To the surprise of few, Xbox executive vice president of gaming Phil Spencer recently said that when it comes to improving the games industry in the long run, there is little to be gained from attempting to run companies like Sony out of business.

Spencer continued by stating that as other companies expand and innovate how consumers access games and the types of games they play, everyone can learn and innovate towards improving their own offerings. He states that “Gaming is not going to get better if PlayStation is not a brand, or Nintendo is not a brand.”

For Spencer, competition is no longer about driving one organization out entirely, but rather seeing what each company brings to the table that consumers love. He continued by stating that the most significant long-term competitor of Xbox is not Sony, Nintendo, or even the upcoming Google Stadia, but “apathy or dislike of the things that we build.”

It sounds so simple, but such a vision is likely to keep Xbox on top for years to come. There are many other companies, less in terms of console makers and more like individual game developers, that have in the past few years taken an almost adversarial attitude with the consumer base. Rather than listen to their desires in the games they play, the idea is instead to try and tell players what they want, often with disastrous consequences.

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The attitude shown by Spencer reflects his earlier comments in June when E3 concluded, saying that the yearly event was far more fun and interesting when Sony showed off their newest and most interesting developments.

Spencer expanded upon this with regards to the Google Stadia, which looks to become a big player for consumers who want the ability to stream content onto the devices they most use. Previously, long before the current Project xCloud was being developed at Microsoft, there was a similar project known simply as Rio around 2013.

Via: techradar.com

However, as time Microsoft was far more interested in selling content that would work on their existing consoles at the time, the project did not make it far. With the Stadia set to try and capture some of the gaming market, Microsoft will continue working on xCloud. As Spencer describes, it is clear that Microsoft is mainly interested in discovering exactly how players best can enjoy their gaming content, then pursuing that discovery in full force.

With the Stadia only a few months from launching, we may soon be hearing something more concrete about Project xCloud, depending on how well Google does in their first official entrance into the market.

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