Why the head of Xbox isn’t worried about its future
Did Xbox really lose the console war?
In May, Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, made a comment that got picked up far beyond the video game world. The New York Post ran the provocative headline, “Microsoft exec admits Xbox lost console war to Nintendo, Sony: ‘Worst generation to lose.’”
Of course, that’s not quite what Spencer meant.
His comments, made on Kinda Funny Games’ Xbox show, do sound dire out of context. In his words: “We’re not in the business of out-console-ing Sony or out-console-ing Nintendo. There isn’t really a great solution for us.” He continued, “That’s just not the world that we are in today. There is no world where Starfield is an 11 out of 10 and people are selling their PS5s. That’s just not going to happen.”
But Spencer wasn’t catastrophizing. He was acknowledging Microsoft’s need to think about different — and frankly, much bigger — opportunities than the market of people who buy video game consoles. Some people own a console. Nearly everyone owns a computer or a smartphone.
So perhaps it shouldn’t be contradictory that, only a month after those headlines, Spencer can say confidently, “I actually don’t have a lot of fear about 2024.”
We spoke with Spencer shortly following the 2023 Xbox Games Showcase, in which the company revealed an ambitious slate of games, beginning this fall with the decade-or-so-in-the-making Starfield and running through 2024 and beyond.
“My strategy isn’t to steal their customers,” Spencer said of his longtime rivals. “We’re really looking at new customers, new creators, and that being kind of a real critical component of our strategy.”
Spencer also spoke at length about how Xbox uses AI and player data, why Game Pass won’t make the same mistakes as video streaming
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