The sudden announcement that Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond are leaving Xbox has been the most important piece of stories over the past week or so, even overshadowing Sony’s odd resolution to shutter Bluepoint. You would possibly recall I speculated about Phil’s departure really being a shove from Microsoft, and it looks as if we now have insider sources saying that’s precisely what occurred.
Greg Miller shared the information on the most recent episode of the Kinda Humorous Video games Each day episode. A lot of the present was devoted to discussing the Xbox state of affairs, and throughout the present Miller revealed some fascinating details about Spencer’s retirement as he pushes again on the official narrative that Phil made this resolution final 12 months.
Miller flat-out rejects Microsoft’s line that Phil determined to retire final 12 months, calling it a handy cowl story dropped throughout a rushed Friday information dump. There was no correct handover, no joint podcast send-off, simply abrupt emails and radio silence. He describes the day as pure newsroom chaos, with back-channel data backing up the concept that this wasn’t deliberate in any respect. In accordance with Miller, the timing additionally blows up what had been meant to be Xbox’s twenty fifth anniversary celebrations, which had been anticipated to prominently function Spencer and Bond as the general public faces — plans that now look utterly derailed.
“…And I dont assume they know what that imaginative and prescient is. And I believe thats the issue the place that and I believe its as a result of this was not deliberate,” begins Miller, because the crew discusses Xbox’s imaginative and prescient. “I’ve been handed one thing that once more reiterates to me—I’m not going to learn it, however like, it reiterates, like, ‘Oh no, this was not deliberate.‘”
It’s value mentioning that Miller doesn’t particularly say Spencer was pushed out, however the implication appears clear. No person in Xbox knew this was taking place.
He doesn’t point out whether or not the identical factor occurred with Sarah Bond. Was she additionally pushed out, or did she determine to depart as quickly as she realized Spencer was leaving? In any case, she was Spencer’s proper hand, so she would usually have been subsequent within the line of succession, so right here resolution to additionally go away could be unusual. With out Spencer, although, would she have assist from throughout the firm.
Personally, I can’t say that is surprising information. In my preliminary submit in regards to the information, I discussed how odd it was that each Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond determined to depart on the similar time. Phil claimed that he had been considering of retiring for a 12 months, and that could be true, however I don’t assume he was planning on retiring simply but. The conditions reads like Microsoft giving each a shove out of the door as they proceed their rebranding of Xbox as a Third-party writer. However like all high-ups, they had been additionally given the prospect to make it appeared like a deliberate transfer.
