Has Xbox Lost Your Trust? w/ Parris & Gary - Kinda Funny Gamescast
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- čas přidán 15. 06. 2024
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This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp - go to betterhelp.com/kindafunny to get 10% off your first month.
Greg, Gary Whitta, and Parris Lilly get DEEP into what the closures of Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Studios.
Time Stamps:
00:00:00 - Start
00:02:16 - Housekeeping
00:03:24 - Microsoft Closes Four Bethesda Studios: Our Reactions
00:18:19 - Do You Trust Xbox?
00:41:05 - Workers’ Reactions
00:43:23 - Does Phil Need to Go?
00:58:41 - What are the Alternatives?
01:03:39 - What does this mean for OTHER Xbox Studios?
01:24:34 - The Game Pass of Things
01:31:03 - Dinga’s Insight
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I think there's a little too much grace given to Phil here. The way he marketed himself, I'm certain a lot of devs felt he could have stuck his neck out for a team like Tango, even if it meant risking his own position.
Yet I haven't heard a single rational reason, what he specifically has done wrong. When Xbox lost the Xbox One generation due to Don Mattrick it is hard to come back when everyone is locked into their ecosystem.
Let me help. Phil asked his boss, Sayta Nadella, to give him 70 billion dollars. More than enough money to literally buy the Playstation brand.
Then 3 years after that he gives a public interview to tell gamers there is nothing he can do to compete against Nintendo and Sony, let alone become market leader, and that his lack of supervision resulted in one of the recently acquired Xbox devs to ruining his reputation forever.
Then 1 year later he announced Gamepass isn't growing despite his best efforts, and he had to close 2 of the studios he just bought after only 1 game from each.
Oh, and 70% of the games the newly aquired teams announced 3 years ago still don't have release dates. Some don't even have release windows.
Imagine those being your results for the past 5 years.
@@david53444 Wii U was a harder flop than the Xbox One was and they came back stronger than ever. Stop blaming Mattrick for Xbox’ woes for all eternity. Phil had 10+ years and close to $100bn to deliver anything noteworthy and he has failed at every turn.
He’s not some poor gamer bro who is getting pushed around by the evil suits. He is the evil suit who portrays himself as the gamer bro. The guy makes $10mn a year, yet he has never taken a pay cut for his abysmal results and instead just keeps laying off the devs that allow him to have a job.
The whole “people are locked in with their libraries” is a bullshit excuse. People are moving to different platforms all the time or own multiple platforms. The guy has repeatedly stated he doesn’t believe great games will change their fortunes and that’s the real problem. He couldn’t identify a solid game pitch and help get a team get it off the ground if they would put a gun to his head. Not a single great new IP has launched under his tenure that wasn’t already something in production at a studio they acquired.
This. I don't know why are people white knighting for Phil Spencer. That guy might be a ReAl GaMeR, then he should open a let's play channel or something. That guy is an awful leader. Igdaf about how he interacts with his friends. For the last 5 years he has done nothing but make bad decisions and give bad takes on interviews. "Video game industry is in shambles due to the executives" Phil is that executive. Did he decide to half his millions of dollar of salary for a year, to compensate for the losses? What a joke.
Phil Spencer had this moment to prove he was an Iwata, and he just showed he's so far from that.
As someone who was laid off last year, i really appreciated Gary speaking to what it feels like to be laid off. It shakes you as a person and I still don’t feel the same. I’m at a company now who treats me great and I’m still anxious enough that I’m always looking over my shoulder. Cannot say enough how angry and sad I am for all devs affected by this
Yall are giving Phil too much credit. These layoffs are because of the big acquisitions of Activistion and Zenimax and Phil was pushing for that. It doesnt matter if he had good intentions, most of what Phil said hasnt panned out.
That what I'm saying He's Had 10 Years to turn things around nothing has happened
Love these arm chair CEO comments.
Don’t you understand? KF has personal stakes in not burning any bridges. So they are never going to rip an exec that went on their show.
@@knleonhart that is the difference between Last Stand Media and Kinda Funny Games. Anything Colin says you can bet are his real thoughts. No external pressure or influences. Not something you can say about Kinda Funny Games. All these people know Phil personally. Do you think they are going to just say that Phil should be fired?
They just never had (and still don’t have) the basic common sense understanding that Day 1 GamePass + Massive Acquisitions = Disaster. Their brains still can’t quite compute it.
