Ah, good old Phil Spencer, always keeping us PlayStation plebs in his thoughts. In a fresh interview with Japanese publication Famitsu (as translated by our pals over at Pure Xbox), the Xbox boss spills some beans on what the future of Microsoft’s gaming brand looks like.
Spencer outlines a broader vision for Xbox as a whole — something that the company’s been pushing for years, with Game Pass being a key component — and then brings PlayStation and Nintendo into the equation. “Just as we think of ROG Ally and Steam Deck as part of the Xbox community, we need to think of the many Nintendo Switch and PlayStation users as part of the Xbox community in the future,” he says.
It’s a quote that’s already raising eyebrows on social media, with many suggesting that Spencer’s hinting towards a future where Xbox isn’t really about selling hardware. Maybe we’re not too far off from a world where Game Pass exists on competing platforms? That’s probably jumping the gun at this point, but with Spencer’s comments, alongside reports that Xbox Series X|S is lagging far behind the competition in terms of commercial success, you can’t help but wonder.
Of course, Spencer’s on an obvious PR run here in wake of Microsoft’s unprecedented acquisition of Activision Blizzard King, but it’s always worth keeping an eye on how things are trending on the other side.
What do you make of all this? Is this just blatant PR speak designed to placate the masses? What do you think the future of Xbox looks like, from a PlayStation perspective? Give us a ‘hmmm‘ in the comments section below.
Robert’s been a dedicated PlayStation fan since the days of Tekken 2, and he still loves a good dust up. When he’s not practising combos, he’s usually getting lost in the latest 100-hour RPG, or, y’know, replaying The Witcher 3.
One small step for Xbox, one giant leap for Microsoft (towards becoming third party).
If Game Pass comes to PlayStation, would it cost us more than PC and Xbox?
I’d love to see a world where all three of the platforms were more friendly with each other.
Of course he considers us part of the community, or our wallets, the part he really cares about.
This is a precursor to Xbox announcing “Xbox community sales figures” so it looks like they’re selling really well. Genius.
That’s one way of getting around being outsold 9 to 1 in France
Game Pass will be a platform on the other hardware.
If Xbox pulls out of hardware manufacturing though, a new player needs to emerge, otherwise Sony will just become lazy and anti-cosumer without a direct competitor.
PR Spin – Microsoft are the unpopular kid that’s trying his best to convince everyone else that he’s part of the group by telling everyone else that they’re his friend. No-one believes it and everyone is suspicious of his motives…
Fairytaler Phil just said another stupid thing😅 He is like a clown.
That’s your dream Phil but unfortunately it’s everyone else’s nightmare.
I haven’t owned a Xbox in my life. I don’t really feel part of that community.
It’s definitely PR speak. He’s always on a PR push.
Phil Spencer’s public persona is MS’s best product in the past decade. He’s basically their marketing strategy at this point.
@Mortal Actually I think MS is the kid that has everyone at school convinced he is a good kid until they see how he treats animals.
I can see a future where a bespoke version of Game Pass is on PlayStation. It’d only be the Xbox first party games. It gives Xbox more subscribers and PlayStation can keep players on their console. Which is what both want
And it only took one trash(ier) COD for him to start lying lol. Who would have thought?
*****. If that was the case, he would have allowed Starfield to launch on PS5, as was originally planned.
@pumpkin_head To be fair it’s arguable that MS aren’t competing as it is. Not having an Xbox in the market wouldn’t really make much different as you could still buy a PC with an Xbox Controller and subscribe to GP without noticing anything different. If MS focussed on the PC market in that way I believe they’d achieve more success anyway – and basically compete directly with Steam instead.
Why this negativity here? Of course he wants our money. And if the product is worth it to me, I‘m happy to spend it. And yes, he acts hypocritical, because he wouldn’t allow Sony to bring PS Plus to Xbox, as Sony will not allow MS to bring GP. Just standard marketing speech, nothing to complain too much.
The fact that he includes the impenetrable Nintendo here makes this read as PR hot air. That said, by buying up as many studios and I.P. as possible along the way, the endgame is absolutely to have Gamepass available on any and every available platform. An effective way of skirting anti-competition attention and turning any slow adopters into the bad guy. Shrewd. I simply won’t support it.
One question, with Playstation users, does he mean ‘us players’, or our wallets. Come one uncle Phil, you are better than this.
I know exactly what he wants to do with the Playstation community and i won’t stand for it.
I’ve been on the other side. I had an Xbox 360 and i was thoroughly bait and switched. Early next gen? Red ring of death. JRPG exclusives? Only for the first 2 years then we give up. Exclusives or good games? Nah… we are now only Gears, Halo and Forza.
Nah… i have no interested in going back. Even if they pretend they are different now, it will be the same. Once they get enough people, the bait will turn to switch and prices will come up, exclusives will dry up and studios will close. More monetization added, no game ownership, requires subscriptions. Yes, i know exactly what you want from us Phil and i don’t trust you or Microsoft with the future of gaming.
Colin from LSM has been talking about GamePass on PS for a good year or two now.
Seems inevitable that a modified version comes over to PS and Nintendo.
