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Phil Spencer "I honestly don't goal the team on how many units Sony sells"

G

Grimgrillz

Banned
I honestly don't goal the team on how many units Sony sells. I think about what we're going to do, and how many Xbox customers we have across 360, Xbox One and Windows - thinking about the combined community of people on Xbox and playing those games, and that number's never been bigger.
Click to expand...

More at source: Source

I thought it was a very interesting contrast to the interview Phil Spencer's gave almost one year ago to the day when he said "I want to win this generation."

Actually here is the contrasting interview from a year ago where he talks about winning sales: I want to win this generation

What a difference a year makes. He sounds less confident than he did a in the older interview I posted. Perhaps he understands the potential of PS4's eventual "limited edition" Battlefront and BOPS3 bundles in the same season.

Sell me for less if old.
 
BeforeU

BeforeU

Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.
cool. You shouldn't. Keep making your product more appealing and which is exactly what you guys are doing.
 
J

JayWood2010

Member
I think his goal is simply to have success, bring out great games, make fans happy, and improve reputation by making gamers happy. Of course he would like to win, but that doesnt have to be the goal in mind.
 
B

Bootador83

Member
Doing the right thing, they probably can't win this generation but the race to win the next generation has already begun (momentum/mindshare) and that they can win.
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
by 'goal the team' does he mean 'set targets for the team'? Horrible use of language. We have enough verbs, stop making new ones.
 
O

oni-link

Member
Being in 2nd place is often good for the consumer, the first 4 years of last gen the PS3 was getting beaten and so they fell back on games, and over the last few years of the gen ended up with a great library of unique games only on PS3

The Xbone started off poorly, and they too have fallen back on games (all but discarding the motion controls, or at least no longer pushing them as a selling point) and low and behold, the system is now building up a great library of unique and interesting games
 
L

lord_lad

Banned
The Xbox One might have a chance to trail or even slight go ahead of PS4 in US a& UK but taken as a whole globally, i don't think even the most hardcore Xbox fanboy or Phil Spencer himself can lie to themselves that the Xbox One is ever going to catchup.

For the Xbox One to 'win' globally over the PS4 will requires jesus himself to rise from the grave, holding an Xbox and pimping it...and even that won't be a guarantee for Asian countries............LOL

So it make sense to just do whatever the best they can instead of going on a fool's errand.
 
S

Steroyd

Member
Grimgrillz said:
Actually here is the contrasting interview from a year ago where he talks about winning sales I want to win This generation

What a difference a year makes. He sounds less confident, perhaps he understands the potential of a platform bundling Battlefront and COD BOPS3 in the same season.

Sell me for less if old
Click to expand...

Of course he is, MS might as well have been giving away Xbox One's for free last holiday season the price cuts were insane*, and while they did win the numbers games it meant fuck all in the grand scheme of things and they were practically forced to permanently price cut the system when the months of madness was done.

*UK and US obviously lol.
 
R

roytheone

Member
Yeah, I always hated the "you are a failure if you are not the number 1 selling console" way of thinking, it is simply not how companies are run. If the xbox one sells enough units to be profitable, it will be considered successful. A little disappointing maybe, but still successful.
 
Yautja_Warrior

Yautja_Warrior

Member
Yeah they don't really need to match Sony, people (fanboys) seem to forget that Xbox One is still selling better than 360 in the same amount of time. Sales only really look bad when directly compared to PS4.

Spencer came off pretty well in that interview, he seems like a decent guy who knows what direction he needs to take Xbox without stressing about what Sony is doing.
 
I

Ishan

Junior Member
As others have pointed out

He doesn't really have a choice.
Butttt this is a good thing xbox has been rising in value if I could afford two consoles it would have been ps4 wii but now I'm tilting ps4 xb1 which is saying a lot about te work the xbox team has put in and the turnaround they've achieved .
 
F

Fliesen

Member
"It's the taking part that counts!"

participation-medal.jpg

there you go, Phil!
 
G

Grimgrillz

Banned
Yautja_Warrior said:
Yeah they don't really need to match Sony, people (fanboys) seem to forget that Xbox One is still selling better than 360 in the same amount of time. Sales only really look bad when directly compared to PS4.

Spencer came off pretty well in that interview, he seems like a decent guy who knows what direction he needs to take Xbox without stressing about what Sony is doing.
Click to expand...

Question for anyone who might remember console stats but does anyone know how many XB360 were sold in the same period? I'm asking because the 360 was very popular in Europe in comparison to the XBO.
 
M

Mass_Pincup

Banned
oni-link said:
Being in 2nd place is often good for the consumer, the first 4 years of last gen the PS3 was getting beaten and so they fell back on games, and over the last few years of the gen ended up with a great library of unique games only on PS3

The Xbone started off poorly, and they too have fallen back on games (all but discarding the motion controls, or at least no longer pushing them as a selling point) and low and behold, the system is now building up a great library of unique and interesting games
Click to expand...

The PS3 wasn't getting beaten, it just had been released a year later. I'm even pretty sure that it outsold the 360 every year since it was out everywhere except for the US and the UK.

