Beyond availability of xCloud, games from Game Pass and a strategy involving the acquisition of additional game studios, Xbox President Phil Spencer opened another relatively thorny topic at today’s briefing for journalists and analysts. It concerns the publishing of console games on a PC, which until recently was the domain of Microsoft, ie Xbox. The Play Anywhere initiative, which was later followed up company-wide As a rule, Xbox Studios titles are guaranteed the ability to play the vast majority of new games on both the console and Windows, but Sony has begun to disrupt the status quo, and judging by the reactions to both Horizon Zero Dawn and Days Gone, it intends to continue. According to Phil Spencer, however, Japanese society is not doing well and has received criticism from him for the way it has established.
At the moment, we are the only platform that releases games on the console, PC and for the cloud at the same time. Others don’t bring console games to a PC until a few years later, and not only does they force people to buy their hardware, but then they charge them a second time to play a PC, says Spencer.
True, Spencer according to the magazine Video Games Chronicle he didn’t name anyone, but he was talking about “others” who are trying to release their console games on a PC, so we don’t recognize Nintendo in that. Spencer criticizes, above all, the fact that the games are released too long compared to their original release on the console, but even worse, according to him, the potential customer has to pay for them a second time. “At the moment, we are the only platform that releases games on the console, PC and for the cloud at the same time. Others bring console games to the PC only a few years later and not only do they force people to buy their hardware, but then they charge them a second time for playing the PC, ”criticizes Spencer. In addition, he did not forgive himself for the fact that all first party titles automatically go to the Game Pass offer, which is another thing that the competition does not offer.
The Xbox president also notes that Microsoft has more than doubled its sales of games from its own studios last year, that Microsoft is the third largest publisher on Steam, and that it is constantly expanding its portfolio of titles that have been available on consoles and Windows since day one. “Next year, we expect the PC segment to grow further through another amazing share of games from Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda. The Game Pass on PC is then an essential part of our gaming strategy for Windows, ”adds Spencer, emphasizing that he is trying to keep all target platforms in balance. Of course, he also sees great power in the already mentioned cloud gaming and the described possibilities to open the gates to the world of big games even to those who do not intend to spend for a computer or Xbox.
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