Xbox Boss Speaks About Console Tribalism
Most people are unaware of the console wars between PlayStation and Xbox. This is something that has been going on ever since the two companies started releasing consoles in the 90s. For some reason, fans of these machines stick to these brands, but in extreme cases, some fans are beginning to harass each other over the consoles they choose to play with.
Speaking with The Verge in an interview, Xbox president Phil Spencer said that Sony, Nintendo and any other company have never posed a threat to Microsoft. What was a threat was toxic brand loyalty in the gaming community, encouraging people to harass each other simply because they were playing games on different systems. Spencer finds this toxicity quite unpleasant like many others and hates when some believe Sony and Microsoft want to see each other fail.
Spencer says it would be tribalism if there was anything that could pull him out of the industry. “I will not badly vote for any creative team or any product team because I have a competitive product. I don’t think it will help us in the long term in the industry.”
For Spencer, things like cross-play and the ability to bring the Xbox platform to PC and mobile devices are things that should be the focus of the industry. Bringing games to as many people as possible and letting friends play games with their friends, regardless of platform, is Microsoft’s focus.
