Xbox head Phil Spencer used the Microsoft Spring Showcase event to announce the company is working on upgradable hardware for the Xbox One, bringing it more in line with the PC.
Spencer also said that Microsoft is working to unify the Windows PC and Xbox One gaming ecosystem.
“We see on other platforms whether it be mobile or PC that you get a continuous innovation that you rarely see on console,” he said, via Polygon. “Consoles lock the hardware and the software platforms together at the beginning of the generation. Then you ride the generation out for seven or so years, while other ecosystems are getting better, faster, stronger. And then you wait for the next big step function.”
Spencer says Microsoft is aiming for “new hardware capability during a generation, allowing the same games to run backward and forward compatible.
“We’ll see us come out with new hardware capability during a generation and allow the same games to run backwards and forward compatible because we have Universal Windows Applications (UWA) running on top of UWP (Universal Windows Platform),” he added. “It allows us to focus on hardware innovation without invalidating the games that run on that platform.”
Spencer stressed that Microsoft is fully committed to PC gaming as well.
“PC gaming is as important as its ever been in the company. Windows is a critical franchise. Over 40% of the people running Windows 10 are playing games. We want to work hand in hand with our partners to make sure we have the best platform we can have,” he said. “Everything we do on any device is being driven by the Xbox team, and that team is 100% committed to success on every platform gamers want to play on. The gamer is at the center of every decision we make.”
Hence, Spencer would like to make optional Xbox One upgrades available in the future.
“We can effectively feel a little bit more like what we see on PC where I can still go back and run my old Quake and Doom games, but then I can also see the best 4K games coming out,” he said. “Hardware innovation continues and software takes advantage. I don’t have to jump generation and lose everything I played before.”
After his talk, Spencer told Polygon that a hardware map has not yet been finalised.
“I look at the ecosystem that a console sits in and I think that it should have the capability of more iteration on hardware capability,” he added. “Sony is doing this with VR and adding VR capabilities mid-cycle to the PlayStation 4 and they are doing that by adding another box. I don’t mean that as a negative. But it’s not changing what the core console is about.
“For consoles in general it’s more important now than it’s ever been, because you have so many of these other platforms that are around. It used to be that when you bought your console you were way ahead of the price performance curve by so much, relative to a PC. But now PCs are inexpensive and your phones are getting more and more capable.”
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