After a brilliant Developer_Direct to start the year off with one hell of a bang, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer popped by Gamertag Radio to say hello as they celebrated their 20th Anniversary. Hosts Danny Peña and Parris Lily chat to Phil about everything – the next step in Xbox hardware, the end of video game exclusivity, and the future of the Xbox brand itself.
We recommend watching the full interview of Phil Spencer on Gamertag Radioso you can celebrate a monumental 20 years of Gamertag Radio in style, but this is the internet, so here’s a few choice quotes to tide you over.
On Future Xbox Hardware
Phil Spencer: “I want people to pick hardware based on the capabilities of that hardware and how that fits into the choices they want to make about where they want to play. We want our hardware to win based on the hardware capabilities that we have.
I think the difference that we’ve seen in the last 20 years, and I think this is good because I come from building games – is it really game first, not platform first. Most the games you and I will talk about, run across many different platforms. Those are the games that are having success, those are the games that are at the top of the charts when you look at the most played, most successful games – and I want to build a platform that services those creators. Those creators that are trying to meet people on every screen.
Let’s say on our own hardware, I think it’s fundamental to what Xbox is. It’s not lost on me that over and over, “box” is in the name of our brand. I say, from the position that I’m in, I look at hardware as a critical part of what we do, but not trying to gatekeep the games off of other places. for our benefit – let’s go build innovative hardware that people want to use to play, whether that’s in their hands, or on their television or even other places. I love our hardware team, I spent some time with them just this week and the roadmap that they have- I think we’re learning a lot from this.“
On Ending Video Game Exclusivity
Phil Spencer: “The thing that I’ve learned and continue to learn when I’m listening to creators – not only our own studios but other teams building games – every creator out there wants to build a game that can find as many players as they want. And frankly, there aren’t that many platforms out there that try to build that connections to people with so many different screens – where it’s like almost single platform, single device, single game. And that’s kind of the history of our business. We’re really taking the approach of we want people to play Xbox on many different screens.”
“We’re not going to put walls up around where people can engage with the great games our studios are building, pr where they can experience Xbox through different forms, whether it’s on Cloud, whether it’s on PC, whether it’s on handheld PC.“
Congratulations to Danny Peña and Parris Lily for 20 years of Gamertag Radio – I know their podcast is one of the many reasons ours exists today. And good news – Parris Lily is joining the XboxEra Podcast this weekend, so be sure to tune in for more as we dive into the Xbox Developer_Direct.
Gosh, he really ain’t looking to good. Before he looked like a chunky Bevis but with darker colored hair instead of blonde and an Xbox T-shirt instead of a Metallica one, complete with underbite and all, but he’s looking thin in the face like a cancer patient now