Why Xbox Lost

In a recent podcast, Xbox head Phil Spencer admitted that Xbox had lost
after the Xbox One generation. As a founding member of the Xbox team, I
offer my perspective on what went wrong.

[slickrat]

Thank you for mentioning and giving so much credit to Peter More. For some reason, I see that many sites and channels never connect the leaving of Peter More to the beginning of the downfall of Xbox. I'm a fan of his work since his "Sega" times. People only seem to remember him for the 3 red lights of death, but I have fond memories of how Xbox 360 was so trendy during his leadership.

Btw, his stage appearances were SO epic, such a charismatic persona! It was so memorable when he announced GTA IV (with the arm tattoo) and Final Fantasy XIII were going to be launched on the same day on Xbox as on Playstation.

He was leading Xbox during its most successful times.

[Cruxis_Angel]

I always knew the moment Peter Moore left was when things went downhill for the brand. This video confirms it

[dano]

Very good video. Unfortunately for me as a day 1 Xbox owner/Halo and Gears fanatic, the thing that broke my trust was 343i. MCC release being a nightmare is an understatement to a lifelong fan, it destroyed my love of Xbox, and that was really sad.

[squishybuspr]

Wow. You are the first person on Youtube to ever criticize Xbox for having terrible work culture. I follow dozens of video game enthusiast channels including Kinda Funny (Xcast) and not a single one have ever mentioned Xbox as having bad work culture and more specifically, poor management. Xbox has spent tens of billions of dollars on acquiring Bethesda and Activison / Blizzard in recent years and no one has stopped to ask this simple question: If Xbox has that much money at their disposal, why can’t they invest that same amount of money into the hundreds of studios they already own by hiring up, paying the devs more, and developing exciting new IP? Because they would rather buy popular IP than create it themselves because they simply do not know how. If I were a developer for one of the many many first party Xbox studios that haven’t put out a good game in years, I would think to myself, “None of the management have any faith in us to develop and ship high quality games because they’d rather buy IP than invest in their current staff.” Xbox is simply going to become the Elder Scrolls / Call of Duty machine as opposed to the Halo / Gears of War machine. I think they’re simple moving laterally but no one realizes it because so much money being thrown around. I would be very surprised if Xbox is still making consoles in 7 years given their current strategy and poor leadership.

[goofed]

Phil Spencer done the opposite of trying to bring the culture back he has done nothing but try and look for ways around managing Xbox studios and putting out great games, I don't actually know what he does outside of play Diablo 4 and Destiny 2 whilst Xbox sits there burning.

[BMR]

wow that was some great insight from a person who was actually in the trenches! you deserve millions of subscribers!

[being]

the people who are defending xbox, and letting them monopolize gaming bu buying very large publishing studios and not work on games - should watch this video

[BraveAbandon]

What incredible insights. Getting this behind the scenes look is awesome. Id love to see videos from you explaining/teaching the behind the scenes processes that matter most for shipping games, and marketing, and interview dos/donts, and other kinds of decision making processes and principles of good business and communication, and so forth all geared towards game development and building game studios. Backing it up with examples youve lived or seen would help make it memorable and applicable too

[deathjunior]

Dunno why this hit my feed by I'm gonna watch all of it.

[cargorunner]

Love the xbox 360 and breaks my heart what has happened and is still happening. Just the basic features like console and app UI and achievements have never been fixed. The starting point should be getting the platform to be an intuitive robust easy to use experience. It took 9 years to add a direct 'uninstall' option instead of some convoluted manage and save changes function. And i still can't see what games I have completed so I know I can delete them. The console still expects to be online only. A network glitch will stop achievements and can instantly terminate your digital or gamepass game losing all your progress. Wish the old team could get back together and make xbox a great platform again. The lack of world class games and charging 70 dollars for redfall is another story. If you want to release a weak game then charge 30. Pricing sets expectations correctly.

[WeeWeeJumbo]

we need more of you in these Gaming YouTube streets.
an actual industry veteran, holy smokes, i feel lucky to subscribe

[cursedmonkey]

Fascinating video. I remember this all well. I was an Xbox fan yet I decided to buy a PS4 as a direct response to this. To the attitude. To them trying to push the product that THEY wanted us to have, rather than providing a product that we would like.

That said I'm still an Xbox fan. I never loved my PS4 like I loved my 360 and I can't wait to get my Series X. I sincerely hope Xbox keeps going, doesn't give up and keeps making consoles well into the future, as long as there is a market for them.

[jerbsherb]

It's crazy because you can tell when a product is different or has a different vibe when people who worked on it are no longer there. Simpsons is an excellent example of this, with most of their writers leaving for other projects. I felt the same thing when I played Gears of War 3 and felt that it didn't feel like the previous games. Gears is one of my favorite franchises and thank you for playing a special part in its creation.

[randompseudonym]

I loved Xbox original and the early years of the 360. Then Mattrick came in, and the focus shifted from pursuing the hardcore gamer demographic to trying to compete with the Wii for the casual audience. Hence, the latter focus on Kinect and all the shovelware that came with it. "To thine own self be true, " as the saying goes, but Xbox stopped being true to itself and just started chasing other current trends.

[ObrtASCENTvl.ZlatanOmerovic]

Hi from Bosnia. I watched Power On the day it was released, then during the summer of 2022 once more, again in the winter of 2023/24. And once more, just right now, where I am at Ep 2, and I literally googled you out where you talk about kinder garden game.... what I want to say, you, Seamus, Bonnie, Kevin, and everyone else involved in the research and development of the original Xbox, are the best inspiration I found ever.

Being a software developer myself, primarily working as a web dev for most of my career, working mostly under non-Windows dev. environments, you guys helped me get back on the system on which I started learning and loving software engineering.

All the internal insights you and other engineers from Microsoft from that time give are just pure gold. Recently, Dave Cutler and Raymond Chen, had their appearances on Dave Plummer's "Dave's Garage" YT channel, which is also insightful on how stuff at Microsoft used to be at some point, and how it is now - consumed by bureaucracy.

To wrap it up, I LOVE ALL YOU GUYS - you made the best piece of technology under impossible conditions, against an established competitor, in a very resonant market, especially at that time!

[ddp]

The things you said about the kinect, can be said about the series s, just on the other side of the spectrum. Many Developers don't want to support it, extra work, with no extra incentives.

Great insight

[HouseofWhop]

This feels like a problem that every business has now.

[MAWK]

Definitely make more videos talking about your time at Xbox and the video game industry!

Great video to btw!

[donjuanw]

You can thank Steve Balmer for that. It was politics in management that some folks didn't see or hear about. When Peter left, Steve felt that he needed to make sure a couple of things:

1. He wanted his own people in leadership so they were easier to deal with.

2. He knew what would happen once Peter left, thus clearing the way for an entire new leadership.

Anyone who was from the old regime was never going to move up, and to Steve's, they were considered a game that needed to be shipped out.

[JAGtheTrekkieGEMINI]

The OG Xbox and *especially* first half of the Xbox 360 were "Gamechanging" Times... Literally!