Wednesday, January 29th 2025
Phil Spencer Wishes for Innovative Next-gen Xbox Hardware, Current Consoles Too Similar
Microsoft's Xbox Series X and S home gaming consoles have, so far, struggled to compete—saleswise—with Sony's full range of PlayStation 5 models. In reaction, CEO Phil Spencer and his colleagues have largely re-strategized Xbox's current platform. In recent times, less emphasis has been placed on the core system, and Microsoft's grip on software exclusivity has been loosened to a large degree. Any capable enough device is now "an Xbox"—be it a Smart TV, laptop, or smartphone. A gamer can enable this via Xbox's Cloud Gaming service or PC app. The company's new approach has been questioned by many folks—does it add value to (or remove from) the Xbox brand? Microsoft Gaming's chief has fielded similar queries—thrown his way by multiple media outlets over the past two weeks. Many headline quotes have been extracted, and the latest one focuses on future innovations.
Destin Legarie—an independent journalist, formerly of IGN—booked time with the Xbox boss. Naturally, media outlets have picked up on choice sentences from the first episode of Legarie's (just launched) Save State Plus paywalled podcast. Microsoft and Sony are rumored to be working on next-gen consoles—Spencer was asked about his ideal vision for the future, in response he stated: "I want us to innovate and make hardware the differentiator. We've got into this space where the differentiation on the hardware has gone down, and it's really been 'locked games' that have become the identity of the hardware. I love when I see handhelds, when I see unique things that hardware manufacturers do." According to various leaks and bits of inside information, next-gen AMD CPU and GPU architectures have been linked to a new wave of Sony and Microsoft gaming machines—perhaps mirroring choices made in the past. Starting with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 generation, both teams have—so far—selected very similar internals. Spencer has wishlisted a different path for the near future: "I want our hardware to compete on power, and on innovation. So let's have our platform continue to innovate with services and the hardware work that we're doing—whether it's controller, power, or mobility."
Sources:
Save State Plus/Destin Legarie Patreon, Windows Central
Destin Legarie—an independent journalist, formerly of IGN—booked time with the Xbox boss. Naturally, media outlets have picked up on choice sentences from the first episode of Legarie's (just launched) Save State Plus paywalled podcast. Microsoft and Sony are rumored to be working on next-gen consoles—Spencer was asked about his ideal vision for the future, in response he stated: "I want us to innovate and make hardware the differentiator. We've got into this space where the differentiation on the hardware has gone down, and it's really been 'locked games' that have become the identity of the hardware. I love when I see handhelds, when I see unique things that hardware manufacturers do." According to various leaks and bits of inside information, next-gen AMD CPU and GPU architectures have been linked to a new wave of Sony and Microsoft gaming machines—perhaps mirroring choices made in the past. Starting with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 generation, both teams have—so far—selected very similar internals. Spencer has wishlisted a different path for the near future: "I want our hardware to compete on power, and on innovation. So let's have our platform continue to innovate with services and the hardware work that we're doing—whether it's controller, power, or mobility."
55 Comments on Phil Spencer Wishes for Innovative Next-gen Xbox Hardware, Current Consoles Too Similar
Note this is a joke.
Show, don't tell, Phil. We will know you are serious about Xbox if you can release a single console at a reasonable price that is either not crippled at launch with weak hardware or a weak starting lineup of games.
Then again Nintendo keeps proving that hardware isn't necessarily the deciding factor for a success in consoles.
Sony has been adamant on them, 100-300m for ONE game, a game that's often finished in 30 hours or so (but is profitable and important)
So a "specific" architecture means developers having spend more time channeling its power, its innovation.
Nintendo and valve they run respectively an ARM+Nvidia SoC, something developers are very familiar with in-between tablets and Nvidia's popularity and establishment in the gaming PC market...and x86 + AMD which is as proven and known as it can get.
This is not an innovation that requires whole new development technics like that Cell CPU in the PS3, this is a proven architecture with cheap development cost.
So yes for innovation, for instance a handheld xbox which is kinda official, no for innovation that will force developers to create big fork just for one hardware.
I figure it's just a matter of time before Sony goes "So, let's get ourselves a quick couple hundred-million bucks and release that Gran Turismo 7 port we have ready on Windows next fall, whaddya say!?"
Phil is just sad because MS squandered all the gains they made with the 360. Sony smoked them with the PS4, and by the time MS countered, it was too late. Xbox doesn’t have enough exclusive content to draw people anymore. MS might be better off making an Xbox PC that can handle the content, while doubling as a W11 desktop. They are the ones in the driver’s seat by having Windows, a hardware division, and many game studios. All the MS departments can’t get along enough to make something brilliant though.
Nintendo is winning with less, and the idea that they ported any of their games to PC would be the death of their console. Exclusivity is what creates the uniqueness that Phil knows he is lacking, and special hardware is not going to save xbox - just good exclusive games. It's not hard to figure out. No other company goes after Emulators and Roms harder than Nintendo, and while it is easy to say they are greedy punks, the truth is they know what keeps them alive and well is their exclusive IP that they tied to their hardware.
Actually, even better idea, just dont bother with a conslow. Just make good games for Windows and the other console platforms. Minecraft has done far better than anything else you have made in the last decade.Counterpoint: the PC is now larger in software sales then the Xbone and Pissr combined. Focusing on software, where the money is made, is undeniably the right move.
*correction, it is larger then xbox, playstation, AND the switch combined. It's arguable at this point that the presence of the xbox console is actually just a money losing proposition.
PlayStation and Nintendo are the 2 big brands because they have a lot of IPs and make great games in general.
Microsoft are just buying studios but most of their newer games have not been sensational, hence the bad results and gamers not wanting to buy XBOX consoles. Also releasing their games on XBOX & PC Day-1 is not going to help sell some XBOX...Kinect: The Return ? haha
So... Phil wants "XBox anywhere" on desktop, console & handhelds. Thus the underlying GAME CODE needs to be flexible and agnostic until the end, optimization phase. But he wants a hardware differentiator? The PS5 and XBSX/S have barely begun to tap into the hardware they have. If the hardware is unique, game devs won't code for it. So I have no idea what Phil is trying to say.
The current game coding trajectory is locked in. More ray-tracing. Better AI upscaling. Frame Gen where appropriate (and also where not). Probably a modified Zen5, 8c CPU. You estimate the Shared Memory requirements. 32GB? You put in your 2TB SSD. And most of the decision is how many shaders to put in the GPU.
Honestly, designing the next console is pretty predictable. They'll take existing PC architecture and find the right balance of the hardware that gives the best bang-for-buck and is BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE.
Maybe you can do something unique with dedicated AI upscaling hardware, but Sony's already on that and I assume Microsoft will just modify an NPU like they have already for laptops to reduce the load on the main GPU for the upscaling part.
TPU could do a poll here asking it's readers if they would be willing to pay $800 for a console with Nvidia hardware or if they would stick with AMD hardware for $500.