Phil Spencer trak sig for nylig med øjeblikkelig virkning fra tjansen som Xbox-chef, og spørgsmålet blandt mange er naturligvis hvad der er sket bag scenetæppet. Spørger du en af de originale stiftere bag brandet, Seamus Blackley, så kørte Spencer død i at "manage the beast", hvor det "beast" er Microsoft.
I et interview med Games Beat siger han, at han at han har ondt at både Spencer og Sarah Bond, der ligeledes forlod sin post i samme ombæring:
"The person who I feel worst for is Sarah Bond, who was more than capable from a leadership standpoint. Super cool, actual gamer. I really like Sarah Bond. This is a crappy day for her. I just want to tell her that I'm thinking of her and that she's awesome. This is kind of like, 'We're hoping that the new person who's been put in charge of our department, who doesn't have any background in what we do, will not f*** with us too much and will let us do the right thing.' The game that Phil had been playing for a long time, managing the beast so that he could continue to try to do the right thing for games, I think that finally just wore him out. It's really hard to do that."
Blackley insinuerer at Spencer forsøgte at gøre det bedste for spillerne, men at det var vanskeligt at holde Microsofts ledelsesinteresser for døren.