That doesn’t close the door on the arrival of stores like the Epic Games Store on Xbox consoles Xbox
For many years, Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, has talked about his desire to break down barriers between players. After starting to bring Xbox games to PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, it confirmed that it wants to give players more freedom in which stores they can access on Xbox.
Phil Spencer isn’t closing the door on the arrival of the Epic Games Store on Xbox
In an interview with Polygon, he talked about a future in which Xbox console owners can buy their games on Itch.io and the Epic Games Store, which, according to him, will benefit gamers and fan manufacturers.
Yes. (Think) our history as a Windows company. If I say, “Hey, when you use a PC, you can decide what kind of experience you have (by choosing where to buy games). That has real added value.”
Phil Spencer also explained that the console market is not growing as more gamers are moving to PCs and handheld consoles. So the idea of subsidizing consoles and forcing players to buy games through the official store to amortize the cost doesn’t make as much sense anymore. He thinks locking players into the system could encourage them to stay away.
(means of subsidizing) is becoming more difficult in today’s world. And I would say, and this sounds very altruistic, I don’t know if it grows the industry or not. So I wonder what the odds are. What are the friction factors in today’s world for creators and players? And how can we participate in the unveiling of this model?
To achieve this, Xbox has begun to eliminate the notion of exclusivity. According to Phil Spencer, the gaming experience is hampered when a player thinks about which console they can enjoy the game on and which store they should go through. He cited the example of Sea of Thieves to explain that the player does not need to worry about the equipment he and his friends have in order to take advantage of it.
Now, if I want to play on a gaming PC, I feel like I am an integral part of the entire gaming ecosystem. Unlike what happens (on console), my game is divided according to these different closed ecosystems (…) in which I have to play.
This prospect seems obviously interesting, but raises a lot of questions for the players. If one day Xbox console owners use the Epic Games Store, will they be able to enjoy the console versions of the games or will they have to play them in cloud gaming? Can they play hundreds of games accumulated over the years for free thanks to Epic Games Store offers?
What is certain is that consoles tend to become PCs with fewer and fewer possibilities. It will be interesting to see what kind of experience Xbox offers for its console in the coming years.
