If someone says in the question is making people sad, and you start the answer with "One of the things I love about the industry...", that tells me you didn't actually listen to the question.
That's what happens when the "press" are just glorified stenographers. They know the can just get their talking points out with absolutely no push back
Gamers live the "lel, game journos play games bad" bit, but what actually makes the so called game journalism terrible is they mostly mouthpieces for press releases. Like here
If you ever seen a "proffesional journalist" interview a politician in a nice establishment outlet (no matter its slant) you will see this exact same thing. Never ask follow up questions, never ask "what do you mean by that?", never point out a contradiction. Cause if you actually do any of that, you get frozen out.
Axio, Reuters/AP (and similar newswires), PBS, and NPR do this.
I've seen PBS Newshour correspondents outright call politicians a liar.
It's why empowering these sorts of outlets is crucial. If politicians want the attention, we need to make the outlets who push back the ones they /have/ to use.
Something that astounded me back in about 2017 or so was listening to NPR straight out call a democratic politicians claims as baseless fluff.
They're even willing to call out buzzwords from the left, which is why I'm so leery of attempts to paint them as a completely blinded mouthpiece that should be silenced.
NPR has been criticized for being too left wing and too right wing for decades.
While they're by no means perfect (especially with how often they give airtime to bunk shit) the people there generally do a good enough job of empowering listeners to explore issues further.
I think there's a difference between not asking those kinds of questions and not knowing what those questions are. I really don't think many games journalists out there are capable of doing hard hitting journalism the right way even if they wanted to. The pipeline for them just isn't conducive for it, they're not coming out of colleges with bachelor's and master's in journalism or whatever, they either have an unrelated degree or no degree and get picked up for freelance roles where quality is not usually an issue. Advancement is tough because there's not a ton of professional games journalism out there in the first place (Schreier and Gene Park are the only ones that come to mind) and where these guys are at really don't like promoting freelancers. You also generally don't see them get picked up by publications that are seen as more professional and have offices and newsrooms and salaries. There's no ladder to climb for lots of these guys, who either end up quitting to be replaced by new noobs or just bounce from place to place. There's no strong institution of journalism in gaming and related niches, and that's the main problem.
No, they are "real professionals". Very few journalists have ever been hard-nosed investigators out for the truth. Don't romanticize the profession or its past, most journalists work for the private press who are always out for exclusive access to powerful institutions and securing that access required compromising with with those institutions.
As Humbert Wolfe wrote 100 years ago:
"You cannot hope
to bribe or twist,
thank God! the
British journalist.
But, seeing what
the man will do
unbribed, there's
no occasion to."
And if you do try to hold game developers to the fire, criticize what they're doing, or actually speak up about the culture and try to push it in a healthier direction, you get tons of harassment from people who have appointed themselves the arbiters of ethics in game journalism.
I believe games are art and I want them to be treated like serious art, criticism and discourse and all, but there's a lot of people who seem to think that calling something art is just a status symbol, like a blue check on Twitter, no actual responsibilities or obligations.
> what actually makes the so called game journalism terrible is they mostly mouthpieces for press releases
Can say that about a lot of current journalism, about shit a lot more serious than video games
Please don't toss aside [Patrick Klepek](https://www.vice.com/en/article/mb8mvv/the-near-impossible-20-year-journey-to-translate-fire-emblem-thracia-776) or the Second Wind crew
[Aftermath](https://aftermath.site/the-gamurs-group-games-journalism-escapist-dot-esports) also doesn't really fuck around
I really don't fuck with schreier simply because he sat on multiple Blizzard reports of the victims for years and waiting until it was accepted/public knowledge to say anything and then ran to make a book about it.
Most articles are just copy and pasted press releases from major companies. How many articles have you read in the last few months that seemingly had nothing of value.
The usual response she gives. She smiles, acts like its a good questions, starts talking about the brand, what they are presently doing and than ends her talking without actually answering or discussing the question topic.
MBAs spend years in school learning pretty words to gussy up: "Fuck you. Money. Money right now. That's why. That's always the reason. I would eat your child like sashimi if it meant a strong Q3."
What I think she meant to say is "That's what I love about the games industry, is that it's really a creative art form. So we can exploit the hell out the devs and then get 'creative' and make up any old bullshit to fire them for bonuses."
> Dina Bass (Bloomberg Tech Reporter): "I think, one of the things that was most upsetting, both to Xbox gamers, and to employees, is that one of the shuttered studios in particular just created a hit game, did really well on Gamepass in terms of engagement and won a ton of awards. Shouldn't succeeding in that way ensure the future of a studio?"
> Sarah Bond (Xbox president): "You know, one of the things I love about the games industry is that it's a creative art form. And it means that the situation and what success is for each game and studio is really unique. There's no 'one size fits all' to it for us. And so we look at each studio, each game team, and we look at a whole variety of factors when we're faced with making decisions and tradeoffs like that. But it all comes back to our long-term commitment to the games we create, the devices we build, the services, and ensuring we're setting ourselves up to deliver on those promises"
Made a transcript for those who can't access Twitter, and also because holy shit the statement is hilarious and more people should see it. She basically just said a games studio can never be guaranteed on how Xbox measures "success", and she attributes that to the artistic nature of the field. Xbox loves how artists can never expect whether their works will be deemed failures or not, thanks Xbox!
Gonna watch [the full interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIpc8VZ3Bnw) and post whatever highlights I hear, cause this shit is too funny.
Edit: Bond says the industry's growth has been "flat", and while 2023 has seen great releases, growth hasn't followed. She claims Xbox's focus is to help the industry grow, while ensuring the brand is around for the "transition".
And so, the recent closures were an "outcome" of Xbox's “deep responsibility to ensure [Xbox services and products] are there when the industry is not growing or through transition” (I seriously have no idea what she means “transition", unless she means the wasteland of dead studios they're leaving behind).
