In an interview published on Time magazine's official website, Xbox Head Phil Spencer talked about the importance of gaming for Microsoft. The Xbox brand is now "iconic" with console gaming, said Spencer, which is doubly important as he believes the console space to be a "critical segment". He also said that Xbox Live is the most critical asset owned by the company when it comes to gaming as a whole.
So when I think about our strengths in gaming, today the Xbox brand is iconic with console gaming. We are also Windows, as Microsoft, so we've placed a big focus on Windows gaming and that's a large addressable market that we haven't really played in that we're expanding in. I see Xbox Live from a platform perspective as the most critical asset we have. Xbox Live is on iOS, it's on Android, we talked about cross-play with Switch, and it's obviously on PC and Xbox.
When we think about the console space, it's not the largest segment in gaming by far, but it is a critical customer segment that's really important, and they love their games. And the best console gamers are the best gamers across every device, which not everybody sees, but we see it in the data. So if you're a great console gamer, you're probably playing a lot of PC games, you're probably playing a lot of games on your mobile device, you're just a gamer and you want to play on every device.
At E3 2017, Microsoft opened up cross-play with Nintendo's Switch for Minecraft and Rocket League via Xbox Live. They also revealed the Xbox One X, previously known as Project Scorpio, set to be the most powerful console ever made once it releases on November 7th for $/€499 or £449 if you're in the United Kingdom.
Just yesterday, analyst firm DFC Intelligence published a new forecast. According to their report, Microsoft's Xbox One family of devices will sell 63 million units by the end of 2021, 17 million of which will be Xbox One X systems. Do you plan to get one? Let us know in the comments!
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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