There are ‘no victims’ in Xbox’s multiplatform era, says former PlayStation exec

Former PlayStation executive Adam Boyes has praised Microsoft’s “agile” gaming strategy and claimed that there are ‘no victims’ in Xbox’s multiplatform era.

Boyes – known by many for PlayStation’s infamous ‘how to share games’ PS4 video – was PlayStation’s vice president of third-party relations between 2012 and 2016. More recently, he was co-CEO of Iron Galaxy, and he recently founded consultancy firm Vivrato.

Speaking in an interview with Gamertag Radio, Boyes was asked for his opinion on Microsoft’s increased focus on multiplatform releases. Multiple former Xbox exclusives have recently been announced for PS5, most recently Forza Horizon 5, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and boss Phil Spencer has said there are “no red lines” for what could come next.

Not everyone has reacted positively to the news, however, with some notable Xbox influencers even having publicly withdrawn support for the platform.

“I understand why people have feelings about it and opinions, because their idea is the identity of me choosing a brand and being beholden to that brand is unilateral, and therefore that should be the one source of all content,” Boyes said.

“But I do think if we think of it in the analogy of, they were Blockbuster that became Netflix, and what I mean by that is when they began, it was about the physical unit being the entertainment experience in the living room, and that was a plastic player that your put discs in and it plays it, so you need to serve people with the physicality of it.

He added: “Retail and partnerships are important. You and I have both waited in many lines, and many early morning openings, to rush in there and sprint against everyone else – and I usually lost the race, by the way – to get that console as fast as we possibly could. And it’s just different now.”

The former PlayStation VP said that Xbox is now “an entertainment provider” and not “just a disc producer and disc distributor”.

“So if we think about that, the analogy that maybe PlayStation is HBO, Microsoft is Netflix, and Nintendo is Disney, then their job is to get incredibly interactive and engaging entertainment out to as many people as possible.”

He added: “I understand why traditionalists are looking at that being like, ‘I don’t like change! I want it to only be where I want it to be!’ And that’s the bit where my logic gap starts to break.

“Because when Phil [Spencer] and his team are putting amazing content on more platforms, who’s the victim? I ask a lot of people, ‘who’s the victim?’ And there aren’t any, except for people who are like, ‘I only want it where I bought it, and that’s what I expect!’”

Boyes said he “applauds [Xbox] for being agile enough in a changing and transitioning market to expand”, but agreed that that Microsoft’s multiplatform strategy presents challenges when it comes to the value proposition of its future consoles.

“You’re absolutely right that when we’re trying to sell people the new version [of a console]… is it 8k, is it 16k, is it 32k? Where are we going from here? Right now, I’m happy with the number of Ks and the fidelity – it’s great. Then the value proposition changes.”

In another recent Gamertag Radio interview, Spencer discussed where Xbox console hardware fits within its new, more open approach to multiplatform game development.