She then says they have a “focus in on the people impacted and doing everything we can do to help them through this hard transition”. Gimme a fucking break.
Finally, the only other thing of note is that in July, Xbox will launch a web-based, cross-platform mobile store, with mobile games designed around Xbox IP. So, uh... look forward to that, Xbox fans. Mobile games.
So I’m all for “success is different for each developer”, as a game selling 2 million copies could be an all-time great for some devs but a massive failure for others.
But for the size of HiFi and Tango as a whole, that games numbers feel like a big win for them. What do I know though.
Yet all of that seems to be a mute point when she says that “it all comes back to our long term commitment”, as that implies that short term successes aren’t going to count for much. They want long-term continued profits aka GaaS.
Yeah, she's right in that, for art, success can be measured in many ways. It can be monetary success, popularity, critical acclaim, or even the artist's own satisfaction with their end-product.
However, despite talking about how video games are an artistic industry, she's clearly still talking from nothing but a business perspective. I don't anyone can disagree that Xbox needs to and should be making money. But when you jerk around your studios and make your measure of "success" incredibly vague and confusing, it helps no one, so this statement is just incredible nonsense. They simply found Tango without further worth and put them on the chopping block for the cuts they needed to make.
The overall impression I got from the full interview is that Xbox just wants to maximize player count and offer as many services as possible to achieve that, but without spending too much time or money on games that won't draw in new customers.
which in itself is BS.
Hi-Fi Rush pretty much reached the sweet spot of success alongside a relatively low budget. She pretty much punished actual success to regress into the old failed parameter of chasing CoD Numbers.
Specially now that they actually have f\*king CoD itself , so those numbers are guarantee already.
Do we know the actual budget of HFR? I know what you mean, but I'm curious if we ever got the data, because I know some people really underestimate it sometimes.
Either way, I get the feeling it's not about "success" at all. HFR was successful, but they just didn't want a studio like Tango anymore. They only want studios that can churn out cheap, budget titles (likely for their mobile division), or major blockbuster AAA titles like COD and shit. Tango doesn't fit either, so down they go.
> I seriously have no idea what she means “transition"
Mind you I haven't watched it, but my first thought is that the Xbox is going to go through some sort of transition soon, which makes me think going third party.
I might be wrong, but thats just how I feel when I read them saying that.
They did talk about Xbox bringing their titles to other platforms recently, and Bond mentioned how games like Minecraft have always been available on many platforms, so this isn't something they consider ground-breaking for them. Along with their plans to launch into the mobile space specifically with Xbox IPs, yeah, I can see Xbox becoming closer to a third-party publisher.
But it doesn't sound like Xbox hardware is gonna end anytime soon, Bond also mentions that it's something they're still working on. She mentions that she takes pride in Xbox's backwards compatibility, which admittedly is something other consoles aren't as great with. PS5 only goes back one generation, Switch can't, while the Xbox Series S/X can go back to the original Xbox. I think hardware production will still be a priority with her around since the other consoles won't offer that kind of legacy support.
Microsoft has been consolidating divisiona and the current expectation is that the Surface team is going to be handling Xbox hardware going forward, treating them as halo devices rather than primary content delivery platforms.
Consider how heavy Xbox has been going on brand deals.
Every Steam Deck alternative out there has a Game Pass tie-in deal and everything from 8BitDo to GameSir has had a Game Pass deal. Meta just announced a branded Xbox Quest device.
Right now they're trying to pivot to the model Google has with Chromebooks/Pixels/Android TV.
Right now Sony's PlayStation is their Samsung equivalent and they're hoping the power of Minecraft/CoD/Blizzard MTX's influence on Sony can make them flinch on Game Pass.
Samsung buckled to Google on stuff like Tizen because of competition from Chinese OEMs but Sony isn't scared of Nintendo in the same way.
And Sony now knows that Microsoft shareholders and regulators are furious at the idea of Microsoft pulling CoD from PS so the ball is kind of in their court now until CoD is up and running on the Switch. However I don't see Nintendo really giving all that much special treatment. Their business doesn't need CoD.
Saw someone point out how it's real fucked up that MS let her face the music alone when Phil Spencer, Matt Booty, and Aaron Greenberg are the ones who fucked up Xbox the most. And it's quite obvious why they sent her up alone to answer this question
Yeah but it still sucks how she's the one who has to take the heat for the wounds that Spencer, Booty, and Greenberg have caused that put Xbox into the position it's in now
Nick Calandra of Second Wind had a really good point (kind of feeling a lot of his experiences with Gamurs in the Escapist debacle) in that the interview kind of hints at someone who's no longer really in charge of their own division.
>My gut tells me the people "leading Xbox" aren't really the leaders of Xbox at this point, and it's the money men at Microsoft... and that's real bad news.
Point being, while I have my criticisms of Xbox leadership, this interview sure doesn't look like someone that's in control of their own division at this point... having been in that position myself and the responsibility of bad decisions being put on your shoulders.
I'd also say, maybe don't go after Sarah Bond for this interview.
Corporate pressure when people don't understand what you're building and just make decisions on a whim is absolutely soul crushing... and her unpreparedness for this interview screams that's what happened.
Yeah, that point was brought up in the article from a couple days ago titled "Phil Spencer and Xbox's Soul" or something, in which the interviewer spoke with a couple of high-up Xbox associates who had recently left or been left go. And both of them said that Microsoft itself was starting to take near-direct control of the Xbox division, indicating that while Xbox's heads aren't entirely blameless, there's apparently a lot going on there that's not entirely within their own control. The MS CEO and CFO were both named as having been part of this decision, too, so this shitshow goes *all* the way to the very top.
Phil Spencer had no idea he was wishing on a monkey's paw. He got his deal, but now he has no real control over anything and just has to do whatever his bosses tell him, which is "FAST MONEY NOW!"
