Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made a rare comment on the gaming side of the business, echoing recent remarks from senior executives and saying people will be able to play Xbox games “everywhere, on any platform.”
This is not new. The Xbox “Play Anywhere” tagline has been on Microsoft's radar for months now.and it has been around in various forms for over a decade. What's relatively new is hearing Nadella himself, rather than Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer or Xbox President Sarah Bond, touch on the gaming side of Microsoft in such detail.
Talk on the Daily Tech Show TBPN (by using Stephen Totilo from Game File), Nadella explained his views on Microsoft's approach to a flexible platform, reaffirmed the company's intention to remain in the console and PC hardware market, and even teased a little about the direction of the next Xbox console.
“Remember, the biggest gaming business is the Windows business,” Nadella said. “So for us, games are on Windows… and, of course, Steam built a huge market around them and was very successful at it.
“So for us, the way we think about games… let's first of all, we're now the biggest publisher after Aktivizhn [deal]so we want to be a great publisher, just like we did with Office.”
Nadella is, of course, referring to the Microsoft Office software suite that is available on competing OSes such as the Apple Mac. Meanwhile, Xbox has already released previously exclusive games such as Sea of Thieves and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on PlayStation.
“We're going to be everywhere, on every platform,” Nadella added. “We want to make sure, whether it's consoles, PC, mobile, cloud gaming or TV, we just want to make sure that games are enjoyed by gamers everywhere.”
Bond recently hinted that the next Xbox console “will be a very premium, high-end game.” suggesting this will bridge the gap between PC and console. Meanwhile, Spencer recently said he would focus on “connecting all your devices in one place.”
Nadella added that Microsoft wants to innovate in hardware across PCs and consoles, and seemed to again hint that the next Xbox will be something of a PC/console hybrid.
“It's funny how people think of a console PC as two different things,” he said. “We created the console because we wanted to create a better PC that could then work for gaming.
“And so I kind of want to reconsider some of these conventional wisdoms. But at the end of the day, the console provides an unparalleled experience. It delivers unprecedented performance, which I think pushes the system forward.”
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