Phil Spencer Considers Alternative Digital Retailers on Xbox Consoles

With the console market stagnating and hardware subsidies outdated, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has talked about opening up the Xbox console ecosystem to other digital retailers. Such openness would help reduce the fragmentation of the gaming system as a whole.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer is open to the idea of further opening up the Xbox console ecosystem, and that doesn't mean releasing first-party titles on other consoles. In fact, Spencer revealed in a GDC interview with Polygon that he would like to see more digital retailers on the console, perhaps like the Epic Games Store or Itch.io. Spencer said: "Yes. [Consider] our history as the Windows company. Nobody would blink twice if I said, 'Hey, when you're using a PC, you get to decide the type of experience you have [by picking where to buy games]. There's real value in that."

He believes that opening up the normally closed console ecosystem ("walled gardens") would not only bring more benefits to gamers, but would also be good for the stagnating console market as a whole and motivate gamers to use the console more or langer. From a business perspective, he believes that subsidising hardware is outdated, as the cost of hardware components has barely decreased compared to previous console generations - something similar was said by Sony Representative Corporate Executive Officer, President, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki, who announced the plan to bring Sony Interactive Entertainment's first-party games to other platforms because they cannot push down costs on the hardware side as they have done in the past.

The following questions are on Spencer's mind: "So I think, what are the barriers? What are the things that create friction in today's world for creators and players? And how can we be part of opening up that model?" Rather, openness would help reduce the fragmentation of the gaming ecosystem, which would benefit gamers in particular, as it doesn't matter what hardware a gamer have. However, Spencer did not outline any concrete steps. His ideas are not linked to the EU's DMA, however, as the Xbox platform does not have enough users to act as a gatekeeper.

Microsoft is already developing its own mobile store for Android and iOS. New hardware is planned too, including new Xbox consoles and, it is rumoured, a handheld.

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