Ever since Microsoft sealed the deal with Activision-Blizzard, grabbing up its vast array of development studios, the tech giant (and by extension Xbox) has skyrocketed to fame as the world’s biggest third-party game publisher. So, when Xbox’s head honcho Phil Spencer recently chatted with Gamertag Radio, his remarks about future Xbox game releases making their way to platforms like Nintendo and PlayStation stirred up quite the buzz, but they also seem perfectly logical.
In the interview with Danny Peña and Parris from Gamertag Radio, Phil Spencer dished out some intriguing lines: “I want people to be able to experience the games that we build, the services that we offer on as many devices as we can,” while emphasizing their commitment to “the native experience on our own platform and hardware.” The entire twenty-six-minute conversation on YouTube is packed with industry nuggets and a walk down memory lane to the good old Xbox and 360 days.
For the uninitiated, let’s take a quick detour into gaming history to unpack the fuss. Remember Sonic the Hedgehog, the speedy blue icon? Before hitting mainstream media as a movie star, Sonic was a staple of iconic video games, exclusively on Sega consoles. That is, until Sonic Adventure 2 jumped onto the GameCube. Sega, once a giant, saw its Dreamcast console bow out abruptly faced with the mighty PlayStation 2 from Sony. This shift left Sega as a mere third-party developer, with Microsoft’s Xbox stepping in to fill the void.
Back when the “DirectX Box” was just taking shape, destined to become the original Xbox, it notably supported backward compatibility with Sega Dreamcast games (thanks to Dreamcast’s Windows CE compatibility). Though this feature didn’t make it to the final version, some Dreamcast-era hits, like Jet Set Radio Future, found a new home exclusively on Xbox.
At first glance, Spencer’s comments might sound like the laments of a struggling console maker. Yet, Microsoft is a colossal force, hardly on its last legs. As the top third-party publisher, Microsoft’s strategy now leans more towards selling games across platforms instead of tethering gamers strictly to Xbox.
Phil Spencer elaborates, “We want everybody to be able to play on Xbox and it does mean more of our games shipping on more platforms, not just PlayStation. We love the work that we do with Nintendo, we love what we do with Valve on Steam, and that’s going to continue.”
In contrast to Sega’s trajectory, Xbox’s situation is different—Microsoft’s financial muscle ensures that. But as the console wars evolve, the next-gen Xbox will need to offer more to keep pace with rivals like the potential hybrid “Switch 3” and the inevitably more powerful PlayStation 6, both of which will still draw in gamers with exclusive titles—a staple of the console market.
But here’s the rub—if Microsoft isn’t careful in framing Xbox not just as hardware but rather as a suite of games and services, it might find itself in a paradox where “When everybody’s on Xbox, no one will be.”
