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Phil Spencer says toxic fanboys can make him leave the industry

Spencer on tribalism in the industry: "I just really despise it."

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Ever since Phil Spencer took over as head of the Xbox division, he has been working hard on making the world of video games friendlier. Today, it is common to see hot shots of all brands complimenting each other and wishing each other good luck, knowing that a bigger video game scene is good for everyone.

Now, Spencer has commented on this in an interview at The Verge, where he says he "really despise" the idea of being toxic against competing video games and that tribalism is something that could make him leave the entire industry:

"To be honest, I love the industry I'm in. This is the job I love. My wife will tell me it's the only job I'm qualified for, but this is definitely the job I love. But that tribalism in the industry, if there was anything that would ever drive me out of the industry, it's actually that, what you're talking about.

I look at shipping a product, shipping a game, as one of the bravest things a team can do. You put your product out there, it gets analysed and prodded and reviewed. It can't defend itself. It's an inanimate object. You can't go on the internet and defend it. We've seen that way too many times. That never works.

When a team releases something into the market for the world to tear it apart on the internet — it's just such a brave thing for a team to do. I'm never going to vote against any creative team or any product team to do poorly because I have a competitive product. It's not in me. I don't actually think it helps us in the long run in the industry."

Of course, this thing of being extremely toxic towards a competing product and wishing one brand to crash and burn because of no good apparent reason - is unfortunately a staple when it comes to video games. Here's what Spencer has to say about this:

"Especially in the console space, there's like a core of the core, that have, I think, taken it to a destructive level of, "I really want that to fail so the thing that I bought succeeds." I'm saying on both sides. I'm not saying that it's all people crushing Xboxes and everybody that loves Xbox is always completely inviting to all the PlayStation stuff. I've said before, that I find it distasteful, but maybe that is too light. I just really despise it. I don't think we have to see others fail in order for us to achieve the goals. That's not some kind of "kumbaya" thing. It's actually real. We're in the entertainment business. The biggest competitor we have is apathy over the products and services [and] games that we build."

Does Spencer make a valid point?

Phil Spencer says toxic fanboys can make him leave the industry


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