I hate how people try and paint Phil as anything other than a corporate mouthpiece. If anything his job is to get out there and be the face of Xbox, not be your buddy. So if it means lying to your face to put a positive spin on what his bosses want him to, that’s what he’ll do.
His bosses? He literally reports directly to Satya Nadella. He is number two in the chain of command and fully in control of their gaming division. This is all on him. You can’t use Nadella as a scapegoat when without Nadella he would’ve never gotten his hands on $80bn+ to acquire publishers and studios, and without those Xbox would’ve been even worse off.
He’s not a mouth piece, he’s had 10 years, a budget that was unheard of in this industry and basically zero accountability until recently to get anything noteworthy done.
Spencer was a liar since day one
He's the CEO of Xbox, not just some random corporate PR guy. Unless that's a made up position, he's heavily involved in these sort of decisions and their strategy which appears to be failing - and so he should be held accountable.
@@danissary yep... But he plays games and tha games media love him... So - objective commentary not so much
@@JimmyDoogs That's not how that works. You are perhaps oversimplifying the situation.
The amount of exceptions Kinda Funny gives Phil Spencer is insane.
If this was a higher-up in Ubisoft, that had done the exact same things, you wouldn't even hesitate to call a spade-a-spade, but because "He loves games", "We love talking to him" and "He seems like a nice guy" tons of excuses and diverting blame to somewhere else.
You don't get to say "Eat the Rich", and then rub shoulders with the 1%. The guy has to go.
Yup. Maybe firing Phil is not the be all end all of for all of xbox problems. But that will be a start for "making changes".
@@yatharthrai4658Doing something is better than doing nothing
Talk that Talk! 100% you hit the nail with this Phil Has been in for way too long.
cant risk missing out on potential opportunity with xbox
Ubisoft doesn't have a corporate overlord like Microsoft does. Playstation would be a better example
Hi Fi Rush is actually the highest rated metacritic Xbox first party game that is not named Forza at 87% since the Xbox One came out
Too bad it didn't sell
@@P_D-px6ivThat is what shadow dropping (zero marketing) and training your audiance to not buy titles does to you. Thank you, gamepass! 😂
I mean its not like ut had an insanely big budget either? and its still available to buy and not just on Xbox but even ps. No excuses @P_D-px6iv
Kinda hard if you’re giving it away with game pass.
That's what happens when you have Gamepass@@P_D-px6iv
It's ridiculous to try and say this is a decision above Phil's head, when games media have been kissing the ring for years now and praising him like everything was him. Now that there's bad, it's not all on him?
Especially just in March Phil had such a weird out of touch interview with Polygon, Phil has been the CEO for a decade now and we are still in this shit state
Phill he has said it publicly since last year the industry is stagnant, it is not growing and if it does not grow to invest you have to fire there is no other way, everyone is firing, it is not only Phill's fault, it is a problem for all those responsible for the gaming industry.
They don't call him PR Spencer for nothing. He's so accessible to the likes of KF and comes across like this cool uncle who is relatable and plays games - so they go easy on him.
It's honestly a shame they don't criticise him to the level they should. They certainly don't keep the same energy for other CEOs and execs when other companies fuck up.
Phil also doesn’t have to personally do any of this. Like Shawn Layden clearly left/got fired for not being as corpo as Phil is finally revealing himself to be (full mask off).
@@nelsonhamilton8262 and it's still being explained away. It's a shame.
Larger lesson here: don't place any trust in a corporation.
Phil is a mouthpiece. Treating him with these kid gloves is nauseating. He is just another corporate suit who *does* get a say in the Xbox Gaming Division.
I know he's easily accessible to gaming media and is seen by a lot of people (both at Kinda Funny and externally) as a "cool CEO" but lavishing praise on him when things go well, cheering for the consolidation of the industry and not properly criticising his long list of failures at Xbox properly just seems like the fear of losing access to him is greater than the willingness to properly assess his time with the Xbox Gaming Division.
I’ll never forget how many people were defending all the consolidation like it could end any other fucking way. I legitimately couldn’t believe it.
KF was one of them lol
@@GrimmOutlook626 I know
Exactly!!! I felt like I was going crazy when everyone was praising the Activision deal passing as if it’s only going to hurt the industry! Closures like this and major losses to the industry is going to continue because of these huge consolidations.
