When analyzing why the Xbox One still has a lot of work to do in order to catch up with the PlayStation 4, Spencer proposed that it might be due to the hit in morale his company’s workers suffered from their superiors, as well as the scrutiny of unfair public perception. The executive continued:
“And I sit back and I think about an [organization] of thousands of people, you’re down in the organization and some words and some actions from executives kinda just trash all the work that you’ve done over the last three years, many weekends and nights, and you start to question why am I doing this? Why am I working so hard when a few crass comments can actually position our product more directly than any work that the team was doing?"
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Of course, Spencer doesn’t completely count Microsoft’s current-gen console out of the runnings. The executive went on to use the inclusion of the Xbox One’s backward compatibility component as an example of what the company is doing correctly in order to cater to the gaming community at large. By using the specific feature as a reference, it’s clear that Spencer’s business philosophy centers around garnering the support of consumers, rather than trying to combat the competition. To emphasize this point, he said, “I would never question the ability of our organization, but I’ll say we’re not motivated by beating Sony, we’re motivated by gaining as many customers as we can.”
Microsoft definitely has an uphill battle ahead of itself. For starters, Japan sales for the Xbox One are downright abysmal, as the console is basically being outsold 108-to-1 by the PlayStation 4. Not to mention, Sony’s console is absolutely crushing it as far as earnings go, for as of writing, PS4 sales currently stands at 25.4 million total units sold, while the Xbox One rests at 13.9 million sold. Plus, the tech firm is still trying to regain the trust of its fan base after Xbox Live went down just last week, much to the irritation of Xbox One owners everywhere.
Although the Xbox One certainly has its fair share of woes to conquer, at least Spencer is publicly addressing the fact that his company is far behind where it needs to be, which is one step in the right direction. And should gamers’ support for the Xbox One continue to flag, it isn’t for lack of trying on Spencer’s part, as his plan to move away from third-party exclusives and focus on first-party titles has won over a sizable audience. However, it’s going to be a tough row to hoe going forward, especially with the recent PlayStation 4 price drop hitting North American retailers.
Source: 2015 GeekWire Summit (via IGN, VideoGamer)
