Xbox CEO Phil Spencer remarks that Xbox Game Pass is not going anywhere anytime soon. Read on to learn more.
Xbox CEO Talks About Plans To Innovate Xbox
Xbox Game Pass Growth and How To Improve On Current Hardware
Xbox CEO Phil Spencer comments about the statements made by Xbox CFO, Tim Stuart regarding the Xbox Game Pass in a recently concluded presentation. Stuart stated that Microsoft’s goal was to bring the Game Pass over to any screen that can play games, including Nintendo and Playstation. With this, fans speculated that Microsoft might make moves to push for a more digital approach with the Xbox Game Pass leaving the hardware behind. Spencer reassures them that they have no plans on bringing the Game Pass to PlayStation or Nintendo at the moment and are focused on making innovations and improvements towards the people who bought and invested in their hardware saying:
"I'll start by saying we have no plans to bring Game Pass to PlayStation or Nintendo. It's not in our plans. But I think you hit on the right point of 'what it means to own an Xbox.' The thing I want to be focused on is how do we continue to innovate for people who've made the commitment to our hardware platform? And how do we continue to make sure that they feel great about their investment in what we've built. "
He also added that: "I'm obviously going to have my own point of view on our hardware. But I think our hardware teams did a great job with the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S this generation, giving value and performance in the hardware line. When I think about investments in things like Game Pass, and Xbox Cloud Gaming, cross play, and cross save, and ID@Xbox, all of these things — I want us to continue to innovate, so people on our console feel like we're making investments in console that matches their commitment they're making to us.
Game Pass was one of the things you know that over the last five years we built, and we continue to grow, it's on PC, it's on cloud. It's an important part of the Xbox console identity. And I think it will continue to be that. And we will continue to look at future ways for us to innovate across our game portfolio and our platform."
Xbox Innovation Roadmaps - Hardware and Cloud
Spencer also talked about the specific innovations they have for the future with the rise of PC gaming handhelds like the Steam Deck, ASUS ROG Ally, and the Lenovo Legion Go. In the interview, he highlights the promotion of Sarah Bond to become the president of Xbox, a developer platform for Xbox consoles.
"Just last month, we elevated Sarah Bond to be the president of Xbox, the hardware team is in her organization, the platform and services team are in her organization. We made that organizational move specifically to ensure we had a unified focus for our innovation roadmap across hardware and services. That includes the developer platform for Xbox consoles as well. That's about innovation we're doing within our teams, but we'll have more to talk about in terms of what we're doing in the hardware space, and in the service space — there's a lot of great work for us to do. We're always listening. "
After which he stated more about their plans on Xbox Cloud and the different roadmaps they have to improve their services saying:
"Early on, we talked about Xbox Cloud as a way to get onto mobile gaming. And globally, there are a lot of people who play cloud gaming on mobile today. But in a place like the US, the way people use cloud primarily is on Xbox consoles. They use it to look at games and to browse games that they might want to download to play through Xbox Game Pass, or even purchase outright. That sparked innovations that we didn't plan. When we watch what customers are doing, and listen to the feedback that they're giving us, we think about other things we can do with Xbox Cloud, and for the Xbox console experience. There's a roadmap of those things coming as well. There's a hardware roadmap, there's a service roadmap, maybe there's even a roadmap for improvements to Xbox achievements, which I know is something that you and many others care about."
He ends his point highlighting that they have to make sure that the customers are excited and they want them to know as they continue to grow and their core customers feel respected as well.
With regards to handhelds, Spencer highlighted their portability with Xbox Play Anywhere which lets you play Xbox console games on your PC with cross save and cross entitlement. This also comes into play with the Xbox App and their recent development with Compact Mode which was designed primarily for handhelds for maximum portability.
"We've been pushing for cross play, cross save, cross progression, for so long. To see when I pick up a game, that my progress on my console shows up on this handheld in a native way — it's not just cloud streaming. And I can play on the airplane and or play when I'm disconnected. I think that's vitally important to where we're trying to go.
I think a lot about product entitlement, and we have Xbox Play Anywhere. Xbox Play Anywhere has been a long term part of our strategy, though I don't think we've made as much progress as maybe we could have over the years that's been out. But as I see these handheld PCs come along, I think things like playing anywhere, and my ability to keep my games library with me and allowing me to play those on different devices, including cloud streamed at some point. We're looking at the ability to allow you to stream the games that you own."
Xbox As A Brand
On the topic of the Xbox Cloud Gaming, Spencer talked about the situation and how it led to long queue times in some regions, specifically with the launch of Starfield. He notes that the growth of cloud globally led to success for the Xbox Game Pass especially with their recent partnerships with Samsung. He also stated that they had a pause recently on Xbox Cloud hardware deployment around Starfield’s launch which led to long queue times. To address this, he said that they’ve already started deploying more to meet the growing demand. Lastly, he talks about making Xbox more as a brand and making sure that its compatibility is great moving forward.
"These are all things where our gamers are embracing different devices to play their library of games — to take their gaming experiences with them. I want Xbox to be a brand, that shows up on our Xbox app, but also while making sure our games are compatible with Steam Deck, ROG Ally, Legion Go, and while making sure they are great on our Xbox console line up. Yes, I think it does mean that our focus is more broad than it has been. We're significantly bigger than when Xbox started 20 years ago. It's our job to keep up with all that."
Source:
WindowsCentral Interview
