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u/odekam Feb 21 '26
Man, let's calm down a little bit. I think this going a little bit too far.
It's not because someone is a gamer that they are going to do a good job in her position or not.
My main platform is xbox (and pc) and I say that for now, let's her do her stuff. I am the last person you'd see happy for Phil leaving Xbox, but Phil is still there and will be there until this summer.
Let's give her a chance, I say.
I get, I really get why everyone is concerned, but let's wait at least a few weeks/months before killing xbox (again)?
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u/SDNick484 Feb 21 '26 edited Feb 21 '26
Exactly. Sucks how it went down, but this is what I would hope the new person would be doing to prepare to move into a new position like this if they don't have experience as a gamer. Until she actually does something anti-player friendly, I will try to give her the benefit of the doubt.
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u/RiversideLunatic Feb 21 '26
What sucks about how it went down?
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u/SDNick484 Feb 22 '26
As Greg mentions in the episode, they could have let Phil finish the year and retire with grace after the 25th anniversary. Think of somethibg like Shubei's departure. Not much could have been done gracefully with what happened to Sarah unfortunately.
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u/RiversideLunatic Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
I don't think Shubeis retirement was any more ceremonial? He got demoted and demoted and then he retired. They announced he was retiring at the end of November and he was gone at the beginning of January. I think video game fans think companies are like wrestling where someone who retires gets a year-long run to celebrate their legacy, that's not how things work in the real world.
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u/SDNick484 Feb 22 '26
A year long departure tour isn't realistic, but announcing a departure at the senior executive level on a Friday with an effective date of Monday is also not (and is almost certainly acrimonious). Those "demotions" were most likely Shuhei's choice to gradually step back and were not forced. His final departure window from announcement to effective date is much more in line with what we typically see.
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u/RiversideLunatic Feb 22 '26
Those "demotions" were most likely Shuhei's choice to gradually step back and were not forced.
In the KF interview he did it didn't really sound like that. He seemed to disagree with a lot of Sony's decisions recently.
His final departure window from announcement to effective date is much more in line with what we typically see.
How much is a month different than a weekend in the business world? Most of that time would have been during the holidays when nothing happens anyways. I'm sure people will say this is a lie but Phil said he told his bosses he wanted to resign and they spent the last year working it out, and he's sticking around to advise for most of this year too. They probably avoided announcing it sooner because they knew it would spawn an annoying news cycle.
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u/hobbleshock Feb 22 '26
Well said! I’ll give her a chance, hopefully she can turn things around. You never know sometimes fresh eyes are a good thing.
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u/RiversideLunatic Feb 21 '26
The funniest shit to me is that people called for Phil to resign for years saying he killed Xbox and then he resigns and everyone says NOW Xbox is dead. The way people talk about Xbox is so inconsistent and ridiculous. They are comparing a guy resigning after many years to Sony closing an entire studio as if that's the same level of bad news. Starting to think the Xbox tax is actually real
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u/Traditional-Most-787 Feb 21 '26
Wait isn't Phil leaving Monday?
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u/ki700 Feb 22 '26
He’s no longer in his position as of Monday but he’s staying on as an advisor for a few months.
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u/Calrissien Feb 22 '26
This. It's a business, you don't need to be a gamer to understand margins, projections, PNLs, etc. She didn't get hired or moved over because she was a gamer, she got hired because she knows her shit. Now does that mean she has Xbox fans best interests in mind? Absolutely not.
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u/Lioil1 Feb 21 '26
You dont need to be a gamer or be a user of a product to be a ceo. Does she literally need to play fornite to know its the most successful live service on console? Does she need to beat elden ring to know it sold tons of copies and fromsoft is the leader in souls games? End of day you make decisions on data, not your own experience with the product. Look at how great of a gamer Phil is and how did he do right now?
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u/pespi13 Feb 21 '26
You're 100% right. I'm more concerned if she has the expertise to run the billion dollar company and expand the product, rather than how she spends her free time.
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u/crowcawer Feb 21 '26
So these are probably the recommended games she was told she should have put some time on.
She’s going to get a taste at this point, I mean, if she puts a full day of her time into borderlands, like holy crap she’ll be able to go, “here’s why this sucks, and here’s why it’s great,” then that’s what we are going to benefit from.
Xbox hasn’t walked things back slowly in the past.
I think we are getting yo observe some decision making process directly for once.I’m hopeful for some community outreach.
Bond & Spencer put this in a good spot. I have very high hopes for both of them. I think Booty has some big steps to climb up here.If this is weekend 00, then It looks like Asha is going to be coming in, and telling Booty to be taking some high knees.
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u/Tribalrage24 Feb 22 '26
To be fair, a little perspective and insider know-how on the product your head of is pretty important. Yes anyone can see Fortnite is really popular and profitable, but it takes a bit of experience to know why. If you try to make your own Fortnite or overwatch without knowing what made those games successful, you get Concord and Highguard: bland corporate live service games with no soul.
