0:10

welcome to week's edition of the vaizey view

0:13

this is my regular podcast

0:15

where i explore the links

0:17

between tech and public

0:19

policy and i sometimes go

0:22

on tour, i go virtual that

0:24

be be the the front side pinterest or

0:26

be the holland have been to israel looking

0:28

at have a countries put together tech policies

0:31

and sometimes i take a deep dive into a

0:33

sector like agra tech or

0:35

cyber security and sometimes

0:37

i talk to big picture policy

0:40

think it's like benedict evans or tony

0:42

blair or malcolm turnbull

0:44

well i'm here in london

0:46

with phil spencer going

0:48

in a loosely describe as the king

0:51

of , box is one of my

0:53

very few face to face podcast

0:56

civil see how the chemistry work from a city

0:58

each other if an incredibly hot day

1:01

in london and obviously there are lots

1:04

of reasons i want to kill one

1:06

is that he spends more time with my son

1:09

than i do by a factor of ten as

1:11

in my son is on the x box about

1:13

a hours a day so this

1:15

is kudos for me i

1:17

also obviously as the form of video games

1:20

minister now still

1:22

involved in the games industry wanna hear the

1:24

reflections the king

1:26

of x box of now my

1:28

original title to so clear

1:35

tell us who

1:37

you are cuz you are microsoft i am

1:39

i started at microsoft in 1988

1:41

as a programming, intern

1:44

from the university of washington those

1:46

that don't know it's right across the lake yet, easy

1:48

to find think when i started there were

1:50

fewer than 5,000 people microsoft,

1:53

just to give sense today it's 150,000

1:56

people or something so yeah and i

1:58

joined xbox, [unk]