So does that mean they’re going to start porting all of their games to PlayStation? Lol
I very much doubt gamepass will ever come to Playstation, as Sony would not want it on there, and MS would not want to share the sub cost.
There is a chance, but it is incredibly small my opinion.
@LightningLeader
No, you can play on anything exept a playstation is what he means.
@Jacko11 I’m going to need to issue you a Stand DOWN with all that talk of modified Gamepass
People discount Colin a lot, but he knows his stuff after almost two decades in the space.
Kevin Butler was a more authentic human being than Phil Spencer.😂
@Sakai I can’t see how it’s even technically possible unless it’s streaming only.
Edit : well I suppose it could be like eas, ms offering their own games that they’ve released on playstation.
@Jill_Sandwich would never come to playstation because Sony wouldn’t allow it because they want everyone to buy last of us three times full price 😒
@Nem is it was that bad if you got your Xbox 360 early? I got my Xbox 360 E only in 2013, because I always buy PlayStation consoles first.
Phil Spencer is the physical manifestation of PR talk.
@Balosi I agree. I am not sure people think things through before they say them.
Just getting gamepass onto PS or Nintendo would be a huge task as a proportion of the games are not even available on PS or Nintendo.
How much effort would it be to port every single xbox 1st party game to PS and or Nintendo for gamepass, never mind all the other games. It would take years and years
@Max_the_German But that has never been discussed has it? Even if it was PS plus is what Xbox gold was it’s nothing like game pass so you can’t really compare it.
Ps plus tiers everyone thought it would be Sony’s version of game pass and we’ve all seen how that turned out
Set aside all of the sad, and pathetic blind brand allegiant fanhumanisms….
This simple anecdote from Spencer (as shallow as it may ring) is more direct communication, acknowledgement and fan service than we have received from Sony for the entire PS5 generation thus far.
It’s a shame how far down the greed driven corporate rabbit hole Sony has gone, to the extent it seems they don’t even feel the need to pretend they enjoy or understand the medium anymore.
Hey, want to pass us those Bethesda games then? Redfall can be forgotten, but give us the rest if that’s true.
Suspicious words from Phil are why I don’t buy it nor his products or services…
@__jamiie good job sticking up for Phil and little old Microsoft! A plus plus!
@GamingFan4Lyf No I meant where they would allow competing services on each other’s consoles.
He’s not wrong, i use my PS5 controller to play xbox cloud gaming on my smart tv
Obvs Xbox aren’t going to be releasing anymore hardware what’s the point .
Excellent👌 Honestly, I will speak out as a ‘fanboy’ against Xbox, but I love Phil. Phil might have to say things I don’t want to hear, but I like him. I feel included.
@Ken_Kaniff Yeah. I have considered skipping next generation and just moving over the PC as it’s the only place to get both Xbox and (eventually) PlayStation titles. Nintendo would be the only console I’d own.
I’m sure for around the cost of buying both Xbox and PlayStation consoles, I could build a mid-range PC to hook up to my TV that can at least run games at “console settings”.
@GreatKwyjibo I wasn’t sticking up for Microsoft. I was pointing out that Sony are just as interested in our wallets as any other business in the world. Or do you think that PlayStation is a benevolent, not-for-profit?
Microsoft can buy all the gaming company’s that become available all they want, ain’t gonna change the fact I’m getting a PS6. Even I’d look good with 2 trillion dollars behind me. Let’s see how well Phil does with Sonys bank behind him
@KundaliniRising333 when you’re “winning” you don’t need to talk. That’s weakness. Losers are always the one’s getting in front of headlines, winners don’t have to.
That being said, I wish Sony would talk a little more.
Greatness would be one console that plays all comes downloadable with full visuals and effects.
All day one games.
Don’t care who makes the console.
Just imagine the developers joy, just one console to produce for reducing time and cost.
Would also mean all developers could really push the boundaries of that one console as well.
One console in your entertainment set up only one HDMI 2.1 required for one console.
The positives are endless against multiple consoles and console exclusives.
The ABK aquisition has gone to his head, he seems delusional with that statement.
No thanks Phil, I’m happy just being a part of the Nintendo/PlayStation community. I’ve been apart of the Xbox community before and it wasn’t pleasant.
Also if gamepass ever does come to Playstation/Nintendo then I hope its not forced on the home UI, as I don’t want that on my systems.
@OldGamer999 that’s called a PC lol. besides i’m already part of the xbox ecosystem because PC is amazing
@nomither6
No it’s not PC, yes for Xbox.
But Sony do PC later not day one and not all games.
Nintendo don’t do PC at all.
So definitely not a PC.
@__jamiie if I were gullible enough to believe that Sony were not for profit, I’d be gullible enough to believe anything Phil Spencer says.
Hey Phil Spencer you are no better then a Creepy used car salesman. I dont want to be part of your Xbox community. I’m sticking with Playstation. I’m buying a PS6 and not Xbox 5.
@OldGamer999 sound awful. It’s a monopoly and it’s defenetly not good. I don’t want that all of industry will be like one big and useless Game Pass. And exclusives like that Sony and Nintendo did is a great games. I don’t want a future without them.
