Microsoft has, for the umpteenth time, committed to a multiformat future.
In an interview with TBPN, as transcribed by Game File, CEO Satya Nadella spoke for several minutes about his company’s gaming business without once saying the word ‘Xbox’.
He pointed out that, following the firm’s near-$70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, it’s become the biggest publisher in the world. And now its goal is to bring its software to everyone.
He said:
“We want to be a fantastic publisher, similar to the approach of what we did with Office. We’re going to be everywhere, on every platform. We want to make sure, whether it’s consoles, whether it’s the PC, whether it’s mobile, whether it’s cloud gaming, or the TV, so we just want to make sure the games are being enjoyed by gamers everywhere.”
Nadella did touch a little on Microsoft’s next-gen plans, reiterating that the organisation intends to blend the benefits of PCs and consoles, which reinforces a lot of what the organisation has been saying lately. However, he didn’t get into specifics.
The executive then concluded that the “best way to innovate is to have good margins”, perhaps corroborating recent reports about the intense profit goals which have been attributed to the Xbox division.
He concluded:
“Gaming’s competition is not other gaming. Gaming’s competition is short-form video. And so, if we as an industry don’t continue to innovate both how we produce, what we produce, how we think about distribution, the economic model-best way to innovate is to have good margins.”
This reflects comments made by Xbox first-party executive Matt Booty recently, when he said the company is not competing with PlayStation, but social media platforms like TikTok instead.
Obviously, there’s a lot to dig into here, but it’s nothing particularly new.
We think it’s pretty clear at this point that Microsoft is completely done with exclusives, and we should expect practically all of its games on PS5 from this point onwards.
As for its new hardware, we have questions about how it’s going to effectively combine PC and console without completely undermining its own business model. And then you have to ponder how much all of this is going to cost.
We’re not convinced Xbox is going to win the war against TikTok with a $1,000-plus device, but it’s clear from Nadella’s comments that the company will no longer bankroll the division’s whims.
And so it’s going to be fascinating to see how Microsoft positions its next-gen device against the PS6 – if it even attempts that angle at all.
See Also
As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.