Even without consolidation you have studio closures and layoffs not only in gaming, but tech industry overall. Don't forget that it was the studios decision to sell to Microsoft, Sony, Embracer etc in the first place.
Without Zenimax Bethesda being purchased, Tango shuts down and so doesn't Arkane Austin.
Tango has never made a game that has sold or played well. No one played or bought Hi-Fi. Evil Within 2 sold 500k copies on a triple A budget, the studio head left. No studio re.ains open after all that.
The god damn magic CoD fps game tanked on release and something like 80% of devs were cut.
Redfall was a disaster and the vast majority of the devs working on the game left throughout the development of the game.
I don't like the news, and it's terrible for those losing their jobs, but studios don't just remain open if games are not being sold, not reviewing well, not being played.
“you can’t have failure anymore”
Unless you’re 343, the. you can have like 47 of them over the course of a decade + and still keep your job/studio.
See also: Todd Howard who hasn't had a major hit in a decade
No. Know your stuff before commenting. 343 lost their single player side of the team.
Godddamn Gary cooked that man 🤣💀😭 1:04:14
My favorite moment. So many ignorant comments today.
I was looking for this 😅
He didn't have to write Forespoken then.. he took that check and got paid.. wrote trash.. how is that anyone else's fault
@@kooldude2ful... did you even hear what he said? Surely you can't be this ignorant.
@@kooldude2ful... did you even hear what he said? Surely you can't be this ignorant.
Honestly this is why the KF change was a great choice. This discussion today was so much better than waiting until Thursday when the xcast would drop.
While I wish it wasn’t about this awful news kudos to the team to pivot and have great discussion about it all
Absolutely Phil’s fault. Any CEO who moved their business in the direction of game pass thinking this would be sustainable without this outcome, should be know where near a decision making role
I didn’t think Game Pass would go over well. Being able to get exclusives day one on game pass sounds great on paper but eventually it loses its luster. When you release games that you say “will get better down the road” it doesn’t promote confidence. Halo Infinite is an example of that, there are expectations set by previous entries that did not get met for years and some still haven’t been met. Redfall getting pushed super hard for release when it was no where close to ready and something that they didn’t even want to do is one of the worst examples of management I’ve seen in a while. Xbox hasn’t been a company that I’ve been excited about in a while, almost all their exclusives have been ok or disappointing with the occasional game that shines through. Hi-Fi Rush is an amazing game that is a ton of fun, Tango should not have been shut down. Phil Spencer is the CEO of Xbox and he’s run it into the ground, and I’m tired of hearing Phil say “it’s hard to be Xbox because of the other companies making deals” it’s called business Phil! Competition is a great thing for all business, Xbox needs to actually step up to the plate. The best Xbox ever was, was when they where directly competitive with PlayStation. Bring in new management who will bring back competition, bring back good games, bring back fun to Xbox.
I know they weren't very popular but I loved The Evil Within series & Ghostwire Tokyo.
Ghostwire was a rare open world game i loved every moment exploring every corner of the city. it wasn't a perfect game, but it became one of my favourite games.
That's the problem. They didn't sell. If they weren't making enough of a return then something had to be done.
Evil Within 2 is a great game- underated
@@infinitysynthesisI wonder if it's a marketing problem then because the likes of Evil within and hi Fi Rush are great games, even evil within 2 and ghostwire Tokyo are at least good games 7/8 out of 10.
Gary I came here to escape the sadness of Manchester United's situation. Not in a million years did I think this analogy will come up here 😭😭
4-0 😂
I didn't think it was a great analogy either tbh. Comparing Phil to ETH is off the mark, he'd be more like the people who have been director of football operations at Man Utd - who over the past decade *absolutely* is at fault for how shit the club have become
Also garys wearing a spurs hat and how much did they get pumped by Chelsea and arsenal again 😂😂
Rasmus Poundland 😌
Lmao I thought the same. Utd catching strays on an American gaming podcast just shows how massive the club is though I suppose.
Utd will inevitably be back at the top at some point and they're making some great decisions in the background to future proof us.
GGMU 💪❤️❤️❤️
17:00 the exchanges between Greg and Barrett are so sweet. Assertive but kind, Greg seems like a great senior and Barrett a gentleman. Good guys.
