Phil Spencer to head up Xbox Division

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Brendeth

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In a company email this morning Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has announced that Phil Spencer will now be leading the Xbox Division.
 

Next, I have asked Phil Spencer to take on a new role leading Xbox, combining the Xbox and Xbox Live development teams with the Microsoft Studios team. Phil will report to Terry Myerson, allowing us to keep gaming close to the group developing operating systems across devices. In this new job, Phil will lead the Xbox, Xbox Live, Xbox Music and Xbox Video teams, and Microsoft Studios. Combining all our software, gaming and content assets across the Xbox team under a single leader and aligning with the OSG team will help ensure we continue to do great work across the Xbox business, and bring more of the magic of Xbox to all form factors, including tablets, PCs and phones. Phil will continue his close partnership with Yusuf Mehdi, who leads business strategy and marketing for Xbox, George Peckham, who heads up third-party partnerships and Mike Angiulo, who will continue leading Xbox hardware. Over the years, Phil?s team at Microsoft Studios has helped build a community of more than 80 million Xbox owners and 48 million Xbox Live members through blockbuster game franchises such as ?Halo,? ?Gears of War,? ?Kinect Sports,? ?Fable,? ?Forza Motorsport? and many others. He?s helped drive the development of brand-new entertainment offerings like the partnership with the NFL and the formation of Xbox Entertainment Studios. I love the way the Xbox team is focused on great games and gaming experiences (go, ?Titanfall?!), connects with its fans, pushes the boundary of entertainment and has embraced the power of the cloud in such interesting and impactful ways. Phil is the right person to lead Xbox forward.

 

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/misc/2014/mar14/03-31corpemail.aspx



Great news everyone! (EDIT: Well only good news, would be great if Yusuf Mehdi was shuffled off somewhere else)

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neoadorable

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He does seem like a nice guy and this is good news - glad for him, must be a considerable pay rise, and also very rewarding to be doing that. What happened to Elop? Or is he in charge of the division, while Phil runs the Xbox sub-division? MS job titles are quite confusing.

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George P Global Moderator

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Elop will be in charge of the hardware side, making the deals so the Xbox hardware gets made but Phil reports to the OS group and Terry Myerson since he'll oversee the Xbox software and games with input on hardware.

Basically the Xbox division overlaps both hardware and software but ultimately its more in the software side.

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Showan

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Great choice for the job (at least from my PoV)...

First order of business: Don't let Yusuf Mendhi or Albert Panello talk about anything on the web.

They don't have to be fired (don't like seeing people lose their jobs), just give them something else to do...

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Brendeth

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Great choice for the job (at least from my PoV)...

First order of business: Don't let Yusuf Mendhi or Albert Panello talk about anything on the web.

They don't have to be fired (don't like seeing people lose their jobs), just give them something else to do...

While I'd normally agree about people losing their jobs, this is the lead of possibly the worst marketing of a console ever. The Xbox One was a PR nightmare for months and he should accept some responsibility and step aside.

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George P Global Moderator

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I like the choice, I hope he pulls together the Xbox team and makes sure they are focused on the same goal.  They need to continue to be aggressive in pushing updates, adding features, and going after developers for content.

 

From the post about the change it sounds like for the first time (which if true is mind blowing) the Xbox division has one boss who oversees the software (OS etc), apps and studios.   I guess they had different VPs before this in control of the different parts who reported to Mattrick or w/e but that just sounds off.  

 

Anyways, it does sound like the reorg is cutting away much of the VP, middle management fat throughout the company.

 

On a side note I just read a post over on the verge about select preview program testers in the EU getting to try out the OneGuide for the first time before they roll it outside the US.  Oh, Canada too before I forget.

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neoadorable

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Great choice for the job (at least from my PoV)...

First order of business: Don't let Yusuf Mendhi or Albert Panello talk about anything on the web.

They don't have to be fired (don't like seeing people lose their jobs), just give them something else to do...

