菲爾·斯賓塞成爲Xbox的負責人已整整十年

2014年3月31日，微軟宣佈，此前負責公司內部微軟工作室（現爲Xbox遊戲工作室）的菲爾·斯賓塞，成爲Xbox部門主管。今天恰逢斯賓塞就任公司遊戲部門主管整10週年，期間他爲Xbox以及整個行業做出了諸多貢獻。

回顧過去十年間菲爾·斯賓塞擔任Xbox主管的職業生涯中的幾個重要時刻：

• 斯賓塞在Xbox One世代主機發布不到六個月即成爲Xbox部門負責人。須知Xbox One首發時僅搭配Kinect銷售且價格高於PlayStation 4，導致銷量疲軟。斯賓塞上任之初便決定將Kinect與Xbox One分離，至2014年5月，不含Kinect的主機版本上市，售價降低100美元。

• 2014年11月，微軟在斯賓塞領導下對Xbox進行首次重大收購，購入Minecraft開發商Mojang。

• 2015年6月E3大會期間，微軟遊戲部門主管菲爾·斯賓塞宣佈一項許多人認爲Xbox One和PlayStation 4世代主機不可能實現的功能——向下兼容前一代遊戲。數年間，Xbox團隊努力擴展了向後兼容遊戲目錄，納入Xbox 360項目，不久後該計劃延伸至初代Xbox。遊戲不僅在Xbox One上推出，且往往比在Xbox 360上運行得更好，特別是在Xbox One X主機上。目前，向後兼容遊戲列表包含630款遊戲。

• 2017年，Xbox One X發佈，這是首款在菲爾·斯賓塞領導下研發並推出的真正意義上的新遊戲主機。雖然Xbox One S早先已發佈，但在技術特性上與原版Xbox One並無實質差異。

• 同樣在2017年，菲爾·斯賓塞宣佈啓動Game Pass項目，此舉成爲遊戲行業發展中的一大重要階段。目前Game Pass擁有超過3400萬訂閱玩家，自推出以來在功能和跨平臺可用性方面均有顯著提升。

• 2018年起，Xbox開啓大規模收購遊戲工作室行動。當年收購了Undead Labs、Playground Games、Obsidian、Compulsion Games及inXile Entertainment，2019年Double Fine Productions加入Xbox遊戲工作室陣營。同年成立新工作室The Initiative，自成立以來尚未發佈作品，目前正開發Perfect Dark。

• 2020年9月，微軟宣佈收購Zenimax Media（Bethesda），2023年宣佈完成對Activision的收購。兩家發行商現均隸屬於微軟遊戲業務。在菲爾·斯賓塞領導下，首款完整意義上的新一代遊戲主機於2020年秋季發佈，即Xbox Series X和Xbox Series S。這是首次在新世代主機首發時推出兩款不同性能的主機，此舉在遊戲社區中反響不一。

當然，以上並非菲爾·斯賓塞擔任微軟遊戲部門主管期間的所有重大舉措。有人認爲正是斯賓塞與微軟推動了跨平臺多人遊戲、加大對PC的支持力度、推出一系列其他訂閱服務以及許多其他重要步驟。

菲爾·斯賓塞任期內存在爭議或負面事件：

• 2016年關閉Lionhead Studios、Press Play、BigPark及Good Science Studio等多家遊戲工作室。

• 取消Platinum Games開發的《Scalebound》項目。

• 開發週期長且多次延期的雲遊戲《********* 3》最終失敗，上市後幾乎立即停止支持。

• 完全放棄Kinect。

如菲爾·斯賓塞幾天前接受採訪時所言，微軟未來將做出更多“艱難決定”，旨在爲Xbox帶來穩定且成功的未來。

來源：Aroged

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On March 31, 2014, Microsoft announced that Phil Spencer, who was previously responsible for Microsoft Studios (currently Xbox Game Studios) at the company, became the head of the Xbox division. Today marks exactly 10 years since Spencer was appointed head of the corporation's gaming division, and over the years he has done a lot, both for Xbox and for the industry as a whole. Let's recall a few important moments in the career of Phil Spencer at the head of Xbox over these 10 years: Phil Spencer became head of Xbox less than six months after the launch of the Xbox One generation. Let us remember that at the launch, Xbox One consoles were released only with Kinect and were more expensive than Playstation 4, which led to weak sales. One of Spencer's first decisions at the head of Xbox was the separation of Kinect from Xbox One – already in May 2014, versions of the console without Kinect went on sale, which cost $100 less. In 2014, Microsoft made the first major purchase for Xbox under the leadership of Phil Spencer – in acquired Mojang, the developers of Minecraft, in November. At the E3 2015 conference in June, the head of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, announced what many thought was impossible for the Xbox One and Playstation 4 generation of consoles – backward compatibility with games of the previous generation. For several years, the Xbox team worked and expanded the catalog of backward compatibility games with Xbox 360 projects, and a little later this program was expanded to the first Xbox. Games not only came out on Xbox One, but often worked better than on Xbox 360, especially on Xbox One X consoles. Currently, the list of backwards compatible games includes 630 positions. In 2017, Xbox One X was released – this is the first truly new game console, which was created and launched under the leadership of Phil Spencer. The Xbox One S was released earlier, but it was practically no different from the original Xbox One in terms of technical characteristics. Also in 2017, Phil Spencer announced the launch of the Game Pass program, which became an important stage in the development of the gaming industry. Game Pass now has more than 34 million subscribed players, and the service has expanded significantly since its launch in terms of functionality and availability on different platforms. In 2018, Xbox began a large-scale program to acquire game studios. That year, they bought Undead Labs, Playground Games, Obsidian, Compulsion Games and inXile Entertainment, and in 2019, the Double Fine Productions team also joined Xbox Game Studios. In 2018, they opened a new studio, The Initiative, which has not released anything since its founding. one game – it is currently developing Perfect Dark. In September 2020, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Zenimax Media (Bethesda), and in early 2022 the acquisition of Activision. Both publishers are now part of Microsoft Gaming. The first full-fledged new generation of game consoles under the leadership of Phil Spencer was launched in the fall of 2020 – these are the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S game consoles. For the first time, a new generation at launch had 2 consoles of different power, which the gaming community was received ambiguously. Naturally, these are not all the important steps of Phil Spencer at the head of Microsoft Gaming. There are opinions that it was Phil Spencer and Microsoft who pushed the industry toward cross-platform multiplayer, more active PC support, the launch of a number of other subscription services, and many other important steps. There were controversial or even negative moments in Phil Spencer’s career at the head of Xbox: Closing of a number of game studios in 2016: Lionhead Studios, Press Play, BigPark and Good Science Studio. Cancelation of the development of Scalebound from Platinum Games. Long-term development with multiple transfers of the “cloud” game ********* 3, which ultimately failed and ceased to be supported almost immediately after exit. Complete rejection of Kinect. As Phil Spencer noted in an interview a few days ago, Microsoft will be making many more “tough decisions” in the near future that should lead to a stable and successful future for Xbox. Below you can see the video that the Xbox team released with Phil Spencer's presentation to players. In the video, Phil talks about plans for the future of Xbox, which he intends to implement at the head of Microsoft's gaming direction. Note that in the video Spencer discusses plans with Major Nelson, who left Xbox in 2023.