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GamesIndustry.biz [...] For Sony, it's similar to the past 25 years, with PlayStation boss Jim Ryan telling us last year how he wants to upgrade people from PS4 to PS5 as quickly as possible. For Xbox, the platform is less the new console, and more the Game Pass subscription service. It wants to grow its existing user base of ten million subscribers by making its exclusive games available on PC, Xbox One, Series X and its xCloud streaming service. That's why Microsoft has said that its slate of games for its next console -- for the first year at least -- will also work on the current machine. [...]
Sony is tasking its studios to make games that are only possible on the more advanced machine, whereas Xbox is asking its studios to make games that can work across generations. It's a difference that's sparked online social media debates over whether the Xbox studios are being held back as a result. [...]
"Frankly, held back is a meme that gets created by people who are too caught up in device competition," says Microsoft's executive vice president of gaming, and Xbox chief, Phil Spencer. "I just look at Windows. It's almost certain if the developer is building a Windows version of their game, then the most powerful and highest fidelity version is the PC version. You can even see that with some of our first-party console games going to PC, even from our competitors, that the richest version is the PC version. Yet the PC ecosystem is the most diverse when it comes to hardware, when you think about the CPUs and GPUs from years ago that are there. [...]
"That said, we're shipping Xbox Series X this year. I'm playing it every day at home, and it is different to playing on an Xbox One X. We should applaud the work that is going on with the SSD, and the work that is going on with audio, to pick some of the areas that Jim [Ryan] and Mark [Cerny] and the stuff that [PlayStation] is focused on. We should applaud load times and fidelity of scenes and framerate and input latency, and all of these things that we've focused on with the next generation. But that should not exclude people from being able to play. That's our point. How do we create an ecosystem where if you want to play an Xbox game, we're going to give you a way to go play it?" [...]
"Gaming is bigger than any one device, and that is something as an industry that we've embraced all up as we bring more and more players in. I think it's vital to the role that gaming can play on the planet."
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