Phil Spencer has made a conciliatory gesture towards his competitors, or peers, in the industry.
As reported by PureXbox, this is what Phil said in an interview with Japanese video game magazine Famitsu:
“First of all, I’m very excited and excited about what the future holds. In terms of hardware, I think it’s not just a matter of adapting to what other companies are doing, but also providing something unique for Xbox users.
Just as we think of ROG Ally and Steam Deck as part of the Xbox community, we need to think of the many Nintendo Switch and PlayStation users as part of the Xbox community in the future.
Similarly, we think it’s important to make sure that everyone who continues to play Xbox games, including those who play Game Pass on PC, feels equal in the community.
There’s a lot of work to be done.”
It’s a surprisingly magnanimous statement, but as we know, Phil can afford to be magnanimous. After their little corporate shakeup, Phil is now in charge of Xbox and Microsoft’s many game studios.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is set to release later this week, and it is sure to sell the most copies on PlayStation 5. In fact, Sony has prepared a special bundle with Call of Duty and a PlayStation 5 console. While this is possibly the last time that such a deal will be possible, Microsoft is still set to make a lot of money off of Sony’s success as well.
And this is what I mean when I say Phil can afford to be magnanimous. As not only a platform holder but a major publisher, Microsoft is looking to sell their games on as many platforms as possible. And Microsoft no longer has to see it as a zero sum game where the biggest fanbase is the only focus for their game. All the ports combined will pay for development costs and make up their profits as a whole.
And it’s certainly true that certain games will be exclusive to Microsoft’s own platforms. But in general, Microsoft is incentivized to offer games to more platforms, not less. We are in a working environment where Sony has to sell their first party games on PC, because their attach rate for first party games is not high enough to make them worthwhile.
It’s certainly an interesting world we are in today, as Phil has declared that Microsoft will now be a major third party developer.
