What Was The Worst Decision Xbox Leadership Ever Made?

[bogey_j]

People will say kinect & Don Mattrick, but honestly, I think everything Phil Spencer has done has been catastrophic for the brand. Even when it seems like M$ had a rare W like with gamepass, all gampass has done is train Xbox owners to never buy games anymore and just wait until it hits gamepass so even first party stuff sells like ass on Xbox (not to mention gamepass is a bad deal for developers and largely unsustainable as a business model for them). Phil has had over a decade of failure with nothing to show for it. The worst thing Xbox has ever done was not fire him 7-8 years ago when the Xbox division still had autonomy, and they still had a chance to turn things around. But now, after spending like 90 billion aqcriring studios, the eye of M$ CEO Satya is on them, and now their hands are tied, because now he wants a return on that investment. Even if they fired Phil now, they would just replace him with another clueless corporate drone like Sarah Bond, who won't be able to operate with enough freedom to turn things around. It's far too late now

Fukk Phil breh worst thing to ever happen to Xbox

 

[levitate]

Xbox One strategy.

Had great momentum with the 360 and killed it with their initial Xbox One strategy: always on DRM, shytty game borrowing set up, Kinect required, pricing, hubris (“if you can’t afford an Xbox One just buy a 360”), even the naming convention was trash (fukk is an Xbox One?).

I was team 360. After the console was announced alongside their shytty strategy/vision…I switched to PS and never looked back. Many others did too.

 

[Kingshango]

 

[Diondon]

Shiiiiiiittttttttttt

https://media.tenor.com/HwIDAQH9udIAAAAM/shyt-shiet.gif

 

[TripleAgent]

People will say kinect & Don Mattrick, but honestly, I think everything Phil Spencer has done has been catastrophic for the brand. Even when it seems like M$ had a rare W like with gamepass, all gampass has done is train Xbox owners to never buy games anymore and just wait until it hits gamepass so even first party stuff sells like ass on Xbox (not to mention gamepass is a bad deal for developers and largely unsustainable as a business model for them). Phil has had over a decade of failure with nothing to show for it. The worst thing Xbox has ever done was not fire him 7-8 years ago when the Xbox division still had autonomy, and they still had a chance to turn things around. But now, after spending like 90 billion aqcriring studios, the eye of M$ CEO Satya is on them, and now their hands are tied, because now he wants a return on that investment. Even if they fired Phil now, they would just replace him with another clueless corporate drone like Sarah Bond, who won't be able to operate with enough freedom to turn things around. It's far too late now

Fukk Phil breh worst thing to ever happen to Xbox

Phil - Ws and Ls
Mattrick ALL Ls

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

Keep promoting people like phil spencer and matt booty. They were the poison that infested the rest of the company.

people can hate on don mattrick all they like but that was 15 years ago and he at least launched the xbox one with new games. More than i can say for phil and the xbox series that has been an utter disaster for the first 4 years of inception.

ultimately gamepass was a horrible idea, the series s was a horrible idea, everythings an xbox is a horrible idea and buying activision was a horrible idea

 

[bogey_j]

Phil - Ws and Ls
Mattrick ALL Ls

I hate this narratve. What W's does Phil have exactly?

Mattrick was head of Xbox during the 360 Era pre-kinect as well, so he was there during Xbox's peak era before things went to shyt. His tenure wasn't all bad

While Phil's entire run as Xbox head has been nothing short of a disaster. There weren't any good times under Phil

 

[Numero Deux]

 

[ALonelyDad]

He was just 5 years early

 

[rdj]

Phil Spencer and Matt Booty are clearly lacking in managing their studios. Their hands off approach is producing 75-84 Metacritic games which is cool if your some boutique publisher that aren't relying on moving hardware units, gamepass, or mindshare.

 

[Half A $]

Phil Spencer was in charge of the Xbox game studios during Don’s era

The moment he gets fired or leaves his cocksuckers like Meach are going to turn on him, watch

 

[Rice N Beans]

Inheriting shytty hiring and promotional practices from Microsoft.

 

[HiiiPower]

Xbox One strategy.

Had great momentum with the 360 and killed it with their initial Xbox One strategy: always on DRM, shytty game borrowing set up, Kinect required, pricing, hubris (“if you can’t afford an Xbox One just buy a 360”), even the naming convention was trash (fukk is an Xbox One?).

I was team 360. After the console was announced alongside their shytty strategy/vision…I switched to PS and never looked back. Many others did too.

Xbox One was genuinely the WOAT console, which is crazy considering it followed the 360

 

[Barney Rubble]

I think every mistake they made could have been overlooked if they were pumping out classics. Too many years of just Forza, Gears and Halo. When Forza Horizon is your best franchise, that's a problem. Stans can argue all day about this and that but if Xbox had a slew of 10/10 games their shyt would be selling like crazy.

 

[drifter]

The answer will always be Xbox One. Even if you look past ignoring DRM outrage and that Kinect was still half baked but mandatory, their answer to military servicemen and regulars who didn’t have steady internet connections was to buy a 360. That’s one of the biggest slaps in the face a company’s ever given customers, even to this day in 2025. Sony had the second job line but they never told you they don’t want you buying. MS, coming off the 360 was more arrogant than “Arrogant Sony” easy.

If you want something else, not developing more first party titles in the 360 era. It’s partly why they’ve had to spend billions this cycle, they never recovered from the steady diet of Forza, Gears, Halo the gen had. Then when they lost the people they lost being able to moneyhat like they did for 360 and Xbox as a brand has been lost since.