1:59

right after we launched the original x box

2:02

which was what you have that two thousand and

2:04

one this when we launched the original i

2:06

believe i launched into the over there at the beginning

2:08

i was and ah who doing

2:11

what in two thousand and one building games though

2:13

i grew up in x box building

2:15

games which did for

2:17

a short stint bring me to live in the uk and

2:20

lived in london as we

2:22

were growing our development footprint year

2:24

acquiring studios building those studios

2:27

and then studios moved back to the us

2:29

and eight years ago became not

2:32

a king but head of x box which

2:35

is the rollout

2:36

the obvious i want to take the mickey out of your bit

2:38

more because of is this your first visit to london

2:41

for three years three years cove it is like

2:43

yes this is my first international trips since

2:45

january of of twenty feels

2:47

good to see humans i

2:49

don't normally see all the time so it's great and

2:52

you're aware that the reason you get the best tables

2:54

in restaurants is because you share the name with a top

2:57

real estate tv personality

2:59

and i do hey i get there some show that

3:02

he's idea phil spencer undercover

3:04

agent is that agent location location

3:06

like say that that yeah yeah no one listens

3:08

the fuck awesome ahead of it's history of a lot of this

3:10

as new as but i just thought i'd get that out of the with

3:12

but it's good to have you back in london of the three the top

3:15

just talk is of eve got twenty years of x

3:17

box experience and

3:19

experience would love to just eat is given a picture

3:21

of a sick is in it's x box that says playstation

3:24

of x boxes journey in the last twenty

3:26

years you know what have you seen had have ringside seat

3:28

literally at the changes, both

3:30

in terms of the technology and in terms

3:32

of the size and the scope of gave me, i mean this

3:34

is a very open-ended question, but i just

3:36

love start with you're giving your reflections

3:38

on that kind of of 2020 years because wishing

3:40

to be dispatching the xbox of 2001

3:43

is like a steam engine bad to get

3:45

the x of 2021, from

3:53

a a microsoft perspective like many things back

3:56

in the early 2000s, we

3:58

entered this

3:59

the out of the spear fear

4:02

that the home video

4:04

game console might become the pulled the

4:06

pc of the home right and

4:09

we wanted to make sure we had an entrance

4:11

into that and x box became that

4:13

we didn't really know what we were doing

4:15

will me put the original x box out i

4:18

worked with a lot of partners who made a bad on

4:20

us a the first generation

4:22

which was just called x box didn't

4:24

last very long we pretty quickly moved

4:26

into what was called the xbox three sixty which was

4:28

our next i'm console

4:30

we'd come from pc gaming like the oldest

4:33

franchise let me ask this question of

4:35

all the microsoft franchises

4:38

out there not gaming can be gaming not gamey

4:40

the oldest the microsoft franchise

4:42

still under development is

4:45

windows microsoft flight simulator flight

4:47

simulator oh he dates when so

4:49

, been in gaming as microsoft

4:51

for an awful long time and you go back to our pc gaming

4:53

age of empires plates them but

4:56

with xbox came this we're going to build

4:58

a dedicated device spend

5:00

the money to build the hardware they'll

5:02

build a different and expanded creative capability

5:05

and are studios and enter the videogame category

5:08

get it i guess lot of people very skeptical and

5:10

certain people still liar but yeah definitely at

5:12

the time if you think back to those

5:14

days blue screen of death

5:17

on windows microsoft

5:19

i'd say was a less mature company

5:21

itself i'm finding its role

5:24

of what do we stand for as a company

5:26

which is one of the things i'm very proud of what the company's

5:28

down under satya and taking public's

5:31

stands on things like sustainability

5:33

representation accessibility mean

5:36

public about our goals as accompany

5:38

i think that's a maturing let's

5:40

, is a video game industry when i think

5:42

about that time to where

5:44

we are today i see it as an

5:46

industry that's kind of learning its place

5:49

as well there's three billion people on the planet who

5:51

play video games yeah nearly half the world's

5:53

population and as and industry

5:55

if we start thinking about the people

5:58

are stories can reach the [unk] unity

6:00

is and the discourse that can happen in the gaming

6:02

communities because of the reach

6:04

of video games and reading about your son might

6:07

be playing with somebody

6:09

who's playing from mumbai yeah

6:11

and they could be playing together and like what other

6:13

social construct on this planet but

6:16

no two people of that age together

6:19

and then is an industry how to we start setting

6:21

positive social norms as

6:24

a very diverse player base

6:26

search to play together build together

6:29

learn together when it was amazing amazing

6:31

opportunity and i like seeing how the industry

6:33

is a ball into that place and have matured

6:35

and away into that place the i think it's

6:37

a faster you are so many got a spinoff

6:40

questions that i won't ask on the back of them but

6:42

i want to try and keep some structure

6:44

but in a three billion and

6:46

it's and two hundred billion dollar that's right industry

6:48

and it's bigger than music

6:50

and film television and

6:53

growing faster at a bit the biggest and

6:55

statement meals right in the world and

6:57

i have this kind of prejudice that i

7:00

still see i mean i'm a big

7:02

fan the games industrial i'm not

7:04

a gamer video games are still

7:06

the kind of often child oh

7:09

when we debate so when you talk about

7:11

people engaging on x box we

7:14

took over time but there are three billion people

7:16

on facebook no matter death interacting

7:18

but we never talk about three billion people

7:20

playing games together when

7:22

we talk about studying the uk

7:25

threats to the kind of entertainment

7:27

ecosystem the bbc we talk about netflix

7:29

we don't talk i'm not saying you are you are but we don't

7:31

talk about the other yeah henschel

7:34

takes why do you think games the

7:37

not gonna more prominent in kind of the public

7:39

debate about where we going in terms of tech

7:41

and

7:43

entertainment and it is an industry

7:45

we have to take some responsibility for that

7:48

in terms of us advocating for

7:50

ourselves and what we mean as

7:52

mean industry and being public about

7:54

our aspiration so is out

7:56

of then deflector some i think external

7:58

reasons but i do think it's somewhere the who has

8:01