Ybarras tweet is absolutely tone deaf.
The guy is making 10 plus million a year and does not need your pity
The moment a company says "We're a family" start looking for another job. Trust me!
"we're not a cult, we're a family! now come over here and drink this..."
100%, the worst companies of all say this.
Damn, that cuts deep. I might have to start looking for another job. The people that once said it is long gone but still, damn 😅
You might be okay then if the people instilling those do or die attitudes are long gone. Wish you the best of luck
Unless it's Vin Diesel
Phil is a used car salesman working as the head of Xbox.
No. Phil is a likable village idiot. He should be an assistant to the manager at gamestop.
Microsoft waited until HI Fi Rush came out on PS5 to close the studio, so now, if it sells well there, it won't matter to anyone but them.
Love how on it the gamescast was today! Love having everyone’s input so fast! Great job everybody.
Greg Miller putting together a great break down and talking points, great show on a sad topic.
Agree. Fantastic episode
In the end did they really say anything though? Or did they try and cover for him again like they always do because he’s “nice guy Phil”
@@basementality4924)Get petition for firing Phil Spencer
@@basementality4924I feel like Greg did his best, but Gary and Parris simply refuse to come even close to say something negative about him
Totally agree
The trust was lost 10 years ago. It would take 20 years to get it back if that is even possible. The constant praising of Phil Spencer as the nice guy and his hands are clean just shows how out of touch various industry people are. This is part of the problem.
Did the panel forget that Phil is the CEO of Xbox?
Bro.. Gary is a real one
it’s true! He always has been
💯 Xbox has lost trust in the players.
You can't even see a game release without a question mark on it. Is it coming to PlayStation? Will this studio do well?
Gary dropping down the hammer on the worm was so welcoming. I'm so sick of terrible people.
These acquisitions were never about the studios, all MS cared about was owning the IP, Elder Scrolls, COD etc.
And they have proven this with their actions since closing these deals.
To think people were cheering all this on only 12 months ago is kinda sad now, if one good thing comes out of this hopefully it will be the end of these giant mega-corps swallowing up studios and publishers.
My heart goes out to all those affected and I hope they find work elsewhere very soon 🙏♥️
Most devs will be working at other studios, they all will not be terminated…. More devs working on bigger projects, this life fr
Spot on. They have failed to create IPs of their own, so they started hoarding existing ones...😮
@mattp1680 This is exactly what I said when these acquisitions first started. It was so obvious🙄
This is the kind of conversation I love. The entire cast killed it this episode.
Shout out to Greg for getting this show together in a day. He really journalism'd the shit out of it.
Shout out to Barrett for running it so well.
Shout out to Gary for calling people out.
Shout out to Parris for for humanizing and grounding the conversation.
I'm glad there's a place for these conversations within the new Gamescast!
Tango Gameworks was 65 people. Shutting down a small studio after having created a beloved, acclaimed and successful game like Hi-Fi Rush.. It's shocking. The consequences of that decision alone will so far outweigh whatever Microsoft will save in payroll. The damage to Xbox's brand and reputation will be felt for years. Arkane was a huge studio coming off a big loss. It's very sad, but it's at least semi-rational. Shuttering a tiny studio after a beloved hit like Hi-Fi Rush just to grow your profit margins. It's senseless and almost malicious.
You can say that about Arkane Austin, but going to the root of the issue, you can also say the corporate heads at Zenimax took the studio that made freaking PREY and said "instead of doing something unique or interesting, go make another generic LIVE SERVICE" without any of them having a clue how to do that, just for the sake of capital
As a huge fan of Xbox I have to say... Best episode of Kinda Funny in a long time. Gary, Parris, Greg and Barrett were all 100% on point.
Terribly sad topic of conversation, but great job putting together this show.
This what's happens when you cap for no reason parris. We gamers tried to tell y'all gamepass is death too gaming...............
@@JimmyDoogsSony has problems of course but diluting the value of their software and trying to brute force conglomerate acquisitions is not one of them. Nintendo and Sony are still elevating the industry.
@@JimmyDoogsIt wasn't just the Sony fanboys though, it was people like me too who have no agenda. It was glaringly obvious mass consolidating the industry was a harmful endeavour.
Sony's helldivers mistake is a drop in the ocean compared to xboxs studio closures and I'm not even including the 1,900 employees they got rid of before this shit show
Big Phil gets $10M a year + bonus to absolutely run xbox into the ground.