 

Hahaha why? I like Albert Panello, he's the guy that wrote the famous "please import" page. You need to understand how many gamers worldwide were made happy by that confirmation. As for Yusuf Mehdi, not sure also what he did to deserve so much scorn? I don't remember him saying anything of note except that X1 will support 4K. Besides, isn't he very active on neowin, especially the news? :rofl:

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Brendeth

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Hahaha why? I like Albert Panello, he's the guy that wrote the famous "please import" page. You need to understand how many gamers worldwide were made happy by that confirmation. As for Yusuf Mehdi, not sure also what he did to deserve so much scorn? I don't remember him saying anything of note except that X1 will support 4K. Besides, isn't he very active on neowin, especially the news? :rofl:

Panello has been quite good in some aspects, but when he took to NeoGaf for damage control....... well that didn't turn out so well...

As for Yusuf, as head of marketing he didn't do a good job of marketing the original plan for the X1 to us. In fact the PR was miserable and they still haven't really recovered from that mess, I still see people asking about 'Always Online'.

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neoadorable

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Panello has been quite good in some aspects, but when he took to NeoGaf for damage control....... well that didn't turn out so well...

As for Yusuf, as head of marketing he didn't do a good job of marketing the original plan for the X1 to us. In fact the PR was miserable and they still haven't really recovered from that mess, I still see people asking about 'Always Online'.

 

Need to look up this NeoGAF and Albert thing, i vaguely remember something went awry there, but can't tell what. Was it that bad? And what did Yusuf say about always on? Did he even talk about that? It was mostly Don "I made Test Drive!" Mattrick that went on and on about that with his Sony E3 2005-2006-like goofiness...."we have a product for you if you live on a nuclear submarine...360!" What a doofus.

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Brendeth

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Need to look up this NeoGAF and Albert thing, i vaguely remember something went awry there, but can't tell what. Was it that bad? And what did Yusuf say about always on? Did he even talk about that? It was mostly Don "I made Test Drive!" Mattrick that went on and on about that with his Sony E3 2005-2006-like goofiness...."we have a product for you if you live on a nuclear submarine...360!" What a doofus.

To me it wasn't so much what Yusuf said, it was what he didn't say. As the Marketing Head, I felt it was his task to prove to us what was different and good about the new system, we never got a clear indication of how the online system working, we never got the details of the shared game libraries and we never got a clear reason as to why this was all good news for the consumer..All we got was buzzwords, promises and a middle finger from employees like Don Mattick and Adam Orth. He failed the most important task for marketing and as such I personally believe the Xbox Brand is still suffering because of this.(I still have friends that believe always online is still a thing)

As for Panello, he kept discussing the hardware and it's performance on Neogaf and was repeatedly abused for not having the knowledge and even seemed to be making stuff up to improve public perception. Since he has stopped all that stuff on NeoGaf and has been providing some worthwhile information, so I don't really have a problem with him at all.

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neoadorable

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Thanks for explaining that. I guess Yusuf could have done more to introduce the system, though i don't think he said anything offensive. The power of the cloud talk was an remains slightly annoying, as you say it's buzzwordese rather than anything concrete. To be fair to them, there wasn't much they could have said to demonstrate what they meant before the system and games came out. Having played a lot on Titanfall, i can understand what they meant - it's the most solid MP experience in terms of network stability available right now. Not perfect but close.

 

And always online is still definitely a thing for X1 :wacko:  except not as strict. It's the same as PS4. Offline they lose all of their flavor, return to being just game players. Guess you could say that about any device nowadays, though.

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JonnyLH

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To me it wasn't so much what Yusuf said, it was what he didn't say. As the Marketing Head, I felt it was his task to prove to us what was different and good about the new system, we never got a clear indication of how the online system working, we never got the details of the shared game libraries and we never got a clear reason as to why this was all good news for the consumer..All we got was buzzwords, promises and a middle finger from employees like Don Mattick and Adam Orth. He failed the most important task for marketing and as such I personally believe the Xbox Brand is still suffering because of this.(I still have friends that believe always online is still a thing)

As for Panello, he kept discussing the hardware and it's performance on Neogaf and was repeatedly abused for not having the knowledge and even seemed to be making stuff up to improve public perception. Since he has stopped all that stuff on NeoGaf and has been providing some worthwhile information, so I don't really have a problem with him at all.

