZIONKS.

good for him, I hope he gets a raise in FTX coins.

 

[Edgelord79]

Oh no.