Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has reaffirmed the company’s commitment to making its slate of first-party titles multiplatform.
During an interview with Danny Peña on YouTube, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer was asked for clarification on his earlier statement about not having any red lines with regards to the company’s multiplatform strategy for its first-party titles. In response, he said that he wants people to be able to experience the games that Microsoft builds, and the services that it offers, on as many devices as possible. Some of those platforms are closed i.e. they don’t allow everything that the company does to be available in their ecosystem.
Spencer mentioned that he’s learned not only from within Microsoft’s portfolio of studios, but external development teams as well, that every creator out there wants to build a game that can find as many players as possible. He added that there aren’t many platforms out there that try to build connections to people on so many different screens. He highlighted the history of the business always being about a single platform, a single device, and a single game.
According to the Microsoft Gaming CEO, the company is taking an approach of wanting people to be able to play Xbox on many different screens. He pointed out that not every experience will be the same. He assured that Microsoft values the native experience on its own platform and its own hardware, and that’s something that will continue for the company. However, he said that this won’t result in Xbox putting walls up around where people can engage with the games its studios are building or where they can experience Xbox through different forms, whether it be via cloud, on PC, on handheld PCs, or on phones. Spencer reaffirmed that he wants everybody to be able to play on Xbox, and that does mean more of Microsoft’s first-party games shipping on more platforms.
