Third-party storefronts might doubtlessly be coming to Xbox
Throughout a current interview, Polygon requested Phil Spencer if he might “actually see a future the place shops like Itch.io and Epic Video games existed on Xbox” — and whether or not it was “only a matter of determining mountains of paperwork to get there” — to which the Xbox boss replied, “Sure.”
“[Consider] our historical past because the Home windows firm. No one would blink twice if I mentioned, ‘Hey, whenever you’re utilizing a PC, you get to determine the kind of expertise you’ve gotten [by picking where to buy games],” Spencer mentioned. “There’s actual worth in that.”
We have already seen Microsoft take steps to increase its attain by launching some Xbox exclusives on rival platforms, but it surely appears Spencer additionally goals to decrease limitations on Xbox as effectively. In response to Spencer, exclusivity with video games, and subsidizing consoles, is not as possible now.
“[Subsidizing hardware] turns into more difficult in immediately’s world,” Spencer mentioned. “And I’ll say, and this may increasingly appear too altruistic, I don’t know that it’s rising the trade. So I feel, what are the limitations? What are the issues that create friction in immediately’s world for creators and gamers? And the way can we be a part of opening up that mannequin?”
“If I wish to play on a gaming PC, then I really feel like I’m extra a steady a part of a gaming ecosystem as an entire,” Spencer later provides. “Versus [on console], my gaming is type of sharded — to make use of a gaming time period — based mostly on these completely different closed ecosystems that I’ve to play throughout.”
Spencer has additionally not too long ago commented on the rising recognition of handhelds, and whereas he hasn’t confirmed that an official Xbox handheld is on the way in which, he has mentioned the Xbox {hardware} crew has been exploring “completely different {hardware} kind components.”