Phil Spencer was on a new interview on the Xbox One YouTube channel, once again pitching the case for Microsoft bringing Call of Duty to all platforms. However, this time he also justifies why Xbox is still looking at keeping some exclusives, like Starfield.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Phil was asked if the companies’ plans for Call of Duty involve any kind of exclusivity of any kind. Here was his response:
“I sit here today with a great game that’s come out in the last couple of weeks, Hogwarts Legacy. And yes, there is a quest that’s available on PlayStation, it’s not available on Xbox as part of that, and I know this is part of the industry.
That’s not the game we’re trying to play here either. It’s not about a skin on a gun. It’s not about a certain kind of mode of the game. The same version of the game will be available on all platforms, which is really what we do today.
Like if you’re a Minecraft player on PlayStation, I don’t think you feel like you have the lesser version of Minecraft or Minecraft Dungeons or Legends, which is coming out when it ships.
We want to make sure those players feel like they have a great experience on the platform they choose to play on.”
Of course, this is only consistent with the message that Microsoft has expressed when it comes to their intent for Call of Duty on consoles and PC. However, it does go in stark contrast to what he says later.
The interviewer brings up the fact that Starfield was announced console exclusive to Xbox, and asks what assurance Microsoft can give that that won’t happen to Call of Duty. This is Phil’s response in the hot seat.
“I don’t think I said Starfield was not going to be exclusive to Xbox.
I think what I said is we’re going to take in on a case-by-case basis, I said we’re not pulling games that are on other platforms. So, we’ll continue to support the communities of games.
As Elder Scrolls Online has been doing their annual drops and their content drops, those have been on PlayStation. Those have been on PC. Those have been on Xbox – PC for some of those, ships a little bit earlier, but the console versions ship at the same time. We’ve updated Fallout 76 on all the platforms at the same time.
Exclusive titles in the console space is part of the business. All platform holders do it. They are marketing beats for the platform. And we see that our competitors have a lot of exclusive games.
So, when we’re launching new games, there are certain games that we’re going to make – exclusive for us is always going to be a little bit hard, because we ship everything on PC as well – but let’s just say, ship on Xbox and PC, and available on cloud.
And some of those won’t be available on other competitor’s platforms. But there’s no example in Bethesda of us pulling something away from the PlayStation community that they had.”
As Phil explains it, the overtures that they have been offering to regulators so that they can finalize their deal for Activision Blizzard King have not quite changed everything in the console games market completely. But Microsoft’s position that the biggest games should be available in as many platforms as possible isn’t unrealistic. In fact, it could be a sensible way for these companies to do business moving forward.
You can watch the Xbox On interview with Phil Spencer below.
