On March 31, 2014, Phil Spencer became Director of Xbox, replacing Don Mattrick. This decision was very important for the development of the company, since then, seven years ago, were not the best times for the Xbox. Recall that at that time the company made rather controversial political decisions not only in relation to games, but also in copyright protection.
As for the console itself, the Xbox One then cost $ 100 more than the PlayStation 4 - this was due to the presence of the Kinect game joystick that came with the kit. At the time of its release, the company was able to sell one million copies of the console in the first 24 hours, but there was no big spike in sales later.
As for Phil Spencer himself, he admitted many of Microsoft's mistakes during the early days of the Xbox One, especially the conflicting decisions of management. As for the current state of affairs, the Xbox is on the rise. The Xbox Series X/S was a record release, and Spencer's initiatives (Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Streaming) were crowned with success.
The head of Xbox has released a message to fans in honor of the anniversary. "There is still a lot to be done and I appreciate the support of the entire community and all this positive energy," he wrote. Spencer thanked everyone for their support and said that he was "honored to lead the team at this incredible time for Microsoft." Recall that at the beginning of his career as a leader, Spencer issued an appeal about the future of the company: "Our mission is to create a world-class team," he said then. In addition, Spencer stressed that the main thing for the Xbox is "technical innovation." Well, it's safe to say the Xbox is confidently following Spencer's course.
Other successful decisions of the head of the company include the acquisition of Minecraft, as well as ZeniMax, which have already brought significant dividends to Microsoft. In addition to the financial gain, the purchase also means that the legendary Fallout, Elder Scrolls and Doom franchises are now owned by Microsoft, which was previously criticized for its lack of exclusive games. In addition, while Microsoft used to make games separately for the console - separately for the PC, now, thanks to cloud streaming, Xbox games are being released everywhere. Phil Spencer announced this new direction for Microsoft back in 2016 in the framework of cooperation between Sony and Nintendo.
Game Pass is also worth mentioning, Spencer's idea of a Netflix-like game subscription. This system can be a long-term success for the company, as it already has 18 million subscribers in its arsenal.
As for the personality of the Xbox leader, he is known for his freedom of speech and a rather tough stance on the famous "console wars". Spencer stated that this "negatively affects the release of games." In addition, Phil Spencer is a rather modest man, so he rarely believes in his future success, but a large team of professionals "grew up" around him, which he personally leads.
However, not everything is always so "smooth". Spencer's failures include the canceled role-playing game Scalebound and the closure of the ambitious Entertainment Studios project in 2014.
Overall, the future is unknown - however, it is known for sure that Spencer is a forward-thinking leader who knows exactly where the Xbox is heading.
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