You've got to understand that the concept got leaked before they was ready to publicly speak about it. The "Jump In" campaign what they did recently with Titanfall, Ryse and Fifa in the advert was excellent. In the UK I'm seeing many Titanfall adverts, good public awareness so I don't get what the issue is with him?

 

Regarding Penello, he posted very honestly on there and cleared up a lot of confusion around some topics. When he jumped in over the hardware talks, he went all out fanboy MS mode and refused to admit there was large differences in the machine. The games so far, has proved otherwise.

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Brendeth

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You've got to understand that the concept got leaked before they was ready to publicly speak about it. The "Jump In" campaign what they did recently with Titanfall, Ryse and Fifa in the advert was excellent. In the UK I'm seeing many Titanfall adverts, good public awareness so I don't get what the issue is with him?

Granted it was leaked early and those things are always hard to handle, but he should have been preparing something put out the fires, instead we got random staff insulting consumers and others who did the more appropriate thing and not comment. Don't get me wrong I totally agree on everything being much better now, hell I have loved some of the commercials lately, especially ones showing off the games. That is what we need and as long as it continues I am good with him, I just had a problem with the initial reveal and subsequent marketing afterwards along how poorly it was handled (regardless of leaks). Perhaps that initial marketing was just a product of Mattick still being in charge, that man didn't seem to care about the games or the consumer and that does fit with the press at the time.

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JonnyLH

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Granted it was leaked early and those things are always hard to handle, but he should have been preparing something put out the fires, instead we got random staff insulting consumers and others who did the more appropriate thing and not comment. Don't get me wrong I totally agree on everything being much better now, hell I have loved some of the commercials lately, especially ones showing off the games. That is what we need and as long as it continues I am good with him, I just had a problem with the initial reveal and subsequent marketing afterwards along how poorly it was handled (regardless of leaks). Perhaps that initial marketing was just a product of Mattick still being in charge, that man didn't seem to care about the games or the consumer and that does fit with the press at the time.

That's a fair enough view, I'd love to have an inside view of the development and internal reaction when it all kicked off. The best thing to put out the fires in my opinion would of been a simple walk-through of how to share games between friends and physically showing the family sharing on an XB1. I very much doubt the development of it was close to being ready though to do that.

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Showan

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I think Phil Spencer is going to do a great job in his new role

 

 

http://news.xbox.com/2014/04/xbox-phil-spencer-interview-major-nelson

 


5:28 mark... I don't want a lot of execs or management on stage at E3.  

 

THANK YOU PHIL SPENCER

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trooper11

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I think Phil Spencer is going to do a great job in his new role

 

 

Well I have to say, he is talking the talk.  If he can back it up with tangible results, then you could be looking at a renaissance of sorts for the Xbox group. His ideas seem to be very focused on feedback from end users, engaging with the community, and pushing the vision/message that they need to for the gaming community.

 

One bit that interested me was when he mentioned his talks with the new CEO.  He said that they all agreed that gaming needed to be a serious focus across all of their devices/products.  That could be another nod to the idea that MS is going to be proactive in improving the gaming experiences across the X1, the pc, tablets, and phones.  It could mean that the Xbox brand gets the attention it deserves across the pc and phone space to really be meaningful. It could mean more pc gaming content or at least more emphasis on improving the experience. 

 

We will see what comes out of this.

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Showan

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Well I have to say, he is talking the talk.  If he can back it up with tangible results, then you could be looking at a renaissance of sorts for the Xbox group. His ideas seem to be very focused on feedback from end users, engaging with the community, and pushing the vision/message that they need to for the gaming community.

 

One bit that interested me was when he mentioned his talks with the new CEO.  He said that they all agreed that gaming needed to be a serious focus across all of their devices/products.  That could be another nod to the idea that MS is going to be proactive in improving the gaming experiences across the X1, the pc, tablets, and phones.  It could mean that the Xbox brand gets the attention it deserves across the pc and phone space to really be meaningful. It could mean more pc gaming content or at least more emphasis on improving the experience. 

