The head of Microsoft Studios and the Xbox division – Phil Spencer – has recently stated Microsoft is now more than ever committed to supporting the PC. According to an audio interview courtesy of The Inner Circle Podcast, the PC scene is “incredibly important” to both Spencer and the company.
“I thought the Windows 10 announcement was good. We haven’t talked much about it yet, but I’ve said gaming on PC is incredibly important to me, and I think incredibly important to this company”, stated Spencer. “We took gaming very seriously on Windows a while ago. As we were launching Xbox, we were kind of distributing what we were thinking about. I’m really committed to us getting back to supporting both Xbox – as much as we ever had – and also PC, because I know that my friends and customers out there who are great gamers on Xbox, a lot of them are also great gamers on PC, and I want to make sure that we’re able to offer them the best experience across all the platforms”.
Additionally, Microsoft’s boss has also provided an insight into the fragmentation of online identities across multiple gaming devices. “I see people playing games in many different places, whether it’s playing PC, the consoles, people playing on their smartphones, people playing on their laptop… We put a lot of time and effort into LIVE and I think of Xbox One as the way people play great games on their television, and I want to make sure that the television experience is great. But we know that people also play games in different places, and today when you’re playing on all those different devices it feels very disconnected; it doesn’t really know who I am, it doesn’t know who my friends are, it doesn’t know what podcast I should be listening to. I’m kind of a different person on every one of the devices with a different set of games, achievements, friends, leaderboards etc”.
“In the future, I hope that it’s less ‘gaming by device’ and more something where people are playing and are connected with their friends regardless of the device they’re on”.