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Phil Spencer on Xbox's big year

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  • Phil Spencer on Xbox's big year

    What a difference one man and 18 months can make. Before Phil Spencer took over at Xbox, the brand was in troubled waters. Questionable policy decisions had shook Xbox and mired the early days of its new console in acrimony, and even though Microsoft wisely chose to listen to concerned consumers it's been working hard to regain the momentum lost ever since. As it heads into a vital fourth quarter of 2015, the momentum has definitely returned: the broadening of the Xbox brand to PC was helped by the relatively smooth roll-out of Windows 10, the Xbox division just turned a neat profit and, while it still falls short in sales to Sony's PlayStation 4, its line-up for the remainder of the year looks significantly stronger than its opposition's.
    Microsoft's showing at last week's Gamescom in Cologne was, then, a strong one, where the announcement of Halo Wars 2 for both Windows and Xbox One underlined how the company was looking to expand Xbox beyond the world of consoles, and where a succession of strong games - Scalebound, Quantum Break, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Crackdown - illustrated the breadth of exclusives due in the near future. Sony didn't have an answer. It decided to skip Gamescom for Paris Games Week, which comes later in the year. But even if it had chosen to stage a conference you sense it'd struggle to compete with what Xbox One has lined up for 2015.
    So when we catch up the day after the conference, in a small room on Microsoft's business booth half-heartedly sectioned off from the noisy demo booths for its upcoming game, Phil Spencer appears happy and relaxed, and his enthusiasm for the games he's pimping seems genuine (as does his passion for the games of his competitors, which he makes sure to acknowledge). There's no obfuscated exclusivity deal to try and untangle, and no big drama overshadowing the show. All that's left is to reflect on the good job he's done since taking the helm, and the significant task that lies ahead as he continues to push Xbox forward.
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