Phil Spencer and a variety of other Xbox execs took to Twitter recently to respond to a comment from IGN's Rebekah Valentine, who spoke about how there's been a "massive, meaningful transformation" in the way Xbox has marketed itself to be a more inclusive brand over the years.
Rebekah explained that when she was growing up, she never saw Xbox as something she'd be interested in as it was marketed to be "edgy, masculine, [and] aggressively GAMER", but that's totally changed now:
In response, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer thanked Rebekah for her comments, explaining that there's "so much more to do" and even admitting that "it's not perfect at all". Here's what he had to say:
"Thanks, so much more for us to do. It's a journey and starts with team and our internal culture. Enabling a team to be authentic. It's also about content, how we talk about why we do things, and having our inclusive goals. It's not perfect at all and feedback is always important."
Various other members of Team Xbox chipped in to give their thoughts on this topic, such as Xbox Corporate Vice President Sarah Bond, who stated that Rebekah's comments "mean so much", and Xbox Social Media Manager Josh Stein, who revealed that "a lot of us feel this way internally also".
An interesting discussion, then, and it's nice to see Phil Spencer chipping in with his thoughts on the topic.
What do you make of this? Let us know down in the comments section below.
Comments 37
Yeah I’m glad those days where we associate Xbox with halo, gears, and Forza, are over. Too much testosterone there.
Really miss those days, but if Xbox was to grow and prosper it had to grow beyond that. Really nice how MS managed to include more gamers without shutting out the hardcore ones that started it all.
What I like about the response isn't that it's "job done" yet, but acknowledging that inclusion and openness is a journey still being undertaken. Nice one. Really hoping they can help fix some of the toxicity at Activision Blizzard once they have control. Devs like Double Fine show you can be totally open and inclusive with it having "zero" impact on your end product.
Going “woke” won’t be inclusive for the vast majority of people that don’t think like that.
Halo DLC in 2025 everyone
Glad we're past the angsty dude-bro phase, that was the worst.
I'm actually not suprised. I think a lot of the bigots/manchilds moved platforms last gen. Look at the responses to Aloy and Abby, then look at the responses to Tell Us Why.
That said, I hope some dude-bro content remains, it just doesn't need to be the only content.
@CaptainCluck
Just out of interest, what specific wording in Rebekah's "gaming's for everyone" tweet above is problematic for you?
A lot to fix is more like it.
Hmm, much as any move in right direction is laudible, they are just about to buy the worst offenders in the industry, so the virtual back slaps are not warrented yet. Sort out Activision and Blizzard it will be job well done!
Till that job is done, this feels like just a marketting excersice..
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@Titntin I know right, it’s not like they just spent a few billion on call of duty…
On one hand you have the ''tHeY gOnE wOkE'' crowd.
On the other hand you have the ''corporate slaves'' crowd.
To me this is a weird post.
MS' best period was the 360. It's still infinitely better than today.
Halo, Gears are incredibly mediocre today and a far cry from the glory days. Phil Spencer hasn't created 1 single great new 1st party game in 10 years. Even at the tail end of the 360 period when he became head of 1st party the downfall began.
If we're talking about diversity in the people they hire. Well that shouldn't be praised. EVER. It should be EXPECTED. It should be DEMANDED. So Phil reacting to that tweet seems like a circle jerk to me, kinda like when someone does charity then jumps on praise to congratulate themselves...kinda. Sadly many corporations DON'T but it's nice that MS is actually trying.
Having said that. None of this matters if Phil Spencer can't deliver the greatness of games that was the 360 era. Peter Moore was working with a limited budget and did so much. Phil Spencer has an infinite amount of money and he should be able to deliver a lot more. More than any other video game company.
Xbox/MS is a company. That I like the most out of all others.
But you should never behave like a corporate slave. Xbox is part of a corporation and corporations ARE NOT your friends. Always demand better as a consumer. They have gobbled up almost 100 billion of this industry, they should be held to higher standards. Sony is not their competition. They said it themselves. Time to show that cause I still don't see what makes Xbox games a lot better than the opponent you don't see as competition.
@Baler
So... there's a couple of things to unpack here...
1) There are people here talking about Xbox going woke. The article (and the tweet referenced in the article) mention nothing about being woke (only about inclusivity, which is not the same thing).
2) "Woke" can be defined as "alert to injustice in society, especially racism" (Oxford Languages) or "aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues, especially issues of racial and social justice" (Merriam Webster). If that means Xbox is woke, then I'm all for it.