Yautja_Warrior said:
Yeah they don't really need to match Sony, people (fanboys) seem to forget that Xbox One is still selling better than 360 in the same amount of time. Sales only really look bad when directly compared to PS4.

Spencer came off pretty well in that interview, he seems like a decent guy who knows what direction he needs to take Xbox without stressing about what Sony is doing.
Click to expand...

They clearly expected to sale more, otherwise why all the price cuts if it was such a success?

Sakujou said:
Xb1 and ms are trying. They show effort while sony sits on their pile of success and do nothing. No great announcements, only 3rds who were bought for timed exclusivity.
Xb1 has better games or at least games i would love to play in the future, games which will be available only on that platform. No mans sky is not enough me in the future.
I hope ms will do fine in this gen....
On the other hand they completely lost the japanese market. WP isnt doing well over there... Its more 50percent for apple over there....
Click to expand...

I totally understand that someone may found Sony's output a little weak, but then say they do nothing and praises MS while they showed way less games is quite weird to me.
 
S

Sakujou

Banned
Xb1 and ms are trying. They show effort while sony sits on their pile of success and do nothing. No great announcements, only 3rds who were bought for timed exclusivity.
Xb1 has better games or at least games i would love to play in the future, games which will be available only on that platform. No mans sky is not enough me in the future.
I hope ms will do fine in this gen....
On the other hand they completely lost the japanese market. WP isnt doing well over there... Its more 50percent for apple over there....
 
B

BlackBuzzard

Banned
planetsmasherx1 said:
I wouldn't say that. It's unlikely, but remember the PS3 was leagues behind at this point in its lifecycle of its competition. They rebounded, and so can Xbox.
Click to expand...

PS3 from day one sold better in main land Europe. Microsoft does not have such a region where they are market leader atm. So the situation really cannot be compared.
 
K

KORNdoggy

Member
"we don't need to worry about sony PS4 sales, becasue as combined family of xbox one, 360 and PC we have technically sold better anyway"

that's how i read it.

i realise these guys need to be spin doctors. but i do get tired of it. what's wrong with just admitting your failings and being happy instead of trying to spin every negative situation into some artificial positive?
 
F

Fliesen

Member
Mass_Pincup said:
The PS3 wasn't getting beaten, it just had been released a year later. I'm even pretty sure that it outsold the 360 every year since it was out everywhere except for the US and the UK.
Click to expand...

this.
the PS3 had to "catch up" because the 360 had a one year head start.
Nov '05 vs Nov '06 iirc.
 
S

Steroyd

Member
Bootador83 said:
Doing the right thing, they probably can't win this generation but the race to win the next generation has already begun (momentum/mindshare) and that they can win.
Click to expand...

I don't know about that, if they're truly going to make Xbox a symbiotic console to a PC, then it might be detrimental to some European countries like Germany where PC has a major presence.

That said MS will always have a shot at the US, and maybe UK.
 
B

BlackBuzzard

Banned
Sakujou said:
Xb1 and ms are trying. They show effort while sony sits on their pile of success and do nothing. No great announcements, only 3rds who were bought for timed exclusivity.
Xb1 has better games or at least games i would love to play in the future, games which will be available only on that platform. No mans sky is not enough me in the future.
I hope ms will do fine in this gen....
On the other hand they completely lost the japanese market. WP isnt doing well over there... Its more 50percent for apple over there....
Click to expand...

tumblr_inline_nryt9jEqd61sx8g04_500.gif
 
T

Trojan

Member
He saw the writing on the wall with the sales trends...it will be very difficult for them to make up that much ground at this point. Probably smart of him to change that messaging.
 
GHG

GHG

Member
So can Sony spin this and say they have more users across the playstation family as well now?
 
psn

psn

Member
Sony always had a great library of games. I can't think of a Playstation console with a bad library.
If the PS3 would have sold better (and it did sell really good from the start in most markets), then I don't think there would have been a big difference. They always tend to focus on games.

In contrast, see the Xbox 360 lineup after 2009. They heavily relied on 3rd party games because they already sold more units in the US and A (and UK obv. They were resting on their laurels more than Sony ever did imo.
 
A

alexein

Member
i played on ps3 but at the beginning i wanted a 360 when they got the jrpg (vesperia,blue dragoon,lost odyssey) but i'm happy that i just played this on my brother one since byt the end of the generation japanese support stopped, and exclusivity were rare when ps3 got last of us...

i cant see ps4 losing momentum,look at the japanese support and they seem to come in force,so i think they will be 2nd this gen, they will sell a lot of consoles though maybe more than x360 but still behind ps4
 
S

Springy

Member
mrklaw said:
by 'goal the team' does he mean 'set targets for the team'? Horrible use of language. We have enough verbs, stop making new ones.
Click to expand...
I remember his talk of all the "announces" Xbox had at E3 instead of announcements. He took away a nice verb then, gives us a new one now. Phil likes his bullshit corporate mauling of language.

I don't know what to make of him. He always seems genuine in the moment, but full of contradictions over time. I guess, in the end, he's an executive and should deliver on that front. The fascination gaming enthusiasts have with corporate leaders in the industry, building cults of personality around them, is peculiar.
 
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