Phil Spencer seems like a genuinely nice guy. Since becoming head of Microsoft’s Xbox division, he changed a bunch of things, prompting people to ask if he would have changed more if he’d been running the show from the start. His response proves that he won’t throw people under the bus just to make himself look good.
During IGN’s Podcast Unlocked (thanks Dualshockers), Spencer was asked if he would have made the Xbox One more powerful if he’d been involved in the planning phase. His answer makes a whole lot of sense, and shows how much of a nice guy he is:
It’s easy for me to say yes, and I know to a lot of people that would make me seem like a better guy… I don’t know. I know the people that make those decisions and I don’t know the realities of the situations when they made those decisions, so it’s easy to me to sit back now and say “ok, we would have built a three teraflops box and sold it for 99 dollars” but I don’t know.
I don’t know what trade-offs they were making, cause we didn’t make all the decisions as the leadership team. I was making content decisions. So I think it’s a little unfair for me to go back and kinda cherry pick a certain decision on “hey what RAM do we pick” or the ESRAM thing, or the HDMI in, what we’ve done with Kinect, whatever it is, and just say “Oh, I’m all-knowing at this point and knowing where we are now, I would have changed these decisions.”
[…] And the box, from a reliability standpoint, I mean I lived through red rings on 360 and other things, has been significantly better than we were at the launch of 360 which has been great. I’m not ashamed of the hardware that we have anyway, and if somebody asks me “Should I go buy an Xbox One” I can definitely tell them from the content that we have and the platform that we have, and the services that we have, and for the hardware that we have, “yes.”I can make a commitment to them that they’re buying into a platform that I’m committed to, across all facets of that platform, and that we’re gonna make this platform as great as we can for them.
I’m sure plenty of people were expecting him to say something horrible about his predecessors, but this answer actually makes a whole lot of sense. He recognizes that people did the best they could with the knowledge that they had at the time. To point fingers now would just undermine the console itself.
Whatever his real opinion is, it’s too late to undo what was done. The most Spencer can do now is show some solidarity and fix the things that can be changed. By pushing quality content and plenty of games, the Xbox One will prove its relevancy this generation, regardless of resolution issues. Now frame rate problems on the other hand…
Last Updated: October 23, 2014
HvR
October 23, 2014 at 17:26
Probably the best move MS made since they launched the Xbox One campaign was appointing Phil Spencer head of the division.
Hammersteyn
October 24, 2014 at 07:50
If he’s in charge of the XBOX Two (I guess that’s the name of the next one, either that or XBOX Longhorn :P) then the PS will have it’s work cut out.
konfab aka derp
October 23, 2014 at 17:27
All they had to do was listen to developers.
I don’t think a single developer on this planet would say no to a huge pool of fast memory such as the PS4’s.
Deeboy
October 23, 2014 at 19:16
Xbox exclusives say hi.
Jonah Cash
October 24, 2014 at 07:19
Wow @pieterkruger:disqus has a buddy now!! Good on you two for sticking out the shit storm together!!! What great exclusives are coming though? I can see one that would make me buy a X1 and that is Quantum Break, the rest really doesn’t interest me….
Hammersteyn
October 24, 2014 at 07:50
The XBOX launched recently here. So the comments section should be more interesting hopefully. With more in depth discussions on the pros and cons of either console and it’s games.
Dark
October 24, 2014 at 09:31
Hammer I’ve had my One for nearly a year and love the console. I suppose the deal maker for me was the back-end I’ve never really enjoyed PlayStation’s software it never really made sense to me. (Cant teach old dogs new tricks I suppose)
Hammersteyn
October 24, 2014 at 10:06
That’s very true, I’ve played PS 1 through 4. I even had a 360 for a year but the controller always bugged me. As well as the interface.
Jonah Cash
October 24, 2014 at 10:56
You have very high hopes there bud!!! I think there will just be more blind loyalty to the MS machine!!
Deeboy
October 24, 2014 at 12:30
I think you just answered your own question.
Hammersteyn
October 24, 2014 at 07:51
Insomniac says bye, apparently their is some strife between them and MS over SunsetOverdrive.
