Rare has been with Microsoft for almost double that time since it was acquired for $375m in 2002. The studio head at Rare has been at Microsoft for ten years. The Rock and Bill Gates promote the original Xbox in 2001 HENNY RAY ABRAMSĬraig Duncan wasn’t always convinced. But his largest decisions are still in play. Thanks to teamwork and smart gambles, Xbox is back on the steady. He knows his decisions have consequences. And that was a journey.” It’s one Spencer embraces. Our opportunity was to re-engage the team. “If they were questioning why we were there, then we had no chance,” he continues. I don’t know if I could say I earned it… I happened to be there as probably the most senior person that was still left.” To succeed, he had to revitalise the people around him. “Impostor syndrome is a real thing for many people. “I felt completely underprepared and out of my element,” Spencer reveals. He was, as Microsoft saw it, the perfect fit to spearhead Xbox through one generation and into the next repackaging and reinvigorating an existing team with newfound confidence and purpose. This crisis proved to be Spencer’s opportunity. Eventually, the Xbox One would sell 51 million consoles over its lifetime, less than half the 116 million PS4s that Sony did. Previous leader Don Mattrick left the company within two months of its unveiling. There was a huge backlash that the device could never quite recover from. Microsoft created a machine that was more of an ‘entertainment’ hub than it was a games console. But the problem with the Xbox One was different. It was an even greater failure than the Xbox 360’s “Red Ring of Death” – a hardware recall debacle in 2006 that cost a billion dollars to fix. Eight years ago, Xbox One put the company in a hole.
It was all pivotal to bringing Xbox back from the brink. Between our time with him, we also spoke with Liz Hamren, head of hardware Kareem Choudhry, head of cloud gaming Sarah Bond, head of gaming ecosystems Todd Howard, game director at Bethesda Game Studios and Craig Duncan, studio head at Rare. He has a confidence and clarity of vision about what the future of Xbox – and the future of gaming – can and should be. Spencer’s ability to make fast, seismic calls without being paralysed is clear. Phil Spencer presenting at Xbox's E3 2019 Briefing
And I don't think hope is a great development strategy.” “We were there not out of deception, but more out of. “We should have known before and just been honest with ourselves,” Spencer says. It was a major shortcoming compared to Sony, which launched its PlayStation 5 with no fewer than three exclusive blockbuster games. As a result, Xbox launched with no major exclusive game to speak of. But Xbox pushed it to 2021 after reception to a gameplay showcase, just four months before its initial release, went viral. Pairing them together for another launch? Poetry.
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In Spencer’s eyes, Series X and S needed it: the original Halo defined the original Xbox in 2001. Infinite was the big tentpole release for Microsoft’s comeback console. And then within a month we had moved it.” “I don’t like that we showed the game, talked about it launching at the launch of the consoles. Most of those decisions don’t weigh much on his shoulders (“I’m not much of a keep-me-up-at-night guy,” he tells me) but delaying Halo Infinite, the flagship launch game for last year’s new Xbox Series consoles, still sits heavy in his heart. All of these monumental calls came in the wake of his inheriting 2013’s Xbox One, a console with a famously disastrous start to life. He’s also overseen the creation of Game Pass – the first Netflix-esque subscription service for video games – and doubled down on game streaming technology despite having seen several competitors elsewhere flame out in ignominy. And purchasing Skyrim and Fallout creators, Bethesda, for a record-breaking $7.5bn last year. That includes buying indie block-builder Minecraft for $2.5bn in 2014. Under his leadership, Xbox’s list of total first-party studios has increased dramatically, from five to 23. Throughout his seven-year tenure in charge of Xbox, Spencer has made some of the biggest moves not just in gaming but entertainment at large. But 'risk averse' is perhaps the least appropriate label for the guy who started his career helming the development of the Encarta CD-ROM encyclopedia. In the end, the rotating button – described by Spencer as “just another thing that could fail” – wasn’t worth the potential cost. Suddenly, that’s a hundred million dollar decision.