I reached game pass saturation a while ago…IMO it turned into basic cable TV with one or two good channels (games) and stuffed full of religious & shopping channels (while still promoting the quantity of games)
Why would you choose now of all times to double down on Bethesda??
Why not do something useful with Starcraft, Warcraft, or an Activision property like Guitar Hero or Tony Hawk? Bethesda has been proving for the last 8 years that they can’t keep up.
Look, it all looked great on paper years ago when Zenimax Media gave them an evaluation report on the company that was so overvalued it was lawsuit-worthy.
As someone who used to really like Phil, I agree with this. He’s clearly banking on his popularity as a “celebrity” within the gaming community to put a smiling spin on what is a clearly horrible business record.
The question here is not whether Microsoft does the same things that all businesses do (i.e. be evil Capitalist monstrosities that run people’s livelihoods over in the name of investor greed)- that much is obvious.
The question is whether Phil Spencer is actively enabling this behavior and also covering for it- which he is.
And that is why, as the article suggests, people need to stop treating him as anything other than a corporate representative who wants to extract as much value as he can before it all runs into the ground.
If you haven’t listened the How Did This Get Made episode about Morbius, you owe it to yourself to do that immediately.
They get into some stories about Jared Leto’s antics on set and trying to do improv and it sounds more like an Ambien-induced dialogue than a description of actual human behavior.
“Generally it’s not a good idea to tell people to refund and leave negative reviews when you’re a community manager. TIL,” Spitz said. “I appreciate all the support and I appreciate even more that everyone can play the game again without restrictions. I knew I was taking a risk with what I said about refunding and changing reviews. I stand by it. It was my job to represent the community, that’s what I did.”
They added: “I wanted to work for Arrowhead because they’re my all-time favorite studio. I got that chance. I’m thankful for that opportunity. I’d happily continue working for them if I had the choice, but that isn’t up to me or anyone else in here. I can walk away happy and I don’t want anyone causing trouble on my behalf, especially not to people I still have a lot of care and respect for.”
This definitely sounds like Sony wanted them out and Arrowhead wanted them to stay.
Corpos are incapable of learning the right lessons. I wouldn’t be surprised if the take away from this at Sony was to eliminate internal voices that were against the decision so it’s easier to pull off next time.
What’s weird about the whole incident is that anyone with even the slightest knowledge of the PC gaming space could have told you that this is exactly what would happen.
It makes sense. I respect the hell out of the guy for being honest and true of his morals and standing by his community, but I'm sure he knew what he could get into by doing that, and he took the shot anyway. I hope he's just been shuffled around elsewhere and still has a job.
Idk, Kotaku isn’t exactly a good source for ethics in this industry. They list something that every single large game company does: buy studios, move talent around, close the old studios. They also talk about how he claims to champion preservation and emulation, something we all agree with.
Yeah their head editors just left saying that they were being forced to write lower quality stories and things with agendas. I wouldn’t trust Kotaku much anymore.
Just as a heads up, when you post an article, unless otherwise stated, you are telling people that the source can be trusted. So, yes in a way you are asking us to trust them
They list something that every single large game company does: buy studios, move talent around, close the old studios.
Not every large game company acts this way. This is also not what he did at all - he didn’t restructure the studios after buying them, he closed them and laid off their employees.
They also talk about how he claims to champion preservation and emulation, something we all agree with.
He’s a known liar (just a year ago he claimed Arkane will continue to polish Redfall, now Arkane Austin has closed before giving people DLC they already paid for)
Phil Spencer has been the head of Xbox for a decade, a decade where Xbox consistently got worse. The only smart decision they made this entire time is Game Pass IMO.
I’d like you to name a large game company that hasn’t done this, I’m not aware of a single one.
This is also not what he did at all - he didn’t restructure the studios after buying them, he closed them and laid off their employees.
Incorrect, employees are being moved to different studios. I’m unaware how many, if any, are being laid off. For example, Roundhouse is being assigned to Zenimax who run Elder Scrolls Online which is admittedly actually a pretty cool game.
He’s a known liar (just a year ago he claimed Arkane will continue to polish Redfall, now Arkane Austin has closed before giving people DLC they already paid for)
A corporate hack who is in touch with what gamers want is still better than some other out of touch corporate shill, as the state of gaming exemplifies every single day. On the subject of Redfall, it’s no surprise that studio got shut down after the incredible failures at launch, they clearly were never qualified to work on the title anyways, and that’s hardly Phil Spencer’s fault.
Why are we quoting each other? I remember the comment before yours. I made it. Idiot.
It’s Phil Spencer’s fault that they released Redfall at 70$. It is his fault that he promised the game will be polished. It is his fault people who paid for the DLC will never get it.
He also closed Tango, which made a critically acclaimed game.
Valve has also published 8 games in 10 years. They did acquire Campo Santo studios between 2016 and 2018 which lead to the delayment of Valley of the Gods because Valve put the studio’s members on other projects including Steam, Dota Underlords, and Half Life: Alyx.
They didn’t close Campo Sango though, and haven’t closed other studios they bought historically (like Turtle Rock, which eventually became independent of Valve again and released Back 4 Blood).
Why are we quoting each other? I remember the comment before yours. I made it. Idiot.
Because quoting in a response provides structure to the response that improves readability.
Also, you are posting on a publicly accessible forum, not having a one-on-one conversation. In that context, that fact that you may remember what you said doesn’t mean that it’s not beneficial to repeat it for others.
The “idiot” comment was unnecessarily rude where someone was engaging in what appeared to be a good faith response, and only brings down the tone of your entire post.
It feels like people do it so commonly while making such weak arguments that it might be a bot trying to parse the prior comment. Feels like it doesn’t have use in any other circuimstance.
Multiple teams are being cut, at least at Arkane Austin. I don’t know the total heads rolling. Many of my friends are now out of a job. The severance isn’t terrible, at least for some of the engineers. That’s not better than a job, though.
Game Pass is a profoundly stupid decision. It doesn’t make it’s money back and now Xbox users are used to not paying for games. And from a consumer perspective, enshittification always eventually happens with subscriptions.
The article didn’t say he needs to go, they said people need to stop treating him as though he is actually on the side of consumers and employees, rather than investors.
The literal last line of the article is
I hope moving forward Xbox fans and the media hold Spencer more accountable for future mistakes, cuts, and failures.
kotaku.com
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