Xbox: ‘Do Not See Sort Of Red Lines’ On Games Going Multiplatform
Head of Xbox, Mr. Phil Spencer, had an interview with American publication Bloomberg, and it was actually quite an interesting one. First and foremost, Mr. Spencer said what I have already written on before: more games will be moving from Xbox to other platforms (meaning Playstation and the Switch, more likely its successor). In the interview Mr. Spencer said ‘I do not see any red lines in our portfolio that say “thou must not”. Which was in regards to which games we would see moving from Xbox to other platforms. I keep banging on about this but that’s only because it seems that some people are still surprised to hear the point: Xbox will be bringing more games to other platforms because Xbox Microsoft sees more potential profit-making in that strategy over console exclusivity. Microsoft is a company built on software, and Xbox will end up following that track.
Some might also pick up on the note that Mr. Spencer sees Xbox as being good at making hardware and confuse this statement for an endorsement for more focus Xbox console excluscivity, but I predict that this is a reference to the handheld PC Xbox will release in the future, as they hope to emulate the success of the Steam Deck—and more properly the Switch.
There was more still to the interview though. Mr. Spencer confirmed that Xbox was open to collaborating with more businesses outside of America, singling out China as a place that he sees potential. Also, we could be seeing more acquisitions from Xbox, with Mr. Spencer saying that Xbox ‘want to be in the market’, but warned that nothing was ‘imminent’ on that front.
Playing videogames, writing about videogames, considering videogames—that about sums it up. Videogames are the one hobby that I’ve kept since I was only little, zapping ducks on the NES or knocking out MR. X. And when I’m not enjoying classics from the bit generation of games or checking out those earliest of polygons, I’m probably playing something from today’s age of modern gaming: if I’m not complaining about it. Something I’m doing at the moment? I started dipping my toes in the vast sea of Kemco JRPGs.
