While 2015 has been a banner year for Microsoft and the Xbox One, the company is clearly looking to duplicate that success in 2016. Things like backwards compatibility might not matter to Sony, according to some analysts, Microsoft clearly thinks the service is a winner. Mike Ybarra, who is the director of programming for the Xbox Division, recently talked about what 2016 should be focused on, after coming off of a successful year in 2015.
“We are all gamers. I’m on the platform side, but I would be encouraging us as an organization to focus on games. Games are why we are all buying these consoles to play and so you go t to have a great lineup. This holiday I think Phil has done a great job. It’s in my opinion the best holiday lineup we’ve had in Xbox One [history]. I really feel like we have to continue to focus on creating great content and great games.” Ybarra told the website Inner Circle.
The company has seen major hits like Rise of the Tomb Raider, Halo 5: Guardians, Forza Motorsport 6, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and Rare Replay all get released in 2015 and the company wants to keep rolling in 2016. Quantum Break, Crackdown 3, Gears of War 4, and Scalebound are all slated for release next year and appear to be big enough and popular enough that they could help the company focus on gaming in a big way next year. Backwards compatibility is another way in which Microsoft thinks it will be able to keep it rolling. We’ll just have to wait and see.