Support NeoGAF

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Jesus...
When we got from "Xbox would make Call of Duty exclusive if they were not forced by contracts" to "Xbox is on path of being third party" in span of few months?

Or is "Xbox is on path of being third party" new version of "Microsoft is going out from gaming business" that was parroted in last decade?

When Xbox hardware transitions to NUC-style gaming PCs & laptops openly sideloading Windows 12 alongside an Xbox UI, and Microsoft commits all games going forward as multiplat, remember where you heard it first

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Booty will still get the axe before her. I still anticipate he'll be fired by the end of next year.

She's in a tough position, what's even more strange is that they have a COO of Microsoft Gaming and it isn't her.

Hard to tell from this org chart if she is in charge of GamePass or not. If she's just in charge of Xbox hardware, she doesn't really have a job or a future. That's kind of a promotion to nowhere, that I'd take the title and jump ship to someplace else before the bottom drops out.

With Booty in charge of the games, what levers does she have over the hardware? The price, revisions, whether or not they release a pro model? R&D on a next-gen unit?

Like if you think about it, there is no equivalent at Sony, that's Jim Ryan. So unless they are prepping for her to takeover for Phil, this doesn't add up and if that was the case you think they'd have made her COO of Microsoft Gaming.

I legit hope Sarah does a good job. If she can whoop the Xbox 1st party studios into shape and get a steady stream of high quality exclusives, I will easily be her number one fan.

 

[SportsFan581]

Yeah. They for sure specified that Kotick is staying until end of 2023 because they will keep him in 2024...
Bruh. If the intended to keep him they would not use phrases like "I will help with transition period" and "until the end of 2023." They would have said "Bobby Kotick is staying as head of ABK"

Kotick will be gone in January. He has no reason to stay. He got his money, he can retire rich as fuck.

He doesn't seem like the type that would want to be anything else but the top dog, the fact that he would be an employee vs. an owner might not work for him anyway. Have they said who is transitioning into his position?

 

[GHG]

I legit hope Sarah does a good job. If she can whoop the Xbox 1st party studios into shape and get a steady stream of high quality exclusives, I will easily be her number one fan.

What does she know about developing games though?

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I legit hope Sarah does a good job. If she can whoop the Xbox 1st party studios into shape and get a steady stream of high quality exclusives, I will easily be her number one fan.

But she isn't in charge of the games...

 

[graywolf323]

I legit hope Sarah does a good job. If she can whoop the Xbox 1st party studios into shape and get a steady stream of high quality exclusives, I will easily be her number one fan.

sadly the games are still under Matt Booty

The kerning is atrocious. That's not even the worse one. Look at Tim Stuart and Ami Silverman, those look so bad. How did nobody notice it before sending out that pic.

I mean it’s not like they’re a massive tech company that also has a suite of office products that they could have made this in & made it look professional

 

[Godot25]

He doesn't seem like the type that would want to be anything else but the top dog, the fact that he would be an employee vs. an owner might not work for him anyway. Have they said who is transitioning into his position?

Nope. But I think that his position is not needed anymore. Microsoft can have Mike Ybarra as head of Blizzard, Kostich as head of Activision and some random guy as head of King and they will be reporting to Booty, Bond or Spencer

 

[Three]

Yeah. They for sure specified that Kotick is staying until end of 2023 because they will keep him in 2024...
Bruh. If the intended to keep him they would not use phrases like "I will help with transition period" and "until the end of 2023." They would have said "Bobby Kotick is staying as head of ABK"

Kotick will be gone in January. He has no reason to stay. He got his money, he can retire rich as fuck.

He very well might leave but I'm just saying nobody has actually confirmed "he has until" the end of 2023. As if they are confirming they want to give him the boot but can't yet. Only that he is staying on till then at the minimum because MS/Phil wanted him to. They may end up extending his contract even further as GHG suggested. That's if Bobby is happy staying on.

 

[Dick Jones]

Nope. But I think that his position is not needed anymore. Microsoft can have Mike Ybarra as head of Blizzard, Kostich as head of Activision and some random guy as head of King and they will be reporting to Booty, Bond or Spencer

Has anyone actually seen Robert Kostich in real life? I think it's a made up name for Bobby Kotick so when he leaves, he stays in place.