Deeboy
October 24, 2014 at 12:33
Apparently it’s just speculation from you or hoping that there is some kind of fallout so you can have something negative to say. LOL. Stay hateful my friend.
Hammersteyn
October 24, 2014 at 12:50
Well it came from NEOGAF and I don’t speculate on thing like this so yeah LOL.
Deeboy
October 24, 2014 at 12:53
It came from neogaf. Enough said.
Pieter Kruger
October 23, 2014 at 19:41
It’s not really THAT huge, seriously, it’s not! ????
Corrie
October 23, 2014 at 17:33
I asked him a simple question on Twitter regarding Forza Horizon 2 and he couldn’t even have replied
But plot twist: what if he actually plays PS4 in order to avoid the Kinect?.
L337J1MB0B
October 23, 2014 at 17:42
No enough peas Phil.. nope, not good enough.
Rags
October 23, 2014 at 17:53
Well ofcourse he is happy(does not care). Its the rest of us that now also have to play at 30fps that are unhappy 🙁
Pieter Kruger
October 23, 2014 at 18:35
Greatness awai…..errr I mean, Great things to come!
Hammersteyn
October 24, 2014 at 07:54
I hope so, I really want to buy a second console. If I pick the XBOX then It will be because it has at least three great exclusives that’s out. Racing games doesn’t count.
Pieter Kruger
October 24, 2014 at 08:31
Saw some new gameplay footage for Quantum Break last night…..best looking and most interesting next gen title yet! ????????????
HvR
October 24, 2014 at 08:44
Now this is the one Xbox One title that got my attention.
Ryanza
October 24, 2014 at 08:53
Idk why Quantum Break is getting attention. From what I saw, looks kinda boring.
Not Phil
October 23, 2014 at 19:00
lol.
The DX11.3 SDK landed already. At the moment the Xbox One is the only full hardware DX12 graphics card in the world (since Microsoft posted it themselves when they announced DX12). Not even the GTX970/980 is full DX12, and most of those features will only get activated next year.
They already get game parity with the supposed superior PS4. It has increased in heaps since launch, and devs can understand how to program it now. The PS4 has remained stagnant.
But yeah, keep on commenting on hardware that you don’t understand 🙂 As Phil said in an earlier interview, the games will do the talking. People shouldn’t worry about what is inside the Xbox.
Keep an eye out for E3 2015.
Alien Emperor Trevor
October 23, 2014 at 19:41
Corporate Phil was diplomatic.
Ryanza
October 24, 2014 at 08:05
I just realized something. I pre-ordered The Witcher 3 collectors edition for the Xbox One, just to get the extra shit. So I actually have to promote the Xbox One so that more people buy it and I can sell that shitty Xbox One copy of The Witcher 3 when the game releases. Pointless if no1 buys the Xbox One and I can’t sell the damn Xbox One game.
So… When you look at the hardware between the 2 consoles. They are nearly the same. One has a small edge on the graphics card and the other an edge on the CPU. Most of the popular games that will be on the Xbox One will be your first person shooter type games. So the games should play nicely on the Xbox One.
The PS4 is more of the RPG story telling type of games where there has to be thousands of characters and stuff on screen. That CPU is going to be screaming and the frames will drop.
So buy an Xbox One console so I can sell The Witcher to you.
After 24th Feb 2015 it’s back to full Xbox One hate.
Admiral Chief 0
October 24, 2014 at 08:19
I’d rather support DRM than sell my games
Ryanza
October 24, 2014 at 08:31
Hey i’m getting 2 retail games and a digital NON DRM game. The second hand market is important. Don’t give me that drm second hand market bullshit.
You can’t sell your DRM games. You have no choice. So there is no rather and or. There is just NO and Can’t. That’s the DRM world you live in.
I pre-ordered a game. I don’t want the game. I choice to sell the game. My game and I can do what ever I want to do with it.
So your argument is NO options, No choice vs options and choice. Yeah. NO DRM thank you. Leave the choices with the buyer.