8 Biggest Unsung Heroes Working In The Video Game Industry
2. Phil Spencer - Turning Xbox Around At The Brink Of Disaster
If you can cast your mind back to E3: 2013, you'll remember that Xbox wasn't really having that good of a time.
Under the guidance of Mark Whitten and Don Mattrick, the company's unveiling of the Xbox One - something that was meant to be an overwhelmingly positive experience - well, didn't really find an audience. In fact, any audience it could've found began to chuck proverbial fruit at the two executives as a systemic backlash formed against the One's ostensible 'always online' approach. Don Mattrick's ill-advised quip stating that Microsoft already had a console for those discontented by their announcement - "It's called Xbox 360" - probably didn't help things either. Probably.
In comes Phil Spencer, who, to Xbox fans, probably signalled the second coming of Christ as he announced that Xbox's latest console would, in fact, actually put "gaming first". Shocker.
We all know the industry is dominated by awkward personalities and executives who probably thinks gamers sit down to play SonicKartBros10 every Friday whilst streaming five TV shows at once, so to have an executive who actually knows and understands his audience is pretty fantastic. Microsoft have only improved since their devastating 2013 showing, and as the Scorpio moves on the horizon, it's fairly clear that Spencer has grand designs for the brand.