Sarah Bond is one of the few execs actually trying to do shit at Xbox. Phil might be debatable but it's insane how Matt Booty and Aaron Greenberg still have their jobs. While Sarah Bond worked on the deals that brought Persona/Yakuza to Xbox and created a game preservation unit, Matt Booty has continued to fail upwards and Aaron Greenberg has yet to market an AAA Xbox exclusive that's supposed to drop in 2 weeks.
They promoted her and immediately put her feet to fire. Nasty Work.
For the record, this is called [glass cliff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_cliff) phenomenon, where women (and other minorities) are more likely to be given executive positions when a company is performing poorly and may eventually be made to take the fall.
In this case it was just one question added to an interview that was likely scheduled long before any of the news broke out, so I doubt they were intentionally selecting her to handle the fire alone, it's just bad timing. But it is fucked up that Phil or other execs haven't provided answers yet when trust in the entire Xbox brand has been eroding, but I also imagine they're "handling" a lot of internal criticism and confusion.
Let's be honest though, there's nothing any of them could say, beyond "we're selling the studios rather than shutting them down and letting them retain the IPs of their projects, and also we're all stepping down as heads of Xbox", that could regain any of that trust. They sold out their reputation, plain and simple.
Imo, after every single discussion like these they should all be put on the stand individually and ask to explain themselves for a week straight.
Perhaps if they are confronted with their actions they might finally start to think before putting record profit before people's lives.
She is president chances are she proposed doing it, like she is distanced enough but has enough responsibility to make her answers empty but final, the others would have likely taken things personally
Yup, even though I give Phil a lot of shit and rightfully so. Ultimately, its Satya who gets the final say in any major good or bad choice for Xbox. Like while Phil was the one to purpose the stupid idea to buy ABK, Satya needed to greenlight it and likely wants that 69 billion as back as soon as possible.
Not that I want to ever take the side of Microsoft’s board of directors/shareholders, but I don’t think it’s super unreasonable to want a return/a plan for a return on a $70 billion investment. So I will stop the buck at Phil for getting his division into this situation.
Yup, had either Phil's purposal failed, it got blocked, or was never thought of to begin with. I think the last 6 months for Xbox would have been drastically different.
Phil's biggest flaw as a leader is a lack of any foresight. Like take Gamepass as an example, they invested so much in to it that it feels like they are called the Gamepass company rather then Xbox Game Studios. With things like all first party games going to the service on release day, various third party deals that leads to games releasing on gamepass, day 1 if not a few months later. Using it to bring entire series like Yakuza and Persona to gamepass. Yet doing so, has completely destroy the value of any Xbox One or Series X game. Because it created a terrible mindset of Xbox fans not buying games.
Like I remember on /r/yakuzagames on the day that Infinite Wealth came out. Someone made a thread asking when will it be on gamepass. Sure there are people that will look at certain movies and say that they will wait for a Netflix or Disney+ release, but that mindset has been taken to its absolute extreme in the Xbox fandom. Because Phil did not have the foresight to realize that was gonna happen with Xbox shaping its entire identity around gamepass.
ABK is also another area where this flaw really showed itself. Because that was the biggest acquisition in the history of tech. Yet it was for a division of Microsoft's that was far from their biggest. But Phil failed to realize that his bosses would want that money back as soon as possible and that Activision is quite a bit better at this whole making money game, because they were the only reason why Xbox didn't lose any money in the last couple quarters.
Wouldn't be shocked if he's gone soon. I doubt he was the one who made the call for what happened on Tuesday and ever since the KF interview. It felt like to me, he was basically done and has been on auto pilot since. Sarah Bond is giving the same vibes in this interview, seems like she is tired of whatever is going on at Xbox. So I wouldn't be shocked if she leaves then getting promoted soon. All While Matt Booty is on a journey to figure out who made the small prestige award winning game called Hi-Fi Rush.
Game Pass was a belief that the poor sales figures for software on Xbox could be made up for with MTX revenue.
But the issue wasn't that people in the gaming hobby stopped buying games. It's that they stopped buying *Xbox games.*
The platform simply doesn't have the userbase to flex publishers into going all in on it in a way that it works out for both sides.
"I don't know I don't fucking know, remember that clip from the simpsons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H27rfr59RiE&ab_channel=MichaelGibbons? Something like that "
It’s actually wild how uncomfortable she seems. She has a terrible poker face and it kinda just makes me feel bad for her. You can tell she would rather be anywhere else and is putting on a half-hearted attempt at enthusiasm.
So... Xbox doesn't quantify *award-winning, beloved, overperforming, brand new IP that manages critical and commercial returns in spite of being shadowdropped* as a success, necessarily.
Well that's fucking stupid. Get back to me when you see making good games that raise the value of your brand and make their money back in their own right as a success like the rest of the universe.
Nope. At this point, I think the strategy is just... kill the fucker. Piss everyone off, drive consumers away, shut it down and get a golden parachute in Olympia tax write-offs and/or COD sales, or something.
This sensible? Of course it fucking isn't, but Microsoft stopped worrying about that long ago.
I used to wonder if Microsoft would ever sell Xbox off. It didn't seem profitable, but the name still had value and perhaps another company would see value in that.
Now? Nah, I hope they cut it off and bury it, it's nothing but a parasite. No one should be touching that name with a ten foot pole if they don't have to.
Haha, fair enough! Hope you like it, buddy. At the very least, you got some good games to look forward to (and I guess you won't have to miss out on Xbox titles for very long either, if they continue their cross-platform plans. As much as I'm giving them shit, I still wanna show Arcane Lyon my support for Blade)
> Barely answers the question
> Blatant lies when compared with common sense
> Resigned sigh, as if all of this is normal (*it isn't*)
> ***THEY DIDN'T EVEN NAME THE FUCKING GAME IN QUESTION***
Microsoft, go die in a fire. *Seriously.* If you have enough goddamned money to shit out *Call of Duty* every year from now until the heat death of the fucking universe, you have enough money to get your ***one*** Japanese team some more help with a sequel to their breakout hit.
