Xbox Boss: "Our Strategy Is Centred Around The Player, Not The Device"

On the one hand this is a consumer-friendly idea. One the other hand I think by myself, if I'm forking out 500 quid for a console, I want bespoke games for that system.

If you just want to play games then Xbox is by far the best value out of the consoles as you don't even have to worry about the cost of games when buying one because of Gamepass. I can play my games on multiple devices whether natively or streaming, I'd say Xbox is the best gaming platform at the moment which is only lacking in single player story driven exclusives at the moment

As arrogant as it may sound, Microsoft makes so much money on basically running the worlds computing that it can literally throw a bone to the gaming community without batting an eye.

Didn't sell a bajillion consoles? No problem, we made billions everywhere else.

Xbox might as well be a tax write-off! LOL!

The console war keyboard warriors can tout PS4 sales all they want and claim a "win", but Microsoft is still a trillion dollar company. It's great that something like that translates to Game Pass and free Cloud Saves for the convenience of gamers.

When I finally buy a Series X, all I have to do is buy the console. Most of the games I want will be included in the Game Pass Ultimate subscription that I have through at least July 2022.

@GamingFan4Lyf

I completely agree. I love Microsoft’s strategy. It’s a very consumer friendly move & is pretty rare these days. And Phil is doing a great job getting the message out there.

I think people are GREATLY overthinking the idea for the first year or so, most of the Series X games will be available on the xbox one as well. If you look back, this is fairly common. Besides, how many 1st party games, major ones, are likely to drop in the first year? 3 or 4, TOPS. Microsoft didn't say that ALL of their first party games would follow this trend for the entire life of the xbox. Relax lol

As long as that allows me to get microsoft games on my PC where they look and run best, I'm ok with them supporting as many platforms as they want.

@armondo36 this.

Every time I hear or read something about everyone wants to see “next gen games” I think but how many of the games that come out in the gap year are either made for both systems, or clearly not as optimized as they could be? I mean Breath of the Wild launched on the WiiU as well. I think the Smart Delivery makes a lot more sense right now...

Man, I LOVE what Xbox is doing. Making the transition to the next console as smooth as possible, and I won't lose all the games I've purchased and put a lot of time into. That payment plan for the series X is interesting, I'll have to look into that when the price is revealed.

I just love that they're are being open and listening to all the feedback from the Xbox One early days. The players and the games are coming first, and they have completely won me over.

@TheNewButler Actually it's not bait. The article literally was about Phil hyping up their players being able to play their games on their platform of choice. Not limited to just the one box. While I don't agree that a console should have no exclusives, I enjoy several microsoft franchises and I can play them, unfettered on my platform of choice.

And my current PC already beats next gen, let alone the new build I'm doing later this year.

The more i think about it, the more I like MS approach at everything.

I understand, to a point, wanting some launch exclusives, but most year ones tend to be full of cross-gen titles, that just happen to be locked in the gen.

Some of the biggest year one titles for last gen were Shadow of Mordor, Assassins Creed 4, Fortza, FIFA 14, Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty Ghost. All of them also available on PS3/360.

Heck, the biggest titles for the Nintendo Switch launch window were Mario Kart 8 and Breath of the Wild, both also available on the Wii U.

If anything, it is MS commitment to Windows PC releases that might convince some to stick to PC instead of jumping to XBox, even then, those that prefer consoles and living-room gaming will still prefer an XSX.

Edit to add: MS BC commitment is the main reason why I am much more likely to buy all my multi-platform games for Xbox going forward. At least right now, MS seems to be acting under the mindset that all their future consoles will do their best to sustain backwards compatibility, protecting my gaming investment.

I own 160 PS4 physical games right now, vs 22 OX physical. I still have no clue if all the 160 will actually play on PS5, and Sony messaging tells me they are very unlikely to work on a PS6.

I just hope MS sticks this course going forward and don’t go changing their mind 6 years from now when getting ready for a follow up generation.

Side note:
Don Mattrick was a snake on a suit.
Phil Spencer is a true gamer at heart.

@TheNewButler Because technology is measurable. But since you decided to move the goal posts, you've already made up your mind I see.

When people look back on the Xbox One, none of these "consumer friendly moves" are going to matter. All people are going to see is a severe lack of any good exclusives.

@armondo36

I completely agree. People need to calm down. XSX is the most powerful console coming out for a reason. Games will look fantastic on whatever Xbox console you own because of Smart Delivery.

And Phil Spencer has said this, many times. So not sure why some people get all crazy about this stuff. Lol.

@Menchi keep in mind your PC is also running a way heavier OS than the console is, and when making games for PC, we tend to develop games without many optimizations that are only possible when you know 100% that the target consumer will just have one of 3 specific video cards.

It’s possible your PC is faster than an XSX, but that won’t necessarily translate in steadier frame rate or steadier resolution.

That said, MS actually wants you to stick to PC if that’s what you prefer. That is their point. MS fans arguing over XSX vs PC is silly and unproductive. Honestly, if I tossed that much money on a PC, I likely would also give myself 3 years of more to get an XSX-Slim or what not.