 

[March Climber]

I legit hope Sarah does a good job. If she can whoop the Xbox 1st party studios into shape and get a steady stream of high quality exclusives, I will easily be her number one fan.

It begins, again. Matt Booty will keep getting away with it while all the blame goes to Spencer(and now Sarah).

On a side note all 3 of them have 70s Bond villain last names(maybe not Sarah...unless she's Bond's secret evil cousin or something).

 

[clintar]

Phil Spencer promoted to Chief Master in charge of Squint Smiling for Microsoft.

 

[nowhat]

WTF is this letter spacing?

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Someone REALLY wants to get laid…

 

[SportsFan581]

I love the twitter handle for Bond. I guess if your name is bond you basically have to do it.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

Jesus...
When we got from "Xbox would make Call of Duty exclusive if they were not forced by contracts" to "Xbox is on path of being third party" in span of few months?

Or is "Xbox is on path of being third party" new version of "Microsoft is going out from gaming business" that was parroted in last decade?

They go through cycles of repeating the same bullshit. Same with GamePass. It’s like clockwork, almost like they go through seasons of it like the weather.

 

[March Climber]

Someone REALLY wants to get laid…

To be fair to him, Bond is such a cool last name that almost any title before it will have a nice ring to it.

 

[graywolf323]

Someone REALLY wants to get laid…

‘journalist‘

 

[jm89]

Xbox fanbase are the best.

 

[graywolf323]

Xbox fanbase are the best.

does anyone have a link to that one? to be fair to him he’s denying he made that tweet

 

[adamsapple]

Xbox fanbase are the best.

Damn y'all out here fabricating fake tweets now, it must be worse than I thought

 

[RoboFu]

Good luck? I am all For it. Might as while let other people try…

 

[jm89]

Damn y'all out here fabricating fake tweets now, it must be worse than I thought

Lol fair enough that might be fake, i came across it on twitter.

But let's not pretend people aren't gushing over xbox execs.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

What does a CELA do? I'm talking about that "Linda" Norman person.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

He very well might leave but I'm just saying nobody has actually confirmed "he has until" the end of 2023. As if they are confirming they want to give him the boot but can't yet. Only that he is staying on till then at the minimum because MS/Phil wanted him to. They may end up extending his contract even further as GHG suggested. That's if Bobby is happy staying on.

Honestly I think they're gonna keep Kotick on as an advisor or consultant at the very least. Whatever he's managed to make ABK so profitable, they will want that knowledge and guidance for the Zenimax and XGS studios, too. Just makes too much sense.

Now let's see if they can avoid turning all those studios into support devs for a single IP among their branch, because uh, that's kind of how Bobby managed to keep COD content coming regularly. They dumped almost every other IP to the curb, at least among Activision side.

 

[Negotiator101]

Phil is like the Godfather.

 

[spons]

With Sarah Bond now being responsible for everything, it makes me wonder what Phil is still doing here.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

 

[Ansphn]

Now we know whose the scapegoat if Xbox goes 3rd party. While Phil gets to be safe sitting as head of Microsoft games.

 

[Ansphn]

Matt Booty must be giving his booty to Phil to get promoted. No way should a man this incompetent be given a bigger role.

Don't say that lmao.. adamsapple will get jealous.

 

[adamsapple]

 

[March Climber]

Time to change those walls and these logos to green:

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Phil is like the Godfather.

So he's threatening the BoD to keep him employed, with blackmail and extortion?

Sounds plausible.

This dude probably got a Sarah Bond waifu pillow.

 

[NonPhixion]

So what’s “Xbox’s new position in gaming.” that he speaks of?

 

[adamsapple]

Phil is like the Godfather.

 

[graywolf323]

what are you going to do if Phil gets sent to prison for a murder he didn’t commit? because he took the fall for Satya

 

[Ozriel]

I doubt it. You don't do a reorg only to have to reorg again a couple of months later when someone leaves.

It won’t be a full reorg to shuffle ABK. They’re already going to announce senior leadership changes when Kotick leaves, anyway

 

[Topher]

It won’t be a full reorg to shuffle ABK. They’re already going to announce senior leadership changes when Kotick leaves, anyway

Yeah, but that's internal to ABK, not ABK's position in Microsoft Gaming. But why do this? To satiate Kotick's ego? I guess that's possible, but still think it is unlikely.

