Phil Spencer says Xbox is not trying to "out-console Sony or Nintendo," and "great games" alone won't solve its problems

gamesradar.com:

Xbox boss Phil Spencer disagrees with the sentiment that "if you just build great games, everything would turn around" for Microsoft's gaming brand, and more to the point, argues that Xbox is not trying to "out-console" PlayStation or Nintendo to begin with. 

In a lengthy interview with Kinda Funny (opens in new tab), Spencer fielded concerns that the console experience has become less central to Xbox overall. He maintains that "the console is the core of the Xbox brand" but also insists that "we have to go off and do our own thing with Game Pass, with the stuff we do with [Xbox cloud gaming], and the way we build our games" because "there's not a win for Xbox in staying in the wake of somebody else."

"We're not in the business of out-consoling Sony or Nintendo," Spencer says. "There isn't really a great solution or win for us. I know that will upset a ton of people, but the truth of the matter is that when you're third place in the console marketplace and the top two players are as strong as they are and have, in certain cases, a very discrete focus on doing deals and other things that will make being Xbox hard - and that's on us, not on anybody else." Spencer appears to be taking a silent jab at PlayStation here, particularly its habit of buying up timed exclusives or paying "blocking rights" (opens in new tab) to keep certain games from coming to Game Pass, though that's just conjecture on my part. 

"I see commentary that if you just build great games, everything would turn around," Spencer adds. "It's just not true that if we go off and build great games, all of a sudden you're gonna see console share shift in some dramatic way ... This idea that if we just focus more on great games on our console, somehow we're