@HammerKirby you mean the way no one bought a Switch because they could play the only two good games on a Wii U?

@Tharsman This is pretty much what I said in my original comment, I'm glad someone else here noticed. OS and overhead aside, it's not enough to cripple current (let alone the brand new stuff about to release) top end PC hardware to below what XSX offers. Many people automatically took up arms as "he hates Xbox!" when I literally praised Phil's move from the article.

People's attachment to pieces of plastic worry me sometimes.

@Menchi between you and me (and anyone reading obviously) know what would be the win of the millennia for Microsoft? If you could buy an XBX or XBox One of a game that is available for PC, and you automatically could play that game on PC via Smart Delivery, be it by inserting the game disk or just downloading from the MS Store.

Unlikely to happen, though, since third party devs love to double dip via tempting steam sales or what not, but if MS managed to convince devs that make PC versions... or managed to figure how to validate XBox disks on PCs... that would be the mother load pro-consumer move of the millennium! [yes, bit of hyperbole]

@Tharsman That would be fantastic. Sadly in the current form it's linked to the Windows 10 Store for play anywhere, which is......well we all know the horror stories. And even though W10S/Xbox cross buy doesn't have any benefit to me when the games are available on Steam as well, I can definitely see it as a positive move for gamers.

This is why despite being a massive physical game and retro game guy, I've moved my "Xbox" game purchases to digital half way through this gen. PC purchases after all. If you told me in 2013 I wouldn't be buying physical Xbox games any more by the end of the gen, I'd have laughed.

Kinda surprised it hasn't been worked on in some form, since the Xbox games on Steam use Xbox Live and your Xbox account. Even Halo MCC on Steam automatically imports everything from my console version right away. Although we'd have to be careful.....it could prompt another GFWL thing all over again.

@Menchi I’m still mostly a physical gamer, but been buying a lot of digital stuff for OX when they show up on sale. There been some sales lately that rival the early
Days of Steam full-franchise sales. I even double dip, sometimes. If it’s cheap enough, it becomes just convenient to have that digital license, and still be able to lend my physical copy to friends.

@TheNewButler honestly, if his PC build has enough muscle to run most his games in 4k/60fps with ray tracing enables, even if the XSX was able to do better, it would be mostly an unnoticeable difference and not worth buying another console for.

@TheNewButler 2070 GPUs, so the 5th best GPU from the superior GPU company? With their new series about to launch. Let alone my GPU being the best consumer card they offer right now.

@TheNewButler Ok so you're up to the 3rd best GPU. And no, a 2080TI does not cost £2500. The RTX Titan, which is what you're likely quoting, is not a consumer level GPU.

Goalposts getting further away from me with every comment.....

@TheNewButler Because the Titan series cards are developer focused cards. My RTX2080TI is not. But do you know what it is? More powerful than XSX.

And nobody bought the XB1X orb PS4 Pro because those consoles didn't have 'exclusives'? No one upgrades a PC whilst it can still play the latest games?

Its not as if the Series X won't have Console Exclusives - both Scorn and The Medium are Series X Console Exclusives - as in won't be available on Current generation hardware. At the start of this generation, a LOT of games were released on last generation (360/PS3) consoles too. Its going to take 'years' for a game to be developed that really cannot be scaled down to existing consoles. There is no way that any developer could of made a game in 'months' from the time they got their Dev Kit and designed a game from scratch to utilise the features that the new gen offers in a fundamental way that just wouldn't be possible on current hardware. Sony may well shoe horn in some 'haptic' feedback or some voice commands to utilise the new DS5 - a bit like they did with the touchpad - to say that the game could not be on last gen but ultimately, they need to sell PS5 consoles to build up their user base and sell games/services etc for their 'future'. MS on the other hand also have a duty to support their users on PC and want to get xCloud off the ground and it makes much more sense to develop 1 game to reach as many of their users as possible and offer a 'tangible' upgrade for those that want it on Series X too.

The same reason that people bought Pro or X is big enough to buy a Series X - the upgrade in visuals and performance - let alone any other upgrades like loading times and 3rd Party exclusives. If you want to play games at the 'best' visual quality (inc Ray Tracing) and highest frame rates with significantly faster load times, then the Series X is the console choice.

As for PC's, they cannot do what these consoles offer! Yes you can put in a SSD and get better load times, but no to the same degree - even with NVME as the games may not be built to use the SSD in that way on PC because not every PC owner will have an SSD. It may not have all the bespoke parts built in so rely on CPU to decompress assets, may not have the option to load assets directly from SSD instead of stream them to RAM first or have bespoke asset management built into the hardware. Also PC's tend to have a lot more things running in the background too. It could be a while before PC's catch up in some areas and may need even more 'brute force' to match the consoles - just because the way the games will be built to include as many PC users as possible. In some areas, some games even, the high end PC's may well have advantages but could also lag behind in other areas and/or require a much bigger investment to match up with certain aspects in the Consoles.

We will just have to see....

@zane547 “ It may be significant in the console space if Sony dont do something similar. But I think they will.”

