Xbox boss: ‘The business is not how many consoles you sell’

Xbox head Phil Spencer has suggested success as a platform holder is measured by software and service sales rather than console purchases.

In an interview with Kotaku, the executive pointed out that companies like Google are entering the market as rivals to Xbox without a dedicated console in their arsenal.

“The business is selling software and services,” he said. “The business is not how many consoles you sell. The consoles are not where the profit in this side of the business is made, which is where the whole: ‘Who’s selling more consoles’ at any one time as the kind of root good of who is doing well in the business is just not true.

“You have other companies entering gaming who don’t even have a console as part of their equation. It’s all about how many games are people playing. And how much people are spending playing those games and how often they play.”

That’s not to say Spencer doesn’t see consoles, like the upcoming Xbox Scarlett, as central to Microsoft’s games strategy.

“I think the experience we bring to the family room with Xbox and focusing on things like compatibility and focusing on things like cross-play is actually important to where we see gaming growing, which is why we are focused on consoles and spending a ton of money and resources investing in Scarlett,” he said. “The same thing on PC.

“So, today, people are saying: ‘Are you going third party?’ Whatever that means. But the idea that we are a platform company continues to be true, and we think about how that platform infrastructure could grow. And we think having the world’s most powerful console, having a great Xbox in the home, is a critical component to that.”

Microsoft is preparing to launch game streaming service xCloud this October, enabling it to deliver “console-quality gaming” to Android mobile devices, and potentially bring its products to rival console platforms like Switch in the future.