| Machiavellian said:
Ryuu, you need to keep up. Phil just got this promotion. As to Satya, I am willing to say that he actually did not tell Phil that cuts needed to be made. You are throwing him into the mix because you want to believe he had some say into this decision. I am saying that Satya had absolutely no say into this decision, but Phil made this decision because he felt it was needed. I actually believe that Satya has complete trust in Phil because he continues to promote him and now Phil only reports to Satya. Meaning if I were to think about a conversation between the 2, Satya came to Phil and stated, "ABK looks great but everything else is not. Hardware down big time and subscriptions to GP is not growing at all. What is your plan to address these issues". Satya is not a CEO who understands the gaming market nor about situations that drives it, that expertise is all Phil. So, no Satya would not tell, force or even make suggestion as to what Phil needs to do. Phil came to Satya and told him this is what he will do in order to fix the issues he sees in the market and what Phil believes needs to be done. My issue with believe that either Amy or Satya told Phil that these cuts need to be made does not sound right especially when you read the email from Phil, Sarah and Booty. Instead, it sounds like Phil looked at the market and decided that he needs to make some changes because what we see today isn't just a blip but how the market will be for a while. Either Phil needs to make serious changes that will improve output, get those GP subs to moving and also get hardware back on track or MS might as well just drop all of that become a single big publisher and call it a day. |
Phil got a promotion to a new higher title that didn't exist before to satisfy the growing managerial needs of the Xbox. However, from MS's standpoint, Phil is still the higher-ups at Xbox and the change of title does not absolve him of any responsibility to MS he previously had or give him any more leeway.
You are throwing him into the mix because you want to believe he had some say into this decision. I am saying that Satya had absolutely no say into this decision, but Phil made this decision because he felt it was needed.
But that's not how things work, I guarantee that whatever operational budget Xbox is attributed is a- decided by MS, B- used to the fullest by Xbox. Because, like with every company, when a division/department doesn't use all attributed budget, it will get a reduced one the next time around. So no one in Phil's position will self-sabotage in this way.
Also, Phil does not have to answer shareholders directly, that's MS BoD and Satya's roles, so if he was not mandated to operate with lower budgets it would even be grounds for MS to terminate his contract for acting in a way that resulted in unwarranted backlash and reduce long-term output. The same way Phil would terminate any Zenimax/ABK/Xbox Games studio's head contract if they made such decisions because they felt it was needed.
My issue with believe that either Amy or Satya told Phil that these cuts need to be made
That's not what we are saying, they didn't need to tell Phil what cut needed to be made if they told him to operate with a lower budget. And Phil also likely did not choose the end targets here. Most likely he, in turn, reduced Zenimax's operational budget with an instruction to preserve ongoing projects as much as possible.
Last edited by EpicRandy - on 13 May 2024