Great discussions all throughout this episode! Amazing work guys!
Fantastic show Barrett, Greg, Parris and Gary.
One of the best podcast episodes on KF this year, absolutely stellar discussion from informed people.
Maybe you guys are right but I don’t know how Xbox is allowed to fail for ten years under Phil and he still has his job. Obviously he doesn’t have full control over all of Xbox’s decisions, but there are definitely things he could’ve done to steer the ship that would have prevented these closings. I remember hearing the story about Shuhei Yoshida seeing God of War(2018) for the first time and being horrified and after that Santa Monica made huge changes and the game came out and was one of the best of all time. Phil must have gone in and seen Redfall before release and if he was a good leader would have made his displeasure clear and would have delayed the game for at least another year, and while it might not have came out amazing they could’ve released a good game and that would probably been enough to prevent closing Arkane Austin.
He absolutely does have full control over Xbox’s decisions? He’s the CEO of their gaming division. He reports directly to Nadella. There’s only one person above him, literally, who is far more occupied with their business software and AI. But now that he has burned through nearly $100bn of their cash there’s obviously going to be more of an expectation for his division to finally produce some real results.
He failed to make the console attractive and it’s somehow even less popular than the Xbox One, he completely misread the market and thought subscription gaming was going to be the future, and the only real “success” he has accomplished has been pushing through two massive acquisitions with money that was earned by Microsoft’s other divisions.
Greg mad props to you for wrangling all this - there’s a lot of news to cover and I loved hearing everyone’s opinions! Wonderful Gamescast
Why protect Phil Spencer so much? Yes he rescued Xbox at a difficult moment. That what he was a good lifeguard but not a captain. His decisions after that was all acquisitions and no games with dev hell behind the scenes.
it’s an obvious conflict when gaming ‘news’ sources are friends with the people they interview
"Surprise and delight our customers" is exactly what they started saying at my job before they started layoffs
Fantastic episode. I was engaged throughout, which is is pretty rare for these deep discussions.
Side Note - Hi-Fi Rush is currently on sale at the PS Store (at least here in the US)
This was a great discussion, very necessary viewing and showed one of the reasons Greg is so great with the detailed show doc outlining item by item of this story. Journalism.
Great discussion, love the passion and insight. My heart goes out to all those affected by the recent layoffs. As someone still looking for work, the tech sector has been a struggle.
Idk how anyone works on video games these days. Imagine saying, “i want to make one of the best games ever and not support a family or myself, work crunch hours, and lose my job to investors all the time.” Sounds fun amirite
Gary is spot on comparing United's upper management to xbox's issues my goodness...
Sure but Man united doing way way worse than Xbox is.
Not really, ETH is a manager, Phil Spencer is a CEO. I get what Gary's trying to say though
Why did anyone think we would get more games from these acquisitions? Tons of us said this would happen. But people like Parris wanted the Xbox “W.”
Cuz they bought into Phil's nice guy persona. They bought into that xbox cared about gamers first, and not money
Didn't Sony get games from acquisitions!!!! Studios makes games. You buy studios to make games for your platform smh!!!!
@@user-ml6sg7le4zyeah but they don’t buy entire publishers
@@user-ml6sg7le4zSony have never massively consolidated the industry.
Big difference.
As soon as shinji left tango game works was done
sad but true.
Didn't expect Parris to answer the way he did about his trust in MS. Good on you Parris.
His skepticism on the longevity of Gamepass was especially surprising to me. Very interesting times we're in right now
He has done a complete 180 in this segment that I’m almost in disbelief.
Him bringing in the pro-Phil empathy 750 character tweet for Greg to read was where it unraveled i
thank you Gary for keeping it real -nobody but old guys give a crap about Indiana Jones anymore
Spencer is the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, stop giving him excuses. He completely ruined Xbox brand
Once again people who actually recognise reality and how corps run saw this coming from a mile away. But no, Game Pass will allow niche Xbox Studios to prosper because reasons. That acquisitions of publishers, again because ressons, are only a net benefit.
This is only the start. No way is Microsoft gonna stop shuttering Xbox studios now they have COD to call their own. They now have no need for any studio except the biggest ones.
@@Scantronacon What?
