Phil Spencer recently spoke on Xbox’s Adaptive controller, which was designed for gamers with disabilities, suggesting that it’s a “business opportunity” that Microsoft is going use to get the controller to as many people as possible.
“In terms of the business opportunity, we are a platform for content,” Spencer said. “We think the more people that can play, it creates a good business opportunity. It’s not about the margin on this specific device. People know that in the console business, we sell our console at a loss in order to create sockets for players. That’s traditional.”
“You don’t make money on hardware,” he continued. “You make money on software and services. If you really think about the work that people go through in order to experience the products we build, creating something like this that opens up the games we and others build for our platform to more people is good business for us as well.”
Spencer suggests that it’s as much a “business opportunity” as an “opportunity to open up gaming to a constituency that isn’t able to play as easily as you and I can, and the goodness in bringing more people to the platform—that’s a pretty special moment.”
“We want to get it in the hands of as many people as possible,” he said. “It’ll be interesting to see if it takes on—I suspect it will take on a use in many different scenarios. Some of them will be purely creative. We’ll be proud to have it turn into something that a lot of people see as part of their gaming setup. That would be awesome.”
The Xbox Adaptive Controller will be available later this year through the Microsoft Store for $99.99.