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P H I L S P E N C E R – @ X B O X P 3
D . I . C . E . S U M M I T | F E B R U A R Y 2 1 , 2 0 1 8
B U I L D I N G A L I V I N G A N D L E A R N I N G C O M P A N Y C U L T U R E

Angkor Wat. Machu Picchu. Petra.
I’ve always liked reading about history, especially
reading about epic historical places. What grabs my
imagination isn’t so much people in history. It’s what
people built together and accomplished together
in history. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve wanted to
experience these places. Not just because they’re
beautiful, game-inspiring structures and landscapes.
Which they are. But because they’re human-made
structures. Human-made civilizations. Human-made
culture and lore. In other words: they represent whole
worlds. All of them are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
All of them chosen and protected because they are
“considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.”
I’m honored to be here at DICE today to celebrate
all the worlds we’re building with our teams and
organizations. And to focus on the hundreds of
millions of players who experience them every day.
Most of all, it’s a privilege to share our thoughts about
the World of Gaming. The impact of gaming as an
industry. And its value to humanity as an art form.

THE POWER AND POTENTIAL OF GAMING

My father was a chemical engineer, and he introduced
me to technology. He brought home our first
computer, the Sinclair ZX81, which was probably
best known for being popular and inexpensive. It
was difficult to type on since it had this membrane
keyboard. But that computer led me to my journey
today. On that computer, we didn’t just play games
together. We wrote games together. That’s one of the
ways I connected with my dad all through childhood—
through these worlds we were co-creating on the
Sinclair and playing in our spare time.

Like many of us here, I had played online games,
MUDS, in college. In 1997, Ultima Online changed
everything for me. It wasn’t just about people running
around in armor, fighting with swords. It was about
a fully imagined living world—with cities full of real
people and huge dungeons and awesome monsters.

It was the first time I felt like I wasn’t just playing a video
game, but I was immersed in an alternate world. That
the character was actually me. I can still remember
my first PvP moment, naively crossing this bridge,
wondering what all these other characters were doing
on the other side of the bridge. A couple of VAS FLAM
spells later, I was done for. The worst part: as my player
became a ghost, I could not believe that the guy who
slayed me could take my stuff. And I had to watch the
player take my stuff. And everyone else at the bridge
could watch this other player taking my stuff!
If I had to name a single moment when I felt the power
and potential of gaming—this was it. It was the moment
I really felt a lasting connection not just to my dead
character, but with a community. It was the first time I
didn’t just love a GAME, but an entire virtual WORLD.
But the moments where I fully understand the power
and potential of gaming are moments I know I share
with many of you in this room—whether you’re
creating games or producing controllers, or building
consoles and experimenting with future tech. It’s one
of those lightning bolt moments when you meet The
Gamers Who Change You.

For me, another one of those moments came at a
recent BGS. There I was, running to my next meeting
when a man who used a wheelchair stopped me. He
stopped me just to tell me that the Xbox was his outlet.
That playing on Xbox Live was the truest expression of
himself in the world. That being part of the community
made him feel welcome—and equal—in the world.
And you know what? That—that experience made
gaming VITAL for him.
I think we are at an important juncture where gaming
can make a VITAL impact on all the worlds we move
in as an industry—the World of Creators, the World of
Gamers, and the world at large. The reason why I believe
we—our community here—can do just that is because
this industry excels at imagining and creating worlds. We
all know that gaming sits at the intersection of Art and
Science. But worldbuilding? Worldbuilding is magic.
It’s magic for that man who shared his personal story
with me at BGS. It’s magic for “Hitman”—my Xbox Live
friend in Arkansas who runs a funeral home and plays the
Division with me. It’s magic for the thousands of teens
who’ve learned about game design through Girls Make
Games. It’s magic for the tens of millions of players who
build their own worlds, brick by brick, with Minecraft.

