Yeah, that's a great thing to hear? At the end of the day it's all exec speak, but it softens the blow of the title a little.

People say a lot, especially when it benefits them in the moment to tell people what they want to hear.

"I guarantee that you won't need to log into your Facebook account every time you wanna use the Oculus Rift." — Palmer Luckey (2014)

"No advertising coming onto Netflix. Period." — Reed Hastings, Netflix co-CEO (2019)

"Read my lips: no new taxes." — George H.W. Bush (1988 Republican National Convention)

"I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars." — Franklin D. Roosevelt (October 1940 Campaign Speech)

"If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what." - President Barack Obama (June 15, 2009, AMA Speech)

"I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them." — Donald Trump (July 5, 2024)

Yes.

One of very recent examples: handheld Xbox.

There are rumors about upcoming handheld Xbox. Many like the idea

It is announced, marketed as handheld Xbox (asus xbox ally x). Quite expensive, but okay.

After some time (!) they reveal that this handheld Xbox actually won’t play your Xbox games/subscription. It will play your pc subscription and pc games. Wtf

Literally about time when the sales of the device actually start, Microsoft racks up the price of Xbox ultimate from $20 to $30 per month. They unsubscribe page is overloaded.

How any coherent management would allow this?

Xbox has been languishing badly and Microsoft games in general have not been doing very well over the past decade despite gaming becoming completely mainstream so one might suspect that he is being retired rather than retiring. Yes, he was better than Mattrick but that was a very, very low bar to clear.

I will give Spencer a bit of credit though for bringing back Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Would it make a difference?

Seems like his successor does not have much of a plan either.

> In another internal email addressing staff, the new Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma gave some hints as to how the future of Xbox will look.

She outlined three commitments: "First, great games." "Second, the return of Xbox." and "Third, future of play." She went on to say that the company will continue to invest in its franchises and studios, keep Xbox spreading across platforms to reduce barriers, while also inventing "business models and new ways to play."

His successor seems to have zero experience in the industry

I certainly think he's good at branding but very poor execution during his reign.

Both Playstation and Nintendo Switch significantly exceeded xbox in terms of good games in the last decade imo.

He oversaw a lot of good things. Recently he's been in "admit defeat and dissolve the brand" mode. To me this has smelled like a "my hands are tied and someone above me is making bad decisions" path, but I don't have anything to justify that other than it doesn't make sense to absolutely fold when it's your name on the line and it's the brand you've spent your life building.

I for one welcome our new AI executives, oh lame it's a fallible C suite human again, all hail the monolith!

I also fell for it.

I was disappointed to learn that a human was taking over and not Skynet