Xbox wants to outdo PS6 on hardware, not games

CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer has revealed in a recent interview that, when the next generation of consoles hit store shelves, Microsoft “want [their] hardware to win”.

Thank you in advance to Push Square's Sammy Barker for the original story (per Gamertag Radio).

If there’s an Xbox exclusive you were excited to play at any point over the next couple of years, then you probably no longer actually need an Xbox to play it.

Whether it’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush and, yes, probably even Starfield, you can likely play it on either PlayStation or Nintendo Switch.

Which begs the question… what’s the point of even owning an Xbox if you can play all of its first-party titles elsewhere?

Well, Phil Spencer has an answer for that: hardware.

When asked about the topic by the hosts of the Gamertag Radio podcast, Spencer revealed that Microsoft plans to beat Sony in the hardware department.

“I want people to pick hardware based on the capabilities of that hardware and how that fits into the choices that they want to make about where they want to play,” Spencer told Gamertag Radio, “and we want our hardware to win based on the hardware capabilities that we have.”

Avowed lands on Xbox and PC next month.

“In the position that I'm in, I look at hardware as a critical part of what we do, but [we’re] not trying to gatekeep the games off of other places for the benefit of it… Let’s go build innovative hardware that people want to use to play, whether that’s in their hands, whether it’s on the television, or even other places.”

It’s an interesting idea, I guess. If you can’t pump out exclusives at the same rate as your competitor, then you should ensure that you’ve got the most powerful system to run the games your system does have.

I’m not sure it’s the most sound business idea, however. Look, I’m no bigwig CEO or anything but, gamers have proven time and time again that exclusives and price points are the two factors that drive console purchases.

I don’t think releasing the most expensive hardware on the market with the least games will garner a lot of sales but, hey, what do I know? We’ll probably be waiting until 2027 at the earliest to see how this all pans out anyway.