TOP 10 interesting facts about Phil Spencer – the man who invented Game Pass

Phil Spencer is the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, the company’s gaming division. Most often, the names of top managers remain unknown to ordinary users. However, Phil became popular online thanks to his bold decisions and funny memes featuring him. In this article we have collected the most interesting facts about him.

It was his father who instilled in young Phil a love of computers. In the early 1980s he bought the then Sinclair ZX81. Thanks to him, Spencer started playing and programming as a child. During college, Phil wrote code on the more powerful Atari ST. His major is science and technology communication, and programming has been a fun hobby for years.

Phil attended the University of Washington and simultaneously worked at the Computer Mart store, selling games and software. There he continued programming. A friend of his discovered this and offered him a summer internship at Microsoft. She then worked on the Windows graphical shell for MS-DOS and was in dire need of programmers. Phil agreed. The internship was successful and after graduating and receiving a bachelor’s degree in 1990, he got a full-time job at Microsoft.

He held many positions within this company. Initially, Phil was involved in the release of programs on CD, then he managed Microsoft Works and Picture It!, and after the release of the Xbox console in the early 2000s, he joined the gaming division of Microsoft Games. In 2008, he took on the role of head of Microsoft Studios, in 2014 he led Xbox, Xbox Live, Groove Music and Movies & TV, and in 2017 he became executive vice president of the company’s gaming division. Currently, Spencer handles all things video game related and reports directly to Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft.

It was not without reason that Phil Spencer switched to Microsoft’s gaming division. Since childhood, he has been attracted to video games. He is known to have spent time on it even during conferences in Microsoft Teams. He now has a second computer at work that is solely for gaming. In the 90’s Phil’s main hobby was Ultima Online, and since 2017 – Lot 2. It can also be noted that he spent 233 hours in it Vampire survivors, 149 hours later Starfield at 23:00 Diablo 4 and 124 hours Pillars of eternity. At the same time, Spencer threw Skull and Bones two minutes after launch.

In mid-2013, with only a few months to go until the launch of the Xbox One, a major shake-up began at Microsoft. The head of Xbox, Don Mattrick, left for Zinga on July 1, and the head of platform development, Mark Whitten, moved to the Windows division. The team working on the console was divided into several parts. Thanks in large part to Phil, it was released on time, on November 22, 2013.

In February 2014, Microsoft CEO Steven Ballmer left his position. He was replaced in this position by Satya Nadella. He asked the question: is it even worth continuing to produce consoles if the PlayStation 4 can no longer catch up? Spencer convinced him not to take such drastic steps, but to give the Xbox One a little more time. By then, Phil had already figured out a way to save the platform. We’re talking about Game Pass, of course.

Game Pass is a subscription service for Microsoft consoles and PCs that launched on Xbox One on May 24, 2017. This gives you access to a large library of games for a small fee (from 10 to 15 euros per month). In addition, some new products will be included immediately in Game Pass and users can experience them upon release without additional investments. This happened, for example, with the recent one Atomic Heart. When the subscription expires, access to the library will be suspended.

When Phil Spencer announced his proposal, Microsoft executives didn’t believe the cost of Game Pass would pay off. In the beginning, there were too few publishers willing to supply their games for the system. Therefore, it seemed that users would not want to spend money on it. But judging by the number of subscribers, which reached 41 million people, Game Pass was loved by players. And for Microsoft, subscriptions have become a stable source of revenue.

Games from previous generations of consoles did not work on subsequent generations for a long time. For example, you can’t take a disc with a PS3 game and play it on PlayStation 4. Initially, Xbox One had no backwards compatibility. This system was announced on June 15, 2015 and on November 12, the first games from previous generations of consoles appeared on the new Xbox. Later, the Xbox Series X/S received this feature.

The idea to add to Xbox One the ability to start projects from the Xbox 360 and the original Xbox is Spencer’s. Phil stated that he views games as works of art, and that they should not become inaccessible with the release of the new generation of consoles.

Interestingly, the PlayStation 5 also gained support for old games in 2020. Nowadays you can play any PS4 game on it.

In June 2016, a statement was published on the Microsoft website according to which all new games for Xbox consoles will immediately appear on PC. And the company kept its promise. Moreover, Spencer himself was the initiator of this decision. He has repeatedly spoken out against exclusivity. It’s curious that Phil had to personally negotiate with the Lionhead studio in the early 2000s Fable was only released on the original Xbox. Now many Microsoft projects appear not only on PCs, but also on competitors’ consoles. Specific examples include Sea of ​​Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush, which recently became available on PlayStation 5.

Phil also actively pushed for Sony to allow PlayStation owners to play online with PC and Xbox users. And his words led to concrete actions. If in 2017 Spencer was indignant about why the Japanese company did not allow the use of cross-play, today this feature is supported by dozens of projects of various genres, including Fortnite, Apex Legends and the latest features Duty.

Note that Sony has also picked up the idea of ​​releasing its games on computers. Nowadays, almost all PlayStation 5 exclusives appear on PC after a year and a half.

As a representative of Microsoft, Phil Spencer has personally attended many conferences, including E3. Many people remember the exhibition from 2019, when the power of the Xbox Series .

A trailer was shown at the exhibition second “Stalker” Psychonauts 2 Forza Horizon 5, A plague story: Requiem, star field, The Outer Worlds 2 and Atomic Heart. Moreover, it was announced that all these games will appear directly on Game Pass.

On February 25, 2022, Phil Spencer received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 25th DICE Awards. As a rule, the laureates are people who have proven themselves in different directions over a long career. The award was presented by Todd Howard, executive producer of Bethesda, which was already part of Microsoft.

On October 13, 2023, Activision Blizzard became part of Microsoft. The transaction amount is $68.7 billion. We talked more about it in a separate article. Note that this isn’t the only game publisher acquisition that has taken place under Spencer. In September 2014, Microsoft acquired the studio Mojang, known for Minecraft. And on September 21, 2020, Zenimax, which includes Bethesda Softworks, was purchased for $7.5 billion. You can find out more about these and other transactions in our thematic material.

What do you remember about Phil Spencer? Share your thoughts in the comments!