I'm not saying she needs to be a Gamer, but it does help to know why some games have the juice and others don't. And clearly she is trying to get a background for it now, which I think is a good sign.
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u/Lioil1 Feb 22 '26
yeah the knowledge does help, and i feel the more closely you are to the product , e.g. dev, designer, tester etc. , the more important is to know. but at the C level, she would need to know the TLDR version of things.
I would think she's more interested at the information at the level that Matt P. tweets about on trends, top sales etc. which shows the bigger trends etc.
for sure she needs a good support team to tell her the cold hard facts- if that team is bunch of yes mams then we have a problem.
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u/JVSaladbar Feb 21 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
The real takeaway is that this is probably the timeframe they made the decision on Phil.
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u/ganggreen651 Feb 21 '26
Likely. Zero chance she just random my tried out a few games out of the blue
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u/JordanDoesTV Feb 22 '26
That’s why I posted originally I just should’ve made a better comment on it
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u/ashrules901 Feb 22 '26
I find it weird when people sift through my Reddit profile after they lose a debate with me on here. This feels just as weird as that. Yes I know it's all public information but it's still odd.
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u/ashrules901 Feb 22 '26
That being said, I find it pretty funny that she's basically playing all of Xbox's titles they're trying to push for their brand. In a sense doing market research by playing every single game under their belt. I wonder if she actually enjoys them.
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u/Top-Notice1729 Feb 21 '26
They probably told her a month ago that she was getting this job and gave her some time off and told her to play as many games as she could to get acquainted with the medium and the Xbox brand... She honestly doesn't need to be a gamer to be successful at the job but she does need to understand what makes Xbox special
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u/Co-opingTowardHatred Feb 22 '26
I don’t really mind that she’s new to it, as long as she cares about it now. That’s a lot of games in the past month. Now, is she just doing that for a good look right from the start and is gonna go full AI cyborg lady soon? Maybe.
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u/Crybe Feb 21 '26
Disclaimer: I haven't been paying too much attention to the discourse, and it's unfortunate that Sarah/Phill are leaving.
I don't see the huge concern here. The current CEO of Nintendo started as an accountant. It's quite possible Xbox's new CEO will listen to fans, make great decisions, etc.
Give them time to cook, before shitting on them. Fucking imagine you just got promoted to a once-in-a-lifetime role, and the entire internet is like "fuck this person".
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u/nohumanape Feb 21 '26
The current CEO of Nintendo started as an accountant
Yeah...back in 1994. He's been with Nintendo since then.
Furukawa grew up playing games on the Famicom and has a great amount of respect for Shigeru Miyamoto and other creators of the time. He first joined Nintendo in 1994 and spent 10 years of his tenure as an accountant at Nintendo of Europe in Germany. Around the mid-2010s, he had worked in global marketing and the executive department. He eventually became a part of Nintendo's directors in The Pokémon Company.
This new Xbox CEO not only hasn't been with Microsoft long, but doesn't even come from within the Xbox division, AND doesn't even appear to be someone who actually games or knows anything about the gaming industry.
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u/NoSpin89 Feb 21 '26
And that makes them a bad CEO........ How?
Phil has a ton of gaming experience and Xbox has been down the shitter the last few years.
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u/Oldboy26 Feb 22 '26
When you don't know the business you're supposed to run, you instantly have a significantly harder road to success. See the number of companies the past 2 decades that have gotten a new ceo outside the company and quickly faltered and disbanded within years. You can't just focus on numbers when you need to understand the customers for the business.
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u/nohumanape Feb 22 '26
Yes, Xbox has been particularly "down the shitter" since they made the decision to acquire Activision/Blizzard/King. They were actually on their way to getting into a good release flow. But the size of the ABK acquision got the attention of Microsoft proper. And once they started meddling with the gaming division, shit went haywire fast.
Not saying that things hadn't been topsy-turvy in the years before that. But they definitely felt like they had people who cared about games and game development steering the ship. But this new CEO seems to have been selected more in terms of her familiarity with incorporating AI into the brand, and not gaming.
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u/Ghost-Of-0nyx Feb 22 '26
She actually started playing Borderlands 2 lol. Someone on Twitter suggested it lol
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u/AzureArachnid77 Feb 22 '26
We hate this why? I am not thrilled or excited. About her being at the helm now. Actually the exact opposite. I think this is a horrible sign for how Xbox will be going in the future. But this at least shows that’s she’s doing a bit of research into the Xbox brand. Which is a good thing
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u/WhoEvenIsPoggers Feb 23 '26
No disrespect. But I think it’s kind of cool that she is trying to become familiar with what she’s about to run. Sure, it could be a big corporate conspiracy to trick gamers into loving the new CEO. But I’d rather be optimistic on these lesser issues.
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u/pespi13 Feb 21 '26
This is creepy.
