The head of Xbox Phil Spencer is the latest addition to Microsoft’s senior leadership team.

Spencer’s appointment to the board of internal advisors is a sign of how important games are to the company’s future. His new title is EVP of gaming. 

Spencer has headed up Xbox since 2014 when he took over from Marc Whitten. He has worked at the company since 2002.

He has been a huge part in turning around the Xbox brand, which was in something of a tailspin when he took on the role following a poor reaction to the Xbox One's announcement, as well as a less-than-stellar launch. 

Under his leadership, video games have become a cross-platform venture thanks to the unified Universal Windows Platform that sees titles available on both console and PC. 

The man himself responded to the news on Twitter below

Thanks to everyone for the very nice comments today, great show of commitment by MS to the Gaming opportunity, proud to be part of this team

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) September 19, 2017