Phil Spencer wants more digital storefronts on Xbox

Xbox head Phil Spencer wants to see more digital storefronts such as Epic and Itch.io on Microsoft’s consoles.

Speaking with Polygon, Spencer said he would like to break down the ‘walled gardens’ that limit players to buying games on a particular platform’s official digital store.

“[Consider] our history as the Windows company,” he explained. “Nobody would blink twice if I said ‘hey, when you’re using a PC, you get to decide the type of experience you have [by picking where to buy games]’. There’s real value in that.”

The old ways of console makers subsidising the cost of hardware with game sales is becoming less effective, Spencer said, noting that component prices aren’t dropping and the console market isn’t growing, with more and more players turning to PC and handheld devices.

“[Subsidising hardware] becomes more challenging in today’s world,” Spencer said. “And I will say, and this may seem too altruistic, I don’t know that it’s growing the industry. So I think, what are the barriers? What are the things that create friction in today’s world for creators and players? And how can we be part of opening up that model?”

The Xbox head believes one solution would be to lessen the exclusivity of more Xbox games, adding that a player’s experience can be ‘hindered’ by having limited options. He used Sea of Thieves as an example, affirming that players shouldn’t be confined to hardware. Rather, he believes it should be more about knowing if a friend has Sea of Thieves, or if they want to play it.

“If I want to play on a gaming PC, then I feel like I’m more a continuous part of a gaming ecosystem as a whole,” Spencer said. “As opposed to [on console], my gaming is kind of sharded – to use a gaming term – based on these different closed ecosystems that I have to play across.”

Spencer’s comments follow a report that some publishers had expressed doubts about continuing to support Microsoft consoles. Earlier this week, Chris Dring from Eurogamer’s sister-site GamesIndustry.biz said his takeaway from GDC was that “Xbox is in real trouble as a hardware manufacturer”, with sources who spoke to Dring during the conference stating “Xbox’s performance in Europe is just flatlining”.