We know magic when we play it:
World of Warcraft: a game that millions still come
together with their guildmates every day in Azeroth
and experience this amazing world from Blizzard.
Zelda: one of the most iconic games in history, helping
to define gaming for over thirty years and showing
again last year that it’s as relevant today as when it first
launched.
Inside: from a small, private studio in Copenhagen, this
game doesn’t just have many stories to tell, it succeeds
at asking players many questions.
Halo: This one is obviously close to my heart, the story
of John, Master Chief, who saves the world over and
over again from the onslaught of the Covenant.
Uncharted: Amazing setting, amazing graphics and
daring characters that make every moment of the
game thrilling.

WORLDBUILDING

For as long as there have been humans, we’ve always
told stories. Stories to explain phenomenon: why is
there thunder? Zeus is ticked off again! Stories to
comfort our children: Good Night, Moon. Stories as
social commentary: Every book by Ursula LeGuin.
Worldbuilding makes our world understandable and
makes stories feel REAL and grounded. To paraphrase
writer Chuck Wendig, good worldbuilding starts with
the story. But epic worldbuilding serves the story. It’s
everything. It’s so much more than constructing the
landscape and buildings. So much more than concept
to final script. It’s language, politics, traditions. It’s faith,
laws, customs. It’s race and ethnicity. It’s gender. It’s
relationships. It’s the rules of magic. It is lore. In short,
it is everything that makes up a society.
Worldbuilding is the arena we build to tease out
meaning in life: What are we saying about Our Real
World with the Worlds we create?
It’s Candleman asking, “Will you brave difficulty and
darkness to bring light to the world?” Or Life is Strange
asking, “What does it mean to be blissfully ignorant
versus painfully aware?”
What Remains of Edith Finch asking: “Can you escape the
cycles of your family history?” Or The other Last of Us:
“Are there truths that people are better off not knowing?”
Worldbuilding enables the Question within the Quest.
Every single time we upend a stereotype in a game,
we beg the question: “Why can’t it be like this in real
life?” And most of all, worldbuilding is the bedrock
of awesome gameplay. Can we make the world so
visceral and so real that it exerts a gravitational pull
that makes it endlessly playable? That it is so layered
and so compelling that you can’t stop talking about it
with everyone? That it so exciting and so unexpected
that it glues you to Twitch?
Worldbuilding is some of
our BEST, our FINEST, and
our most important work.

CULTURE FOR COLLECTIVE IMPACT

In order for us to do our best work, though, we need
our work environment to function well. If the core
mechanics of our own teams and our own internal
cultures are broken, everything stumbles. And then
there’s the flipside: when the core mechanics work,
the team can accomplish great things. This is our
aspiration. And we’re learning this firsthand right now.
Almost exactly four years ago, Satya Nadella became
just the third CEO in Microsoft’s history. We all
knew something was going to be different when he
assigned the Leadership Team to read: Non-Violent
Communication: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy
Relationships. And then, he started quoting poetry…
But it was obvious that Microsoft needed a reboot.
Morale had hit a low. We were all massively frustrated
that we kept missing big trends. In some ways, it felt
like real innovation was impossible. The infighting and
fiefdoms were so famous, people made fun of it, which
would have been funny if it hadn’t been so painfully true.
So: we Hit Refresh on everything: not just our
communication, but our entire culture.
This is a four-year and counting, comprehensive,
top-down and bottom-up rethinking, reframing,
reimagining, and rebuilding of our culture. The way we
are going from a Know-it-All—to a Learn-It-All culture.
From proving that you were the smartest person in the
room—to being the most curious person in the room.
From “reasoning against” an idea—to “reasoning for”
an idea. From listening with the intent to argue—to
listening with the intent of being persuaded.
Everything is changing: the way we relate to each
other and to our partners and to our competitors.
The way we build teams and run projects. The way we
commit every single day to making Microsoft a safe
and inclusive place for all.