been in the industry for a while if we don't reflect

8:03

on that ourselves and say well

8:05

yeah why not why aren't we considered

8:08

a social media i'm a storytelling

8:10

medium a social impact

8:12

medium there is that does reflect

8:14

on us and how we tell our story and how we

8:17

set our goals i also think is

8:19

generational yeah i think

8:21

about the stories in l i'm

8:23

in my mid fifties but i think about the stories when i was

8:25

growing up going to video game arcades playing

8:28

on my atari twenty six hundred

8:30

and home and friends

8:32

of my mom telling my mom out your

8:34

your son those wasting his time playing video

8:37

games my mom likes to call up those

8:39

friends now unsettling okay

8:41

but like the idea that

8:43

you would build a career

8:46

in video games was like told know

8:48

like it was almost device yeah right

8:50

like and the fact that this

8:52

industry employs hundreds

8:54

of thousands of people globally if the

8:56

fact that as as as you talked

8:59

about the use of the planet sees us

9:01

this industry video games as

9:03

not only their entertainment mechanism but their social

9:06

mechanisms and more and more their creative

9:08

outlet as they're building content as

9:10

they're built they're doing twitch streams

9:13

and you to content or building minecraft

9:15

a row blocks contents and i see

9:17

a generation when i meet with government officials

9:20

it's often the case you can see the line of somebody

9:22

in the governor is about thirty five or forty who grew

9:24

up playing vs a government official

9:26

lose sixty or seventy who this

9:28

video game thing had them from the side

9:30

and they've probably never held a controller again

9:33

i'll take it is our responsibility to build connections

9:36

to both of those audiences but

9:38

audiences do see generationally as legislators

9:40

are growing are aging into

9:43

the gamers are aging into those ada groups

9:45

that the that the becomes more

9:48

real and more understood and

9:50

less foreign

9:51

the i won't the into trouble by

9:53

asking whether you think what joe biden thinks

9:55

of fact days but i mean one of the things

9:57

you've seems to me in the games industry of you

10:00

over twenty years and textbooks losses the

10:03

changing demographics more women playing the

10:06

changing

10:07

engagement on mobile yeah absolutely

10:09

enemies people ask me

10:12

what's the average gamer if you

10:14

have three billion people your average gamers

10:16

the average of the planet and eight there's no

10:18

difference i think about that in terms of our own teams

10:21

if our teams don't reflect the customers

10:24

that we aspire to earn with

10:26

our products or what's the makeup of our team

10:28

in i'm privilege old white guy on the

10:31

west coast the united states i'm not

10:33

three billion people on this planet feel my

10:35

sold the creative teams cause the

10:37

unconscious bias that will come up in

10:39

how we tell our stories the

10:42

wade different groups will interpret

10:44

things that are said and done so it's critically

10:46

important that our teams reflect our customers

10:48

and is molten as many perspectives

10:50

as possible and that those people on

10:53

the team's feel

10:54

the for they can raise their voice or their concern

10:57

when they see something when they hear something that

10:59

only about how we work but the content that

11:01

we put out i think that is important but europe

11:03

he right when you think about three billion people your

11:06

, your socioeconomic focus

11:08

your racial focus you have

11:10

to look at the planet as your customer but

11:13

i'm immobile for example is broke more

11:15

people into gaming totally and gaming totally

11:17

changed the kind of demographic profile of a game

11:19

is it has it's been interesting absolutely

11:22

has whether a billion and a half people with

11:24

mobile phones on the planet there's

11:26

also the segment of games called mobile games

11:30

what i also find more and more as a travel

11:32

at one of the wrote one of the roles they haven't microsoft

11:35

does i'm the executive sponsor for african

11:37

development centers we have one in nairobi one

11:39

in lagos mobile phones

11:41

are the dominant device on the continent of

11:43

africa on and of africa

11:45

one point two billion people average age is twenty

11:48

on the continent when i go

11:50

there and visit

11:52

gamers they know

11:55

what halo is they

11:57

know what minecraft it and not because they're playing

11:59

on the farm

11:59

the phone gives them access to the internet which gives

12:02

them access to you tube which gives them access to twitch

12:04

which means they see all of this content

12:07

they might not have a device the

12:09

day that can play all of that content

12:11

so you see pc cafe showing up

12:14

another but they're also massive mobile

12:16

games that get built that are targeting those

12:18

players and giving them opportunity in

12:21

the and our view is a game should be a good much

12:23

like if you wanna watch netflix

12:25

movies on your phone yeah and

12:28

somebody else is watching on their eighty inch oled

12:30

tv on the screen you're both consuming

12:32

the same content and we think that content

12:35

should be able to hit any screen that somebody place

12:37

on in mobile hi definition has to be

12:39

a big focus so , new you

12:41

touched briefly on diversity so

12:43

that when i was a minister i think a lot on

12:46

diversity but again you know the all tisa

12:49

focused on the film and tv industry

12:51

because industry felt very strongly that people had

12:53

to see people who look like themselves on

12:55

screen and that would open up opportunities

12:57

and agree the industry needed to change

13:00

because we need is tell different stories to

13:02

different audiences but i know i never

13:05

got into video games and see so tell me a

13:07

bit about what your dame into that because pretty

13:09

me in as you're talking that and the three

13:11

billion figure which has become a sort of bit of a mantra drawings

13:13

for cost yeah you're building a game where

13:15

you've got a game like minecraft were anyone

13:17

on the planet can play and understand as right

13:20

the you need this com it you need diverse teams

13:23

eighty people from different backgrounds

13:25

that's right and i i totally

13:28

believe in in your focus that if i can

13:30

see it i can be it i have to

13:32

see me in

13:33

the games we have a focus

13:35

we call gaming for everyone inside of x

13:38

box it's one of our and of internal activities

13:40

were public is on it a secret thing but and

13:43

we think about three legs of the stool

13:45

of gaming for everyone one

13:47

as we've been talking about is the makeup of our

