How Don Mattrick Fumbled the Ball and Cast Xbox Adrift

Suprise new channel that does alright.

Great video. It's hard to see how people didn't see the Wii and motion controls for what they were, a fad. Even the very best Nintendo first party titles struggled to use it well and third party support was near-nonexistent. But mid-generation Microsoft pivoted the entire xbox brand toward the Kinect and destroyed the incredible run the 360 was on. And there was announcement of the xbone. With the rise of Steam, I think everyone knew in the back of their mind physical media was dying. But there was no need for Microsoft to push ahead in such a blatantly anti-consumer manner. The same with focusing so hard on Netflix streaming, it was a popular secondary function of the xbox, but not something that people bought a console for. Customers wanted the amazing lineup of games the 360 had and Microsoft completely failed to cultivate them with the xbone.

Mattrick made some poor decisions, but is not the reason Xbox does poorly today. Blaming Mattrick is like blaming Balmer or Sinofsky. None of these guys have made a major decision in a decade or more. People view Spencer as the "Xbox Guy", and assumed his new title would come with more power and representation, but being Microsoft Gaming CEO means that if a game would do well on Nintendo or PS or Steam, its his responsibility to make sure it launches there.