A few days ago, Microsoft named Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft Game Studios, to be their new overall head of the Xbox division. Now Spencer is using his time as the new leader of Xbox to go back and admit that some of the early decisions that were made surrounding the Xbox One console were not the best ones.
In both a video interview and in a longer podcast chat with Microsoft"s Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb that were posted over the weekend, Spencer was very open about the fact that the company made some mistakes when they revealed the Xbox One. Microsoft at first announced it was going to put in DRM and game trading restrictions for the console but that didn"t please gamers, and the company quickly did a 180 on those plans.
In the video interview, Spencer stated:
There is a lot of learning that I did as a leader in the organization, when I just heard how our message resonated with people and some of the decisions that we made, that I think were actually the wrong decisions, and we had to revisit those decisions.
The interview also had Spencer stating that the anger some gamers had towards Microsoft during that time was upsetting to him, stating that it "kinda hurt me personally so much".
Now that the Xbox One has launched, Spencer says that sales have been great and he feels that the Xbox division will be the key towards the "reemergence for Microsoft as a consumer company." He compared Microsoft"s situation with Apple when it launched the first iPod in 2001. That move, combined with the launch of the iTunes store, changed Apple into a huge media force and Spencer believes the Xbox team could do the same for Microsoft.
Source: Xbox on YouTube and Major Nelson Podcast