Xbox chief Phil Spencer explains that Xbox does not want to grow at the expense of Sony, as that would not help anyone.
What does Spencer say about Xbox’s growth? In an interview with the Guardian, Phil Spencer recently spoke about Xbox’s growth plans and also directed his gaze towards Sony.
In the interview, Spencer says that Xbox wants to help the gaming industry grow. Therefore, it is not Xbox’s plan to grow at the expense of other market participants like Sony/PlayStation.
Moreover, Spencer emphasizes that it does not help anyone if Xbox grows while Sony shrinks:
If we grow and Sony shrinks, it helps no one. Maybe if you only care about the success of Xbox compared to the success of Sony, but in terms of the entire industry, it does not help Electronic Arts. It does not help Ubisoft, it does not help Fortnite. It helps no one if all we do is swap one customer for another on a different console.
Phil Spencer via Guardian
Why does Spencer talk about a possible regression of Sony? In January 2022, Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard. The deal is expected to go through for a record sum of about 70 billion dollars and has been dragging on ever since. Particularly, Xbox competitor Sony is not impressed by the deal and fears for strong franchises like Call of Duty.
Moreover, various regulatory authorities are dealing with the “Activision Blizzard” deal. It must first be decided whether the deal is legally permissible and raises concerns. A merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard could create a market power that threatens fair competition.
This has moved Xbox chief Phil Spencer in recent months to praise Sony and PlayStation to the skies and to downplay the significance of Xbox. This went so far that in May 2023, Spencer depicted the Xbox as the loser in the console war.
In the interview with the Guardian, Spencer wanted to better contextualize these statements and explain that he did not mean to reassure the regulatory authorities regarding the “Activision Blizzard” deal.
With Starfield comes one of the most ambitious games of the year directly at release in Game Pass:
What else does Spencer say in the interview? After Spencer spoke about the growth and plans of Xbox, he loses a few words about the Game Pass compared to Netflix’s offerings.
The Game Pass offers “a lot” of titles with 300 to 400 games, but the number of games in the Game Pass is “very, very different” compared to the number of videos on Netflix, and they do not want to flood the Pass.
Since May 2023, it has been possible to give the Game Pass for free to your friends if you have an active subscription. This way, you can test multiplayer games without everyone having to buy the game or own a Game Pass subscription.
You can now give the Xbox Game Pass to friends and play coop games together