13:49

teams do our teams reflect the

13:52

customers we aspire to earn and

13:55

does everybody feel safe and included so

13:57

they can raise their voice and do their best work

13:59

so

13:59

he

14:01

we also think about the creative in our products

14:04

does everybody see themselves

14:06

in the games if i'm playing minecraft

14:10

can , create me when

14:12

i create my avatar that's from

14:14

a clothing i want to wear from a hairstyle

14:17

not assuming any specific gender non

14:19

assuming any specific race not

14:21

every game makes us because some games are very

14:23

story driven and kind of character

14:25

driven driven in games where

14:27

i'm treating myself the my own experience

14:30

in the game you should be able to create yourself

14:32

in the game so you can also see

14:35

you represent it's even down to

14:37

accessibility options and the avatars

14:39

that people will create in games and

14:41

then you go who should be able to access

14:44

and play kind of the diversity of play

14:46

and how we as

14:49

a company i often think about it would where we

14:51

are a two trillion dollar market cap company

14:53

in the video games space that

14:55

we should be public about the things we

14:57

aspire to do from accessibility

14:59

sustainability representation and

15:02

set those goals in goals public way we

15:04

don't always know how we're going to achieve the goals but

15:07

like as microsoft we talk about doubling

15:09

the representation of

15:11

people color in our senior ranks as ranks company with

15:13

satya said that goal we think

15:15

about sustainability about sustainability carbon footprint

15:18

and going carbon neutral and even carbon negative

15:20

to offset any carbon footprint

15:22

of the company and brad smith set goals around

15:25

that and i think that we should be

15:27

public about the impact of our products

15:30

we should stand for things in a public way

15:32

we should aspire to achieve those goals

15:34

and make our games as accessible to people

15:36

as possible that's an accessibility comment

15:39

that's a business model comment in terms of price

15:41

of the content and where the game show

15:43

up so our teams

15:45

the creative in our games themselves

15:48

and our goals and accessibility of the platform

15:51

and even you do talk about it enough would you want to talk

15:53

about it more as a with i don't think we can talk

15:55

about it too much i'm

15:58

conscious of not wanting turn

16:00

any individual on the team or

16:02

any game indo token yeah that's not

16:04

fair bf i never talked about oh this

16:06

is are accessible game is afraid that's

16:08

the opposite of accessibility it's a

16:11

are if i think about our leadership team right

16:13

now i think we have the best x box leadership

16:15

team we've ever had in the history of

16:17

in in the has nothing to with me and

16:20

i'm also very proud of how that team

16:22

represents more diversity

16:24

than it ever has and i can only

16:26

look at the opportunity ahead and say we still

16:29

have so much work to do as ,

16:31

team so absolutely want to talk about it so

16:33

liquor or you're in london and it's no secret

16:35

if if for some a lot use coming to london

16:37

you want to talk to the government and i

16:40

you know when i with the minister for

16:42

as as called the minutes of the creative industries but include

16:44

a video games and i i went on this

16:46

journey because i knew nothing about video games

16:48

enough they them as a kid a , nothing

16:51

about the industry here and i discovered

16:53

the food industry requires people with part

16:55

skills like computer science of the asics

16:58

it's an industry that also leave the

17:00

arts it's an industry this regional even

17:02

within the uk it was ministry

17:04

at the time when most politicians

17:07

thought if you play video games he became a serial

17:09

killer yes and i discovered that

17:12

you know the film industry had this great tax

17:14

credit and we will leaching

17:16

talent to canada because of their tax credit

17:19

it took me three four years to convince

17:21

are finance minister to

17:24

introduce , uk tax credit yet

17:26

has the uk tax credit made a difference as

17:28

so the has has actually out you saw

17:30

it at it

17:32

this morning

17:34

i did a developer round table

17:36

and nobody will see this policy that room right there

17:39

and talking to them about

17:42

why they're here

17:43

the impact the uk tax credit

17:46

absolutely helps build new businesses

17:48

and support the business they're here it's been great samuel

17:50

i've never met advices like we

17:52

met for the first time today i think that's true

17:55

fail and

17:56

your name and supporting the videogame

17:58

industry is

17:59

is known and it's a positive

18:02

and as somebody there were met you are say thank you so

18:04

you have ever come on this book of at know

18:06

but i mean that like you mentioned canada

18:08

i think whether you look at the montreal region

18:11

we have studio there we have studio of

18:13

in vancouver we have studio out further east

18:15

in in canada you can look at

18:17

states like texas that are doing this

18:20

and investing in had a we grow

18:22

the interactive capability interactive

18:25

media videogame capability in our

18:27

region and absolutely matters matters

18:29

here and and i would

18:31

support the government continue

18:33

to invest in i think it's it's an important consideration

18:36

as they want to grow really a strong

18:38

workforce in this category a movie of

18:40

things we did women in government was

18:43

the commission this review into kind

18:45

of industry support for the video

18:47

games industry and , included

18:49

skills and are we got

18:51

coding put on that national curriculum in

18:54

high schools but i didn't know how much different that

18:56

has really made in terms of you

18:58

know who's available to teach [unk] b getting people

19:00

with the skills and training them training must be one

19:02

of your biggest challenges the biggest

19:05

and you mentioned it that

19:07

video games my point

19:09

of view

19:10

they did a very unique intersection of art

19:12

and tech

19:14

and

19:15

that intersection has it's own capability

19:17

of what does it mean to be a composer

19:20

for a video game we have these people on staff

19:23

and they have to understand ah bc music creation

19:25

composition and the technology of having that

19:27

actually shop in the game to the people who are actually

19:29

writing the code that are are

19:31

are running the games are running the services

19:33

behind the games and

19:36

us we do game camps we do game

19:38

camps in different regions to try to help

19:40

