Xbox exec reiterates multi-platform strategy of playing games anywhere and everywhere

Microsoft's gaming aspirations have shifted from making Xbox the best place to play to making Windows #1 for gaming, indicating a homogenization of the brand. But the tenets of this new universal model haven't changed--take a multi-platform approach to virtuously build an expansive software base while reinvesting in your core infrastructure.

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Xbox isn't a console anymore, and hasn't been for some time now. It's now more apt to say Xbox is an experience. Microsoft is bringing this Xbox console experience to Windows 11 for the first time with the Xbox Ally X, a handheld PC that blends a console user experience with a PC operating system and beefier hardware specs.

It's not just the user experience, though. Xbox console games have also crossed over to other platforms now that Microsoft has broken exclusivity of first-party games. This fragmentation of the ecosystem breaks down the isolated "walled garden" that companies used to build up their platforms in previous generations. This approach isn't valid any more because Microsoft now has some of the broadest franchises on the planet with Call of Duty, Elder Scrolls, and Minecraft.

No, the future for Microsoft is about expansion. Broadening horizons, releasing games across all platforms for maximum sales and monetization potential, propping up services that deliver digital content and heavily incentivize digital purchases so as to effectively close up the less-profitable, and more-costly realm of physical games distribution.

Microsoft wants to change consumer habits so that people play more games over time, but in a certain way--there's a reason why digital is heavily prioritized, and why Xbox Game Pass is such a value-oriented deal.

It's also a big reason why Play Anywhere exists, Microsoft's two-for-one game licensing program that effectively gives you a free copy of a PC game when you buy an Xbox equivalent (or vice-versa). The real question is, though, is whether Play Anywhere just priming consumers up for a combination of Xbox console and PC hardware? If that happens, software libraries will effectively merge, making Play Anywhere potentially moot.

In a recent lengthy interview with GamesRadar+, Xbox executive management reiterates these main focuses and paint an even clearer picture of a wide, multi-platform network of Xbox content, hardware, and services, all wrapped up with Play Anywhere.

And one snippet reveals why Microsoft is actually doing this: Consoles aren't growing. This is something we learned in the FTC v Microsoft trial of 2023, and that trial used information based on four-year-old data.

"Our data shows most console players use two or more devices, and that playing the same game on different devices can be difficult. We also know that the console market growth across generations has slowed," Xbox Game Studios head Craig Duncan said in the interview.

If Xbox is releasing games on Switch and PlayStation, why buy any Xbox hardware? Microsoft has a simple answer: Value. The company hopes Play Anywhere is seen as pro-consumer enough to sway users.

"When you make pro-consumer decisions, you're going to create a strong business now and into the future. We want our game franchises to be as big as possible, while making Xbox the best place to play these games. And our strategy of reaching as many players as we can, anywhere they are, while making it seamless to buy a game once and have it playable across devices is good for everyone."

Play Anywhere folds into Microsoft's plan to better unify Windows and Xbox, and its plan release more hardware that it doesn't actually make itself (like the Xbox Ally X, which is made by ASUS).

Check below for more quotes from Xbox's management teams:

"We are really investing in refining the experience of playing your games across multiple devices. What I noticed about my console is that it was just one of a constellation of gaming devices that I use in my house. I'm using my console, my gaming PC, my handheld, and Smart TV apps. I play games everywhere, and I want to be able to pick up my progress and continue that wherever I go."

--Jason Beaumont, VP of experiences and platforms at Xbox

"Recognising that everybody plays in different ways is just so central to what Xbox is trying to achieve - our vision of how we see gameplay evolving."

--Roanne Sones, CVP of gaming devices and ecosystem at Xbox