Xbox Live's Major Nelson (Larry Hyrb) is today celebrating 20 years of working for Microsoft, posting a lengthy recap of his history and learnings with the company, as well as teasing a bit about the future of Xbox.
Hyrb notes that being part of Xbox has always been "everything I could ever have wished for", and "is the best thing (outside of marrying my wife and having our daughter) that I have ever had the honor of being part of."
Hyrb, who currently works as as director of programming for Xbox Live (originally joining the Xbox team in 2001), points out that Microsoft is in a better place than ever in 2021, and he's "wildly excited about the future of Xbox".
"As I think about the past twenty years (which went so fast!), I have to say this: This version of the company is the best one I’ve seen. It’s incredible. Last month, in my conversation with Phil Spencer, he spoke about where we are going in the years ahead. I know some details about some of these projects and, well, I am wildly excited about the future of Xbox."
What future Xbox plans do you think Hyrb is referring to? Congratulate him on 20 great years below!
[source majornelson.com]
Comments 6
Congrats to Major Nelson! I do visit his blog every now and then. I do wonder what the future holds for MS and Xbox as I have never seen MS so committed to gaming. Fingers crossed for more bombshells like the Bethesda acquisition 🙂
In Phil we trust
@gollumb82 they certainly have a very upbeat and positive vibe about them where PlayStation has some bad juju mon! They just feel like they are lying, hiding things and just after your money without even trying to hide it.
Basically if they were people i wouldn't want to around PlayStation at the moment. They will suffer as a result and eventually try and correct the ship similar to what Xbox did when they changed leadership to Phil. Question always is how much damage will be done and can it be reversed? Will Xbox get arrogant and turn the tables again where they are the bad ones and PlayStation is the shining beacon of light? I don't think so but both are corporations after our cash end of the day so you never know.
He is a nice man.
I noticed just yesterday that my Xbox Live account has a '17' in its circle icon below my avatar icon.
I have been an XBox Live account holder almost as long as Major as worked for MS.
It's been a fantastic ride!
@Krzzystuff It's amazing, 7 years ago, Xbox felt like they were pretty much joined at the hip with EA and Activision and their vision of the future. Sony felt like they were committed to keeping gaming grounded where the fans wanted it. Flash forward, leadership change at both companies, and boom! MS feels like they want to reinvent the industry to what the customer wants, and Playstation feels like they're digging their heels in to drag it where they want it to go, one used car sales pitch at a time.
It's really amazing how much a few human leaders really set the feel for how seemingly "faceless" corporations operate. The faceless corps aren't as faceless as they seem. The people, it seems really do make the difference. Stick Ryan into Xbox and it'll look like it did 7 years ago. Send Phil to Sony and PS would really shape up its act simply by understanding the customer rather than trying to mold the customer to the business expectation no matter what it takes.
Though I suppose they're aiming for separate markets now. PS, under Ryan is clearly aiming for the "mass market" - the movie buyers, the entertainment consumers, the things the broad masses want. Xbox is clearly aiming at gaming enthusiasts first and foremost, so in that sense I guess Phil gets "us" because he's one of "us" and gives us what we're looking for. Sony maybe has a better handle on the mass market that aren't games enthusiasts.
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