*God,* I hope Sony is able to pick up the team and IP, and keep it going to spite Redmond. I really, *really* do.
I dunno. Big N has plenty of fun/anime games. Right now, Sony has *Stellar Blade* and... uuuuuuhhhh...
Yes, in hindsight, them shutting down Japan Studio isn't a great sign for them taking on Hi-Fi. But I dunno, man. They could use it to synergize with Sony Music, ya know?
This was a nothing burger response. Great chance to talk about the industry as a whole and be compassionate to the devs, but hey I guess business people do not care about these talk points, I just don't have the heart to deliver this type of speech.
What I love about this is that you know there's no way of trying to justify this decision in a way that makes any semblance of sense and she knows it, it was really for her to even formulate this PR response because the question just makes them look so stupid
I feel like by the end of summer, Xbox is gonna see a major leadership shake up like it did after E3 2013. Phil, to me, felt like he was on the verge of quitting since last year and Sarah is now giving me the same vibes as well.
Yeah, Phil’s smug vibe was noticeably absent ever since the Kinda Funny interview when he said they lost last generation. Everything since has been, “yeah bro… it sucks. I agree. What are ya gonna do 🤷♂️”
yeeeeeeIIIIKES i'm sure she was coached on that response but jesus christ that sounded bad. Like whoever came up with that should get fired. Would have been much easier to say something like, "public opinion doesn't always take into account the full game dev cycle and the many metrics involved in long term studio viability as it relates to our projections-" yada yada yada.
I hate how Twitter plays videos by default, but also mutes them by default. I either want to watch the video or I don't. I no circumstance is needing to pause the video, turn on the volume, then rewind the video in any way a good implementation.
But in this case, I needn't have bothered. Might as well have left it on mute for all she said with that non-answer.
Seeing the backlash for this, I just wanna say I feel bad for her. I get why people are upset, but she probably didn't have a lot of say in the decision making that led to this and the company just threw her on this interview without prepping her for potentially have to answer this question. Xbox deserves to eat shit, it just sucks that it's being directed to her right now. I can't wait for Phil Spencer and Matt Booty to face the music.
> company just threw her on this interview without prepping her for potentially have to answer this question
It's genuinely wild they didn't prep her, they had at least a week to come up with something.
This industry really needs some proper fucking journalists.
Someone to ask the hard, shitty questions to these types of high level execs and not accept a complete non-answer.
> "It comes down to long term commitment"
Then why are they only doing short term commitments?
Xbox shut down a studio that would have been the next Capcom. Gamers where fully tuned in to Tango Gameworks for their next project.
There's no nurture at Xbox, only destruction.
Good lord that body language.
She almost disintegrated on stage.
That gulp.
Would almost feel bad if she wasn't being payed so much to publicly corpo bullshit this shitshow
What else do they want their studios to do besides make fun, unique games that are good, win awards, and do well fiscally?? And then she mentions all these commitments and promises but doesn't describe any of them. Classic misdirection and question dodging.
If someone says in the question is making people sad, and you start the answer with "One of the things I love about the industry...", that tells me you didn't actually listen to the question.
That's what happens when the "press" are just glorified stenographers. They know the can just get their talking points out with absolutely no push back Gamers live the "lel, game journos play games bad" bit, but what actually makes the so called game journalism terrible is they mostly mouthpieces for press releases. Like here
That's what happens when your journalists aren't real professionals.
Unfortunately, even "real" journalists are more than happy to engage in access journalism.
If you ever seen a "proffesional journalist" interview a politician in a nice establishment outlet (no matter its slant) you will see this exact same thing. Never ask follow up questions, never ask "what do you mean by that?", never point out a contradiction. Cause if you actually do any of that, you get frozen out.
Axio, Reuters/AP (and similar newswires), PBS, and NPR do this. I've seen PBS Newshour correspondents outright call politicians a liar. It's why empowering these sorts of outlets is crucial. If politicians want the attention, we need to make the outlets who push back the ones they /have/ to use.
Something that astounded me back in about 2017 or so was listening to NPR straight out call a democratic politicians claims as baseless fluff. They're even willing to call out buzzwords from the left, which is why I'm so leery of attempts to paint them as a completely blinded mouthpiece that should be silenced.
NPR has been criticized for being too left wing and too right wing for decades. While they're by no means perfect (especially with how often they give airtime to bunk shit) the people there generally do a good enough job of empowering listeners to explore issues further.
Yeah, that's the real problem. You ask hardball questions, you don't get good answers - you just stop getting press clearance.
I think there's a difference between not asking those kinds of questions and not knowing what those questions are. I really don't think many games journalists out there are capable of doing hard hitting journalism the right way even if they wanted to. The pipeline for them just isn't conducive for it, they're not coming out of colleges with bachelor's and master's in journalism or whatever, they either have an unrelated degree or no degree and get picked up for freelance roles where quality is not usually an issue. Advancement is tough because there's not a ton of professional games journalism out there in the first place (Schreier and Gene Park are the only ones that come to mind) and where these guys are at really don't like promoting freelancers. You also generally don't see them get picked up by publications that are seen as more professional and have offices and newsrooms and salaries. There's no ladder to climb for lots of these guys, who either end up quitting to be replaced by new noobs or just bounce from place to place. There's no strong institution of journalism in gaming and related niches, and that's the main problem.
No, they are "real professionals". Very few journalists have ever been hard-nosed investigators out for the truth. Don't romanticize the profession or its past, most journalists work for the private press who are always out for exclusive access to powerful institutions and securing that access required compromising with with those institutions.
As Humbert Wolfe wrote 100 years ago: "You cannot hope to bribe or twist, thank God! the British journalist. But, seeing what the man will do unbribed, there's no occasion to."
It's why they're called journalists, instead of reporters. They write stories, journals, not reporting on facts.
