Today Xbox division head Phil Spencer talked to IGN about a variety of themes, including the upcoming Xbox Series X also in comparison with PS5.
Spencer explained that development on the new console started in 2016 not knowing or even thinking much about other platform holders.
The Xbox team tried to set its own goals for what they were trying to build, and it’s the same they did with Xbox One X. It’s not an exercise relative to another company.
The team gave itself a price envelop, a certain performance goal (which is why the console looks the way it does), but didn’t look at others because it takes a lot of long-term planning.
After watching the recent presentation of the PS5 Spencer “felt really good about how the Xbox Series X lines up,” even if he believes that Sony’s team did some really good work on audio processing and SSD technology, which he defined “impressive.”
“When we finally saw the final disclosure, I felt even better the choices that we’ve made on our platform, and I kind of expected that I would.”
Speaking of price, Spencer added that he feels good about that as well.
“I feel good about the price that we’ll be able to get to. I feel good about the price and the performance capabilities that we have with Serious X. I feel incredibly strong about the overall package.”
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“We’re definitely going to continue to keep our eyes wide open as we go toward launch, looking at what the competition is doing, but we have a plan and we feel very solid about our plan. We think it’s a winning plan.”
That being said, Spencer also added that Microsoft is making sure to “stay agile” with pricing.
“We’re getting incredible support from Microsoft, Satya Nadella, my boss, the CEO, Amy Hood, the CFO… They’re very linked in what are plans are… We’re going to make sure we stay agile with our pricing and that we have a good plan going into launch.”
Speaking of pre-orders, Spencer mentioned that the announcement of the price will, of course, have to come before that. That being said he mentioned “later in the summer,” even if he kept vague and clarified that a firm date has not been decided.
“The preordering, we don’t have a firm date for that. It’ll come later, you know, later in the summer I think you should expect that.”
If you’d like to hear more of Spencer’s vision, you can read his recent comments about the future of Xbox in Japan and more about his vision of the future of consoles, competition, and collaboration.
The Xbox series X is scheduled to launch this Holiday season.
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