This was and is a deliberate 100,000 person-strong
undertaking to craft the most innovative, the most
representative, and the most effective culture we
possibly can…so we can all do our best work together.
This isn’t culture for culture’s sake. But culture for
collective impact.
Cultural transformation is hard and demanding work.
Four years into it, it’s still sometimes incredibly slow
and incredibly painful to get everyone on board, much
less to admit your own biases. Four years into it, it still
requires a growth mindset, a commitment to keep
listening and keep learning since culture change is
always ongoing. Four years into it, we are still taking
actions and changing behaviors.
I think the biggest tension we’ve experienced comes
down to this: do we solve this as best we can right
now. Or work forever for the best solution? Have we
figured this out? I think we’re learning how to figure
this out since culture is an ongoing journey where
every success and every failure helps us discern the
best of who we are.
We keep at this cultural transformation because we
know it enables our best work. That work is needed
now because we are here to empower all people and
all organizations around the world to achieve more.
It is our personal and corporate COMMITMENT to
people of ALL genders and ALL abilities and ALL
ethnicities in ALL geographies.
It is our personal and
corporate BELIEF in what
human ingenuity can
build and accomplish.
This is our quest.

CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION

I’ve been at Microsoft since I was an intern at college.
I can honestly say that for today’s world and with
our current set of problems, opportunities and
competitors, I’m more excited than ever to work in the
Satya years—empowered to do our best and most
impactful work for gaming. That’s how profound this
culture work is, and that’s why we keep constantly
working at it.
Almost four years ago today, I became the head of
Xbox. In case this might help any of you, I thought I’d
share some of my learnings over the last four years of
our cultural transformation:
LESSON 1: EMPATHY & TRUST. I’d been in my role for
a month when I had the opportunity to speak to the
entire Xbox team at my first All-Hands meeting. The
team was in a world of pain: we had not done our best
work with the unveil of Xbox One. The product we built
wasn’t meeting the expectations of our customers.
Market share had taken a nosedive. And it was painful
to read all the headlines. Plus, the team thought the
leadership team had gone totally tone-deaf about our
customers who were demanding more. I knew I had to
do more than articulate our strategy to win back our
customers. I had to win back the team’s trust.
So we chose to tell our team about confidential news
that we couldn’t take public for months as well as our
strategy behind that decision. Thousands of them
heard those plans that day. And the amazing thing
is: word did not leak. Not one Tweet. Not one forum
post. That was a significant milestone on our journey
to rebuild trust between the leaders and the team.
For me, this was a huge lesson about trust. But more
than that, it was a lesson about empathy. About
looking up above the noise of emails and the weight
of headlines, and meeting my team at their heart,
addressing their worries, and trusting them first.
LESSON 2: ACCOUNTABILITY. The most difficult lesson
I learned was GDC 2016. For twenty years, Microsoft
Women in Gaming—and later, including Microsoft
Blacks in Gaming, have sponsored an event at GDC.
2016 was the year we went bigger and had events
for Latinx in Gaming and LGBTQ in Gaming. So along
with many of you, we were sponsoring four days of
really great community celebrations across the gaming
industry. But at a party, an unequivocally wrong,
unequivocally sexist, and unequivocally intolerable
choice was made. Backlash was justifiable and furious.
Internal backlash at Microsoft was almost harsher.

