In an interview, Phil Spencer also revealed that he’s behind the Nintendo Switch 2, so Xbox will be supporting the Japanese company’s new platform in some way.
In an interview with Gamertag Radio, the Xbox boss explained why he thinks it would be a good idea to go with Microsoft’s hardware rather than others: “I want people to choose hardware based on the capabilities of that hardware and how that fits into the choices that they want to make about where they want to play, and we want our hardware to win based on the hardware capabilities that we have. I think the difference that we’ve seen in the last 20 years, and I think this is good because I come from a game making background, is that it’s really games first, not platform first. Most of the games that you or I are going to talk about are running on so many different platforms, and those are the games that are successful, those are the games that are at the top of the charts… I want to build a platform that serves those creators, the creators that are trying to meet people on every screen.
Let’s put it this way: our own hardware, I think that’s fundamental to what Xbox is. It’s not lost on me that “box” is in the name of our brand. In my position, I look at hardware as a critical part of what we do, but we’re not trying to gatekeep games from other places for the sake of it. We want to build innovative hardware that people want to play on (handheld, TV, other places). I love our hardware team. I just spent some time with them this week looking at the roadmap that they have. I think we’re learning a lot from it. Like Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go – what does it mean for our games to be there? I don’t think we’ve nailed it yet, and I’ve spent a lot of time with the team on that, but I want to make progress on that,” Spencer said.
He then went on to criticize Sony again, somewhat tacitly, for having very few multiplatform titles from Sony available on the Xbox: “I want people to be able to experience the games that we make, the services that we offer, on as many devices as possible. Obviously, some of the devices out there, some of the platforms are closed. They don’t allow everything that we do to show up on those platforms. The thing that I’ve learned and continue to learn as I listen to developers, not just our own studios, but other teams that are making games, is that every developer out there wants to make a game that can find as many players as they want, and frankly there aren’t many platforms out there that are trying to connect with people on so many different screens. It’s almost like one platform, one device, one game, and that’s kind of the history of our business. We’re really taking the approach that we want people to be able to play Xbox on a lot of different screens. Now, not every experience is going to be the same.
We obviously love the native experience that we have on our own platform and our own hardware, and that’s something that’s going to continue for us, but we’re not going to put up walls around where people can engage with the great games that our studios are building or where they can experience Xbox. I want everyone to be able to play on Xbox, and that means shipping more of our games on more platforms, not just PlayStation. We love the work we’re doing with Nintendo, we love what we’re doing with Valve on Steam, and that’s going to continue, we’re going to do more of that,” Spencer added.
Finally, he also congratulated Nintendo and confirmed their support for Switch 2, so that their multiplatform strategy will include the new N platform: “I exchanged emails with the CEO of Nintendo, Shuntaro Furukawa. I congratulated him. I said that my old eyes appreciate the bigger screen. Nintendo with their innovation and what they mean in this industry, I just always applaud the moves they make. I think they made a little flash video. I know we’ll get more details as time goes on. I’m really looking forward to supporting them with the games that we have and I just think they’re such an important part of this industry. Who would ever bet against the success of this team? I mean, they are just masterful at what they do. The Switch is a huge success and I think the Switch 2 will be as well.”
This is a fair stance on his part.
Source: VGC