Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has become a popular figure among Xbox gamers thanks to his numerous E3 appearances and for the way he managed to turn around the public's perception of the Xbox One. Now Spencer's hard work is being recognized by Microsoft itself, as the current Head of Xbox has been promoted to Executive Vice President of Gaming, and will report directly to CEO Satya Nadella.

As part of his new role at Microsoft, Spencer will continue overseeing the company's games division, though he will now serve as a part of Nadella's executive leadership team as well. It's unclear if the new title comes with any additional responsibilities for Spencer to tackle or not.

While further details on Spencer's promotion are unavailable at this time, it's hard to say that he isn't deserving of the recognition from Microsoft. As previously stated, Spencer has played a key role in improving public opinion of the Xbox One, making an effort to make sure the system is focused more on gaming than being a general entertainment machine. Furthermore, there have been a number of popular developments at Xbox that have come about under Spencer's leadership.

For example, Spencer has pushed for Microsoft to focus more on PC gaming, which has included bridging the gap between PC gamers and console players. Spencer has also spoken out against certain practices that may be considered anti-consumer by some, like console-exclusive DLC. More recently, Spencer has pushed for PS4 and Xbox One cross-play, which seems like something a lot of gamers want to see happen. These decisions and his genuine passion for gaming – Spencer once claimed to have played 700 hours of Destiny – have made him one of the most popular executives from the big three console manufacturers.

With this well-deserved promotion, 2017 is proving to be a big year for Spencer and the Xbox brand. His promotion comes just months before the Xbox One X is set to hit store shelves, and all eyes will be on that console to see if gamers are ready to shell out the extra cash for a true 4K experience. Time will tell, but considering the success of Spencer's other ventures since taking the reigns at Xbox, the Xbox One X seems like it's in good hands.

Source: Business Insider