The easy thing would have been to sidestep
responsibility. Instead, we bet on who we were as
a team and what we stood for as a team—and we
communicated that we don’t tolerate any employee or
any partner who creates an environment that alienates
or offends others. We bet on our own company
culture—and we communicated that we stand for
inclusivity. And I personally committed to do better.
For me, I think it’s a leader’s job to absorb the hit. To
take personal accountability. And to be clear about our
culture: who we are and what we stand for.
LESSON 3: GROWTH MINDSET. What made it easier
for me to hold myself accountable was really believing
in the growth mindset piece of our culture. Believing
deeply that failure—even, and maybe especially,
public failure—is the source of our greatest growth.
I just read an interview with Bryan Stevenson, the
public defense lawyer who wrote Just Mercy, that
echoed this need to be continuous learners, especially
in highly fraught dynamics, such as gender and race.
He wrote, “I don’t think that we should expect to make
progress on these issues without bumping into one
another, without making mistakes. What I don’t think
we should do is retreat...”
I agree with Bryan. When we make mistakes—and we
bump, or collide, into each other, the easy way is to
retreat. Maybe even to deny there’s a problem.
Instead, I think we have to be humble. I think we have
to be active learners—read, educate ourselves, try to
understand other people’s journeys, and read some
more. And then, better informed, I think we commit
to leading with deliberate purpose. This is something I
know I have to work on every single day.
LESSON 4: LISTENING & AMPLIFYING. One of my
biggest growth areas as a leader is to listen first
instead of jumping in with the “supposed” answers.
The results are better for the team if I ask questions.
Because. The dialogue becomes more meaningful
and participation on problem solving increases when
people feel heard and valued. And that’s when we can
really build and accomplish together.
This is especially true if I ask the quietest person in the
room what they’re thinking. Whether it’s culture or
personality or not being used to being asked, some
people are quieter. So when I ask them questions
during or after the meeting, I make sure I hear their
ideas. Often times, the best insights and solutions
come from the quiet ones.

“I don’t think that we should
expect to make progress on
these issues without bumping
into one another, without
making mistakes. What I don’t
think we should do is retreat...”
–Bryan Stevenson
Author, Just Mercy

I’ve also taken a lesson from some of the female leaders
on my team who’d spotlight each other so their ideas
weren’t lost in a discussion. Not he-peating their ideas,
but AMPLIFYING what they said so others hear their
ideas. What’s the difference? We give credit to them.
“Hey, like Bonnie said…” Again, small communications
adjustments like this help and welcome the entire team
to build and accomplish together.
LESSON 5: LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES. A real-time lesson
that I’m practicing right now is leading from three key
principles: create clarity, generate energy for the team,
and deliver success.
As we’re pivoting from a device-led to a customer-led
world, every time I communicate with the team, I think
hard about these three leadership principles, and I ask
myself: How can I communicate even more clearly and
simply so everyone understands our mission? How can
I generate the most positive energy for my team so
they’re as excited as I am about the opportunities and
challenges ahead? How can I bring along the entire
team so we can deliver success after success together?
Most of all, am I building a world where ALL OF US
can thrive and achieve more?

TECTONIC SHIFTS

FIRST: The next wave of the digital revolution is
increasingly drawing gamers and creators together
across geographies. Across play platforms. Across
watch platforms. It’s not surprising that gaming has
always been on the bleeding edge of the digital
revolution—what some people have been calling the
democratization of technology. What’s exciting to me
is how digital tools like Unity and others are becoming
democratized, empowering more indie creators to
become the next Stardew Valley and Never Alone. To
build the next Ori and Subnautica.
New digital tools are also enabling distributed
development so teams can work across different
regions and different cultures. THIS is great news
for Gaming because studies show that exposure to
different cultures and values actually encourages
flexibility and, most importantly, creativity.
And now consider that the line between Creator and
Consumer has never been so thin. Think about it:
when Madeline L’Engle wrote her books, no one really
knew how to reach her. Now creators—meaning: every
single person in here, as we’re all painfully aware—are
just one Twitter handle away. Feedback loops are now
instantaneous. Communities have a direct line to us
Just as culture is renewing
Microsoft, I think culture can
be the tool that enables us
to realize the true power
and potential of gaming. The
time to get our culture right
is now. There are massive
tectonic shifts in Technology,
Customers, and Entertainment
itself that can ultimately help
us create new games and
welcome new gamers.
Our reach and impact will be
so much greater, if we’re ready.