Given all the open statements about their disinterest towards supporting older games, I doubt PS5 will have anything more than standard BC via lowering CPU/GPU speeds to avoid compatibility issues.

Think about this side pint, though: console install base does not usually get to significant numbers until about a year or two in. At the same time, a true AAA game can take roughly 3 years to develop (many more, how long have people been waiting for The Last of Us 2? The first one was a PS3 end of life game!)

Usually, first year or two worth of games for a new console start development as prev-gen games since dev kits are not finalized until perhaps a year before launch. That means a bug AAA game, made from the ground up for the new hardware, won’t show up until 2 years into the life cycle.

During that window, where new gen install base is low, and games likely started dev in prev gen anyways, it’s actually extremely smart to maximize sales of those new titles by supporting also the current generation, reason most third party devs been doing this for decades now.

An issue many console makers also tend to face during gen transitions is players slowing down their purchases until they can upgrade, because either the new games are exclusive to the new hardware or because buying the “bad version” of the game feels ... lame. Smart delivery will combat that slowdown by promising that their games will just work better in the next gen once they get their hands on it.

Eventually, people will buy the XSX for the same reason they upgrade their PCs or their smartphones: because everything is now faster.

@Tharsman Mario Odyssey isn't a good game? Smash Ultimate isn't a good game? Animal Crossing New Horizons isn't a good game? Splatoon 2 isn't a good game? Super Mario Maker 2 isn't a good game? Fire Emblem Three Houses isn't a good game? Oh wait maybe you just need to expand your horizons if you think BotW and Mario Kart 8 are the only good games on the Switch.

@HammerKirby Odyssey launches half a year after the Switch. Not a launch window game. The switch launch was an insane success without it.

Almost everything else in your list is year 2+ releases.

The launch was basically carried by Zelda, Mario Kart and Skyrim.

As someone with 98 physical switch games, my catalog horizon is very broad.

@Tharsman Well yeah of course hardcore Nintendo fans are going to buy the system no matter what. Also I realize that consoles can sell without exclusives nowadays. That doesn't mean that I like it though. You never really answered my main point. Is anybody really going to remember or care about the Xbox One 20 years from now?

@HammerKirby it was not just hardcore fans (if that was the logic, the Wii U would had not failed.)

It’s ok not to like it, that is a perfectly valid personal stance. I can even partially relate, part of me wishes there was at least one first party game reserved for exclusivity.

I just disagree heavily about that being something that will in any way hurt the launch. I would not be shocked if come Christmas, both consoles will end up finding themselves supply constrained.

@Tharsman the Wii U sold decent at first actually. Well for the first two months or so anyway lol. I mean in a way I guess you could say I'm contributing to it since I bought a Switch Day 1. But I knew Nintendo would have the exclusives to back it up eventually. Also admittedly Game Pass is a good deal on the Xbox one, but I don't think the Xbox One will really have much of a legacy like I've been saying. I just hope the Series X has a better exclusive line-up. Even if we have to wait a year for it to start getting "true" exclusives

@HammerKirby How will anyone ever forget the console gen that MS completely messed up, almost killing the brand (something red ring didn’t come close to do) only to manage to salvage it via one hell of a 180?

History wise, the One will be a bigger warning take than the PS3 on not taking your user base for granted.

There are a few good games on the console. Master Chief collection might be backward compatible for a long time, keeping that memory alive. Ori, Gears, Rare Replay. And the hidden gems that didn’t get to shine due to the console poor performance: Ryse of Rome, Sunset Overdrive, Recore. At the end, the machine might develop a quasi-Sega-Saturn rep, IMO.

More than anything, though, it might become a foundation of the future. The XSX is basically XBox One 3.0, after all.

@HammerKirby

You actually don’t know if Sony will have any good exclusives at launch either. Except for stupid remasters they want you to pay for again. A lot can happen when generations change.

Shall we go back to the PS3? What did Sony give at launch? It was laughable, except for Resistance. And how about the PS4 launch?

Knack? Killzone: Shadow Fall? Lol. Get ready for a bunch of remasters & paid for 3rd party timed exclusives. You still want to run your mouth about a Bloodborne remaster? 😂

Pathetic.

@zane547

You need to move past the ancient way of thinking you make $ on hardware. You don’t. You make money on software & services. I don’t understand why people, like you, can’t understand that.

I get the impression that companies don't want us to own consoles anymore. Google Stadia might have failed but companies would still like us to give them money for nothing more than access to a server.

The tech just isn't there - but you can be sure that when it finally is, they are going to shove it down our throats and we can take it, or be left behind. MS already tried to ditch the disk drive once, and when that didn't work gaming has evolved in such a way that the disks are still almost meaningless now.

@KelticDevil Sony fans probably can’t wait to pay for The Last of Us 2 “remastered”. Only On PS5 (tm) 😂

@Tharsman Forza Motorsport 5 (Fortza, as you call it) was and remains exclusive to Xbox One.

@Quaali Forza Horizon 2 was for both: 360 and One. I forgot Motorsport 5 released first.

(And give me a break, you type long posts on your phone without ever making a typo.)

@OtterX

Very true! 😂