Phil Spencer faced a tremendous challenge when he assumed became Microsoft’s head of Xbox back in 2014. Now, in light of the growing success of Xbox Game Pass, Spencer has excellent news to share with PC gamers.
Speaking with Game Reactor, Spencer announced that every Xbox title developed by Microsoft’s stable of 23 first-party studios, including the recently acquired Bethesda, will be coming to Windows PCs as well as its console line. He stated, “If I start at the highest level, I believe great games should be able to be played by as many people as possible.” It’s an admirable, consumer-friendly stance that stands to benefit gamers playing on consoles and computers alike. Simply put, gaming IPs have a greater chance of succeeding when they are available to more people.
Spencer spoke out against the dangers of console exclusivity, specifically the “weaponizing of exclusive games,” which reduces games from works of art to marketing ploys meant to move consoles. He also stated that there is conflicting data as to whether such ploys actually pay dividends, and argued it was more valuable to bring people into Microsoft’s media ecosystem than it was to sell consoles faster.
Rather than thinking of people playing on a physical Xbox console as a metric for success, Spencer feels that players experiencing first-party content on any platform—whether it is an Xbox, android phone, or even the Nintendo Switch—should ‘count’ as Xbox gamers. Obviously, Game Pass plays a crucial role in expanding Microsoft’s content ecosystem, and it is pushing hard to expand the offerings of that service by aggressively acquiring more first-party developers.
When asked about content blind spots for Game Pass, Spencer admitted that Game Pass needed more E-rated content, as well as more casual games that can appeal to broad audiences. Again, this lies in line with his philosophy that games should be appreciated by as many people as possible.
It is also clear that Microsoft’s ambitions for Xbox Game Pass that extend well-beyond a digital gaming subscription service. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers were recently treated to access Funimation’s anime streaming catalog, expanding the service’s benefits. Furthermore, a new major Game Pass feature is rumored to be in development, possibly relating to the new xCloud service.
The consumer-friendly, open-platform approach is not without risks and drawbacks, however. Spencer recently acknowledged that developers will need to work harder to bring games to both the Xbox Series X and Series S. That statement is exponentially more apt when it comes to porting games to PC, as the platform has an effectively endless number of technical specs and configurations.
One hopes it will be well worth the effort, however. In the end, broader availability of titles is something that benefits all gamers, regardless of platform allegiances.
Source: Game Reactor
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