i think gameplay itself the reason think

19:42

sit here today is because

19:45

my father brought home upon

19:47

machine when i was like six years old

19:50

and then an atari twenty six hundred and

19:53

atari just follow that path through a lot

19:55

of privilege and and luck

19:57

and probably more privileged more lock ended

19:59

up in this

19:59

the ocean and i y

20:02

the child who sees their favorite

20:04

video game as building something and roadblocks

20:07

to understand that that can turn into a career

20:10

but it only can if we can get through

20:12

the skill gap that so many of those kids see

20:14

any any hit it right on it is stem

20:16

education it's technology i think

20:18

we have a role to play again as an industry even some

20:21

of the creative games that we can build

20:23

that can help inform

20:25

and teach kids but there's obviously a role

20:27

for strict academics in

20:29

kids learning skills that they need hear

20:31

people talk about the bbc acorn in the nineteen

20:34

eighties is that

20:35

the minute kettle know have the raspberry pi

20:37

which that's right yeah

20:39

, a conscious decision gonna create and

20:41

access levels computer for

20:43

kids to play with yeah and

20:46

and to make it about robots it's apart as they

20:48

they run on x box is not a studio that we own

20:51

and even the creative process of how do i build

20:53

my own video like how do i buy one

20:55

get the technology pieces together to actually put

20:57

something on screen but also make something that's

21:00

fine that somebody will wanna go play

21:02

that either tells a story or greets challenge

21:04

and that's that's as much a part of the equation

21:06

for us as well and i love the fact

21:08

that in minecraft individual

21:11

consumers can create content that other consumers

21:13

can buy the consumer market place in

21:16

consumer market is a huge huge business

21:18

for consumer selling content

21:20

that they create consumers but ensuring

21:23

as well that our studio staff

21:26

has the diversity a background that we need that we talked

21:28

about but really that skilling pipeline it is

21:30

available and available to anybody sees

21:33

it as a group

21:42

that's a fascinating i want to go on

21:44

you mentioned i'm you know how you can build

21:46

something [unk] microfilm i want i want to talk a bit about

21:48

monetization of games in a minute but i

21:50

just want to slightly segway

21:52

it would be taught me how to you

21:55

each

21:55

people who skills needed for the

21:58

the work in the games in see but i wanted to slightly

22:00

flip that on that head could i'd

22:03

love to know your views on game is kind of wider

22:05

remit and entertainment medium

22:07

yes but it's also it's also that kids can learn

22:09

yes learn through gaming there's

22:12

also a fantastic potential medium

22:14

well a substantial medium in health health

22:16

care yeah and we as

22:19

going back to they can a history of of

22:21

gaming and in my learning we've

22:24

kind of at the beginning we would retroactively

22:27

learn about the impact

22:29

of things that we would build for those that remember

22:31

back around twenty ten or so

22:34

we had the thing that came out for export three sixty

22:36

called connect and you

22:38

can play without the controller yes and

22:41

remember we put this out there were can export

22:43

there were some dancing games and it was really

22:45

for people who look at a video game controller

22:47

and say okay that things intimidating that's

22:50

the wanna play in you are

22:52

the controller that was kind of our tagline and

22:55

i remember sitting there and getting and video

22:57

from a parent who

23:00

autistic child was now playing games

23:02

for the first time ever or well because

23:04

they didn't have to kind of myopically

23:07

focus on this controller yeah but they

23:09

could they could just stand up and like we didn't plan

23:12

on i'm i'm even know if we did a good job

23:14

for that autistic child at the time but

23:17

the fact that was really an eye opening moment

23:19

for moment of the impact

23:22

of something that's going to be

23:24

a natural a tractor for children because

23:26

of it's with their friends are doing it's shiny

23:28

like the music and everything and

23:30

yet can have

23:33

there are punic purpose can

23:35

have an educational purpose we do a

23:37

lot of work here in the uk with a group called special

23:39

effects yes which sometimes

23:42

is a fantastic town

23:43

an incredible charity and we

23:46

learn a lot from sitting

23:48

down and watching players play

23:50

watching that that kind of limitations

23:52

are challenges that people have and how it applies to

23:54

our art form cf and what we need

23:57

to go do and the educational

23:59

element while different

24:01

is an adjacent see to that of

24:04

how i learn about different cultures

24:06

different sensations even problem

24:09

solving or group problem solving

24:11

and a cooperative game of how

24:13

in you and i sitting with headsets on

24:15

in different parts of the planet say

24:17

okay we're going to go solve this destiny strike

24:20

together and we're going to go through

24:22

that like the collaborative capability

24:24

which may be as education at a lower case

24:26

eats but in terms of life skill

24:29

i think is think is important important

24:32

consideration and i think there's

24:34

more work in maybe the more capital

24:36

he education video games kind

24:38

of more formal kids are many times

24:41

can see through something that's more

24:43

about

24:44

maybe

24:45

the education than the fun so like

24:47

we have to balance that good points and this

24:49

point but minecraft for us has been

24:51

the best example because we have coding in

24:54

minecraft and ,

24:56

have minecraft education which is a specific

24:58

skew product of version of minecraft

25:01

that we sell into classrooms and

25:04

teachers can then build curriculum

25:06

in minecraft and the kids are

25:08

more naturally drawn to it is it's not a big

25:10

paper textbook it's actually minecraft

25:12

but the learning can be as deep as rich

25:15

and it's been incredibly successful and

25:17

i think the industry can do more of that i

25:19

mean i could do to eight i mean there's a guy he's

25:22

we call him the godfather games in livingston

25:24

the start again sweatshop get in the late seventies

25:26

is now set up a school in bomb

25:28

with on south coast of england the

25:30

teach kids who females i want

25:32

to use gaming the as an education

25:35

medium get and i can talk endlessly

25:37

about it but i want to a you know with limited time

25:39

i want to talk briefly about the monetization video

25:41