and others on Discord to “share” their opinions.
And if we think that these technological advances
have impacted creators and consumers, just check
out the next wave of the digital revolution: AI, mixed
reality, and cloud computing. I fully expect to see
unprecedented creativity and collaboration between
studios and gamers.
The second big trend is the increasing scale and
accessibility of gaming. More people than ever before
are going to have access to a broader and more
diverse sets of games. Just like it was for myself, we
know that for many people around the world, gaming
is the first entry point into technology. And I think
this is going to be even more true in the near future
because of the ubiquity and access of screens.
One estimate sees the number of gamers growing to
be over 2 billion worldwide in three years. I think the
question we need to ask is this: How do we transform
our industry to prepare for this massive growth and
opportunity? Now consider that new gamers are joining
us from places like Brazil, India, and throughout Africa.
We’re going to see increasing opportunity along with
increasing responsibility to make Gaming for Everyone.
So the second question we need to ask is this: How do
we transform our culture to prepare for new gamers
from different cultures, different backgrounds, and
different worldviews?
And third, the blurring of the line between gaming and
entertainment continues. 2017, though, was the year
where entertainment didn’t just blast open cultural
change with #metoo. It marshalled the power of its
medium to shift the narratives around identity.
Art—literature, movies, music, even street art—
has always played an instrumental role in creating

~ 2 B G L O B A L G A M E R S

empathy, changing perceptions and shaping
worldviews. Gaming as an art form has done this, too,
such as Life Is Strange where relationships weren’t
saddled with preconceived notions. Or Minecraft
where a study showed that it actually built empathy
as students learned firsthand how their decisions and
their interactions affect other people’s responses.
And then, take reading. Recent studies show how
reading Harry Potter can actually improve kids’
attitudes toward marginalized groups. Because. After
readers see Harry and Hermione face discrimination,
they themselves become less prejudiced toward
minority groups in their own lives.
I bet in a few years, we’ll be talking about a similar
Coco Effect. Coco was the first all-Latinx Pixar movie.
The first time Pixar told a story about a cultural
celebration. The first time Pixar hired cultural advisors
and invited them into their ultra-secret creative process.
Because authenticity was a priority and a focus, the
result wasn’t just a “loving tribute to Mexico,” but a
triumphant, global introduction to real Mexican culture.
Wonder Woman. From LA Times to Business Insider,
reviewers talked about the significance of The
Moment, the one where Wonder Woman takes the
first step onto No Man’s Land. The Moment that
“young girls can use for inspiration to be strong-willed
and driven in the real world.”
Get Out isn’t just an award-winning horror movie, but
a brilliant commentary on racism. As Jordan Peele, the
awesome director said, “We can discuss race all day long,
but if you see a movie that successfully puts yourself
in the shoes of somebody different than yourself, you
see the world differently. So I think the Power of Story is
greater than the power of conversation.”
And now we have Black Panther. LA Times called it:
“Incredible, kinetic, purposeful. A superhero movie
about why representation and identity matters.”
These movies advanced a new and arguably more
accurate way of seeing and relating to people in our
world. They showed that representation matters—not
just for the community they represent, but for the
world at large. To the question: “What kind of world
are you building?” These movies have answered
loudly: a world where ALL OF US can be the hero.
These commercially and critically successful films won
hearts, minds, and box offices. Representation isn’t just
good common sense. It is good business sense.

THE TRUE POWER AND POTENTIAL OF GAMING

With all these new tools empowering new creators.
And with the increasing reach to new gamers around
the globe, I think we—as an industry—are at our own
crossroads. The Question within our Quest is this: Has
gaming reached its full power and potential to reflect
and shape the world for all of us?
We’ve all spent a lot of time thinking about this and
thinking about what we know is true about gaming’s
real potential.
• We believe gaming has the unique ABILITY to
bring people together.
• We believe that gaming has the unique
CAPABILITY for the community to create a story
together.
• We believe everyone can be EQUAL in the
world of gaming.
Where books and movies are all predestined storylines
that are guided and guard-railed by authors or directors,
gaming is the only art form where it’s your journey, your
decisions, your actions, and your consequences. It is
the only art form where you walk in someone’s shoes
and you see the world from their eyes. It’s the only art
form where you are on equal footing, regardless of
age, education, socioeconomics, race, religion, politics,
gender, orientation, ethnicity, nationality, or ability.
This is why Gaming can be one of the great
equalizers and great unifiers for society. Together, we
can make gaming a reflection of the world we don’t
just want to see. But help change it into the world we
want it to be.
There is a reason why games have always brought people
together from the first Olympic Games in 8th century BC
to today, where we just witnessed North Korea and South
Korea playing on the same hockey team.
There is a reason why people use online gaming as a
way to escape the real world when they’re coping with
social identity issues.
And there is a reason why video games—like Halo, World
of Warcraft, Super Mario—are popular wishes granted
by Make-a-Wish. It’s because these are worlds where
kids who are too ill to go to school can still play with their
friends, not just like normal. But play like equals.
Here’s the thing: the pen might be mightier than the
sword. But today?
Today, the PIXEL is
mightier than the pen.