 

[MoreJRPG]

So what’s “Xbox’s new position in gaming.” that he speaks of?

Leader in revenue I’m guessing now that COD and King are under the umbrella?

 

[SHA]

CEO of woke.









Just kidding.

 

[SHA]

Phil's new role is mobile, he got the attitude.

 

[simpatico]

Finally a true hardcore gamer is in charge. I know she will connect with the most hardcore Xbox fans and right the ship

 

[Barakov]

Someone REALLY wants to get laid…

Corden always has this kind of energy

 

[ReBurn]

Sarah x Lulu, the dream team.

Lulu is cute and all but I bet her role is eliminated when they inevitably clean house on Activision's senior leadership in the next few months and eliminate duplicate positions.

 

[adamsapple]

Lulu is cute and all but I bet her role is eliminated when they inevitably clean house on Activision's senior leadership in the next few months and eliminate duplicate positions.

It will be the first and only Onlyfans I subscribe to.

 

[damiank]

Is that a Booty call?

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Interesting theory here. So, basically, the idea is Sarah is being dead-ended? And that this might be due to failure of growth for Game Pass?

Well that would kinda suck for her; Game Pass wasn't her pitch, it was Good Guy Phil™'s. But growing that type of model without, y'know, games, was always going to be hard with a brand facing declining relevance. So if she's not in a position to take Phil's spot if he retires, and the COO is, then hopefully the COO has an actually refreshing perspective for Xbox hardware.

Personally I think Microsoft might actually be planning to transition Xbox off the normal console business model altogether, after all. And they're having Sarah Bond oversee all of that. Whether she stays on after that transition is complete is anyone's guess but it is rather damning she's the only one among the flock with a position explicitly related to Xbox and not Microsoft Gaming.

Of course a lot of this is my own ideas for the brand; the traditional console business model isn't a winning game or suitable avenue for Microsoft going forward. They don't have to stop making gaming hardware, but they would benefit much more aligning it significantly closer to PC and Windows at the consumer end.

The only future I would see here is Microsoft Gaming Studios folding into ABK (including Zenimax) as it will never make sense to continue GamePass without Xbox.

And if you have no Xbox or GamePass, what value is MGS? 343 should probably be shut down. It probably makes more sense to roll Rare under ABK and let them try their best shot at Crash and Spyro with support from Toys for Bob. What other IP does MGS have?

Zenimax is in a lot of trouble. Arkane like 343 should probably be shut down. Tango will probably be shut down within the next 4-5 years but probably sooner. So you really only have id and bethesda and no one really cares about machinegames.

 

[Withnail]

Pretty clear sign that Activision Blizzard is part of MS Gaming but not part of Xbox. Led by everybody’s favourite gaming exec Bobby Kotick

And nothing about this suggests it’s temporary either.

 

[Darsxx82]

The only future I would see here is Microsoft Gaming Studios folding into ABK (including Zenimax) as it will never make sense to continue GamePass without Xbox.

And if you have no Xbox or GamePass, what value is MGS? 343 should probably be shut down. It probably makes more sense to roll Rare under ABK and let them try their best shot at Crash and Spyro with support from Toys for Bob. What other IP does MGS have?

Zenimax is in a lot of trouble. Arkane like 343 should probably be shut down. Tango will probably be shut down within the next 4-5 years but probably sooner. So you really only have id and bethesda and no one really cares about machinegames.

 

[SportsFan581]

This announcement is doing double duty as the official MS gaming conspiracy thread. I guess the post lobotomy takes fit Halloween with kind of an escaped asylum patient vibe.

 

[Goalus]

The only future I would see here is Microsoft Gaming Studios folding into ABK (including Zenimax) as it will never make sense to continue GamePass without Xbox.

And if you have no Xbox or GamePass, what value is MGS? 343 should probably be shut down. It probably makes more sense to roll Rare under ABK and let them try their best shot at Crash and Spyro with support from Toys for Bob. What other IP does MGS have?

Zenimax is in a lot of trouble. Arkane like 343 should probably be shut down. Tango will probably be shut down within the next 4-5 years but probably sooner. So you really only have id and bethesda and no one really cares about machinegames.

Sony fired two of their execs.
MS promoted two of their execs.
That seems to have hurt you a lot.