Phil Spencer to take over the reigns of the Xbox division at Microsoft

<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;03&sol;05120101&sol;spencer&lowbar;bagogames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-60281 alignleft" alt&equals;"spencer&lowbar;bagogames" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;03&sol;05120101&sol;spencer&lowbar;bagogames&period;jpg" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"224" &sol;><&sol;a>It took precisely 129 days since the launch of the Xbox One for Microsoft to put Sony and the PlayStation platform on notice&period; Today&comma; Microsoft announced that the former head of Microsoft Studios&comma; Phil Spencer&comma; is now the leader of the Xbox division&period; Spencer published a blog post on <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;news&period;xbox&period;com&sol;2014&sol;03&sol;xbox-one-a-new-day-at-xbox" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Xbox Wire<&sol;a> in which he describes why he is excited to assume the title&comma; Head of Xbox&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Combining these teams will strengthen the connection between some of the world&&num;8217&semi;s most innovative creators and those building the Xbox itself&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Spencer in a statement on Xbox Wire&period; &&num;8220&semi;It&&num;8217&semi;s been a remarkable year for Xbox and I am honored to lead the team at this incredible time for Microsoft and the games industry&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a very detailed company wide <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;microsoft&period;com&sol;en-us&sol;news&sol;misc&sol;2014&sol;mar14&sol;03-31corpemail&period;aspx" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">letter<&sol;a>&comma; Microsoft CEO&comma; Satya Nadella&comma; explains the move and why it is the right choice for Microsoft &period; &&num;8220&semi;Combining all our software&comma; gaming and content assets across the Xbox team under a single leader and aligning with the &lbrack;Operating Systems Group&rsqb; team will help ensure we continue to do great work across the Xbox business&comma; and bring more of the magic of Xbox to all form factors&comma; including tablets&comma; PCs and phones&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Nadella&period; &&num;8220&semi;I love the way the Xbox team is focused on great games and gaming experiences &lpar;go&comma; <i><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;polygon&period;com&sol;game&sol;titanfall&sol;13592">Titanfall<&sol;a><&sol;i>&excl;&rpar;&comma; connects with its fans&comma; pushes the boundary of entertainment and has embraced the power of the cloud in such interesting and impactful ways&period; Phil is the right person to lead Xbox forward&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Now with the formalities out of the way&comma; why is this a big deal for Microsoft&quest; And why should it matter to Sony&quest;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;03&sol;05120055&sol;satya&lowbar;bagogames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-60282 alignright" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px 0px&semi;" alt&equals;"satya&lowbar;bagogames" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;03&sol;05120055&sol;satya&lowbar;bagogames-300x200&period;jpg" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"200" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>First off&comma; Shuhei Yoshida and Adam Boyes &lpar;I&&num;8217&semi;m sure there are countless others too&rpar; have done a remarkable job with putting the emphasis back on games with the PlayStation 4 console&period; Just the other day&comma; they published a <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;blog&period;eu&period;playstation&period;com&sol;2014&sol;03&sol;26&sol;every-ps4-game-announced-2014-far-100-growing&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">list of 100&plus; games<&sol;a> that have or will come out this year for the PS4&period; For the first full year of a console&comma; that is an incredible amount of content to be delivered to their consumers&period; Yes&comma; Microsoft probably has a rather long list of games as well&period; However with the increased visibility of them promoting non-gaming related content&comma; the Xbox One is now perceived as a &&num;8220&semi;gaming comes second&&num;8221&semi; device&period; Today&comma; Spencer shot back at that theory and re-affirmed what many gamers wanted to hear from Microsoft on that ill-fated E3 of 2013&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Below are some of the more gamer-centric quotes we&&num;8217&semi;ve heard from anyone at Microsoft in a long time&period; These quotes come from an interview Spencer conducted with <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;polygon&period;com&sol;2014&sol;3&sol;31&sol;5566946&sol;xbox-one-new-head-of-xbox-phil-spencer-gaming-first" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Polygon<&sol;a> today&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>&&num;8220&semi;Xbox is a gaming brand and &lbrack;Microsoft&rsqb; took the person who was at the head of the gaming franchises to lead the Xbox team&comma;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;With me you&&num;8217&semi;re going to get a focus on gaming first and a best platform to play games on&comma;&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8230&semi; &&num;8220&semi;It&&num;8217&semi;s not a focus we ever lost but it&&num;8217&semi;s one I&&num;8217&semi;ll be accentuating at Microsoft&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s really going to be a gaming-led focus with Xbox and my new role allows us to execute on that&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;As the conversation with the customers today centers around the content that we have&comma; that&&num;8217&semi;s the majority of my focus&period; And we&&num;8217&semi;re talking to developers about the next thing they want to be doing on Xbox&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We&&num;8217&semi;re early on in the console generation&comma; and obviously Sony&&num;8217&semi;s having a great launch&comma;&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8230&semi; &&num;8220&semi;Console gaming is doing incredibly well right now&period; Six months ago&comma; everybody wondered if console gaming was dead&&num;8230&semi; but this is a long&comma; multi-year generation and my fundamental belief is that great games create the best platforms&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>With E3 of 2014 just a mere months away&comma; Spencer confirmed that this year&&num;8217&semi;s E3 will feature some of the best content that Microsoft has shown in years&period; Gamers will benefit from two consoles competing neck and neck to take your hard-earned dollars&period; It took 129 days and somewhat of a credibility hit for Microsoft to fully realize that their console should be about games first&period; Let&&num;8217&semi;s see if they now execute on what appears to be a redefining moment for them today&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Via <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;polygon&period;com&sol;2014&sol;3&sol;31&sol;5566946&sol;xbox-one-new-head-of-xbox-phil-spencer-gaming-first" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Polygon<&sol;a> and <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;news&period;xbox&period;com&sol;2014&sol;03&sol;xbox-one-a-new-day-at-xbox" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Xbox Wire<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;