games because you've , more to subscription

25:44

yesterday so that's very interesting and it kind of brings

25:46

me back to the you know we only talk about netflix me like

25:48

talk about x boxes were and

25:50

also we've had also we've in the uk

25:52

about loot boxes say i love to hear your

25:54

kind of thoughts on loot boxes for what it's worth

25:56

i'm i don't regard loot boxes the form

25:58

of gambling in the governor the uk government in

26:01

effect the said the same thing yet that

26:03

i'd love to lopez will have subscription is changing

26:07

gotta games industry from your perspective

26:09

and then some thoughts on the i

26:12

very much view business

26:14

model

26:15

the part of the seed of creativity

26:18

that you know if you know what i'll use video

26:20

i'll use television cause is it a

26:22

more people understand it if we

26:24

were going to go create a video

26:26

production

26:27

if it was going to be and ninety minute

26:30

show in the cinema versus a thirty

26:32

minute said com on television we

26:35

need to know that that as part of the

26:37

creative process because actually what we

26:39

would build would be different or aspiration

26:41

would be different and , not that one's

26:43

better than the other you actually want both

26:46

movies that cinema and television on

26:48

the screen so as an industry

26:50

i think historically we've been to

26:53

monolithic in business models

26:55

that we support if i go back to my childhood

26:57

i was going into the store knows mind cartridge

27:00

to go plugin my atari twenty six hundred

27:02

so the only model for me to play games

27:04

was retail for human right rewind further was about

27:06

me putting quarters on an arcade machine year

27:08

from at the arcade and i was the only business

27:11

model that we had which meant the creative

27:13

that you saw an arcade was all about how

27:15

do i get somebody to play for five minutes and then put

27:17

another quarter or and or

27:20

it was about how do i give you enough value so

27:22

that you're happy and you'll go buy into the cartridge

27:24

of my next game or somebody elses

27:26

next game and as a platform

27:28

and you talked about the diversity

27:30

of devices that we support from phones

27:33

to televisions to people playing on laptops

27:35

and pcs and tablets everything else that

27:37

business model diversity should

27:40

lead to more creative diversity in the

27:42

products because as a creator

27:44

if i say i want to build something that's more episodic

27:47

or if i want to build something that's more

27:49

standalone an end to end with the beginning

27:51

middle and end up get a business model around

27:53

that if i'm want to build something

27:55

that's more service based run looking to attract

27:58

fifty million players it's all going

28:00

to be free in the beginning and i have like a post

28:02

sale monetization model that should

28:05

work for me as well i think that diversity

28:07

of business models for us as a platform

28:09

is critical to us continue

28:11

to bring more creative content

28:14

to the platform and it's it should never be driven

28:16

by one business model subscription

28:18

game passes are subscriptions there's others

28:20

out there playstation plus is one apple arcade

28:22

is one of their multiple contents

28:25

subscriptions it's been an interesting

28:27

journey it's basically only three years old for us

28:29

so much a of see much more

28:31

recent than retail and even free to play and

28:33

were watching how it impacts creators

28:36

i did a roundtable they talked about earlier here and i got

28:39

a lot of feedback on the positives

28:41

of game pass and still people having question

28:43

have questions about is it really

28:45

sustainable the model does

28:48

it devalue content you know real

28:50

questions that i understand and i love the the

28:52

dialogue with creators what

28:54

it's done for us on our platform

28:56

is lead to more creative

28:59

games hum that if

29:01

retail was their only outlet

29:04

might not have been greenlit because

29:06

he is somebody actually gonna pay thirty dollars

29:08

for the same way now that we can kind of

29:10

take that off the table we

29:12

can even find part of the development

29:14

or all of the development because we've got a sustainable

29:17

revenue stream from the subscription so

29:19

we can go do development deals to bring that content

29:22

into the subscription players

29:25

are much more likely to try something

29:27

outside of their core if the

29:30

marginal cost is downloading the next king

29:32

raise an added a it's not a of a

29:34

glimpse and their streaming to the council's now

29:36

so they they don't even have to dumb like literally

29:38

can just click on the game and start playing

29:41

and i loved like i think we want more

29:43

different people playing more different games

29:45

is only a healthy thing for industry and

29:47

that's the impact that it had to date but we also

29:50

are three years into this and we're constantly

29:52

learning don't totally books is hop

29:55

me i will take the concern

29:58

about loot box will the questions

30:01

about loot box i will applaud because

30:03

, do want us to be thoughtful as

30:06

an industry on how we monetize

30:08

and inc that's important we've seen

30:10

exploitive business models let me watch

30:12

with kind of going on and enough teas and

30:15

the technology itself

30:18

somewhat inert i

30:20

i believe that it's the use of

30:22

a technology that kind of

30:24

puts it in the is a constructive or is it

30:26

evil and i think sometimes you have to ask the questions

30:28

of how am i using that this

30:30

mechanic or this technology i

30:32

agree with you on loot boxes we don't

30:34

use loot boxes in most refers party work

30:36

it's not something that we choose to do what we have a lot

30:38

of partners that do on the platform and

30:41

i don't see it as a form of gambling but

30:43

as a platform holder

30:45

we why fair and

30:47

transparent

30:49

transactions for our players and

30:51

we want to ensure that our partners

30:53

are kind of stating the odds if that's the right

30:55

model so that people know

30:57

when they are trying are they're they're buying

31:00

something that where the outcome

31:02

is it predetermined that they understand

31:04

at least the likelihood of what they're going to see

31:06

his is part of that transaction and i think that's important

31:09

actually that's a good segue to one is your own

31:11

skus is that your policy

31:13

to play as a dick about the other area

31:16

, video games for impact public policy

31:18

is obviously politicians strict parents

31:20

are terrified of if adults

31:23

pretty kids in game zone and

31:25