THE WORLD OF CREATORS

When player feedback is loud that the gameplay is
boring, or the World is derivative, we suck it up. We
don’t make excuses. We listen. We learn. We fix it. We
ship it. We do it again. We—as an industry—excel
at worldbuilding. It’s what we do. Just read Blood,
Sweat, and Pixels. I read it as a love letter—as in: tough
love—to our industry and your undaunted courage
and your resilience to grind it out to get the world
right and the gameplay brilliant. You know what? It
really is a miracle that any game is made.
I think change starts with honestly assessing what
core mechanics are working in our own gaming
culture—and what’s not. Our language, conduct,
communication, leadership, talent pipeline. The way
we do things. The way we talk to each other.
At the most macro level—the corporate world at
large—the studies are sobering because corporate
culture isn’t set up for everyone to succeed. According
to Adam Grant, a professor at Wharton:
• Male leaders who speak up are rewarded,
but female leaders who speak up are actually
devalued by both men and women.
• When women offer suggestions, managers rate
them as less loyal than men.
“It’s a miracle that
any game is made.”

• Having a double minority status of any kind
amplifies the cost of speaking up. Like black
women. When black women fail, they “shoulder
an unfair share of the blame for mistakes.”
This isn’t 1961 NASA that I’m talking about. This is
our world today. And these are just some of the daily
obstacles our teams face at work right now. We can
do better. My team and I need to do better. We, as an
industry, must commit to doing better and eradicating
this piece of our culture.
And we’ve got to figure it out. Because. Study after
study after study shows that teams with the most
representation are the most CREATIVE, the most
INNOVATIVE, and the most UNDAUNTED by big
problems. In other words: We do our best work when
people on our teams can expand each other’s worldview.
In Minecraft, Steve used to be described as an
architect, a designer, or a geologist. Alex as liking to
build and explore. One of our Minecraft leaders, Lydia
Winters, pointed out that subtle but powerful gender
distinction—and we decided that, NO, Steve is not the
warrior and Alex the interior decorator. That NO, Alex

would not be placed behind Steve on the box art. And
incidentally, NO, it is not a woman’s job to think about
gendered language. These deliberate fixes made
Minecraft more gender equal. And they signal to our
players to think of them as fully equal.
Since representation can enable teams to build richer
experiences, then team composition really matters.
This is an area I’m personally investing in this year: how
do we recruit? How do we retain? How do we develop?
How do we pick our High Potentials—and who do we
pick? How do we track External Hires—and who do we
track? I know we all maintain a hire list. Take a look at
your list. Are they all the same type of people?
Data shows that we can be as aggressive as we want
with recruiting diverse candidates, but if the work
environment isn’t welcoming, they’ll leave. So what
are we doing now to ensure everyone, regardless of
gender, sexual orientation, race, or physical ability, can
feel safe and inspired to do their best work?
Brotopia, a new book by Emily Chang, has a list of
practical solutions. Like scrubbing job postings that use
male-biased terms like “rock star” and “ninja.” Research
shows that those types of job descriptions signal your
work culture and get fewer applications overall—and
fewer from women.
And, of course, there are big, systemic issues at play
here: how do we build the talent pipeline beyond
the pool of available talent…and become an industry
where everyone wants to work? Even as we work
toward those long-term talent solutions, there are
questions that we need to ask and answer now, the
same as other forms of entertainment.
Hollywood is being asked: why not #starringjohncho?
Publishing is being asked: why not #ownvoices?
It’s our turn to ask
ourselves: why not #allofus?

