Microsoft remains ‘committed to Xbox’, but admits Xbox One messaging was confused

Microsoft “learned a ton” from the fallout following its Xbox One announcement last summer, Microsoft Game Studios’ corporate vice president Phil Spencer has said, admitting that the company’s messaging about the console “was confused”.

“It’s not hard for me to look at last summer and say that it wasn’t a high point for me,” Spencer said during a talk at SXSW over the weekend. “Coming out of the announce of Xbox One and E3 where I thought our messaging around what we believed in was confused, mainly by us. And one of the reasons I wanted to be a little more active socially is because I knew the core of why we were in this business was not an evil reason and it was to really delight consumers and build a great product that millions and millions of people would love.

“I learned a ton last summer as a leader for our groups and for our company about being true to your core vision around what a product is, not being confusing.”

One of the lessons learned, Spencer says, is to handle “controversial” subjects directly rather than attempt to “sugarcoat” them with other news.

“Frankly, when you’re gonna say something to a consumer that might put them off it’s better to be direct and honest rather than try to sugarcoat something that might be controversial,” he continued.

“I’d rather deal with the controversy of what we’re doing and then have an above table conversation about that topic rather than sugarcoat it with some other news. My interactions over the last 6 months, and I really think the interactions of Yusuf [Mehdi, Xbox chief marketing & strategy officer] and Marc [Whitten, Xbox corporate vice president] and other people on the leadership team, we’ve had our little meeting to build on what we learned out of last summer and just trying to be real core to who we are as people.”

Spencer also touched upon rumours of Stephen Elop’s appointment as the head of Microsoft’s devices division, who is reported to be replacing previous boss Julie Larson-Green.

“In terms of Microsoft’s commitment in the space, I know both Satya [Nadella, Microsoft CEO] and Stephen Elop, I know them well,” he continued. “I’ve had explicit conversations with them about Microsoft’s commitment to Xbox – they’re extremely committed to Xbox.

“Xbox is a really critical brand for us as a company as Microsoft; when you think about consumers, what they love about our company, Xbox is one of the most beloved brands that the company has. We’re in the middle of a good, competitive battle in the console space with PlayStation, which is great for the industry. And they remain extremely committed to us succeeding with Xbox, which is nice to hear, right? It’s something that resonates well inside the walls when you’re talking to the teams, or when I stand in front of Xbox fans, I want to make sure that they understand we are extremely committed to this product.”

Source: dualshockers.com, polygon.com