Xbox boss Phil Spencer said he’s “not trying to move [PS5 and PC players] all over to Xbox anymore”, acknowledging that players are “all so invested in where our games are”, all he wants to do now is “allow more people to play” Xbox games on other systems.
Talking to the XboxEra podcast, Spencer acknowledged that whilst selling games on competitor devices means Xbox only recoups 70 percent of the sale, with 30 per cent going to the competitor storefront, that 70 percent helps Xbox “build great portfolios”.
“There are people – whether it’s their libraries are on PlayStation or Nintendo, whether it’s that they like the controller better, they just like the games that are there – and I don’t want to then look at that and say ‘well, there’s no way that we should be able to build a business there, [or] find fans of our franchises there’.
“I’m not trying to move them all over to Xbox anymore. We’re all so invested in where our games are, let’s just allow more people to play. And yes, the 70 percent that we make on games on other platforms is helpful to us being able to build great portfolios, like we showed at Developer Direct, and I hope this will continue to show through the rest of the year.”
That said, Spencer was pragmatic enough to admit that position may change, not least because yes, he would very much prefer to be making “all of the money for all the games that [Xbox] ship[s] right now”.
That doesn’t mean Xbox is about to give up its hardware endeavours, however.
“Obviously we make more on our own platform, it’s one of the reasons that investing in our own platform is important,” he added.
Spencer’s comments follow a recent interview in which he was asked if like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Starfield would continue to have an “exclusivity window” on Xbox systems. He replied with a strikingly simple: “No.”