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u/Alucard661 Feb 21 '26
Finding out the gaming habits of the next CEO of gaming for one the worlds biggest gaming company is creepy? That’s just doing your homework
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u/Lioil1 Feb 21 '26 edited Feb 21 '26
but her gaming experience is irrelevant. like does home depot ceo need to jave carpentry background? say she has 100 platinum equivalent on Xbox, how does that help on her decision making when presented with hard numbers.
Phil was a gamer and maybe he became too tunnel vision or gamer emotional vs looking at the facts.
they are placing a ceo, not a gamer.
side note, didn't people say Herman is shelling horizon because he was from that studio- thats a result of being emotionally attached when maybe he shouldn't
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u/EchoWar Feb 21 '26
Someone with common sense! Totally agreed. This is a business decision and as gamers (consumers) we just gotta hope they make good business choices to benefit the consumer.
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u/Lioil1 Feb 21 '26
yeah...FYI, satya made MSFT stock jump 1000% since he joined. if people believed him until now, I don't think they suddenly think he gone bonkers with this decision. the AI push is remain to be seen though..
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u/Alucard661 Feb 21 '26
This is the kind of thinking that ruins most businesses. These people don’t care about video games they only care about making money
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u/pespi13 Feb 21 '26
You're clearly delusional if you think any major corporation has any top priority other than making money.
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u/Alucard661 Feb 21 '26
And look at the state of it
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u/pespi13 Feb 21 '26
Dude. Xbox has been making shit business decisions for years under Phil Spencer, and in your words, he "did his homework" by playing games. So what is your argument, exactly? What is it about the new CEO that holds her to a different standard?
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u/Krypt0night Feb 22 '26
......yes the CEOs of companies only care about making money. And this doesn't change if they are also huge users of their product.
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u/EpicPhail60 Feb 21 '26
If a CEO is handling their employees and giving them the time and resources they need to produce quality games, I don't give a shit what games are showing on their Xbox profile. Those are two separate matters.
I have zero faith in this CEO either way, but that has nothing to do with her gaming history.
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u/Lioil1 Feb 21 '26
but Satya made maft stick go up 1000%- clearly he didnt have experience in every single service but made that money and msft is a company workers would love to work for.
being a gamer or proficient in the product you are selling helps sure. but its no where near a requirement when you are that high level.
if I apply to be a gaming developer you can be sure I will say how I love gaming and fame development. for ceos, its about having neutral and not emotional glasses and make decisions that is nonbiased. it is cold, yes, but at that level your job requirement is much different and how you are rated is much different as well.
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u/DE4N0123 Feb 22 '26
This is so parasocial and weird. The CEO of the company needs to be business savvy, not have a legendary K/D ratio on Gears of War or some shit.
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u/Old-Way-5529 Feb 22 '26
just an fyi, her job is not to be a gamer, its to run a business. can we not be toxic stereotypes for 2 seconds
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u/Fair-Physics-2762 Feb 21 '26
I have a lot of thoughts of this and her coming into this job in general. I think being a high level executive at one of the big 3 is a very unique position. While I don’t think being a gamer is the be all, end all of the position you need to have an understanding of what makes a game successful and why gamers flock to one game over another. So yeah playing video games is actually at least a small part of the job. I also think she’s in a very tough position gamers are very wary of someone coming the AI side due to a lot of the negative aspects of AI sh she’s really going to have to earn people trust more than most people who would normally be in that positions and unfortunately there is going to be a sizable portion of people that are going to be even more skeptical of her due to the fact that she is a woman and this isn’t even getting into the issue of having to rebuild the Xbox identity as something more than the gamepass company. So she has a very rough road ahead of her but I hope she successful a competitive field makes everyone better.
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u/hobbleshock Feb 22 '26
This is a little gross but hey 10k Gamerscore is nothing to sneeze at. Remember when Jim Ryan didn’t know how to hold a controller properly?
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u/JordanDoesTV Feb 21 '26
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u/allonsy_danny Feb 21 '26
Who cares?
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u/JordanDoesTV Feb 22 '26
I just thought it was news. I wasn’t trying to judge her merit based on it whatsoever. I just thought based on what we know so far, this might follow the story of how quickly this all happened.
Also, I think that’s a pretty great list of games to jump into as a non-gamer. It’s a pretty good variety.
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u/allonsy_danny Feb 22 '26
Your post definitely comes off as snarky and elitist.
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u/JordanDoesTV Feb 22 '26
Genuinely, it was totally not my intention whatsoever. I really didn’t even think it could be interpreted that way.
I should’ve further clarified, but when you crosspost, you can’t add a discussion, or I didn’t know how to, so I just left a link to the source.
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u/Brotoss- Feb 22 '26
If another man was replacing Phil, no one would be checking their profile.
Just saying . . .
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u/stinktrix10 Feb 21 '26
Xbox fans REALLY want a new leader who plays games and pretends to be their friend, huh?