Phil Spencer (Microsoft)

Phil Spencer
Nationality American
Alma mater University of Washington
Occupation Head of Microsoft's Xbox

Phil Spencer is the head of Microsoft's Xbox division and Microsoft Studios.

Personal life

Spencer earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington. He lives in Bellevue, Washington, with his wife and two daughters.[1]

Career

Spencer joined Microsoft in 1988 and has worked in a number of technical roles, leading the development of Microsoft's first CD-ROM-based titles (such as Encarta), development manager for Microsoft Money, and general manager of Microsoft's online and offline consumer productivity products including Microsoft Works and Microsoft Picture It![1][2]

Spencer served as general manager of Microsoft Game Studios EMEA, working with Microsoft's European developers and studios such as Lionhead Studios and Rare Ltd. until 2008, when he became the general manager of Microsoft Studios, eventually becoming the studio's corporate vice president a year later.[2][3] He participated in Microsoft's E3 conferences in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.[4][5][6][7]

In late March 2014, Satya Nadella announced in a corporate e-mail that Spencer was to "lead the Xbox, Xbox Live, Xbox Music and Xbox Video teams, and Microsoft Studios", succeeding previous head of Xbox Marc Whitten, who had left two weeks prior to the announcement.[3][8]

Shortly after his appointment, in an interview with Larry Hryb, Spencer stated that there were some "wrong decisions" regarding the direction of the Xbox One and that the console will now focus more on video games instead of general entertainment.[9]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Phil Spencer". Xbox.com. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Kinect Accelerator Mentor: Phil Spencer". Microsoft. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Welcome Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s New Xbox-Everything Honcho". Time. 2014-03-31. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  4. ↑ "E3 2010: Phil Spencer interview". The Telegraph. 2010-07-15. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  5. ↑ "Phil Spencer E3 2011 Interview". G4tv. 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  6. ↑ "E3 2012: Phil Spencer Post-Conference Interview". 2012-06-05. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  7. ↑ "E3 2013: Phil Spencer Talks Xbox One Lineup". GameTrailers. 2013-06-10. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  8. ↑ "Satya Nadella email to employees on tuning our organization". Microsoft. 2014-03-31. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  9. ↑ "Phil Spencer admits Microsoft made ‘wrong decisions’ with Xbox One and pushes ‘gaming first’ strategy". The Next Web. 2014-04-04. Retrieved 2014-04-06.

External links