Microsoft's gaming boss Phil Spencer can certainly imagine that alternative game distribution platforms and clients, such as Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store, will find their way onto the Xbox Series X|S game consoles, as the manager now tells the website Polygon in an interview has communicated. To do this, Microsoft would have to open its ecosystem and bring its game consoles closer to gaming PCs.
Phil Spencer is open to Steam, Epic & Co.
As Phil Spencer put it on record, “no one would bat an eyelash” if considerations were now given to opening up the Xbox's own closed ecosystem of game consoles and adding platforms known from the PC, such as Steam, the Epics Games Store or GOG “Port” Xbox Series X and Series S.
Yes. Consider our history as a Windows company. No one would bat an eyelid if I said, “Hey, if you have one [Gaming-]PC, you can decide what kind of experience you have [indem du auswählst, wo du Spiele kaufst].” That's where the real value lies.
– Phil Spencer, Microsoft –
Microsoft's gaming and Xbox boss sees the situation of subsidizing game consoles as “difficult these days” because hardware prices are falling much more slowly. Against the background of one no longer [oder langsamer] As the console market grows, he sees a closed ecosystem as a “possible obstacle” to reaching new players, says Phil Spencer.
Subsidizing hardware is becoming increasingly difficult in today's world. And I say, and this may seem too altruistic, I don't know if the industry is growing because of it. So I ask myself: what are the obstacles? What are the things that cause friction between developers and players in today's world?
– Phil Spencer, Microsoft –
“How can we help open up this model?” asks Phil Spencer in an interview with Polygon. Using the example of Sea of Thieves, which was initially released exclusively for PC and Xbox and will soon also be released for Playstation, exclusivity can also be an obstacle.
When I play on a PC, I feel like I'm a continuous part of the entire gaming ecosystem. The opposite is gaming [auf Spielkonsolen] fragmented due to the many closed ecosystems I have to play across.
– Phil Spencer, Microsoft –
However, Phil Spencer did not reveal how far Microsoft's considerations have progressed to open the Xbox Series X|S ecosystem to alternative game distribution platforms and gaming clients. Microsoft is obviously playing with the idea and that can only have advantages for the players.
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Those: Phil Spencer, Microsoft via Polygon