The Lobby

hellerphant

Wow, Uncle Phil is leaving Xbox

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/xbox-boss-phil-spencer-is-retiring-and-his-replacement-is-an-ai-executive-who-joined-microsoft-in-2024/

john

I feel like this is a pretty big blow to Xbox who I've already felt has been declining in quality lately :/

hellerphant

Love him or not, Phil did seem to be someone who actually cared about the industry. I think he did an incredible job of picking up the pieces of the Xbox One and trying to rally something new with the Series S/X.

Then Microsoft forced entire branches of their ops to be a service model. So they launched gamepass which was an incredible solution. Funding was going out to devs, and even today I think people on GamePass tend to at least interact with more games than they would otherwise. The value prop for families too is just unmatched.

And while I think it was / is a negative for the industry, he did manage to shepherd the acquisitions that no one thought possible, to support the new service that was likely a corporate mandate, and now they are shutting down studios and upping prices and forcing AI onto everything.

All people in these positions don’t deserve our pity. But I just feel like Spencer was in a pretty difficult place and he handled that mostly with grace, and unlike folks like Bobby Kotick or Andrew Wilson, I feel like he genuinely cared and understood our industry.

Blu

While not a saint, Phil Spencer is someone I'd prefer to be overseeing decisions in the macro sense of games over almost every other CEO out there right now.

john

Phil was a true gamer in a sense that I'd say no other CEO at the major companies can claim. I feel like my issue with Xbox didn't exactly have anything to do with him, I'm sure he was disappointed with the c suite forcing AI and probably to an extent "everything is an xbox" and having exclusives on all platforms.

RowaseCarmihara

I finished my blog post about a little weird jrpg with a box that’s been stuck in my brain for a long time.

https://rinowase.pika.page/posts/thinking-outside-the-box-art-in-god

Andyooooooiiieeee

hellerphant it is a month and a half too late ugh

hellerphant

Andyooooooiiieeee what is? Also, hello!

hellerphant

Read a really good newsletter from Nathan Brown from Hit Points about the Spencer news.

https://newsletter.hitpoints.co/362-dank-spencer/

So, yeah. Phil was a good bloke, and he did some good stuff. I believe his heart was in the right place right up until the end — but unfortunately for him, and the rest of us, Microsoft these days is no place for hearts. Let’s have a quick look at the three big moments where, to my mind, it all went wrong for Phil Spencer.

I also LOLd real hard at this:

The ultimate blame for all this probably lies with Booty, who has somehow come out of Spencer’s departure with a promotion rather than being, just spitballing here, drop-kicked into the sun.

Johnniewalker

Yeah, big rich game exec is no one's friend if they keep sheparding their lambs off a cliff because someone will pay ie: more layoffs.

Blu

I'm catching up on a vod series of 7 DotA players vs the best AoE2 player in the world. Some of the banter is gold. Day9 is a treasure.

Grubby: Is 'thank you' an acceptable response to 'I love you'? In general
Day9: Not if you want the relationship to work out
Grubby: Oh. Thank you

hellerphant

How is everyone doing? Work is pretty wild at the moment, and I have 100% decided to check out and I feel much better about it all. I am choosing to not get stressed and just let them sort it out and do the whole yes sir, no sir thing. Sick of caring for other people's gain honestly.

So it sounds like a downer, but I am feeling pretty good. How about you folks?

pyxel

hellerphant We are launching Early Access in like 3 days on the 5th. It's getting pretty hectic. I'm ready to push through a few more days and then I'm getting some time off. A week, maybe even more.

Johnniewalker

Best of luck pyxel! I'll definitely check out the game on release day! May you get some solid days of rest.

hellerphant

@pyxel wellll shiiiii you have derailed my plans to buy and devote my life to Slay the Spire II, but it's for a good cause. I hope the launch goes well my dude. I shall send you an email this week!

hellerphant

Is it crazy that I want to get up at 3AM to play Marathon and Slay the Spire II tomorrow? Yes. It is crazy. I won’t do it. But I really want to.

How is everyone doing?

pyxel

hellerphant Release build is now undergoing internal testing before release in like 5 hours. And I'm sick to my stomach lol

Mesmaa

hellerphant I am super super keen for slay the spire. Also considering getting pokopia since im hearing nothing but good things about it, but I don't really have an income at the moment so I might wait a bit.
Other than that I'm doing alright, just finalised my graduation which is a bit scary... Also tried avocado on toast for the first time today, I totally get the hype now.
pyxel Good luck with the launch!! Told my friends about the game, hope things go well.

Blu

pyxel Terrifying and exciting. Hope everything has gone well!

Blu

Mesmaa Pokopia is so very tempting. On the one hand, quality Nintendo game. On the other hand, money 🙁

pyxel

Blu Could've gone better. We released to a crisp 0 % on Steam, which is honestly an achievement and I'm low-key kinda proud of that lol

It was caused by a combination of factors - poor performance, especially on older hardware; lack of tutorial and rough/difficult onboarding; steep learning curve; and (I kid you not) "fans" of our last game upset that we did not make a sequel.

But we are now at 52 %. Some people have actually come back and changed their negative reviews into positive ones because they got through the rough beginning and then were like "oh I get it now."

It's all good, it's 0.1 version. We quickly added a basic tutorial over the weekend and tweaked the numbers a little bit to make the start more forgiving, so hopefully that will retain us more players. Performance, file size, and technical issues are going to take a lot more time to iron out, but we had a management call today and we have a lot of ideas. Unfortunately none are quick and easy.

Oh, what also didn't help was that local media immediately jumped on the tabloid click-bait sensation of "oh look, a game that cost millions to make is universally hated for bein unreasonably hard UE slop" when there were 10 reviews... 10 reviews. More than one journalist got blacklisted in out company that day. And the moment we got to Mixed ratings, THEN they were like "oh it's not so bad, it's actually cool." Actual prostitutes have more integrity.

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