Xbox head Phil Spencer has named Microsoft’s biggest gaming competitors as Amazon and Google rather than Nintendo and Sony.
Mirroring comments made to Stevivor, Spencer asserted that Microsoft’s goal is to bring to Xbox experience to players across a variety of platforms rather than just a dedicated gaming console.
“When you talk about Nintendo and Sony, we have a ton of respect for them, but we see Amazon and Google as the main competitors going forward,” Spencer said to Protocol. “That’s not to disrespect Nintendo and Sony, but the traditional gaming companies are somewhat out of position. I guess they could try to re-create Azure, but we’ve invested tens of billions of dollars in cloud over the years.”
Google has already released the Stadia, its own games streaming platform, while Amazon is rumoured to do the same in 2020.
Spencer said that Xbox is willing to work with Nintendo and PlayStation in order to bolster cross-play and cross-save efforts against the two tech giants.
“I don’t want to be in a fight over format wars with those guys while Amazon and Google are focusing on how to get gaming to 7 billion people around the world,” he said. “Ultimately, that’s the goal.”
While Nintendo has confirmed we won’t see an upgraded Switch in 2020, both Microsoft and Sony will release next-gen consoles — the Xbox Series X and PS5, respectively — near the end of the year.
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