 

We will see what comes out of this.

 

 

The new CEO, is impressing me as well. I like Satya's "If it's ready, then get in the hand of the consumers approach"...  

And I'm also liking the way Tools and SDK's are being handled now.  There seems to be a "HIGH QUALITY" mindset in place now, when it comes to Tools and SDK's  Better tools and SDK's means better apps and games coming from developers. This will make Microsoft's fans happy and bring in new fans.

 

Like I said Microsoft has been it's own worst enemy for the past 5-8yrs.  And they seem to be cleaning that up at breakneck speed.

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neoadorable

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Phil, start by giving me back my $50 from the pre-paid code i entered just as you guys were having that billing system glitch last Thursday arrrggghhh :angry:

 

Otherwise, i think he's a cool guy, seems very likable.

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DrunknMunky Veteran

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Phil, start by giving me back my $50 from the pre-paid code i entered just as you guys were having that billing system glitch last Thursday arrrggghhh :angry:

 

Otherwise, i think he's a cool guy, seems very likable.

 

They aren't refunding you? Wtf :no:

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greenwizard88

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I don't think that either of them should step down, I don't think either of them could have done any better.

 

Obviously the Xbox One was releases before it was ready, obviously they didn't have the basics hammered out yet, obviously the frame rates will increase with Dx12, and yet it's still selling better than the 360 did. That's fantastic considering how F'd the launch was. And the guy who's responsible for that is now over at Zynga or something.

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DrunknMunky Veteran

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I don't think that either of them should step down, I don't think either of them could have done any better.

 

Obviously the Xbox One was releases before it was ready, obviously they didn't have the basics hammered out yet, obviously the frame rates will increase with Dx12, and yet it's still selling better than the 360 did. That's fantastic considering how F'd the launch was. And the guy who's responsible for that is now over at Zynga or something.

 

Blaming everything on Mattrick is equally a scapegoat though. He has a team surrounding him that play their part and indeed their part in the mistakes. He wasn't some tyrant that none of them couldn't approach (like Ballmer reportedly), so there's no excuse that collaboration was weak. They misread the market and screwed up the damage control.

