In a recent interview with The Verge, Phil Spencer shed some light into the future of Xbox One. GameSpot reported this and phrased it in a rather peculiar way. Spencer was discussing the transition we see the competition making that focuses on services like PlayStation Now and how Sony hinted that streaming services might be the future of gaming. Nintendo is working on a console that supposedly let’s you play your games on any device. Analysts suspect cloud streaming technology is involved. GameSpot wrote:
The Xbox One most likely will not be the last console from Microsoft. That’s according to Xbox boss Phil Spencer, who was asked in a new interview if he foresees a day when Xbox exists as an app, storefront, or brand only instead of an actual piece of hardware. “No,” Spencer told The Verge. “I fully expect that you’ll see another console from us. Our best customers are Xbox console customers, and I want to keep those people engaged both on the Xbox One and anything we might do in the future. I’m 100 percent committed to that.”
Spencer emphasized a commitment to hardware instead of taking the brand in the direction the competition seems to be going. On numerous occasions Microsoft has stressed that to achieve advanced experiences, you need dedicated local hardware and powerful cloud computing. This is exactly what the company has said from the beginning. Crackdown 3 is a great example of this. You have gorgeous cell-shaded graphics and unprecedented destruction. This is possible with a combination of local hardware and cloud computing.
Articles like these propagate misinformation that the Xbox One is in a dire situation. The focus could’ve been on the real story about where the head of Xbox sees the brand going down the line. Spencer only said what we knew all along. Microsoft believes in local hardware. Xbox sales are strong and Halo 5 might be the best-selling exclusive this year if you go by Amazon’s general trends. The Xbox brand is secure and the future of the brand lies in the combination discussed above. Additionally, if you want to go into financials, Microsoft is stronger than ever and Xbox Live is generating significant income for them. The competition are the ones struggling on that front. I just wish other outlets recognized this instead of feeding into the propaganda.
Asher is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 1110 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: wrote over 1,100 ICXM pieces on Xbox news, hardware reviews, and platform commentary before joining Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017.