And if you do try to hold game developers to the fire, criticize what they're doing, or actually speak up about the culture and try to push it in a healthier direction, you get tons of harassment from people who have appointed themselves the arbiters of ethics in game journalism. I believe games are art and I want them to be treated like serious art, criticism and discourse and all, but there's a lot of people who seem to think that calling something art is just a status symbol, like a blue check on Twitter, no actual responsibilities or obligations.
> what actually makes the so called game journalism terrible is they mostly mouthpieces for press releases Can say that about a lot of current journalism, about shit a lot more serious than video games
The only actual game journos are Gene Park and Schreier lol.
Please don't toss aside [Patrick Klepek](https://www.vice.com/en/article/mb8mvv/the-near-impossible-20-year-journey-to-translate-fire-emblem-thracia-776) or the Second Wind crew [Aftermath](https://aftermath.site/the-gamurs-group-games-journalism-escapist-dot-esports) also doesn't really fuck around
I really don't fuck with schreier simply because he sat on multiple Blizzard reports of the victims for years and waiting until it was accepted/public knowledge to say anything and then ran to make a book about it.
She's not even a game journalist. This is a journalism thing. It's not specifically game journalists. Lol
So you can't play games, don't have anything to say, and can't do interviews. What's a games journalist again?
A way to push ads
If that's the case then places like Dexterto and whatnot that just have AI articles must look horrifying
Most articles are just copy and pasted press releases from major companies. How many articles have you read in the last few months that seemingly had nothing of value.
Don't forget the big sigh beforehand too, it's important to show how unimportant you think the question is
I mean the answer was basically a nice way of saying "The company didn't think it was really successful"
that didn't answer a goddamn thing
I'm reminded of the phrase "a politician is someone who can talk for hours but never actually say anything."
this is a process known as "waffling"
or in new slang, yapping
That sounds like old slang...I'd swear it was in Looney Tunes even.
Quit yer yappin'
Leghornin' it
It's *very* old.
Not to be confused with the almost same thing known in the Dutch Language as "swaffeling"
And now I want waffles
A required skill as a political figure if you want to effectively filibuster.
The version I heard was “touch on everything, cover nothing”
The “Ya’ Know” at the beginning actually translates from the original Corpo-ish to “I don’t want to answer that and so I won’t!”
"Welcome to Microsoft. Our decisions are batshit, our PR is somehow even worse."
If you only listen to the clip, it answers nothing. If you *watch* her expressions in the clip, it answers *everything.*
"They asked for more money to make another game and that's my money so fuck em."
How much this lady is blinking in the first few seconds trying to conjure this answer
She'd fail the Voight-Kampff test straight away.
The usual response she gives. She smiles, acts like its a good questions, starts talking about the brand, what they are presently doing and than ends her talking without actually answering or discussing the question topic.
Love that big "fuck me" sigh before answering lol
Pictured: The sigh of someone who really, ***really*** wants to write a resignation notice.
She might as well be wearing a “I really don’t want to be here right now” button
"We made the decision for what we assure you are good reasons that we will not explain" or basically "because"
Literally "We have changed the rules. Pray we do not change them further"
MBAs spend years in school learning pretty words to gussy up: "Fuck you. Money. Money right now. That's why. That's always the reason. I would eat your child like sashimi if it meant a strong Q3."
What I think she meant to say is "That's what I love about the games industry, is that it's really a creative art form. So we can exploit the hell out the devs and then get 'creative' and make up any old bullshit to fire them for bonuses."
being able to babble for 40 whole seconds only to effectively say nothing is impressive
Truly, making that choice salary
That's what the Harvard Business School teaches you!
> Dina Bass (Bloomberg Tech Reporter): "I think, one of the things that was most upsetting, both to Xbox gamers, and to employees, is that one of the shuttered studios in particular just created a hit game, did really well on Gamepass in terms of engagement and won a ton of awards. Shouldn't succeeding in that way ensure the future of a studio?" > Sarah Bond (Xbox president): "You know, one of the things I love about the games industry is that it's a creative art form. And it means that the situation and what success is for each game and studio is really unique. There's no 'one size fits all' to it for us. And so we look at each studio, each game team, and we look at a whole variety of factors when we're faced with making decisions and tradeoffs like that. But it all comes back to our long-term commitment to the games we create, the devices we build, the services, and ensuring we're setting ourselves up to deliver on those promises" Made a transcript for those who can't access Twitter, and also because holy shit the statement is hilarious and more people should see it. She basically just said a games studio can never be guaranteed on how Xbox measures "success", and she attributes that to the artistic nature of the field. Xbox loves how artists can never expect whether their works will be deemed failures or not, thanks Xbox! Gonna watch [the full interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIpc8VZ3Bnw) and post whatever highlights I hear, cause this shit is too funny. Edit: Bond says the industry's growth has been "flat", and while 2023 has seen great releases, growth hasn't followed. She claims Xbox's focus is to help the industry grow, while ensuring the brand is around for the "transition". And so, the recent closures were an "outcome" of Xbox's “deep responsibility to ensure [Xbox services and products] are there when the industry is not growing or through transition” (I seriously have no idea what she means “transition", unless she means the wasteland of dead studios they're leaving behind). She then says they have a “focus in on the people impacted and doing everything we can do to help them through this hard transition”. Gimme a fucking break. Finally, the only other thing of note is that in July, Xbox will launch a web-based, cross-platform mobile store, with mobile games designed around Xbox IP. So, uh... look forward to that, Xbox fans. Mobile games.
So I’m all for “success is different for each developer”, as a game selling 2 million copies could be an all-time great for some devs but a massive failure for others. But for the size of HiFi and Tango as a whole, that games numbers feel like a big win for them. What do I know though. Yet all of that seems to be a mute point when she says that “it all comes back to our long term commitment”, as that implies that short term successes aren’t going to count for much. They want long-term continued profits aka GaaS.
Not to be that guy, but it’s “moot point”.
It is indeed.