@@Scantronacon "The courts are in on it." What? Your comment was a bunch of gibberish and nonsense word salad.
Always remember
“If 2023 was the year of layoffs, 2024 will be the year of closures,” according to one CEO of a public company. “Not just developers, but publishers, media, service companies.
“There are just too many unprofitable businesses in video games,” they added. “We’re looking at up to two years of pain.”
Y’all in the comments better be ready to stay mad. Remember to keep this same energy for every company.
This was such a great conversation. These three should do a weekly conversation about not just gaming but all things in life. Three people from different walks of life.
It's starting to be more clear ever that they have no proper union on their messaging to consumers, constantly going back on their previous communications and commitments. They need clear leadership to be set, and they owe their consumers a proper none corpo explanation on all their false messaging if they want to consumers to have any kind of confidence in what they say going forward.
Phil Spencer and his tenure at Xbox is the perfect example of “either die a hero, or live long enough to become the villain”
He was always the villain pretending to be hero
@@daksans6764He’s neither, he’s a boss of a major corporation and that’s his job. He isn’t your friend.
Phil also has bosses and Microsoft is above the Xbox division.
@@Starfield-Guy He never cared about Xbox fans and for me he was just a suit like all business executives but there are tons of Xbox fans who worshipped him like a deity
I kinda disagree on this, only for the fact that I personally don't know when I've seen him ever truly be a hero. He's excelled and making massive promises and (in my opinion) underdelivering. Game Pass is a great deal, fine, but XBox as a brand and ecosystem with a 1st party lineup hasn't touched excellence since XBox One came came out. That was 2013! For 10 and a half years, Xbox as a brand has had more downs that ups, while he keeps saying in one way or another that its future is bright. That, to me, doesn't show Spencer being a hero; in fact, it makes him more of a bad guy hiding in the shadows and pretending to be a good guy, not a hero...just a "good" guy.
I think half the people complaining are going to forget this when Indiana Jones and Hellblade 2 come out.
i own both and xbox and ps5 and i wonder why do i even have an xbox if microsoft is so focused on gamepass over games and consoles
And apparently over studios as well
i've got my Series X as an all-rounder machine, because i like the ecosystem & the backward compatibility, almost all of my library going back to the original console is still playable, and the media streaming is better (for me) than my PS5, but Playstation & Nintendo still consistently have the better lineup of quality games i can't get on Xbox these days, and i treat Game Pass like video rental, i try out the games and eventually buy the ones i love.
@@JimmyDoogsmust’ve missed the update where Stellar Blade, Rise of the Ronin and FF7 Rebirth are now available on PC. Oh wait, they aren’t because PS still has proper exclusives.
@@JimmyDoogs I mean, yes, their games are now increasingly becoming available on PC but in some cases it’s taking 4+ years or they’re not coming at all (Bloodborne, stuff from the PS3 days etc). I think it’s still substantially different from what Xbox does but yeah it’s not a PS2 situation anymore.
Great episode! Always good when Gary’s around. Literally only time I check kinda funny now.
Beautiful, passionate and well-informed discussion. Videos like this is why I follow KF
One correction: HiFi Rush didnt happen under Phils leadership. It was being created since 2017 before they even bought the studio. The creator outwardly stated that.
where’s Mike man!!! :( (edit: it’s his birthday! Happy birthday Mike, you are missed this ep!)
The new format has already proved itself useful, we would have had to wait for the Xcast for this discussion but we got it right away
Paris mentioned transformers and i cried.
It’s time for some Xbox people to stop saying “Xbox doesn’t care about console sales.” It’s not and never been true.
how is matt booty "head of" ANYTHING? 15 years of failing upwards
I loved Hi-Fi Rush… if as many people that are complaining about this would’ve played or beat the game I wouldn’t have gotten as many rare achievements as I did.
Great discussion all around on a difficult topic! Y’all crushed it. Love you guys 💚
Damn, based Gary and Barrett
This discussion made me sub to KF’s Patreon. You guys are the best.
This is great guys I love the new formula with the daily gamescast and reporting and commenting on daily gaming news. Great continued evolution of an amazing company! Go KF
Really appreciate this discussion, and the work you all do!
Greg Miller: What's your knee jerk reaction to all of this?
Xbots: Well Gamepass is the best deal in gaming!
