Xbox has remained firmly in third place in the so-called “console wars” for two consecutive generations at this point. What’s more, with Microsoft seeing slipping hardware sales each year, and the company having dramatically ramped up its first-party multiplatform publishing efforts on PlayStation and Switch, many are beginning to wonder how much longer Xbox hardware is going to continue being a thing. Inevitably, comparisons with Sega – the last major platform holder to exit the market and become a third-party publisher – keep cropping up.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer touched on the topic in a recent interview with XboxEra, saying that he does understand the concern- especially where things such as ownership of digital purchases and cross-platform compatibility are concerned.
“I want to show respect to the people who voice their concerns. To me, like I get it,” Spencer said. “And I would never disrespect anybody who comes to me, concerned. I’ve got a library of games on Xbox console. I want to make sure I’ll continue to be able to play those games. Are we going to still do hardware? Are we going to still get to play the games the way we’ve always played? Am I going to have to rent all my games? Can I still buy games? All that.
“I get it. I get the questions. I think we’ve shown respect for people’s libraries over the generations with back-compat and Play Anywhere, and I want to continue to do that. You can buy every game that’s in Game Pass, we’re not trying to funnel everybody into one business model. Play the games the way you want to play them.”
Spencer went on to talk about the rapid growth of both PC and cloud as platforms, and how focusing on both has allowed Microsoft to add large numbers of new players in growing markets. Ultimately, according to the Xbox boss, that’s in service of Xbox.
“We obviously have to run a good business, so we’ll have our pricing and everything that we do, but I want to make as many options as possible for the games that we have,” Spencer said. “So they find more and more players. It’s why us embracing Windows and embracing Cloud has allowed us to grow. One of our fastest growing regions for us right now is Asia and it’s not because we’re selling more consoles in Asia, but through cloud and PC, we’re finding more users year over year than in any other place. The fastest kind of platform is Cloud. That’s the thing that’s growing the fastest year over year and those are players like you were talking about, like that radio host. We were never going to catch that person with our console. So let’s find them in a way that works, and it’s better for Indiana Jones. It’s better for Xbox.”
Whether or not Xbox is ever going to take the form of a traditional console again is unclear – right now, it looks unlikely that it will – but at the very least, it doesn’t look like Microsoft intends to stop making dedicated gaming hardware anytime soon. The company has confirmed that it has a portable gaming device in the works, while leaks have also claimed that the next Xbox console is targeting a 2026 release.
