【eroticization-of-fear】

Who among us hasn't randomly spotted the Xbox boss playing Destiny 2online and eroticization-of-fearjumped into his fireteam uninvited?

That's what happened to one pair of Xbox players. Phil Spencer, Microsoft's "Head of Xbox," uses a widely known Gamertag, P3. Reddit user DJ_Ariando was playing Destiny 2with a friend when they noticed Spencer was online and in the game.

I'll let you read the rest of this story straight from the source:

Reddit

It's a cute, little story, isn't it?

It's also no accident. Spencer has an executive role at Microsoft, one that reports directly to CEO Satya Nadella, but he's also very much the "face" of Xbox. He's always on stage at Microsoft's annual E3 press conferences speaking directly to the console brand's legion of fans, and he's generally one of the more accessible exec types for media folks like me to chat with.

That he games publicly on Xbox Live and keeps his Destiny fireteam open is almost certainly a calculated PR play. That's not a knock, to be clear. I've spoken with Spencer a few times over the years, and I do believe his appreciation for both video games and their fans on Xbox is genuine. But it's also good press when slice-of-life stories like this get out.

In an industry that is often derided -- fairly, a lot of the time -- for a lack of transparency, it's always nice to see exec-types mixing it up with their customers. Spencer has a lot to gain by doing this -- not just fan goodwill, but firsthand consumer research as well -- but I'd guess this is also one of the more enjoyable aspects of his job: Getting to see how all the work he and his team does pays off on the other end.