THE WORLD OF GAMERS

What’s amazing is that all of us here today get to
create a world for gamers and we get to maximize
fun for a living. 99% of the time, my job is great.
Until it isn’t. And that’s usually when I hear about an
experience on our platform that’s just…disturbing.
Like when a player tells us: “I didn’t want anyone to
know I was black. Once they found out, it was ON.
They’d call me the worst old school names. Guys
would shoot me even on my own team.”
Or: “When they realize I’m a girl, they’ll get either
vulgar or aggressive. Which—I didn’t want any of that.
I just wanted to play the game. You know, just work
together as a team.”
Or: “If it’s my friends’ first time playing a game, I’ll
ease them into games where I know (it isn’t) a toxic
community.”
These are real quotes. And the sobering thing is: this
isn’t even the worst of the vitriol and the threats that
people endure online. And this is a failure. The sad
truth is that people today who are harassed online
start avoiding gaming. Then they start warning others
to stay away. And that is pretty much the antithesis of
community, much less fun.
To quote Emily Chang: “The message of these
negative, upsetting episodes is this: ‘You’re not
welcome here. And if you choose to show up anyway,
be prepared to live with any harassment that comes
your way.’”
Honestly—toxic behavior doesn’t just hurt the
individual. It hurts our entire industry. When toxicity
is aimed at one of us, it stops with all of us. That’s
why I’m encouraged that our community is coming
together to talk about specific actions. Let’s stand
together to reinforce that—Hey, beneath the polygons
and the pixels are real people who are here to have
fun. Let’s stand together and really be about “Ready
Player Two Billion.”
Let’s stand together and
really commit to Gaming
for Everyone.

If you haven’t already looked at what Riot did or what
Jeff Kaplan over at Blizzard is doing now to address
the “Toxic Plague,” definitely do. The early results of
some of Blizzard’s work are really promising. With
a couple of fixes, they’ve already driven incidents of
abusive chat down by 17% and player reporting is up
20% because people are trusting the system.
And let’s commit to
absolutely including
gamers with
disabilities, not just
giving them access,
but keeping it fun for
them, too. When we
truly design for all, we
help make the world
EQUAL for all.

WE ARE WORLD MAKERS

My favorite passage in Schreier’s book is about Diablo
III: “It…proved a point that would influence numerous
game developers to come: every game can be fixed.”
Well, every WORLD can be fixed, too.
I think we’re in a game-changing moment. One when
we can collectively decide that it’s not enough that
we be game-makers. One when we conclusively
decide that no matter how hard it is, no matter how
uncharted the territory—we are world-makers.
In a world where we have 7.6 billion people, where
4 billion people are connected, where over 2 billion
people are expected to play games within three
years—THE FUTURE OF GAMING is why getting our
culture right is important now.
This isn’t just about culture for collective impact today.
This is about investing in culture for global business
impact tomorrow.
The best part of DICE is the spirit of collaboration. It’s
our moment when we can focus on each other and
the topics that really matter to our art form. There are
no distractions. Just this. And Us.
So let’s figure out together how we want to lead on
this. I’m asking each of you: What world do you want
to build?
I want to know: What world could we build if we
expand our team compositions? What world could
we build if we created a more effective culture for
everyone working in it? And what world could we build
if we made all gamers feel welcome?
For me, regardless of the strategies and the specifics,
I know what kind of world we can make. A world that
elevates gaming way beyond epic lands and legendary
characters. A world that elevates the impact and reach
of gaming. A world that changes the way people see
and relate to each other as equals.
A world that unifies
and leaves lasting
value because we
dared to create for
all of us.

V I E W T H E D . I . C . E . S U M M I T K E Y N O T E

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