There is nothing in this article (or the referenced tweet) to get up in arms about or to stoke culture wars... So, let's not do that here eh! ❤️
Edit:
Btw, I see you created your account about 10 minutes after my comment, then left your own comment straight after.
Now, it's not a huge leap of the imagination to guess that you already have another Pure Xbox account and created a separate profile purely for the purposes of stoking an argument on this thread.
C'mon man... why be that person?
We're here for fun and shared experiences... let's not sour that.
Its always going to be 'work in progress' until the day that people stop seeing the Colour of their skin, their sexuality or gender, etc and 'respect' people for who they are etc.
As a Company, MS may well be 'very' proactive in their recruitment, opportunities, messaging and of course most importantly, their actions but that's only a part of the industry. They also provide a platform for other Businesses (3rd Party devs/publishers) and can't control the way they make games, how 'inclusive' they are. It can 'police' its community to a certain degree but cannot make gamers be respectful, welcoming and inclusive for all - only retrospectively deal with it - by which time, there is a 'victim'.
Its always going to be 'work in progress' because 'humanity' is still not there yet and until they are, there is always going to be something that could be improved.
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@SplooshDmg OMG I forgot frosted tips. You just reminded me of everything wrong with the '00s.
Where's my mtn dew?
Having look at the videos from the history of Xbox and the old one Xbox console and the first Halo, I have one coming delivered from Ebay in a very good Condition .
I really hope they not push it to become Wokebox. That truly be such massive turnoff. Woke just incredibly out of hand today.
@NEStalgia
I actually did drink Game Fuel, almost daily, back in 2007. Not the wisest decision I've ever made but I thought it tasted good.
@SplooshDmg Also needed a studded/spiked collar/bracelet set or one of those hemp/beads necklaces por hommes.
@Gamer83 Wow.....I wondered who actually drank that stuff...now I know.
@antstephenson nah you are completely wrong
As an asian dude that live on asian country, I sort of don't care about inclusivity or whatever, for me it's all about the games, if the games are there, I'm in, if not, then I'm out.
The reason I bought series x and make it my main console this gen is because gamepass is awesome, and the console support dolby atmos.
@BartoxTharglod
Yeah, marketing is a part of it.
Xbox (original) did feel like a bit of a dudebro brand and messaging was "of its time"... not offensive or anything, but... I always pictured the stereotypical xboxer to be like the a-holes in the first Harold and Kumar film, who were bullies who thought everything they did was "extreeeeeme!" (Even though I was an OG Xboxer myself)
Also, the games... it's brand was built on Halo (then Gears as well), which reinforced a male/macho brand for playing macho games. Yeah, there were other games out there, but it was definitely viewed as a Halo/Gears box by many in the first 2 gens.
I think under Phil's watch, the messaging has softened significantly... playing down the competition with PS and throwing cold water on the fanboy console wars nonsense.
Halo and Gears are still big IPs, but I think there's a willingness to push a broader selection of games and you'll often hear Phil and Sarah talking up quirky indie games.
So, yeah... the changes are subtle... not as big as Xbox make out and not as big as the anti-wokers seem to be freaking out about.
Gaming can be an intimidating arena for some (even the generally wonderful and friendly PureXbox site has a few members who I would rather not encounter in the flesh)... so any effort by Xbox to shift the gaming culture to being a more friendly and welcoming environment is welcome.
Everything's fine, we can all continue to enjoy our games 👍
@antstephenson gaming can be an intimidating arena 👀 what are you talking about.
@Baler
Thinking more back to the Xbox 360 days (seems much less frequent now on Xbox... don't know about on PC), when there was a huge amount of abuse in the gamer chat (particularly in games like CoD)... so many times I had to mute/report a-holes using racist and/or homophobic language (or sending abuse in the text chat)... Not everyone enjoys that kind of environment.
The Xbox was marketed as masculine ? Maybe if they'd called it the XY chromosome box I could see the connection lol
@Titntin I'd have much more respect for them if they actually called out Bobby kotick as being the disgusting person he his rather than tip toing around it so they can get the deal through
@Would_you_kindly
Completely agree, Bobby presided over the culture and will now pocket millions as a result of the deal. Whilst I expect this means lots of devs will eventually benefit from less opresive employment, its a shame he gets to run into the sunset with a big pile of cash.
I was on the other side of the fence in the 360 era- it definitely seemed like dudebro games, just knowing it's where COD was most popular and games like Gears of War were all at. Seemed the same as a PS4 user last gen. I think when their first party cadence of new studios starts to have regular output with greater variety I will truly feel they are past that, since Halo/Forza has still been the main course this generation thus far. But it does feel more inclusive.
