Phil Spencer says, “Our biggest growth in Xbox players is on PC and cloud”
Spencer’s comment came as part of a lengthy discussion about the future of Xbox in a Rolling Stone interview, where, in discussing Xbox consoles, Spencer also spoke about how Microsoft’s “biggest growth in Xbox players is on PC and cloud. The console space all up isn’t growing, across all of them. We love those customers, but in terms of continuing to expand and grow Xbox, it’s about PC, it’s about cloud, and it’s about making our games more available in more places.”
The whole conversation comes alongside Xbox’s new campaign, shown in the video above, which tells us that “Whether you have an Xbox console, PC, Samsung Smart TV, handheld, mobile phone, Amazon FireTV Stick, or even a Meta Quest, you have an Xbox.” Spencer elaborates on this and the idea of “changing the brand”, saying that “It literally was a box when it first launched. It was the Direct X box. What it’s grown into now is more accessibility. Xbox isn’t just one device, Xbox is on your smart TV, Xbox is on your PC, Xbox is on your phone, and we’re in the middle of that transition.”
Spencer adds that “the thing that should really have longevity are the games, characters, and world — and the platforms should enable us to experience those games where we want to play.”
So, while the Xbox team will “definitely do more consoles in the future,” it’ll also look at those “other devices,” with Spencer saying, “We are trying to expand, ‘What does an Xbox mean?’ I want Xbox to be something 20 years from now. I think in order for Xbox to be vibrant, be successful, it needs to be about multiple pieces of hardware.” It’s clear the Xbox team has big plans going forward: we know already that Microsoft is working on an Xbox handheld, even if it is several years away yet, while in the meantime Xbox’s engineers will work on tasks such as improving the Xbox app on other hardware.