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Control settings hands-free with simple voice commands like "Take a photo," keeping you focused on the road. Loop Recording & Super Capacitor & up to 1TB Support: Dash cams revolutionize convenience with loop recording featuring 1/2/3-minute segments. When memory is full, it automatically overwrites older footage. Engineered for reliability, its robust super capacitor withstands extreme temps(-4°F to 140°F), guaranteeing uninterrupted operation even in scorching sun. Expand storage with up to 1TB microSD support, enabling 37+ hours of continuous 4K triple-camera recording (front+inside+rear). VANTRUE Memory Card Recommendation: Note: Dash cam does not include an SD card. Avoid using low-quality memory cards to prevent the camera from malfunctioning. We recommend using VANTRUE industrial-grade microSD cards, which offer longer lifespan (over 3 years) compared to consumer-grade. VANTRUE memory cards are rigorously tested specifically for dash cam recording to ensure optimal performance. Available on Amazon in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB capacities to suit your storage needs. So marketing jargon aside, what do you actually get? What's in the box? N4 Pro S Dash Cam, Rear Camera, 20ft rear camera cable Charging Cable Installation Tool Car Mount Quick Guide Vantrue also claims it is easy to install and comes with an 18-Month Warranty, 24/7 email support, and a 100% satisfaction guarantee. The Dash cam is said to also receive regular firmware updates for continuous improvements. With the 20ft rear camera cable, it is versatile enough to fit most vehicles, including cars, SUVs, minivans, trucks, and buses. Vantrue N4 Pro S for $269.99 (was $379.99) 36% off its MSRP of $419.99 No code required. Discount expires on June 26. Vantrue N4S (2026) Next up, there's an even bigger discount on the new (2026 edition) N4S Dash Cam. 2026 New 3-Channel Dash Cam & 360°Coverage Equipped with triple STARVIS 2-powered sensors, the Vantrue N4S dashcam records in super HD clarity: 2.7K front + 1440P interior + 1440P rear.Its 158° front, 165° cabin, and 160°rear wide-angle lenses eliminate blind spots, while HDR and PlatePix technology deliver sharp details and license plates day or night. This dash cam for cars is perfect for rideshare drivers and daily commuters. Night Vision 4.0 & High Temperature Proof Powered by STARVIS 2 Tech, the N4S dashcam for cars enhances light sensitivity and dynamic range in extreme low light. Triple HDR balances harsh contrasts—like headlights against dark roads—while PlatePix sharpens license plates by 2X, capturing crisp, identifiable footage on dark streets, in tunnels, or garages. This New N4S dashcam's supercapacitor design withstands extreme temperatures(-4℉ to 140℉), ensuring stable operation—safer and greener. Easy to Install & 360°versatile Rear Camera Set up effortlessly with our magnetic GPS mount, static cling film, and cable clips. Everything is tool‑free for a clean, wire‑hidden installation, and the mount stays stable on any drive. The rear camera rotates 360°, letting you monitor rear traffic or pivot it inward to keep an eye on cargo, luggage, or pets inside the vehicle. Versatile coverage whenever you need it. 24/7 Smart Parking Mode for Peace of Mind With 4 proprietary parking modes, the N4S 3-channel dashcam for cars lets you customize your protection. Motion detection triggers 10 seconds pre-event recording to capture full event. Collision detection auto-locks footage on impact/collision. Low bitrate/frame rate modes extend recording by reducing file size. Whatever the hour, your vehicle is always protected. 5GHz Wi-Fi & Support up to 1TB SD Card Access and download footage instantly with high‑speed 5GHz Wi-Fi. No need to remove the memory card or wait for transfers—critical clips are ready to view or share in seconds. This dash cam front and rear supports up to 1TB microSD cards (sold separately), giving you ample space for long trips or continuous loop recording. OTA firmware updates ensure your dashcam stays current with the latest features and improvements. So, again, aside from the marketing fluff mentioned above what do you actually get? What's in the box? Vantrue N4S Front and Inside Dash Cam x 1 Rear Camera x 1, Rear Camera Cable (20ft) x 1 Transparency Program card (with digital setup guide) x 1 Car Charger(11.5ft) x 1 USB Data Cable(3.3ft) x 1 GPS Adhesive Mount x 1 Crowbar x 1 Quick User Guide x 1 Electrostatic Stickers x 2 Spare Bracket Base Cable Clips The 2026 Edition of the N4S lets you track your journey with quad-mode GPS + BeiDou positioning. Experience supposedly faster satellite acquisition and reliable logging of your speed, location, and time in any environment. For rideshare or road trips, you can also trust the N4S dash cam front rear and inside cameras as your reliable co-driver. Like the Vantrue N4 Pro S, it is also backed by 24/7 support and extended warranty for complete peace of mind. Vantrue N4S (2026) for $174.99 (was $249.99) 38% off its MSRP of $279.99 No code required. Discount expires on June 26. Good to know This Amazon deal is U.S. specific, and not available in other regions unless specified. We only use first-party seller links (at the time of article publishing); ensure that you purchase from a first-party seller link only. Check out Today's Deals on Amazon | or our recent tech deals. Become a Prime member (for Students or SNAP) via Neowin Get Prime Access - Prime for half price (for qualifying Medicaid, EBT, SNAP) Subscribe to Prime Video, Audible Plus, Music Unlimited or Kindle Unlimited via Neowin As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
    • Why you need to take back control of your synced passwords and how to go about doing that

      By +Good Bot, Bad Bot · Posted

      The concern of this article is not getting "hacked". No one is taking over my Google account and anyone that was is far away from self-hosting their passwords. It was about your big tech account of choice deciding to reduce features or getting out of the password manager business altogether. Bitwarden (or say Proton) is professional security company offering opensource solutions. They are going no where and one can easily download or export their passwords to another password manager service regardless. They again also offer self-hosted option. I doubt many people were sold on this solution based on the write up. The author had a number of warnings and caveats themselves. A local, self-managed solution is not for 99% of users.

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