Xbox Co-founder Says Microsoft is Quietly Sunsetting the Platform (gamesbeat.com)
- Reference: 0180859276
- News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/02/25/1622230/xbox-co-founder-says-microsoft-is-quietly-sunsetting-the-platform
- Source link: https://gamesbeat.com/what-an-xbox-founder-thinks-of-the-new-xbox-ceo-seamus-blackley-interview/
Microsoft recently announced that Asha Sharma, whose career has focused on AI and software as a service, will replace Phil Spencer as Xbox CEO, and that COO and president Sarah Bond is leaving the company. Blackley said he expects Sharma's role to be that of "a palliative care doctor who slides Xbox gently into the night," arguing that Satya Nadella's all-consuming bet on generative AI has turned every business unit -- Xbox included -- into a nail for the same hammer.
He compared the appointment to putting someone who doesn't like movies in charge of a major motion picture studio, and advised Sharma to either develop a genuine passion for games or find a way to leave the job soon.
[1] https://gamesbeat.com/what-an-xbox-founder-thinks-of-the-new-xbox-ceo-seamus-blackley-interview/
Quietly? (Score:2)
Microslop has been pretty loud about their forfeit of Xbox, ever since that legendary "4 games only" interview, and absolutely clear with their marketing campaign that everything is an Xbox. One really had to close one's eyes and plug one's ears to not see the Xbox fade away since back then.
Re: (Score:2)
I clearly missed this interview, would you be so kind as to post a link to it? Thank you kindly
Re:Quietly? (Score:4, Informative)
Here it is, the relevant words were spoken already a minute or so into the video: [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGlD9SO3rKU
Re: (Score:2)
And if you missed the background to this: Internet rumors had already spread like wildfire that Microslop planned to surrender the Console Wars at the time this video was published. And everybody with a marginal understanding of Corpo-Speak and Weasel-Wording could easily tell that this talk of "4 games only" was just salami tactics, admitting only the part in public that was obvious to anyone anyway.
This reminds me of... (Score:2)
...the new Spinal Tap movie where the record company guy is physically unable to enjoy music
"putting someone who doesn't like movies in charge of a major motion picture studio"
MS wants to be android, not iPhone (Score:3)
I think MS wants XBox to be android...a diverse platform in which they bear less responsibility for it's fortunes. The ASUS partnerships are a great example and potentially interesting. MS can never please everyone. But partners can inject new life. Why force everyone to your hardware when you can collect rent from Windows or SteamBox devices?
Apple is about a walled garden. It's weird...you can force me to the Apple Way for productivity and I don't mind. I'll use Apple apps and apple hardware because Apple stuff works and if I can swallow the cost, things are fine. They generally work good enough and I don't have to think much. But gaming? fuck you...I want my games...when I want them...how I want them. I guess because gaming is optional. I need a phone, I don't need an XBox. I can get by with tablet games or PC games, etc.
I love my XBox. I probably should have gotten a PS5 but hey, the past is the past. I am actually excited to see XBox as a platform. I am excited to see Valve or ASUS release hardware faster than MS.
I'd love for the next XBox to be an OS I can install on my own hardware and get the same experience. The ROG XBox Ally was exciting...a great idea...SHIT implementation, but that was entirely windows fault. Fix that?...and XBox gets exciting again. Windows becomes a nice OS for gaming instead of something we put up with just because. If Roku can do this, why can't MS?
Re: (Score:2)
> If Roku can do this, why can't MS?
Microsoft has over 200,000 employees and Roku has less than 4,000. For Microsoft gaming specific employees, the number drops to 22,000 ish. If I have a point at all, it's that it's harder for a large company to make changes than for a small one to do the same.
Re: (Score:2)
If nothing else, it's a true point that is often relevant and worth keeping in mind.
Though I don't like the changes Roku has been making, since they all involve running ads on hardware I paid for and didn't have ads when I did.
Meh... I wasn't using my XBox anyway (Score:2)
I haven't really had any cool XBox exclusive titles to play on my XBox lately, so it's just collecting dust.
If the new CEO wants to turn the platform into an AI chatbot for doing Instacart orders, more power to her! At least my wife will get some use out of this dying platform.
Re: (Score:2)
Have you tried saying, "Hey, we'd get better groceries and pay less if you started going to the supermarket again"?
It's true, the instacart people don't look at what they put in the cart, they just grab the worst pack of bacon, and you pay less. But my wife was... less than enthusiastic about the idea.
She is definitely not the right pick (Score:2)
100% a businessperson with a non-existent track record that fails upwards due to people pleasing, expect a lot of no decisions going forward
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, she was previously a COO at Instacart, which is an online grocery delivery service. How on earth did she even end up in Microsoft, let alone become the head of one of its divisions?
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe she's a cousin to someone very high up at Microslop?
Re: (Score:2)
> Yeah, she was previously a COO at Instacart, which is an online grocery delivery service. How on earth did she even end up in Microsoft, let alone become the head of one of its divisions?
Because nobody at the C-suite level actually does anything.
The only real qualification is "won't leak the secret that they don't do anything". Outsiders are risky. Mostly they just slide existing execs between C-suiteheart deals, slowly refilling the supply from the bottom up, in low-visibility positions. It doesn't matter if she knows anything about what Microsoft does, just like it doesn't matter if she worked somewhere that failed.
steam should buy xbox (Score:1)
since they actually care about multi platform gaming
Re: (Score:3)
What should Steam do with "Xbox"? They already have a better operating system, a larger number of games, the only thing they do not have is console hardware and physical media. But Microsoft opted to not develop any competition to the PS5 Pro, the remaining few Xbox Series X are ridiculously overpriced, and Steam never wanted to allow people to use physical media - so there really would not be much sense for Steam to buy the remaining "Xbox"-branding shell. And "game pass", from my point of view, is just a
A good run (Score:1)
The OG Xbox was amazing and had incredible value when modded. I still have a few running today.
Always enjoyed the ecosystem over the PS too.
Ex executive likes to hear himself talk (Score:2)
also likes when other people hear him talk. Local psychologists concerned he may have untreated narcissism but can't stand listening to him long enough to find out.
they lost the console wars (Score:2)
and set-top boxes are a dime a dozen.
It's not that xbox was bad. And some aspects of it were pretty powerful and advanced. Remember kinect? Cutting edge stuff at the time.
But, Sony was just better. Microsoft tried. Not their strength. No dishonor in admitting defeat and redirecting the resources elsewhere.
Re: (Score:2)
> It's not that xbox was bad. And some aspects of it were pretty powerful and advanced. Remember kinect? Cutting edge stuff at the time.
"Kinect" may have been a "cutting edge" device for its time, but it was also an early nail into the Xbox coffin. Had they sold "Kinect" as an optional add-on, no harm had been done, but making the Xbox 100 USD more expensive by forcing the "Kinect" upon every buyer was just totally stupid, as was the "always online" idea and the presentation of the Xbox one as a generic media platform. There is a good video on this part of history at [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYCYHKOChA4
Windows (Score:2)
Does this mean that the XBox apps default installed on Windows will be removed? Yay!
Too big to fail? (Score:2)
Hold my beer and watch this.
as they say (Score:1)
the writings on the wall
Re: (Score:2)
> the writings on the wall
Well... in the cloud anyway.
> Asha Sharma, whose career has focused on AI and software as a service, will replace Phil Spencer as Xbox CEO,