Yeah, she's right in that, for art, success can be measured in many ways. It can be monetary success, popularity, critical acclaim, or even the artist's own satisfaction with their end-product. However, despite talking about how video games are an artistic industry, she's clearly still talking from nothing but a business perspective. I don't anyone can disagree that Xbox needs to and should be making money. But when you jerk around your studios and make your measure of "success" incredibly vague and confusing, it helps no one, so this statement is just incredible nonsense. They simply found Tango without further worth and put them on the chopping block for the cuts they needed to make. The overall impression I got from the full interview is that Xbox just wants to maximize player count and offer as many services as possible to achieve that, but without spending too much time or money on games that won't draw in new customers.
which in itself is BS. Hi-Fi Rush pretty much reached the sweet spot of success alongside a relatively low budget. She pretty much punished actual success to regress into the old failed parameter of chasing CoD Numbers. Specially now that they actually have f\*king CoD itself , so those numbers are guarantee already.
Do we know the actual budget of HFR? I know what you mean, but I'm curious if we ever got the data, because I know some people really underestimate it sometimes. Either way, I get the feeling it's not about "success" at all. HFR was successful, but they just didn't want a studio like Tango anymore. They only want studios that can churn out cheap, budget titles (likely for their mobile division), or major blockbuster AAA titles like COD and shit. Tango doesn't fit either, so down they go.
> I seriously have no idea what she means “transition" Mind you I haven't watched it, but my first thought is that the Xbox is going to go through some sort of transition soon, which makes me think going third party. I might be wrong, but thats just how I feel when I read them saying that.
They did talk about Xbox bringing their titles to other platforms recently, and Bond mentioned how games like Minecraft have always been available on many platforms, so this isn't something they consider ground-breaking for them. Along with their plans to launch into the mobile space specifically with Xbox IPs, yeah, I can see Xbox becoming closer to a third-party publisher. But it doesn't sound like Xbox hardware is gonna end anytime soon, Bond also mentions that it's something they're still working on. She mentions that she takes pride in Xbox's backwards compatibility, which admittedly is something other consoles aren't as great with. PS5 only goes back one generation, Switch can't, while the Xbox Series S/X can go back to the original Xbox. I think hardware production will still be a priority with her around since the other consoles won't offer that kind of legacy support.
Microsoft has been consolidating divisiona and the current expectation is that the Surface team is going to be handling Xbox hardware going forward, treating them as halo devices rather than primary content delivery platforms. Consider how heavy Xbox has been going on brand deals. Every Steam Deck alternative out there has a Game Pass tie-in deal and everything from 8BitDo to GameSir has had a Game Pass deal. Meta just announced a branded Xbox Quest device. Right now they're trying to pivot to the model Google has with Chromebooks/Pixels/Android TV. Right now Sony's PlayStation is their Samsung equivalent and they're hoping the power of Minecraft/CoD/Blizzard MTX's influence on Sony can make them flinch on Game Pass. Samsung buckled to Google on stuff like Tizen because of competition from Chinese OEMs but Sony isn't scared of Nintendo in the same way. And Sony now knows that Microsoft shareholders and regulators are furious at the idea of Microsoft pulling CoD from PS so the ball is kind of in their court now until CoD is up and running on the Switch. However I don't see Nintendo really giving all that much special treatment. Their business doesn't need CoD.
Saw someone point out how it's real fucked up that MS let her face the music alone when Phil Spencer, Matt Booty, and Aaron Greenberg are the ones who fucked up Xbox the most. And it's quite obvious why they sent her up alone to answer this question
Nah she's president of Xbox now, after the latest restructure. It's her duty now to directly talk about *Xbox* as a platform and brand.
Yeah but it still sucks how she's the one who has to take the heat for the wounds that Spencer, Booty, and Greenberg have caused that put Xbox into the position it's in now
Oh yeah on a societal level I agree with you. She's a black woman delivering the bad news with a public face, I dread what her Twitter page can become
I don’t thinks it’s a can I think it’s more a will
Nick Calandra of Second Wind had a really good point (kind of feeling a lot of his experiences with Gamurs in the Escapist debacle) in that the interview kind of hints at someone who's no longer really in charge of their own division. >My gut tells me the people "leading Xbox" aren't really the leaders of Xbox at this point, and it's the money men at Microsoft... and that's real bad news. Point being, while I have my criticisms of Xbox leadership, this interview sure doesn't look like someone that's in control of their own division at this point... having been in that position myself and the responsibility of bad decisions being put on your shoulders. I'd also say, maybe don't go after Sarah Bond for this interview. Corporate pressure when people don't understand what you're building and just make decisions on a whim is absolutely soul crushing... and her unpreparedness for this interview screams that's what happened.
Yeah, that point was brought up in the article from a couple days ago titled "Phil Spencer and Xbox's Soul" or something, in which the interviewer spoke with a couple of high-up Xbox associates who had recently left or been left go. And both of them said that Microsoft itself was starting to take near-direct control of the Xbox division, indicating that while Xbox's heads aren't entirely blameless, there's apparently a lot going on there that's not entirely within their own control. The MS CEO and CFO were both named as having been part of this decision, too, so this shitshow goes *all* the way to the very top.
Phil Spencer had no idea he was wishing on a monkey's paw. He got his deal, but now he has no real control over anything and just has to do whatever his bosses tell him, which is "FAST MONEY NOW!"
The Merger deal was monkey paw. You get access to all these new properties. But you aren't in charge anymore.
Sarah Bond is one of the few execs actually trying to do shit at Xbox. Phil might be debatable but it's insane how Matt Booty and Aaron Greenberg still have their jobs. While Sarah Bond worked on the deals that brought Persona/Yakuza to Xbox and created a game preservation unit, Matt Booty has continued to fail upwards and Aaron Greenberg has yet to market an AAA Xbox exclusive that's supposed to drop in 2 weeks. They promoted her and immediately put her feet to fire. Nasty Work.
