In a video interview with Yahoo! Finance, Microsoft executive vice-president Phil Spencer was asked about the future of physical hardware in regards to streaming services like XCloud, in which Phil discussed giving players more avenues to play games and that “we’re going to see more console hardware down the road.” (Yahoo Finance!, 2020, 2:54) He also talks about how streaming will not cut down on device innovation, Game Pass, and thoughts about Xbox hardware and their two SKU strategy for this generation—particularly how Xbox Series S provides an affordable avenue into gaming as we currently sit in economic uncertainty.
This should not be particularly surprising to anyone that follows the industry, but it is nice to hear confirmation from the big cheese himself. Though the purchase of Zenimax alone should be confirmation that Microsoft is in the video game industry for the long run. They are not going anywhere and you can expect even more awesome Xbox hardware in the future. And in this writer’s opinion, you can expect a Series S successor to come along as well.