a bullying and that kind of thing hannity

31:27

police fat and we got a big online safety

31:30

volume of the way get about regulation

31:32

of platforms while i'll say first

31:34

we invest a lot in policy

31:36

and enforcement both on technology

31:39

machine learning a i driven routines

31:41

that can detect

31:43

when a conversation is happening on our platform

31:46

that is it in line with our principles or or

31:48

or or desired outcomes of conversation

31:51

not that we're listening it's actually the

31:53

a i routines will start to block or warned

31:56

certain conversations they're having

31:58

there's a human component to policy

32:00

enforcement that will be there i think for evermore

32:03

of people ensuring that the content

32:05

that shows up on the platform is

32:08

what we think it should be we scanned images

32:11

we've got a i techniques that can look at images

32:13

and find images that are inappropriate and

32:16

this is constant like is this is not

32:18

i don't think there's ever a success or a

32:20

destination because it's kind of a constant

32:23

battle against people trying to do harm in

32:25

and our desires a platform to create a safe

32:27

place if i could say anything to

32:29

the audience listening if you have children that play

32:32

please please please set up a child account

32:35

are you

32:36

your ear your child who's playing a

32:38

child account allows and all the platforms

32:40

have child accounts different ones have different capabilities

32:43

talk about x box but not as an attorney so

32:45

unique much that there's a mobile

32:47

app you can go where you'll see exactly what

32:49

your child as you approve every

32:52

friend that has any online conversation

32:54

with you child you can set time limits on

32:56

how are how long the box will work

32:59

every day and then and then

33:01

turn off spending limits

33:03

are in the app you see the

33:05

activity that happens and much

33:07

like i don't think a parent

33:09

would leave their six year old at home alone

33:12

it just kind of walk out like don't

33:14

just put him on a console don't set up

33:16

the parents account with a credit card attach

33:18

and just give it to the kid to take into their

33:20

room and not pay attention either i

33:23

think this is true of being on facebook

33:25

have been on tic toc of being on and on

33:27

you tube pay attention to

33:29

what your kids are doing online and any social

33:32

situations and use the tools

33:34

that we have in the parental controls are

33:36

are incredibly important we take our

33:38

role there very very seriously

33:41

and at some level we product i said

33:43

like we sell these features to third parties

33:45

as well we'd try and it's not about our platform

33:48

differentiation specific in many

33:50

ways and you're hitting on this

33:52

video games will get painted the

33:54

one

33:55

brush right he won't be oh the

33:58

x box is safer than another

34:00

platform we don't see that is a good outcome

34:02

we want video games to be perceive us

34:04

as they are are videogame save i think

34:07

a platform holders that are out there are investing

34:09

in the right capabilities of the parents are setting

34:11

up the right accounts do a good job

34:13

still pay attention to child

34:16

anytime you're online

34:17

the video games or night and because

34:19

it's basically them walking down a public street

34:21

alone are you leaning into government

34:23

regulation on this a mean as i'm i'm

34:26

it's milan said the bill the government

34:28

regulation is important in his

34:30

i mean and protecting the population is

34:32

i think one of the primary role of government and

34:35

i think the interaction and i've i've

34:37

i like the interaction that we have with our

34:39

a government partners in this as we think

34:42

about the opportunity and as

34:44

i said if i think about it as a medium of video

34:46

games and wanting to get a place to where

34:49

the population feels that

34:51

it's a safe place for their child to play

34:54

and we have to we have to do that in partnership

34:57

with the public sector and it just it

34:59

it's critically important so final

35:01

big question as we can melt in this room

35:03

is it is the surface of the sun

35:05

and light and if it keeps us

35:08

is that eg unbelievably doll unpredictable

35:11

question which is kind of what are we going to be doing games

35:13

doing ten years' time vr the

35:16

metaverse whatever direction

35:18

or told me whenever we need to my education i thought

35:20

about in a i think virtuality

35:22

in education the potentially

35:25

incredibly engaging medium i mean are

35:27

you going to be city and x box room at home

35:30

with a vr headset are you going

35:32

to be play your games in the metaverse what's

35:34

going to let but i don't know that my answers gonna throw

35:37

you on this one

35:38

what i believe is gonna happen and we've

35:41

seen this in video is

35:43

the barrier between creator and consumer

35:46

will continue to get more blurry know

35:48

interesting and

35:49

they can be take something like tic toc it

35:52

tick tock has that into the crater

35:54

economy anthony totally at your and you have

35:56

you tube stars and tic toc stars

36:00

who in their own living room have

36:02

created more following and more business

36:04

opportunity for them and some of

36:06

the biggest hollywood stars in the market

36:09

the rule their own creative capability

36:12

and i love that i love the fact is nothing

36:14

gets hollywood stars but i love the fact that

36:16

it becomes not about five

36:18

game publishers controlling all access

36:20

to games or seven

36:23

hollywood movie studios that or any

36:25

other all of the access to the big screen which

36:27

is where stars are made or ,

36:29

ten record labels that dictated what

36:31

records got put on the shelf any

36:34

video games video think because of some of the complexity

36:36

in creating games were games little behind

36:39

that emerges in the evolution but

36:41

we see it today that games

36:43

today include that creative outlet

36:45

where the creations can then we

36:48

be shared and even in certain cases monetized

36:51

blurs that whole model yes that

36:53

will be true in the metaverse as well but i

36:55

actually think for the thing for the really

36:57

really excited about are the games

37:00

that i see coming from

37:02

creators who have never built

37:04

a game before they're sitting

37:06

right next to a game that might have a two hundred million

37:08

dollar development budget but on our platform

37:11

they're just two games sitting side by side in a

37:13

list so named a that they do to

37:15

they can do at you and i could go

37:17

build a video game for x box and never

37:19

