菲尔·斯宾塞成为Xbox的负责人已整整十年

2014年3月31日，微软宣布，此前负责公司内部微软工作室（现为Xbox游戏工作室）的菲尔·斯宾塞，成为Xbox部门主管。今天恰逢斯宾塞就任公司游戏部门主管整10周年，期间他为Xbox以及整个行业做出了诸多贡献。

回顾过去十年间菲尔·斯宾塞担任Xbox主管的职业生涯中的几个重要时刻：

• 斯宾塞在Xbox One世代主机发布不到六个月即成为Xbox部门负责人。须知Xbox One首发时仅搭配Kinect销售且价格高于PlayStation 4，导致销量疲软。斯宾塞上任之初便决定将Kinect与Xbox One分离，至2014年5月，不含Kinect的主机版本上市，售价降低100美元。

• 2014年11月，微软在斯宾塞领导下对Xbox进行首次重大收购，购入Minecraft开发商Mojang。

• 2015年6月E3大会期间，微软游戏部门主管菲尔·斯宾塞宣布一项许多人认为Xbox One和PlayStation 4世代主机不可能实现的功能——向下兼容前一代游戏。数年间，Xbox团队努力扩展了向后兼容游戏目录，纳入Xbox 360项目，不久后该计划延伸至初代Xbox。游戏不仅在Xbox One上推出，且往往比在Xbox 360上运行得更好，特别是在Xbox One X主机上。目前，向后兼容游戏列表包含630款游戏。

• 2017年，Xbox One X发布，这是首款在菲尔·斯宾塞领导下研发并推出的真正意义上的新游戏主机。虽然Xbox One S早先已发布，但在技术特性上与原版Xbox One并无实质差异。

• 同样在2017年，菲尔·斯宾塞宣布启动Game Pass项目，此举成为游戏行业发展中的一大重要阶段。目前Game Pass拥有超过3400万订阅玩家，自推出以来在功能和跨平台可用性方面均有显著提升。

• 2018年起，Xbox开启大规模收购游戏工作室行动。当年收购了Undead Labs、Playground Games、Obsidian、Compulsion Games及inXile Entertainment，2019年Double Fine Productions加入Xbox游戏工作室阵营。同年成立新工作室The Initiative，自成立以来尚未发布作品，目前正开发Perfect Dark。

• 2020年9月，微软宣布收购Zenimax Media（Bethesda），2023年宣布完成对Activision的收购。两家发行商现均隶属于微软游戏业务。在菲尔·斯宾塞领导下，首款完整意义上的新一代游戏主机于2020年秋季发布，即Xbox Series X和Xbox Series S。这是首次在新世代主机首发时推出两款不同性能的主机，此举在游戏社区中反响不一。

当然，以上并非菲尔·斯宾塞担任微软游戏部门主管期间的所有重大举措。有人认为正是斯宾塞与微软推动了跨平台多人游戏、加大对PC的支持力度、推出一系列其他订阅服务以及许多其他重要步骤。

菲尔·斯宾塞任期内存在争议或负面事件：

• 2016年关闭Lionhead Studios、Press Play、BigPark及Good Science Studio等多家游戏工作室。

• 取消Platinum Games开发的《Scalebound》项目。

• 开发周期长且多次延期的云游戏《********* 3》最终失败，上市后几乎立即停止支持。

• 完全放弃Kinect。

如菲尔·斯宾塞几天前接受采访时所言，微软未来将做出更多“艰难决定”，旨在为Xbox带来稳定且成功的未来。

On March 31, 2014, Microsoft announced that Phil Spencer, who was previously responsible for Microsoft Studios (currently Xbox Game Studios) at the company, became the head of the Xbox division. Today marks exactly 10 years since Spencer was appointed head of the corporation's gaming division, and over the years he has done a lot, both for Xbox and for the industry as a whole.
Let's recall a few important moments in the career of Phil Spencer at the head of Xbox over these 10 years:
Phil Spencer became head of Xbox less than six months after the launch of the Xbox One generation. Let us remember that at the launch, Xbox One consoles were released only with Kinect and were more expensive than Playstation 4, which led to weak sales. One of Spencer's first decisions at the head of Xbox was the separation of Kinect from Xbox One – already in May 2014, versions of the console without Kinect went on sale, which cost $100 less. In 2014, Microsoft made the first major purchase for Xbox under the leadership of Phil Spencer – in acquired Mojang, the developers of Minecraft, in November. At the E3 2015 conference in June, the head of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, announced what many thought was impossible for the Xbox One and Playstation 4 generation of consoles – backward compatibility with games of the previous generation. For several years, the Xbox team worked and expanded the catalog of backward compatibility games with Xbox 360 projects, and a little later this program was expanded to the first Xbox. Games not only came out on Xbox One, but often worked better than on Xbox 360, especially on Xbox One X consoles. Currently, the list of backwards compatible games includes 630 positions. In 2017, Xbox One X was released – this is the first truly new game console, which was created and launched under the leadership of Phil Spencer. The Xbox One S was released earlier, but it was practically no different from the original Xbox One in terms of technical characteristics. Also in 2017, Phil Spencer announced the launch of the Game Pass program, which became an important stage in the development of the gaming industry. Game Pass now has more than 34 million subscribed players, and the service has expanded significantly since its launch in terms of functionality and availability on different platforms. In 2018, Xbox began a large-scale program to acquire game studios. That year, they bought Undead Labs, Playground Games, Obsidian, Compulsion Games and inXile Entertainment, and in 2019, the Double Fine Productions team also joined Xbox Game Studios. In 2018, they opened a new studio, The Initiative, which has not released anything since its founding. one game – it is currently developing Perfect Dark. In September 2020, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Zenimax Media (Bethesda), and in early 2022 the acquisition of Activision. Both publishers are now part of Microsoft Gaming. The first full-fledged new generation of game consoles under the leadership of Phil Spencer was launched in the fall of 2020 – these are the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S game consoles. For the first time, a new generation at launch had 2 consoles of different power, which the gaming community was received ambiguously.
Naturally, these are not all the important steps of Phil Spencer at the head of Microsoft Gaming. There are opinions that it was Phil Spencer and Microsoft who pushed the industry toward cross-platform multiplayer, more active PC support, the launch of a number of other subscription services, and many other important steps.
There were controversial or even negative moments in Phil Spencer’s career at the head of Xbox:
Closing of a number of game studios in 2016: Lionhead Studios, Press Play, BigPark and Good Science Studio. Cancelation of the development of Scalebound from Platinum Games. Long-term development with multiple transfers of the “cloud” game ********* 3, which ultimately failed and ceased to be supported almost immediately after exit. Complete rejection of Kinect.
As Phil Spencer noted in an interview a few days ago, Microsoft will be making many more “tough decisions” in the near future that should lead to a stable and successful future for Xbox.
Below you can see the video that the Xbox team released with Phil Spencer's presentation to players. In the video, Phil talks about plans for the future of Xbox, which he intends to implement at the head of Microsoft's gaming direction. Note that in the video Spencer discusses plans with Major Nelson, who left Xbox in 2023.