That’s why they are shutting down all these studios because gamepass doesn’t make enough to cover the costs of these games. There’s a reason it’s the best value in gaming. They are losing money on it left and right and the bill is finally coming due. I’ll pay $70 dollars for my PS games if it keeps these studios from closing because they make quality games. Not quantity bullshit.
@@basementality4924 PREACH!!!
@@basementality4924 Netflix didn't make a profit until they passed the 200 million subscriber mark. There is no way gamepass is making any money and is most likely a money pit for MS.
@@atleastwetriedgamingIf game pass goes away Xbox will go away as well but that will be good for everyone
@daksans6764 Idk if it'll be the end of Xbox necessarily but I think they will DRASTICALLY look different and change. Can't exactly say for the better but time will tell. Kinda like the E3 fiasco dying overtime. I think if Gamepass continues to leech AND Bethesda/Activision under Xbox goes under then at that point Xbox would be dead. Can't trust 343, coalition, or obsidian to be around with how they've been managed but I think the nail in the coffin would be if they're $70+ Billion acquisition combination keeps getting gutted and fails
Great discussion today on a very difficult topic.
Great episode! The new schedule is already paying dividends. Keep up the good work
Love Gary. That is all.
Great discussion about the terrible news today. You all unpacked it and laid it all out so well. Fuck capitalism at this point man. So inhumane
The fact that MS is not marketing Hellblade 2 at all is just the company's way of being able to close them up. Microsoft is setting Hellblade 2 up to fail. Two weeks out and nothing shows the level of confidence Microsoft has on this game.
Hellblade is set to fail no matter what, the founder of the studio and director of the first hellblade left some time ago, that is not good.
Hellblade 2 was set to fail from the start
1 its a niche "franchise" to begin with and not alot of people even like Ninja Theory due to their track record
2 its a 6-8h long game at a $60 price point when some games have DLC alone longer than that
3 its hitting gamepass day one so a majority of Xbox owners arent even going to buy it
@@P_D-px6iv You don't even need to provide any reason. Even if all goes ideally, there's no world where it will outperform Hi-fi rush. And we can see what happened with that.
@yatharthrai4658 even if it did that still wouldn't be very good last I checked Hi-Fi barely sold over 2m copies
@@P_D-px6ivNinja Theory makes best action adventure games but nobody knows what Microsoft is going to shut down next
Horrible news, great conversation. I missed hearing Gary so much on these discussions.
Gary and Parris were effing *spitting* on this episode. Fantastic points all around, gentlemen.
45:55 this feels like a big mistake.
Microsoft's earnings were up 20% year over year. Phil Spencer will probably finish the year out millions and millions of dollars richer.
I would never advocate for attacking someone, but who cares about his emotions? Who cares if Phil is having a hard day? Obviously his fellow executives and co-workers do, but let's face it, THEY ARE THE PROBLEM. Mike Ybarra was certainly part of the problem at Activision Blizzard.
Let's not defend leaders and executives in the wake of senseless cuts like this. Let's not empathize with their plight.
I appreciated the discussion at large, but this was a bad moment.
People lose their trust for xbox every 2-3 months and it's all doom and gloom for a whole week maybe even 2 and then Phil says something that isn't blatantly clear but masterfully worded and everyone forgives and forgets until it inevitably happens again in a few months
Because people are stupid
Great episode Xcast back like you never left!!!
Jesus. Way to make Parris and Gary feel like part of the family. 😂 “you’re not as reliable”.
haha, those animations cost money!
@@AnimalXing😂
This is KFG Vol. 3, Episode 5 (Episode 489 overall)
👍🏽Good Episode. Can't really say this wasn't for told.
Really enjoyed this episode. As also someone going through redundancy (whole team moving from UK to a cheaper location in Malaysia), I know first hand what these teams must be feeling. The truth is shareholders want continual growth and no one gives a shit about people or the quality of output.
Where it is difficult for Xbox, they have falsely built their brand on the fact they aren't corporate shills, that they do care... and so when this happens again and again... there is only so many times we can hear the same bullshit of Phil rolling out the same crap. Also who of any talent would want to remain or join xbox right now...I know if I was in the game industry, I wouldn't.
Overall though this is a wider game industry issue. People don't seem to be into bigger games these days... Triple A titles simply cost too much, take too long and too likely to fail, to be worth the risk. Not sure the answer? Maybe bring back A and AA titles. Be less concerned on visuals like Nintendo, or maybe put focus on financing a thousand indie games to spread the risk. It is an answer I am curious to see.