@BintendoMan Makes sense for MS, but I don’t see what’s in it for Sony. Having Game Pass on Playstation would basically mean handing over a significant part of software revenue to MS. It’s that software revenue that makes this whole endeavour worth it for Sony in the first place.
The only way it would make sense for Sony, is if only Xbox published games would be available through the service, but such a deal would have little value to MS, or it MS was willing to share a significant cut of GP sub revenue with Sony, which I can’t see happening either.
It’s one of those things that sounds nice initially but falls apart when you start thinking about it.
@GymratAmarillo You really never did. Every Xbox exclusive is also available on PC….except for Halo 5 for some reason.
@theSpectre We all know he’s lying. Remember he wants PS5 owners to sell there PS5 just to buy a Xbox Series for Starfield a game that at best is a 8/10 maybe.
@Sakai Sony wouldn’t want gamepass as is on there platform but they would like a version of it where it just Xbox 1st party games. Would be a win win for both sides as for Sony it helps retain and gain customer and for Xbox increases game pass subscribers (which is their main focus).
So… are Xbox players part of the Playstation community because MLB The Show is multiplatform? 😒
Sounds like a threat. Leaked emails (via the big Xbox leak) reveal Microsoft are leaving gaming if Game Pass growth doesn’t quadruple by 2027 but that won’t be possible without the subscription being on PS and Nintendo systems. As Microsoft owns CoD now, the tactic will probably be “put Game Pass on your systems or CoD disappears forever”.
@3Above I guess PC gamers are part of the PS community as well with Returnal, TLoU Part 1, the Uncharted games, GoW, HZD, Sackboy, Spider-Man and S-M:MM all being PC games.
@Ben7982 “Sony wouldn’t want gamepass as is on their platform but they would like a version of it where it just Xbox 1st party games.”
When did anyone at Sony ever say that?
Lies of p like run dmc said you talk too much.you never shup up.word up son
I don’t want to be part of any Microsoft community thank you very much. Awful company.
@Kevw2006 I would to, but that seems unlikely. Xbox’s whole purpose right now is to get subscribers. They don’t really care about individual sales
No thanks, want nothing to do with lying Phil and his fans to be honest.
But i’m not part of the xbox community because i own a playstation and notvan xbox. I dont frequent xbox sites and i’m not interested in owning another xbox anytime ever..
I’ve had every generation of Xbox and PS besides the new Xbox Series, because I no longer want anything at all to do with xbox.
Maybe their software sales aren’t going to plan either and need an excuse to bring them to other platforms
@AnVold
It’s definitely not about Microsoft being king.
Just one console that plays all the games.
All the developers like Sony Microsoft Nintendo etc would sell software on that console and that’s how they would make money and still though dlc etc on their game and have competition.
The only thing t are removing is dam multiple consoles that we all have to buy to play exclusives.
@GreatKwyjibo you a right no one at Sony has said that it was just my opinion which I should have clarified. I do apologise.
@OldGamer999 there’s no competition in that scenario, that only benefits the person making the consoles. Not consumers as it removes our choice.
Smells of desperation to me. He’s full of 💩
I don’t really feel like part of an Xbox community for being part of a community they inherited by buying the company that owns a particular game. I can see them converting Activision accounts for Call of Duty to Xbox accounts to further inflate their user numbers like they did for Minecraft.
@3Above I mean, wouldn’t that make Xbox gamers part of the Playstation community?
@XenonKnight If there’s one thing that is always true about Phil Spencer, if his lips are moving, he’s lying.
@OldGamer999 You’re ignoring the fact that this one platform would still be owned by a single company, meaning they control the entire marketplace for the only console available. It would be the single worst monopoly in the history of the entertainment industry.
PS5 hasn’t had an internet browser and I’m willing to bet it’s so Live can’t sneak its way in there somehow.
That being said… I’m sure if Sony wanted to they could somehow allow it and benefit from it. Though I don’t blame them for keeping it out
@MasterChiefWiggum you aren’t missing that much tbh
Now with elder scrolls 6 or fallout 5?
I remeber when his company tried to charge pc customers to play online with Xbox live and the pc community laughed at them because pc players play online for free on every game. Then they ditched that ideal. Microsoft is just a sleeze of a company they have monopolized the pc operating system its ether windows or Mac os your only choices unless you count Linux witch is free but ms has tried to screw over so many times. Their trying their hardest to do it with video games. To monopoly it till you have no choice. Google how many game ips Microsoft owns its staggering before they even bought blizzard.
@GreatKwyjibo
You have choice of what games to buy
And that is the competition.
@MasterEMFG PS5 does have a browser, it just isn’t easily accessible. There are ways to get round that though.
I consider humans part of the human race and the human race is part of our interest as we look into expanding our portfolio welcoming Universal Love in the Xbox family. Namaste. 🤡
Ah yes. The “We bought everything in sight and will now be selling it back to you on a digital only subscription based service” business model coming full swing. Classic Microsoft. Classic. One for the history books.
Give me gears of War on playstation and we’ll consider being a member of ur community
If that’s the case they wouldn’t have killed the PlayStation version of Starfield that was well into development work.
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