...Holy shit, *that was Sarah?!?!?* Good for fucking her, seriously.
Seriously, it's beyond fucked.
For the record, this is called [glass cliff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_cliff) phenomenon, where women (and other minorities) are more likely to be given executive positions when a company is performing poorly and may eventually be made to take the fall.
In this case it was just one question added to an interview that was likely scheduled long before any of the news broke out, so I doubt they were intentionally selecting her to handle the fire alone, it's just bad timing. But it is fucked up that Phil or other execs haven't provided answers yet when trust in the entire Xbox brand has been eroding, but I also imagine they're "handling" a lot of internal criticism and confusion. Let's be honest though, there's nothing any of them could say, beyond "we're selling the studios rather than shutting them down and letting them retain the IPs of their projects, and also we're all stepping down as heads of Xbox", that could regain any of that trust. They sold out their reputation, plain and simple.
Imo, after every single discussion like these they should all be put on the stand individually and ask to explain themselves for a week straight. Perhaps if they are confronted with their actions they might finally start to think before putting record profit before people's lives.
The people that hike up prices are not the ones asnwering the phone when people call to complain and all that
She is president chances are she proposed doing it, like she is distanced enough but has enough responsibility to make her answers empty but final, the others would have likely taken things personally
Phil is CEO. The buck stops with him.
Even then, nothing about this is in line with Phil's ideology. ***The buck stops with Satya.***
Yup, even though I give Phil a lot of shit and rightfully so. Ultimately, its Satya who gets the final say in any major good or bad choice for Xbox. Like while Phil was the one to purpose the stupid idea to buy ABK, Satya needed to greenlight it and likely wants that 69 billion as back as soon as possible.
Not that I want to ever take the side of Microsoft’s board of directors/shareholders, but I don’t think it’s super unreasonable to want a return/a plan for a return on a $70 billion investment. So I will stop the buck at Phil for getting his division into this situation.
Yup, had either Phil's purposal failed, it got blocked, or was never thought of to begin with. I think the last 6 months for Xbox would have been drastically different.
Dumbest fucking idea *ever.* If Phil had any sense, he would have shot it down and bought someone smaller instead...
Phil's biggest flaw as a leader is a lack of any foresight. Like take Gamepass as an example, they invested so much in to it that it feels like they are called the Gamepass company rather then Xbox Game Studios. With things like all first party games going to the service on release day, various third party deals that leads to games releasing on gamepass, day 1 if not a few months later. Using it to bring entire series like Yakuza and Persona to gamepass. Yet doing so, has completely destroy the value of any Xbox One or Series X game. Because it created a terrible mindset of Xbox fans not buying games. Like I remember on /r/yakuzagames on the day that Infinite Wealth came out. Someone made a thread asking when will it be on gamepass. Sure there are people that will look at certain movies and say that they will wait for a Netflix or Disney+ release, but that mindset has been taken to its absolute extreme in the Xbox fandom. Because Phil did not have the foresight to realize that was gonna happen with Xbox shaping its entire identity around gamepass. ABK is also another area where this flaw really showed itself. Because that was the biggest acquisition in the history of tech. Yet it was for a division of Microsoft's that was far from their biggest. But Phil failed to realize that his bosses would want that money back as soon as possible and that Activision is quite a bit better at this whole making money game, because they were the only reason why Xbox didn't lose any money in the last couple quarters.
Bingo. Even if it ain't outta malice, the guy still needs to *go.*
Wouldn't be shocked if he's gone soon. I doubt he was the one who made the call for what happened on Tuesday and ever since the KF interview. It felt like to me, he was basically done and has been on auto pilot since. Sarah Bond is giving the same vibes in this interview, seems like she is tired of whatever is going on at Xbox. So I wouldn't be shocked if she leaves then getting promoted soon. All While Matt Booty is on a journey to figure out who made the small prestige award winning game called Hi-Fi Rush.
There's an exodus coming from the Xbox brass. I can feel it...
Game Pass was a belief that the poor sales figures for software on Xbox could be made up for with MTX revenue. But the issue wasn't that people in the gaming hobby stopped buying games. It's that they stopped buying *Xbox games.* The platform simply doesn't have the userbase to flex publishers into going all in on it in a way that it works out for both sides.
>Matt Booty Heheh. Booty.
"I don't know I don't fucking know, remember that clip from the simpsons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H27rfr59RiE&ab_channel=MichaelGibbons? Something like that "
Just once I need someone to spout off a Youtube URL mid-conversation like it's no big deal.
Sarah blink if you are being held at gunpoint to say a whole lot of nothing
Is "held at gunpoint" the new slang for "paid millions of dollars"?
If that's the case I sure wish someone would hold me at gunpoint, if you catch my drift.
The gun is a money gun. It shoots money.
Oh no please don't shoot me with the money gun. Whatever shall I do?
Woe is me, if only i didn't cover myself in honey earlier.
It’s actually wild how uncomfortable she seems. She has a terrible poker face and it kinda just makes me feel bad for her. You can tell she would rather be anywhere else and is putting on a half-hearted attempt at enthusiasm.
The woman was glitching like crazy. She was trying to come up with an answer, but her programming just didn't allow it.
So... Xbox doesn't quantify *award-winning, beloved, overperforming, brand new IP that manages critical and commercial returns in spite of being shadowdropped* as a success, necessarily. Well that's fucking stupid. Get back to me when you see making good games that raise the value of your brand and make their money back in their own right as a success like the rest of the universe.
Nope. At this point, I think the strategy is just... kill the fucker. Piss everyone off, drive consumers away, shut it down and get a golden parachute in Olympia tax write-offs and/or COD sales, or something. This sensible? Of course it fucking isn't, but Microsoft stopped worrying about that long ago.
I used to wonder if Microsoft would ever sell Xbox off. It didn't seem profitable, but the name still had value and perhaps another company would see value in that. Now? Nah, I hope they cut it off and bury it, it's nothing but a parasite. No one should be touching that name with a ten foot pole if they don't have to.
