Not sure how this is a surprise. The reveal, launch and initial vision of Xbox One was a failure from a business perspective. The market rejected it horribly, demand tanked globally post launch spike and their main competitor shot ahead. Senior execs don't remain around in circumstances like that. They either move to distance themselves from the failure before it affects their career or if they're too late they're moved on by the company as their work was deemed a failure.
Spencer has clearly been charged by Nadella to stabilize Xbox until they work out where they want to go with it, something that's not yet apparent. To date all of Spencer's moves have been reactionary and consist of further distancing the system from the launch vision (RIP Kinect, say hello to games focus, less talk about TV, backing away from producing own content, etc) mixed with very traditional use of deals to secure timed exclusives, marketing and PR pushing old favourites and deals/bundles and price manipulation to stimulate sales. Solid stuff but all reactionary and all clearly intended to stabilize the situation.
Hopefully we'll start to get an idea in 2015 as to what MS actually have as a vision for Xbox and Live and where it fits alongside their other efforts and divisions. I doubt MS simply intend to push out a games centric console and come second or third depending on the market. That seems a waste of time after their success with 360 and doesn't make the device or service compelling in isolation next to their other divisions. I'm sure they've been regrouping on vision behind the scenes and expect them to start talking proactive (ie. about the future) early 2015 vs just chugging along in reactionary mode trying to minimize damage from the launch.
Spencer has clearly been charged by Nadella to stabilize Xbox until they work out where they want to go with it, something that's not yet apparent. To date all of Spencer's moves have been reactionary and consist of further distancing the system from the launch vision (RIP Kinect, say hello to games focus, less talk about TV, backing away from producing own content, etc) mixed with very traditional use of deals to secure timed exclusives, marketing and PR pushing old favourites and deals/bundles and price manipulation to stimulate sales. Solid stuff but all reactionary and all clearly intended to stabilize the situation.
Hopefully we'll start to get an idea in 2015 as to what MS actually have as a vision for Xbox and Live and where it fits alongside their other efforts and divisions. I doubt MS simply intend to push out a games centric console and come second or third depending on the market. That seems a waste of time after their success with 360 and doesn't make the device or service compelling in isolation next to their other divisions. I'm sure they've been regrouping on vision behind the scenes and expect them to start talking proactive (ie. about the future) early 2015 vs just chugging along in reactionary mode trying to minimize damage from the launch.
