Summary
- Xbox's success is not solely measured by console sales, but by the number of people playing and the amount of time they spend in the Xbox ecosystem.
- Xbox's Play Anywhere initiative allows gamers to play digital titles on PC or Xbox, creating a more accessible gaming experience.
- Sony is also acknowledging the importance of a diverse gaming ecosystem, as seen with the introduction of its PlayStation Portal handheld and expansion onto PC.
CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer has re-emphasized that Xbox is not gauging its success solely on the number of consoles that it sells. For several years now, it’s become increasingly apparent that Xbox’s business plan isn’t only focused on the number of consoles sold. This became most evident in 2016 during the Xbox One era, when Microsoft announced its Play Anywhere initiative, which allows gamers to buy a digital title on PC or Xbox and play it on either platform.
Many people wondered how Microsoft could expect to remain competitive in the gaming hardware market if it was no longer necessary to buy a console to play Xbox games. And sales figures that show PS5 consistently outselling Xbox Series consoles are touted as a metric that Sony’s gaming ecosystem is more successful or popular than Microsoft’s.
However, at Gamescom 2023, Phil Spencer has given a number of interviews, one of which explained Microsoft’s greater plan for Xbox as a brand. The critical metric for success, said Spencer, is how many people are playing and how much they are playing. In the fourth quarter of 2023, Xbox reported record numbers of monthly active users, along with impressive sales, and the quarterly number of hours people were playing via Xbox Game Pass rose by 22%.
The emphasis is not placed on the specific platform people play on, but rather on the amount of time gamers spend frolicking in the Xbox ecosystem in general. Bethesda’s upcoming space-faring RPG Starfield will be part of the Xbox Play Anywhere initiative, so even somebody who doesn’t own an Xbox console can still play the game on PC or, if they subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate, on their smart TV or mobile device. Spencer brought up the fact that he was playing Xbox games on his Asus ROG Ally, a third-party portable gaming system, on the flight to Gamescom. “I think about that as my Xbox away from home,” the CEO said. "Or my Steam Deck. I want those things to feel as connected or as complete as an Xbox experience as any piece of hardware that we build."
Sony also seems to be acknowledging the importance of establishing a gaming ecosystem that isn’t limited to one or two consoles that become obsolete once the generation ends. The Japanese company is rejoining the portable gaming market with its PlayStation Portal handheld and, in recent years, has also been making a move onto PC. The PS3, PS4, and PS5 have a feature somewhat similar to Xbox’s Play Anywhere called Remote Play that allows the console to transmit a game’s audio and video to another device. Previously, this was limited to the PSP or Vita but now includes Android devices and PC.