Earlier in the week, Microsoft announced that Microsoft Studios chief Phil Spencer would be taking over the entire Xbox business, including services such as Xbox Live. In a talk with Xbox Live’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, he discusses his new role as Head of Xbox.
“The role is really to drive the product vision for what Xbox is,” Spencer says. “I come at this job as somebody from the games industry, running game studios. I think about the Xbox product and how we can really put the stamp of the gamer on this product, make sure it’s gaming first.”
Spencer goes on to say he frequently gauges feedback that he sees on Twitter and forums, and other outlets of communication, through which Xbox owners have been making suggestions for what he should be doing in his new role. “I want the two-way dialogue. We hear what fans say, and we should use that as an input for how we build our product,” Spencer says.
Later in the talk, Spencer discusses Microsoft’s E3 plans, and his involvement in them.
“Right now, I’m spending a lot of time on E3,” Spencer shares. “E3 is a big time in our industry. We know that this E3 is really important for us. People are looking for ‘what is this change in Xbox? What does it mean to have a Head of Xbox?’ It’s really focused on games. E3’s a great gaming show, and I want to make sure the fans hear us. They understand why we’re there and what this product should mean to us.”
“I had a big content review just yesterday. It’s kind of inside baseball but people will see that we are almost every week sitting down with the teams and looking at what we want to put on stage, what do we want to announce, what are we going to push.”
Regarding Microsoft’s E3 plans, Spencer says, “We’re going to push games. I thought we did a good job last year, and having games, games, games be the focus of the show. I want to do the same thing this year. Not a lot of executive middle-management up on stage. Just make sure we’ve got creators up there.”
“We’ve got great games that we’re showing. People invest a lot of money in Xbox, and that money is invested so they know they have the best place to play games, and that’s where their friends will be playing. It’s our responsibility to stand up on stage and give them the promise of the games that are coming.”
