Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox division at Microsoft, recently gave an interview to the business magazine Bloomberg. He confirmed several elements which were rather the subject of speculation.
The first confirmation is that the group is not finished with its buying spree. Nothing imminent and nothing as big as the recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard, says Phil Spencer, but the division is keeping its eyes open, particularly towards Asia.
The second confirmation concerns the harwarea sector in which Microsoft gave the impression that it wanted to distance itself in favor of dematerialization (towards Xbox Game Pass or towards gaming in streaming For example). Spencer nevertheless reiterated that the group is working on developing a portable Xbox. A physical console (and, it seems, no streaming) whose release would not be right away. Phil Spencer blurted out on the subject that, in the long term, he always felt very involved in the construction of hardware, and therefore consoles.
The third confirmation is related to the recent downgrading of certain in-house games as entertainment available for all platforms, even competing ones. Example? “Sea of Thieves”, a former Xbox exclusive made available on PlayStation. Phil Spencer says he is very satisfied with the performance of these titles and announces that others are in preparation. He says there is no longer a “red line”. In other words, even the very big titles from its catalog of exclusives, such as “Halo”, are likely to arrive at PlayStation.
And at the end of the send-up, Spencer says, “I feel comfortable with the direction this industry is going. (…) To reach new players we have to be creative, we have to adapt to new business models, new devices and new ways of accessing them. We are not going to grow the market with $1,000 consoles.”
The head of Microsoft’s division would have liked to get the PlayStation 5 Pro (recently introduced on the market for 800 francs) and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
So games? Yes, plenty, but everywhere and, if possible, created by studios that are ours. Still consoles? Yes, but not just any way… This is the Gospel according to Saint Spencer. We are convinced that Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), which remains the American’s main rival, will find the words to respond.
Related News :