It’s as if Phil Spencer is again accusing rivals of what he is doing…

Spencer won the Andrew Yoon Memorial Award at the New York Game Awards. This award was previously given to Hideo Kojima, Tim Schafer, and Reggie Fils-Aimé. He also gave a speech but took a somewhat critical tone. In the interests of fairness, we will quote what he said (and he gets spicy near the end in a fierce way, even for him):

“I’ve been working in the gaming industry for a long time, and well before that, I was a player and a fan of games. Back in those days, as a kid, we would save up every penny from our allowance to buy a new game that we probably chose based on the picture on the front of the box. We knew this would be the one game we got to play for the next six months, maybe even a year. We hoped we picked the right one because we were all about to get to know that game exceptionally well. You were invited into a new world with that one precious game. The game designers and developers behind that cartridge created a new world with groundbreaking engineering work and innovative artistic vision. Holding that cartridge for the first time was a rush of excitement and anticipation, and playing it was pure and utter joy. Not just because we owned a cool thing but because of the experiences we would have with that game and the community. We didn’t just play with family and friends. We talked about it, obsessed over it, laughed about it, and sometimes cried over it. Reliving our best and worst moments together.

Gaming is and was about this echo effect of joy. Today, there are so many games. More than ever before, available to more players than ever before. But also, it can feel like there is more despair in the world. With a steady stream of bad news, with the ongoing leapfrogging from crisis to crisis, it feels to me that the joy experienced as a child has become much more elusive for us all to find. More of a guilty pleasure. It feels like today, seeking happiness is an act of defiance. Yet, today as creators, leaders, and world builders, our most significant responsibility is to inspire and invite joy. Each of the hundreds of titles players has at their fingertips today and tomorrow is a calling card for pleasure. Halo, God of War, Vampire Survivors, Peppa Pig, giant games, miniature games, mobile games, and indie games are designed to deliver joy into our lives. To give us so much pleasure, people want to talk about it, to share it. We, all of us here today, all our teams around the globe, are all part of creating this echo effect of joy. Our creators bravely and intentionally release their visions to the world, particularly in the current culture of criticism and cancellation. Our players courageously and deliberately carve out time for our games to invite, rest and rejuvenate their lives.

As business leaders, we’re called upon to have the courage to protect and nurture this collective joy. We are called upon to incubate these experiences, create them, and grow them. To seek and surround ourselves with a multitude of perspectives. We must honor our differences across experiences and geographies and practice empathy when intentionally listening to others. We turn away from dividing players and creators and instead towards each other as we advance and amplify joy together. This is the echo effect of gaming joy. Thank you for this honor tonight, and thank you all for making the brave choice to put fun in the world,” Spencer said.

The same Spencer under whom Starfield and Redfall are not coming to PlayStation 5, and the same Spencer whose employer has to make more commitments to read Activision Blizzard into itself because it is considered an anti-competitive move…

Source: WCCFTech