Phil Spencer (born January 12, 1968) is an American business executive and the CEO of

Microsoft Gaming Microsoft Gaming is an American multinational video game and digital entertainment division of Microsoft based in Redmond, Washington, established in 2022. Its five development and publishing labels consist of: Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda Soft ...

. Starting his career at

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

as an intern in 1988, Spencer has worked in various sectors within the company, including developing Microsoft's first

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

-based titles. He joined the

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

team in 2001.

Career

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 as ''

Encarta Microsoft ''Encarta'' is a discontinued Digital data, digital multimedia encyclopedia and search engine published by Microsoft from 1993 to 2009. Originally sold on CD-ROM or DVD, it was also available online via annual subscription, although ...

''), development manager for Microsoft Money, and general manager of Microsoft's online and offline consumer productivity products including

Microsoft Works Microsoft Works is a discontinued office suite, productivity software suite developed by Microsoft and sold from 1987 to 2009. Its core functionality includes a word processor, a spreadsheet and a database management system. Later versions have a ...

and Microsoft Picture It! During his early time at Microsoft, he was known by other employees to be an avid gamer, playing games such as Ultima Online in the office. With the launch of the

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 as

Lionhead Studios Lionhead Studios Limited was a British video game developer founded in July 1997 by Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley, Tim Rance, and Steve Jackson (British game designer), Steve Jackson. The company is best known for the ''Black & White (series), Bl ...

and Rare until 2008, when he became the general manager of Microsoft Studios, eventually becoming the studio's corporate vice president a year later. He has participated in Microsoft's E3 conferences since 2010, until E3's final iteration in 2021. In late March 2014,

Satya Nadella Satya Narayana Nadella (; born 19 August 1967) is an Indian-born American business executive who is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft, succeeding Steve Ballmer in 2014 as CEO and John W. Thompson in 2021 as chairman. B ...

announced in a corporate e-mail that Spencer was to "lead the

Xbox Live The Xbox network, formerly known and commonly referred to as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Gaming for the Xbox brand. It was first made available to the origina ...

, Groove Music and Movies & TV teams, and Microsoft Studios" as part of the Windows and Devices division. In September 2017, Spencer was promoted to the Senior Leadership Team, gaining the title of Executive Vice President of Gaming and reporting directly to CEO

. In 2018, Spencer delivered the keynote address at the 2018 DICE Summit and spoke at the 2018 Game Awards. In January 2022, along with the announcement of

's intent to acquire Activision Blizzard, Spencer was promoted to the role of CEO of Microsoft Gaming. Since taking over both Xbox and the Gaming division, Spencer has advocated for cross-platform play and has indicated his goals are no longer to move gamers from other platforms to Xbox. He has launched key initiatives, such as reintroducing

backward compatibility In telecommunications and computing, backward compatibility (or backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, software, real-world product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with Input ...

to the Xbox platform, the purchase of

Mojang Mojang AB, trading as Mojang Studios, is a Swedish video game developer based in Stockholm. A first-party developer for Xbox Game Studios, the studio is best known for developing the sandbox and survival game ''Minecraft'', the best-selli ...

and Bethesda, the further development and support of ''

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by the Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus Persson, Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java (programming language), Java programming language, the ...

'', the introduction of

Xbox Game Pass The Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service as part of Xbox and offered by Microsoft Gaming. Launched on June 1, 2017, the service allows users to download and play video games via video game consoles, Microsoft Windows, Android, iOS, iPad ...

, launching the

Xbox Adaptive Controller The Xbox Adaptive Controller (XAC) is a video game controller designed by Microsoft for Windows PCs and the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S video game consoles. The controller was designed for people with disabilities to help make user input for v ...

, an increased focus on PC gaming, porting some Microsoft published games to other platforms including the

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

, the launch of

xCloud Xbox Cloud Gaming, also simply known as Xbox Cloud, is a cloud gaming service as part of Xbox offered by Microsoft Gaming. Initially released in beta testing in November 2019, the service later launched for subscribers of Xbox Game Pass, Xbo ...

, and increasing the number of first-party development studios. Spencer received the Lifetime Achievement award at the 25th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards on February 24, 2022, and the Andrew Yoon Legend award at the New York Game Awards on January 17, 2023.

Personal life

Spencer attended Ridgefield High School in Ridgefield, Washington, and then earned a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in technical and scientific communication from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

. Spencer lives in the

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

area with his wife and two daughters. He serves on the boards of the First Tee of Greater Seattle and the Entertainment Software Association.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, Phil 1968 births 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople American technology chief executives American video game businesspeople Businesspeople from Washington (state) Living people Microsoft employees Microsoft Gaming People from Clark County, Washington University of Washington alumni Xbox Xbox Game Studios