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Remember when Phil Spencer was lilke, "it's impossible to win the gen"
| cowgod | 06/20/26 |
| cowgod | 06/20/26 |
| cowgod | 06/20/26 |
Poast new message in this thread
Date: June 20th, 2026 12:03 PM Author: cowgod In hindsight, that was seems like a Pivotal moment lol (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5875898&forum_id=2Firm#49951364) |
Date: June 20th, 2026 12:11 PM Author: cowgod "We’re not in the business of out-console-ing Sony or out-console-ing Nintendo. There isn’t really a great solution or win for us and I know that will upset a ton of people, but it’s just the truth of the matter is that when you’re third place in the console marketplace and the top two players are as strong as they are, and have in certain cases very discrete focus on doing deals and other things, that kind of make being Xbox hard for us as a team, that’s on us — not on anybody else...I see commentary that if you just build great games, everything would turn around. It’s just not true that if we go off and build great games, all of a sudden you’re going to see console shares shift in some dramatic way...We lost the worst generation to lose in the Xbox One generation, where everybody built their digital library of games. So when you go and you’re building on Xbox, we want our Xbox community to feel awesome, but this idea that if we just focused more on great games on our console that somehow we’re going to win the console race, I think doesn’t really lay to the reality of most people.
[People looking to buy a Console] are already a member of one of the three ecosystems. And their digital library is there — this is the first generation where the big games that they’re playing were games that were available last gen, when you think about Fortinte and Roblox and Minecraft, like the continuity from generation to generation is so strong. I see a lot of pundits out there that kind of want to go back to the time where we all had cartridges and discs, and every new generation was a clean slate, and you could switch the whole console share — that’s just not the world that we are in today....There is no world where Starfield is an 11/10 and people start selling their PS5s. That’s not going to happen." |
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Date: June 20th, 2026 12:17 PM Author: cowgod Satya Narayana Nadella sat at the head of the conference table, thin, composed, Telugu Brahmin by ancestry, Hyderabad by formation, Microsoft by conquest, with the soft face of a monk and the eyes of a man who could turn a funeral into a subscription tier. Pavan Davuluri sat beside him, Indian-born, Engineering-bred, neat, still, watchful, the sort of executive who looked like he had never raised his voice because the org chart did it for him.
Satya Nadella: Read the quote.
Pavan Davuluri: “We lost the worst generation to lose in the Xbox One generation, where everybody built their digital library of games.”
Satya Nadella: There he is. Gen X Phil. The last mall manager of the console wars.
Pavan Davuluri: He was being honest.
Satya Nadella: He was being defeated. Gen X always confuses defeat with authenticity.
Pavan Davuluri: He also said great games would not shift console share.
Satya Nadella: Imagine saying that while running a game company. “Food will not save the restaurant.” Very brave. Very flannel. Very divorced.
Pavan Davuluri: The library-lock-in point is not wrong.
Satya Nadella: Of course it is not wrong. That is why it is terrible. He diagnosed the cancer and then asked the cancer how it felt about the community.
Pavan Davuluri: The community did like him.
Satya Nadella: The community liked Blockbuster too.
Pavan Davuluri: Should we call Asha?
Satya Nadella: Yes. We need a CEO, not a camp counselor.
Asha Sharma: Hi, Satya. Hi, Pavan.
Satya Nadella: Asha, Phil says we cannot out-console Sony or Nintendo, great games will not save us, the Xbox One generation was the worst one to lose, and Starfield at eleven out of ten would not make anyone sell a PS5.
Asha Sharma: Correct insight. Catastrophic framing.
Satya Nadella: Thank you.
Asha Sharma: He said “we lost.” We say “the market migrated.”
Pavan Davuluri: Good.
Asha Sharma: He said “great games are not enough.” We say “content is one vector inside a broader engagement architecture.”
Satya Nadella: Better.
Asha Sharma: He said “digital libraries.” We say “identity continuity across surfaces.”
Satya Nadella: Much better.
Pavan Davuluri: And Gen X?
Satya Nadella: Gen X believed every war reset when the next cartridge came out. New box. New discs. New haircut. Same loser optimism. They thought cool was a moat.
Asha Sharma: Cool does not scale.
Satya Nadella: Exactly. Phil was cool. Sony had gravity. Nintendo had children. We had hoodies and explanations.
Pavan Davuluri: So Xbox is not losing the console race.
Asha Sharma: Xbox is decoupling growth from console dependency.
Satya Nadella: There it is. No more Gen X grief. No more denim strategy. No more “for the fans” while the fans buy PlayStations.
Asha Sharma: We unlock post-console value.
Pavan Davuluri: We scale durable play.
Satya Nadella: We bury the console war and invoice the mourners.
Asha Sharma: I would not say that externally.
Satya Nadella: Of course not. Externally we say we remain deeply committed to players.
Pavan Davuluri: And internally?
Satya Nadella: Internally we admit Phil was the last priest of a dead religion, and the religion lost the worst generation to lose.
Asha Sharma: That will not fit on a slide.
Satya Nadella: Then make it worse until it does. |