“Phil Was a True Gamer”: Industry Leaders Commemorate Phil Spencer as he Retires

Players have had a lot to say about Phil Spencer over the years. You don't have to look very hard to find positive or negative comments on Spencer and his tenure at Microsoft and Xbox, and that's probably not going to stop now that he has officially retired as of this past Monday, February 23, 2026.

However, we don't often hear from other major industry figures speaking about leaders like Spencer, and a new GamesIndustry.Biz report includes a slew of the video game industry's current and former leaders all commemorating Phil Spencer as he enters retirement after a combined 38 years at Microsoft, where he began as an intern in 1988.

In total, 13 recognizable video game industry leaders, most of whom are still working in the industry with a couple of notable retirees like Shuhei Yoshida, all shared some thoughts on their time working with Spencer, and offered a story or two that they'll carry with them that spoke to the kind of person Spencer is and what it was like to work with him.

Ubisoft chief executive officer Yves Guillemot and Shuhei Yoshida both called Spencer "a true gamer," with Yoshida specifically commenting on Spencer's skills while he was playing an early build of Game Freak's upcoming Beast of Reincarnation.

Several of the comments also revolved around how Spencer had a talent for being able to spot quality games. Patrick Söderlund, who is now the chief executive officer of Embark Studios, shared a story about how Spencer immediately supported his vision for Battlefield 1 while Söderlund was still with EA and DICE.

"Our take on World War One was slightly different, of course, but I had to work quite hard inside of EA and externally to get people excited about the game," Söderlund writes. "We were out talking to partners about marketing support. Andrew Wilson and myself flew out to see Phil in Redmond with his team. No one at this point was convinced. We showed them the first trailer. The people in the room were a little bit surprised with what they saw, but Phil's immediate reaction was, 'Hell yeah, this is amazing, let's back this.'"

"He looked at it from the point of view: 'Is this a great game?' His instinct was spot on." Rod Fergusson, the current lead on Bioshock 4, Ago Simonetta, chief commercial officer of Stalker developers GSC Game World, and Michał Nowakowski, joint chief executive officer of CD Projekt RED, and 22Cans chief executive officer and Fable creator Peter Molyneux all called out Spencer's ability to spot a good game from a player's perspective, rather than an executives'.

Mike Rose, chief executive officer of No More Robots added that despite what people will say about Spencer, he "tried his damn hardest with the situation he was given, and while he had the keys to the machine in his possession, Xbox was moving in promising directions."

Arguably the most significant comment, because it comes from someone who was once in a position similar to Spencer's, came from Peter Moore, a former Xbox executive who was influential in the platforms early years.

"History tends to smooth out the noise of the moment," Moore writes. "When that happens, I suspect Phil will be remembered as one of the stabilising figures in Microsoft's long journey in interactive entertainment. That's certainly how I will remember his accomplishments there. Not an easy place to work, as I can personally attest!!"

We'll see if the new head of Xbox, Asha Sharma, is around long enough and does well enough to earn the same kind of praise from her peers.

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