After being appointed head honcho of Microsoft’s Xbox division in Marc Whitten’s place, Phil Spencer has wasted no time in outlining plans for the company’s future.
In taking control of Xbox Live, Xbox Music and Xbox Video, the former leader of Microsoft Studios has prioritised gaming as the main focus for the Redmond software giant and, in an open latter to the Xbox community, touched upon the platform’s status.
“This past year has been a growth experience both for me and for the entire Xbox team. We’ve taken feedback, made our products better and renewed our focus on what is most important, our customer. As we continue forward, this renewed focus and mission will be a foundational part of how I lead the Xbox program.”
Without doubt, Spencer’s preliminary goal seems to be to reinvent the Xbox One’s reputation. Having been introduced to the world as the ‘all-in-one entertainment system,’ Microsoft’s flagship platform has been synonymous with television, but the newly-promoted chief wants to retune the console’s output to another medium in particular: video games.
In fact, Xbox’s new big cheese hinted at the gaming showcase in store for this year’s E3 event — a software bill that he refers to as the “best lineup of content in a long time.” Either way, Spencer’s gamer-centric focus will be music to the ears of Xbox owners — both 360 and One — around the world.
Recently at the GDC conference in San Francisco, Spencer also assured fans that the company has tinkered with its strategy ahead of the trade show, allocating more time for software in lieu of long-winded executives.
“With me you’re going to get a focus on gaming first and a best platform to play games on. It’s not a focus we ever lost but it’s one I’ll be accentuating at Microsoft. It’s really going to be a gaming-led focus with Xbox and my new role allows us to execute on that.”
As one would expect, all signs point to Microsoft ushering the big guns onto the stage at the Los Angeles Convention Center in just a few months time. The next generation, it seems, is just getting started.