Fist two paragraphs are sad and I totally agree. Third I disagree a bit. There are a few AAA live service games that are just becoming so big and consuming so much of the audience and their time, smaller AA games etc have no chance.
Now for a different kind of comment, I just wanted to say great episode, you three really made amazing points and discussions, I appreciate you lot for it.
Damn this felt like a real journalistic breakdown of the situation happening hot in the moment, great episode, great discussions.
-FUNKNOWN
They have lost trust, and it started with the confusing mix messaging change to 1st party games. Now just dropping good studios even if they have a good reason does not look good or inspire trust
I literally watched Power On episode 6 a couple of days ago and wondered how they possibly got back to where they were!
......just cause you're a good person doesn't mean you deserve to manage a brand
MS just hunts for ways to use highly-paid, highly-talented developers. They let Redfall, Hi-Fi Rush and soon Hellblade 2 with highly-paid talent at the helm come out then they will fire them. They use the talented to try to build the Xbox name but when it’s time to show loyalty and continue to pay them well, they gut them instead for the CEOs and shareholders who make nothing. So infuriating! 😤
Seriously, I don't get why YOU ALL trying to let Phil off the hook, he's the CEO ffs!
He's not the CEO of Microsoft though... Xbox is a division of Microsoft and it is not a wholly separate entity. He answers ro Sataya and the other members of the executive board.
@@ukmaxihe’s the CEO of their gaming division lol. He calls the shots when it comes to gaming. This is a $3tn company, Satya Nadella is not gonna sit there and micromanage the gaming division on Phil’s behalf, especially since the guy has little understanding of the industry and Phil himself said that he basically had to explain to Nadella what they were doing when he took over MS.
The fact that people are still falling for this “he’s just a powerless gamer bro that wants the best but can’t due to bean counters” narrative is utterly ridiculous. This is the same guy that has repeatedly stated he doesn’t believe great games will change Xbox’s future. It’s the same guy who thought he knew better than Nintendo and said their future is off their own hardware in internal emails. The guy is a total hack and it’s high time games media stop falling for his persona. He’s just as out of touch as EA and Ubisoft CEOs.
@@danissaryEven games media is now sick of Spencer's bullshit it's just hardcore Xbox fans that still worship him because he plays games.
@@danissary There is a difference between Sataya not knowing the gaming industry and him mandating to the Gaming division to cull departments/groups/studios.
We do not know what exactly went down, but I am very confident this would be a lost worse if Phil were not at the helm. People can demand Phil should go all they like, but they too would regret such a decision when someone cutthroat that doesn't care about gaming at all takes over.
@@daksans6764 It's about being rational not fanboyism. If Phil was not there, you can be sure that the situation would be a lot worse.
phil with his charm and next year is going to be the great for xbox has every xbox fans under his spell.
Nintendo should pick up Tango that would be amazing
Not all psychopaths are killers, they are also CEO’s they picked because of their lack of empathy or emotion of any kind.
Gary makes a great point. Getting rid of Phil isn’t solving the problem when it’s Satya or who the hell knows that’s making the cutthroat decisions from the top. Just hope Ryan doesn’t throw softball questions to him in the showcase interview
If Phil is gonna get the praise he needs the ridicule as well. Can't lift him up and NOT be accountable for mismanaging the organization which IS his primary job
Satya isnt coming to Phil and telling him to fire Tango because Hi-Fi Rush didnt sell 20 million copies, Satya doesnt even know who the fuck works at Tango or what they do.
Its a systemic issue ultimately. Every CEO would have done the same thing. I don't say that to excuse Phil - I say that to condemn the system
10 years Phil has run Xbox. Where are they know? What makes them any better then embracer group?
You are completely blind in your fanboyism of Phil
I find that many people have a short term memory because a lot of people who are now outraged with what has happened and are now coming out against consolidation, were the biggest cheerleaders for consolidation.
Many people inside the industry were really concerned with MS buying all these studios and even predicted these massive layoffs and the gamepass problem.
One of the best pieces of content you have put out in a very long time from a 2+ year Patreon member. Everything that needed to be said about 2 faced Xbox was finally said. Seriously great job guys.