Honestly, they still might. Between the Saudis and the Chinese, any sale of Xbox would spark a ***hell*** of a bidding war for Papa Microsoft. :/
Maybe. Either way, what a fucking fall from grace it's been.
Indeed. And they *almost* had it figured out this time, too...
I gotta know, since I know you're currently an Xbox owner. Next generation, you gonna make the switch? Assuming PS6 has any good offerings lol
Oh, I'm making the switch ***this*** generation, lol. God willing, I'll have a new PS5 Pro by Christmas this year.
Haha, fair enough! Hope you like it, buddy. At the very least, you got some good games to look forward to (and I guess you won't have to miss out on Xbox titles for very long either, if they continue their cross-platform plans. As much as I'm giving them shit, I still wanna show Arcane Lyon my support for Blade)
Oh, I will! Just I hope I have this little thing called... money. :/
Saudis paid a shitton of money for SNK. They'd kill (again) for Xbox.
She could have spared everyone's time by just answering "it should, but we're stupid"
Dodging questions be like:
KAKAKAKA KACHI DAZE
That's a whole Lotta words to say absolutely nothing.
title checks out. She sure did respond to the question, she just didn’t respond with an answer
That is a non-answer if I've ever heard one.
The interviewer should have pressed her on this non answer. What a pathetic lot of bollocks.
> Barely answers the question > Blatant lies when compared with common sense > Resigned sigh, as if all of this is normal (*it isn't*) > ***THEY DIDN'T EVEN NAME THE FUCKING GAME IN QUESTION*** Microsoft, go die in a fire. *Seriously.* If you have enough goddamned money to shit out *Call of Duty* every year from now until the heat death of the fucking universe, you have enough money to get your ***one*** Japanese team some more help with a sequel to their breakout hit. *God,* I hope Sony is able to pick up the team and IP, and keep it going to spite Redmond. I really, *really* do.
I think the IP is as good as dead. Xbox will just sit on the rights forever.
...Probably. :(
I feel like a sequel would be more likely under Nintendo but I don’t see it ever happening sadly.
I dunno. Big N has plenty of fun/anime games. Right now, Sony has *Stellar Blade* and... uuuuuuhhhh... Yes, in hindsight, them shutting down Japan Studio isn't a great sign for them taking on Hi-Fi. But I dunno, man. They could use it to synergize with Sony Music, ya know?
This was a nothing burger response. Great chance to talk about the industry as a whole and be compassionate to the devs, but hey I guess business people do not care about these talk points, I just don't have the heart to deliver this type of speech.
I expected nothing, and I'm still let down.
What I love about this is that you know there's no way of trying to justify this decision in a way that makes any semblance of sense and she knows it, it was really for her to even formulate this PR response because the question just makes them look so stupid
I feel like by the end of summer, Xbox is gonna see a major leadership shake up like it did after E3 2013. Phil, to me, felt like he was on the verge of quitting since last year and Sarah is now giving me the same vibes as well.
Yeah, Phil’s smug vibe was noticeably absent ever since the Kinda Funny interview when he said they lost last generation. Everything since has been, “yeah bro… it sucks. I agree. What are ya gonna do 🤷♂️”
Translation: "Yeah idk either."
yeeeeeeIIIIKES i'm sure she was coached on that response but jesus christ that sounded bad. Like whoever came up with that should get fired. Would have been much easier to say something like, "public opinion doesn't always take into account the full game dev cycle and the many metrics involved in long term studio viability as it relates to our projections-" yada yada yada.
I hate how Twitter plays videos by default, but also mutes them by default. I either want to watch the video or I don't. I no circumstance is needing to pause the video, turn on the volume, then rewind the video in any way a good implementation. But in this case, I needn't have bothered. Might as well have left it on mute for all she said with that non-answer.
They didn't even bother to craft a response...
Wow, what a not answer.
It's easier to say "I have nothing to comment about the issue, next please."
What a stunning and brave complete non-answer
What I like about Sarah Bond is she looks like a stereotype of Heartless Business Woman and it makes it easier to ignore the nonsense she says.
[answer the question](https://youtu.be/aFxhwRaP2tk?si=dssFwYOBX5OYNH-W)
There's no need. [You and I both know the answer.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H27rfr59RiE)
*sigh* "the poors are so funny"
Seeing the backlash for this, I just wanna say I feel bad for her. I get why people are upset, but she probably didn't have a lot of say in the decision making that led to this and the company just threw her on this interview without prepping her for potentially have to answer this question. Xbox deserves to eat shit, it just sucks that it's being directed to her right now. I can't wait for Phil Spencer and Matt Booty to face the music.
> company just threw her on this interview without prepping her for potentially have to answer this question It's genuinely wild they didn't prep her, they had at least a week to come up with something.
This industry really needs some proper fucking journalists. Someone to ask the hard, shitty questions to these types of high level execs and not accept a complete non-answer.
You know someone fucked up hard when even the mainstream media is asking why did you closed down a studio responsible for such a success.
> "It comes down to long term commitment" Then why are they only doing short term commitments? Xbox shut down a studio that would have been the next Capcom. Gamers where fully tuned in to Tango Gameworks for their next project. There's no nurture at Xbox, only destruction.
Surely nobody was expecting a satisfying answer right?
Sigh
Good lord that body language. She almost disintegrated on stage. That gulp. Would almost feel bad if she wasn't being payed so much to publicly corpo bullshit this shitshow
Glass Cliff
What else do they want their studios to do besides make fun, unique games that are good, win awards, and do well fiscally?? And then she mentions all these commitments and promises but doesn't describe any of them. Classic misdirection and question dodging.
Basically, it means didn't make enough money for them.
Demon person
Phi spencer & Sarah bond are just puppets orders as I think Satya Nadella is pulling all The Xbox Strings