Xbox Head Phil Spencer has been on record talking about the Xbox One and Microsoft's future on PC quite a bit now. He's mentioned PC-like upgrades for Xbox consoles (but we shouldn't bust out screwdrivers yet) and that just because Microsoft is supporting PC, that doesn't mean they'll push the Xbox One on PC players.
Microsoft has made a number of Xbox One games available on the PC and they will continue to do so, despite saying they are still fully committed to the Xbox brand. In an interview with NZGamer, Spencer offered fresh details on where Microsoft is with the Xbox's upcoming console, Project Scorpio, and the PC.
According to Spencer, Microsoft isn't competing against the PC like Sony is.
Yeah, it’s like you’re in our design meetings in a way, as we’ve talked about this. I usually don’t do this, but for this one I will specifically talk about Sony. I think they’ve come out and said PC is their competition.
Spencer: And I just don’t look at it that way. I know that some of our best Xbox customers also play games on the PC. I think for many gamers, there’s this artificial decision when a new game comes out.
Spencer went on to say that Microsoft is attempting to bridge a gap between the PC community and Xbox so that players aren't left trying to decide which version of a game is better to buy.
Let’s use an example like Overwatch, because it’s an incredibly popular, great game from Blizzard and not one of ours.
So with Overwatch, when you go and buy this, you’ve got to make this decision on day one: “Are my friends playing on PC, or on console? If they’re on console, which one are they playing on?” And that’s going to dictate which version of Overwatch you’re going to buy.
The decision between which platform to buy a game is "unnatural" according to Spencer and it doesn't put the game at the center of the decision, but the platform. Microsoft is looking to change that.
When I think about it, I think that’s an unnatural decision tree that doesn’t help Blizzard, and doesn’t help the gamer. Really, what I want is people to be able to buy games, and play it where you want to play it right now. If that means you want to play it on your PC because you’re at work, and if you want to use the controller we have Bluetooth, or keyboard or mouse then PC games support that. Then when you’re at home, if you want to sit on the couch with a controller in your hands and play on your TV – you should be able to play the same games, with the same state, the same friends, the same progress and achievements. That’s kind of what led us into Xbox Play Anywhere.
So if I get to your question, I don’t think I’m pushing people over – I think I’m actually putting the game at the centre of how we think about our platform. What do they want to do? If they want to play their games on PC, I’m not trying to trick anybody into buying an Xbox.
Microsoft's first few Xbox Play Anywhere titles have released, allowing Xbox players to pick up their gaming on either the Xbox One or PC and Spencer is stressing that the less stress between which platform you choose, the better.
What I’m saying is, for our first party games we’re seeing more adoption of XPA, and with third-party games as well. Just buy the games that you want to play. If you want to play them on PC today, and console tomorrow, we’re going to support that. If you never want to play on an Xbox, that’s OK. If you said you only want to play an Xbox that’s OK as well. You make the decision about the games you want to play, and where you want to play them. We’re going to build a platform that supports that.
Can't really argue with less boundaries in gaming.
