Phil Spencer takes over as "Head of XBOX"

Nice one, I like Spencer. He's always respectful of the competition and dealt with the whole launch debacle really well. Good news IMO.
 
Seems like a good choice. Phil Spencer seems to genuinely like games. Congrats to to him and I hope he does well in charge of everything.
 
Great news top guy and a gamer :D
 
Games and gamers have always been at the core of Xbox and the core of my work—and gaming will be our core as we take Xbox forward.

Good to hear - shouldn't have needed saying but given the time they had around E3 last year, not surprising he felt the need to provide that assurance.
 
Phil Spencer is great and what's more the internet likes him. Fantastic move from MS. They're right back in the game now.
 
Best move Microsft has made in a long time. He's a great exec and seems to actually show a passion in the products. He could be the shot in the arm the XBOX division needs
 
Phil Spencer: 'We Need To Win With The Gamers'



PhilSpencerPresenting-610.jpg


Following his appointment as the new head of Xbox, we had a few minutes to speak with Microsoft’s Phil Spencer. During our conversation, Spencer kept returning to a theme of “games first,” marking a chance from how Microsoft has positioned the Xbox One since its reveal in May 2013.

“My goal, first and foremost, is to make sure that everybody understands that Xbox is a gaming brand and it’s going to be gaming first,” Spencer tells us. “That’s a leadership principle that I will bring to the program from day one. It’s not that it hasn’t been there in the past, but if you put the studio guy at the head, you kinda know what you’re going to get.”

Despite this shift in how Microsoft talks about the Xbox One, the company isn’t abandoning the entertainment side of the console. “If you’re going to be an incredible consumer electronics device in the home today, you’re going to do multiple things,” Spencer says. However, he reiterates that gaming will be at the forefront. “We have always been, since the beginning, all about games at Xbox. I want to make sure that shows up not only internally, but also externally.”

Prior to his promotion, Spencer handled first-party game development as the head of Microsoft Studios. His new position also puts him at the head of third-party relationships. This is in part due to the consolidation of the platform team (formerly headed by Marc Whitten), Spencer’s Microsoft Studios teams, and a leadership group for the brand.

Currently, he’s working on getting up to speed with the different groups now under his leadership. E3, which is only two months away, is a major focus for him, though. He tells us that this year’s press conference will be similar to last year’s, focusing largely on games for the 90 minutes.

Unsurprisingly, there will be new announcements and updates on exclusives, the latter of which Spencer places a great deal of significance. “It’s an incredibly important part of what we do as a platform holder, both for us and for our third-party partners,” he says. “It’s one of the things that makes me so happy about Titanfall, not just that it was on our platform, but to see a studio like Respawn – a brand new studio – have such a great success with their first game.”

Spencer is looking to create more success stories like Titanfall. “We need to win with the gamer,” he says. “[Titanfall is] another great testament to how great content leads to incredible usage and sales. It’s something I want every person on the program to understand, that we’ll be leading with gaming on Xbox One.”

Phil Spencer: 'We Need To Win With The Gamers' - News - www.GameInformer.com
 
So not the Phil Spencer from Location location location?

Good to hear about this, great move by MS
 
Smart decision by MS. No reason why Xbox can't get back to its core mission statement - games first - while offering all the entertainment add-ons on top.

I know he's got multiple teams working under him, but damn, he's gonna be busy, he's looking after Xbox, Xbox Live, Xbox Music, Xbox Video AND Microsoft Studios. Still it makes great sense to have one man running all of this.
 
Just seen his bio

Xbox Press Profiles said:
A 25-year veteran of Microsoft, Spencer has held a variety of technical roles including development lead for Microsoft's first CD-ROM-based titles including Encarta, development manager for Microsoft Money, and general manager of Microsoft's online and offline consumer productivity products including Microsoft Works and Microsoft Picture It!

Not linked to gaming but it kind of makes me smile that he worked on Encarta, that bit of software got me through a lot of school reports back in the day!
 
Ive always liked Phil Spencer, he has always been about the gamers. E3 should be interesting for Xbox gamers.
 
Ive always liked Phil Spencer, he has always been about the gamers. E3 should be interesting for Xbox gamers.
I agree. Defo much better than Don Matterick
 
Ive always liked Phil Spencer, he has always been about the gamers. E3 should be interesting for Xbox gamers.
I agree. Defo much better than Don Matterick
 
I agree. Defo much better than Don Matterick

Don Mattrick is a ****er, so glad he left. I don't own an Xbox One at the moment as I feel the only game that would appeal to me at this time is Dead Rising 3, would love to see Phil announcing a Kinectless SKU. Maybe once the game collection increases then I may consider the plunge.
 
Don Mattrick is a ******, so glad he left. I don't own an Xbox One at the moment as I feel the only game that would appeal to me at this time is Dead Rising 3, would love to see Phil announcing a Kinectless SKU. Maybe once the game collection increases then I may consider the plunge.
There will never be a Kinectless SKU the whole Xbox Model is built around having Kinect. Its a better experince with Kinect
 
I was listening to Podcast Unlocked (an IGN Xbox podcast) and they were talking all about Phil Specner and his appointment.

It was universally accepted as a great one by the community, mainly because Phil seems to be in touch with gamers (unlike someone like the Don). What is most interesting though, is how game developers welcomed the appointment.

They said that all over Twitter, game developers were genuinely excited by this, and can see the passion that Phil has for games.

Here is a list of what IP's MS are currently sitting on, many of which they have never revived. The potential for "Arcade" sytle rebuilds or even re-launches in to triple A games is huge.



 
Did you just say someone get on my lips right now?
lol... yah, the potential for that statement to be taken about 900 different ways sexually made me laugh.
 
I think this is a good appointment and will hopefully get rid of the direction don mattrick direction he was taking xbox. I would love another viva piñata game utilising the kinetic for interaction with the animals as per kinectmals but retain the original games control scheme for the garden.
 
Ah the memories of midtown madness!

Exactly!

So many of those games are perfect for "arcade" style titles. Although a number of those IP's were created way before Microsoft Studios existed, and much of the talent may have moved on, they still must have a lot of creativity and potential there.

The original Xbox had to take risks creating new IP's. On the 360, there was much less of that from first party studios. In the latter years of the 360 we barely got any new IP's, where as Sony were doing things like The Last of Us.

That is what I want to see from Phil and Xbox. Refreshing the great legacy IP's they are sat on, as well as creating new and exciting games.
 
Monster Truck Madness.... I spent DAYS on that... man what a flashback just now. Playing with Grave Digger... good fun.
 

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