TECH NEWS – Xbox boss Phil Spencer sounds like he’s largely over the idea of exclusives, at least of a certain kind.

When asked by Bloomberg about the future of device-specific exclusives, legendary Xbox chief Phil Spencer said he sees “fewer and fewer” of them in the future, which he put as a positive for gamers.

“Maybe you happen in your household to buy an Xbox and I buy a PlayStation and our kids want to play together and they can’t because we bought the wrong piece of plastic to plug into our television. We really love to be able to bring more players in reducing friction, making people feel safe, secure when they’re playing, allowing them to find their friends, play with their friends, regardless of what device – I think in the long run that is good for this industry.”

“Maybe in the short run, there’s some people in some companies that don’t love it. But I think as we get over the hump and see where this industry can continue to grow, it proves out to be true.”

Of course, there are different types of exclusives in 2022. While Microsoft has long since abandoned device-specific exclusivity, with its games appearing on PC and sometimes other consoles, not all platforms are physical. Phil Spencer is obviously betting big on the Xbox Game Pass service and has spent billions and billions of dollars to get studios to make subscription and streaming-exclusive games for them.

Phil Spencer no longer has any interest in tying us to a specific “piece of plastic”, but he sure would love to have us all (and our credit card data) tied to Xbox Game Pass.

Speaking of exclusives and Microsoft’s hunger for new studios, Spencer is “feeling good” about the way Activision Blizzard’s proposed $69 billion acquisition is progressing while the deal is under scrutiny by regulators worldwide…

“I feel good about the progress that we’ve been making. […] I’ve never done a 70 billion-dollar deal, so I don’t know what my confidence means,” Spencer said. “I will say the discussions we’ve been having seem positive.”

What do you think? Is console exclusivity really coming to an end?

Source: Bloomberg