Interestingly the OG Xbox felt totally different to me, like a console mecca for WRPGs. And Halo.
@antstephenson I literally stopped playing online during the X360 gen due to toxic dude-bro ***** out to gang up, bully, grief and cheat everyone. So much racism, sexism and more. It just wasn't worth my time anymore. Which was a shame as online had basically replaced couch co-op and LAN parties.
Xbox did nothing about it back then, it was just seen as part of the gaming culture. Has it really gotten better since?
@themightyant
Whilst I loved playing games in 360 era, the in game chat was horrible toxic.
Have to say, I really don't seem to notice it at all these days... but that might be because I don't play CoD anymore.
Or maybe the annoying 13 year olds who used to scream down their mics have moved on to other games like Fortnite or FIFA.
Toxicity is still alive and well in gaming forums though... some are better than others.
I like PureXbox, as it has a LOT of decent folk (but there's always the odd few trolls and knuckledraggers).
@antstephenson @themightyant I was one of the guys that loved the trash talking. I full on flourished in that environment. I did pick up many bad additions to my vocab, which I've had to drop since. I did try to be good about it though, and aim that aggressiveness towards the toxic players. Would also stand up for kids and women that were getting unfair abuse. It was much more fun to trash talk someone that asked for it.
I do miss it because it gave personality to the pixels I was shooting. Nowadays, you can be shooting a bot and not even tell the difference. I wouldn't even mind if everybody were friendly and good sports, I just miss that interactivity of the players.
But I totally understand why a lot of people didn't enjoy that.
@Baler Pushsquare had an article on Sony announcing that between 40-50% of their audience were female. The amount of people who full on denied it was the case, or the validity of these female gamers' status as gamers, was just crazy. Why deny something like that?. Women make up half the population, why wouldn't they be half of gamers too?, and Sony have the data to make that claim, the gamers don't. Why did that upset so many males?
Yes, gaming is still an "intimidating arena". If you are part of a group of people, and you have a larger group gatekeeping that activity, telling you that it's "not for you, not really", or "you aren't a real fan", it's going to be intimidating and offputting. Sexism and bigotry was not only rampant during the 360 days, but continues to exist today. A lot of white straight guys (like myself) don't see it very often, if at all, because we aren't the targets. But if you keep your eyes open, and listen to the people who are targets, you'll actually start to notice it a lot more often.
There's nothing wrong or sinister with gaming acknowledging it has a diverse (in both identity and preference) audience. And that audience feeling more included in to the space as that happens.
@Richnj
Yeah, I hear ya.
When gaming in a private match with a friend we give each other a hell of a lot of abuse... and it's fun 😆 and that's cool, coz we have a friendship and an understanding (and we know where to draw the line).
But public matches with really angry kids using racist/sexist/homophobic language... ugh!
Even worse when it's adults who should know better.
I know some people will say "use the mute button" (which I did/do), but the onus should be on players to behave in an appropriate manner.
I actually don't mind a bit of friendly trashing in a public game... just as long as everybody is cool with it, it's good natured and there's nothing hateful being said.
@Richnj Good post. Fully get that some thrive in that sort of environment. I certainly enjoy some friendly banter at sports and other real life events. Though in real life it's much easier to gauge who you are talking to, each persons eyes smiling with the jokes, but also crucially to see who else is listening in.
As @antstephenson rightly said with mates in a private match you can go buckwild, you hopefully all know the line.
My issue was always with online matches with strangers. Would you go up to a stranger and start insulting them, which is what trash talking is, in real life. Doubtful, I hope. And more importantly what about all the people listening in. Would you use all that same language in a room full of kids? Which is probably what you have. It seems to be teaching kids that this is how we behave online? That's at least how my nieces and nephews see it, taught by us. And that's even aside from the really hateful and toxic stuff that should be banned.
I think being online removes the checks and balances of both who you are talking to and who else is listening in, things you wouldn't do in real life are done all too freely. Personally I don't think that's OK and needs to be curbed, but I get that it's a fine line and can be fun in the right crowd. The trouble is we don't get to control the crowd unless it's a private match.
I think, like most of the world these days, approximately 80% of us would like folk to be civil to each other, and for everyone to be able to play in a respectful inclusive environment. We're not 'Woke' or not purposely aggressive. We would like people to be chill, and understand that there are a lot of young peeps online with us, and folk with different viewpoints. Not looking to change minds, or get into a ten-tonne debate every time we want to engage with our hobby and relax - just want everyone to be relaxed, and not fire aggression at folk for perceived differences, of any kind.
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