Phil Spencer (born January 12, 1968)[3] is an American business executive and the CEO ofMicrosoft Gaming.[4] Starting his career atMicrosoft as an intern in 1988, Spencer has worked in various sectors within the company, including developing Microsoft's firstCD-ROM-based titles. He joined theXbox team in 2001.
Spencer joined Microsoft in 1988 as an intern and has worked in a number of technical roles, leading the development of Microsoft's first CD-ROM-based titles (such asEncarta), development manager forMicrosoft Money, and general manager of Microsoft's online and offline consumer productivity products includingMicrosoft Works andMicrosoft Picture It![5][6] During his early time at Microsoft, he was known by other employees to be an avid gamer, playing games such asUltima Online in the office.[7]
With the launch of theXbox in 2001, Spencer joined the Xbox team and served as general manager of Microsoft Game Studios EMEA, working with Microsoft's European developers and studios such asLionhead Studios andRare until 2008, when he became the general manager of Microsoft Studios, eventually becoming the studio's corporate vice president a year later.[6][8] He has participated in Microsoft'sE3 conferences since 2010, until E3's final iteration in 2021.[9][10][11][12]
In September 2017, Spencer was promoted to the Senior Leadership Team, gaining the title of Executive Vice President of Gaming and reporting directly to CEOSatya Nadella.[14]
Since taking over both Xbox and the Gaming division, Spencer has advocated forcross-platform play and has indicated his goals are no longer to move gamers from other platforms to Xbox.[19] He has launched key initiatives, such as reintroducingbackward compatibility to the Xbox platform, the purchase ofMojang andBethesda, the further development and support ofMinecraft, the introduction ofXbox Game Pass, launching theXbox Adaptive Controller, an increased focus on PC gaming, porting some Microsoft-published games to other platforms including theNintendo Switch, the launch ofxCloud, and increasing the number of first-party development studios.[20]
