All the way back in 2019, before the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S were even fully revealed, there was skepticism that Xbox would be ditching consoles and/or turning into a third-party publisher.
The more things change, the more they stay the same!
Xbox boss Phil Spencer was asked about this at the time in an interview with Kotaku, and as pointed out by the interviewee (Stephen Totilo) on Game File this week, it's a fascinating look back at a strategy that still remains very relevant here in 2025.
For example, Phil spent a lot of time discussing the idea of playing "the games you want, with the people you want and on the devices [you want]", mentioning the team was "driven by that". He went on to explain that a lack of crossplay support between consoles was driving him "crazy" and he felt it needed to change to "grow gaming".
"We use this tagline both internally and externally: Play the games you want, with the people you want and we say on the devices [you want], which you can think about as “anywhere.” And we are driven by that."
Phil then talked about console and how "having the world’s most powerful console" was a "critical component" for the brand and growing the platform, but that ultimately the profits would come from selling software and services.
Interestingly, he made a point that measuring console sales wasn't all that useful either:
"The consoles are not where the profit in this side of the business is made, which is where the whole: ‘Who’s selling more consoles’ at any one time as the kind of root good of who is doing well in the business is just not true."
As part of this, he advised that the focus for Xbox was on the player and not the device:
"There’s always the core that kind of comes back [and says]: “You’re reducing the need to buy an Xbox.” I actually find that in reality people play on a console because they enjoy playing on a television on the couch with a controller in their hands, and it’s an experiential thing more than it is trying to sell an individual device. To shorten it: We focus on the player; we don’t focus on the device."
"I think the experience we bring to the family room with Xbox and focusing on things like compatibility and focusing on things like cross-play is actually important to where we see gaming growing, which is why we are focused on consoles and spending a ton of money and resources investing in Scarlett [later known as the Xbox Series X & S]. The same thing on PC."
"So, today, people are saying: “Are you going third party?” Whatever that means. But the idea that we are a platform company continues to be true, and we think about how that platform infrastructure could grow. And we think having the world’s most powerful console, having a great Xbox in the home, is a critical component to that."
Phil was also asked multiple times about whether we could see the likes of Gears of War on the PlayStation 4 at some point, and he certainly didn't outright deny it. Instead, he chose to focus on how Xbox games needed to have a "connected ecosystem with the players, where people’s save game and their state and their friends list and their entitlements move seamlessly from every ecosystem", which wasn't possible on PS4 at the time.
Nevertheless, he highlighted how Xbox valued its relationship with other companies and that everyone could assist with adding "cross-play, cross-buy, cross-progression" facilities in order to enhance that "play anywhere vision".
"We value the relationships we have with the other companies that are out there. We think that we learn from them, we think we can help gaming grow all up with cross-play, cross-buy, cross-progression, all these things that we focus on."
There's a lot more in the full Kotaku interview if you want to check it out. From our standpoint, this is a fascinating look back at a vision that still rings very true six years later, despite all the changes we've witnessed at Xbox.
This whole idea of "Play Anywhere" and "This is an Xbox" feels like it's only just been implemented, but it's actually existed for a long time now, and the marketing behind it has significantly ramped up over the past year-or-so. Some of the things Phil Spencer has said in the past have obviously changed a little bit to align with the modern-day strategy, but this is an important reminder that there's been plenty of consistency in Xbox's messaging as well.
Go and have a look for yourself, and let us know your thoughts down in the comments below!