Phil Spencer Thinks Xbox Series X/S Is Fine Without a System Seller
During a recent interview, executive vice-president of Gaming at Microsoft Phil Spencer claimed that the Xbox Series X/S didn’t need a system selling game to ship units this Holiday season. Spencer argued that Holiday 2021 from a lineup is more important and doubled down on how many generations of Xbox are compatible on the Xbox Series X/S. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate also brings titles from each generation of Xbox to the Xbox Series X/S for $15 per month.
“I wanted Halo Infinite at launch; there was no doubt about that, and we thought there would have been a special seminal moment because the last time we shipped a Halo and a console at the same time was the original Xbox,” said Phil Spencer. “Sales are going to be dictated by supply this holiday. I know there’ll be press that will want to write, ‘Xbox launch lineup versus PS5 launch lineup.’ But if they’re both sold out completely, I’m not sure the launch lineup had much impact on anything other than maybe some review score.
“It’s not going to dictate what, how many consoles we sell. The number one thing that’s going to dictate how many consoles we sell is not the competition and it’s not a Halo or a launch lineup. It’s going to be how many units we can build.”
“Our pre-orders sold within hours, and that’s true of the competition as well. There is a high demand for gaming consoles right now, and we’re both going to build as many as we can,” continued Phil Spencer. “So I think the possibility of Halo Infinite launching beside Xbox was more of a brand and heartfelt moment for us than it was critical to the launch. In fact, you could argue that holiday 2021 from a lineup is probably more important because, from a competitive standpoint, both consoles (knock on wood) will have supply so there will be a demand constraint rather than a supply constraint in the next year.”
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