meet anybody from x box we could use or retail

37:22

kit that we buy curry's here we

37:24

go take it home and build and deploy

37:26

to the store us as a platform

37:28

are going to ensure that the it's not an evil

37:30

game that it's a rated game

37:32

like there's some stuff we have to do their

37:35

but and and go deploy and that's

37:37

if you and i know how to build a game but i love the

37:39

fact that as you talk about the creator economy

37:42

you see it playing more and more of a role

37:44

i think this line between who are creators

37:47

and and who are consumers is gonna

37:49

get when i remember a good answer

37:52

thinking events getting of x box

37:54

ah i'm never done quick for around

37:57

in my pocket me over to be the guinea pig i'm an aussie to

38:00

one dog and ask other people i

38:02

do pockets with minorities pacific what

38:04

was the worst moment in the of are you

38:07

there are my only the oh my god it's okay then

38:09

that this that this hard one but i don't mind

38:11

bringing it up that there's

38:14

a show in san francisco called the game developers

38:16

get cdc and

38:18

there was there was see seven

38:21

six seven years ago

38:23

where the x box team put on

38:25

a party

38:27

the hostess at the party

38:29

we're dressed in

38:31

an inappropriate way and

38:33

i can go through all the weed hired an outside

38:35

agency like all this but in the end it was us

38:38

yeah i'm i wasn't there

38:40

i was at a microsoft executive

38:42

briefing up in redmond

38:45

that i started to see kind of the reports

38:47

of this and you

38:49

know was an angry time

38:51

was embarrassing time the

38:53

learning

38:55

from that as an organization

38:57

it was coming back to read mean we're all

38:59

we're still in the office getting back together

39:02

and watching how the team

39:04

responded was inspiring

39:07

the moment was incredibly embarrassing

39:09

and but the team took it as

39:11

a moment

39:13

the say this won't define us

39:16

and we will come through this better were gaming

39:18

for every one which i talked about early actually came

39:20

from a cool and the

39:23

i think about where i am today

39:25

where we are today as a team

39:27

in the things that we stand for and what we

39:29

look like as a team and the discussions

39:31

that we have and i don't think we

39:33

could be the team we are today without learnings

39:35

like the gdc dance party and other moments

39:37

in our history so not a big regrets percent

39:40

i canada the shared kind of combine

39:42

lived experience of all the good and good bad

39:44

of the things that have happened make us we are today

39:47

but in terms of a moment that i look back on

39:49

and my koreans like that was that hard what

39:52

if your kind of thing you can remember

39:54

most fondly about your create the biggest

39:57

tribal not saying oh yeah i built

39:59

this incredible

39:59

it sold more recovery and what do you personally

40:02

feel was a moment when he thought that is just

40:04

i'm so proud of

40:06

take a couple about think now know about

40:08

i don't know the answer will be the best answer the

40:10

moments that resonate we do this

40:13

this show in los angeles every

40:15

june twenty three and

40:17

when i first took this job with

40:19

this a live show yet the thousand people

40:22

three thousand people in the audience

40:24

and is walking out

40:27

and feeling the passion the

40:30

fans

40:32

love x box

40:34

the

40:35

in the games that are on the platform

40:37

and their passion

40:39

it was eat three of twenty

40:41

so i and we i do this every year and the team

40:43

comes out eatery twenty nine t my

40:45

daughters were in the audience for the first time and

40:47

my daughters are now in their mid twenties but

40:50

and their production crew it actually set it up so

40:52

one of the shots was from me out out in the

40:54

audience doing talking into camera but

40:56

they were right there and for me

40:58

that connection of my family

41:02

the thing that i love to do which is

41:04

this video game industry is was was a pretty

41:06

special moment okay to fill specific

41:09

questions favorite game so my favorite game

41:11

as a game called voodoo events would own about whether

41:13

i would say that all my children the food

41:16

, is the first game was on the original x

41:18

box for my daughters and i finished together

41:21

and why a three year

41:23

old i believe live he was three sitting on my lap

41:25

with a controller that wasn't actually plugin but

41:27

she was controlling something on screen and

41:30

may probably five or six year old

41:32

sydney sitting next to me and

41:34

we would pass the controller back and forth as

41:36

each one would fail and trying to solve letters the

41:38

levels but of voodoo vince was the

41:40

first game we were ever since my two daughters

41:43

favorite microsoft the chief executive

41:47

have you get a get out of this

41:49

one time this man run for office

41:52

if he can answer this question appropriately he

41:55

could be of the senator for seattle

41:57

i i'm posting with having no

41:59

i know bill i

42:02

know stephen satya here's what

42:04

i would this and for selling a political answer

42:08

i honestly believe every

42:10

one of those ceos was

42:12

right place right time for the company

42:14

and in the role that

42:16

so i'll focus on satya for a second to

42:18

is the my boss the role that

42:21

a corporation plays in the lives

42:23

of the employees now where people see where

42:25

they work as part

42:28

of their representation of them the

42:31

what my companies stands for

42:34

the matter terms of what i stand

42:36

for me go back a hundred years you work for the man and

42:38

you can wait for the whistleblowing you went home

42:40

and it was this year agonist a relationship

42:43

and now i want to show

42:45

up at a place that i think represents my values

42:48

and i think saudi as the right ceo for

42:50

this company at this point i don't think he's

42:52

was that would have been the right or

42:55

window was there in founding this

42:57

company and kind of all that we were doing

42:59

and sti bomber in the middle in terms of

43:01

scaling us from this kind of start

43:04

up to a company that is

43:06

is kind of at the scale it's that today i

43:08

think was the right ceo in the

43:10

middle but i do very much value how satya

43:12

has embraced what does it mean

43:15

to culturally run and organization

43:17

and that's become

43:18

the girl power of his and i love how embraces

43:21

it also king of x box and thanks

43:23

for looking after my son daycare

43:26

a hours a day seven days a week set

43:28

up colonel controls for great pleasure the media

43:30

that thank you and at a time