Phil Spencer Talks About Working with Japanese Developers and the Next Generation of Xbox

Giuseppe Nelva June 27, 2018 5:12 PM EST

Xbox Division Head Phil Spencer is working closely with Japanese developers, and looking at the future of the Xbox brand.

The latest issue of Weekly Famitsu included an interview with Microsoft’s Xbox Division head Phil Spencer, who provided a lot of insight on his work with Japanese developers and the future of the Xbox brand.

Spencer talked about the fact that over the past few years he traveled to Japan many times to visit many publishers. He is working closely with many Japanese developers. They let him play the games before release, and when they talk to him about their goals, he realizes that bonds are being built through the relationship between platform holder and publishers. He is aware that this kind of relationship is important.

Speaking about the recent acquisition of five studios announced at E3 2018, Spencer mentioned that gamers always want to play superior games, and in particular, it’s obvious that first-party titles are important for a platform. He encouraged fans to look forward to an increase in excellent first-party games.

Asked about the next generation of Xbox consoles hinted at during the E3 press conference, Spencer explained that the project has been started with the gamer at the center. Currently, two billion people in the world play games on various devices, but he would like to provide a wonderful gaming experience to users by delivering the most powerful and best hardware for console gamers. Spencer feels that he was able to do that with Xbox One X, but would like to further improve on that.

In the past, Microsoft has been talking with multiple hardware development companies, and they have begun discussing what kind of innovation is expected in the architecture in the future. Looking ahead, he knows that resolution is important. Frame rate is also important. The journey to build the new hardware has already begun, and he is constantly thinking about the possibilities.

Spencer also feels that investing in artificial intelligence will be greatly helpful to make the world of the games and their characters feel more vivid. It’s possible to simulate how a game is played. It’s even useful for debugging.

About streaming, while two billion people play games worldwide, many of them do so on devices that aren’t home consoles. Trying to sell them two billion consoles in various places around the world isn’t an ideal solution. As smartphones and PC become widespread, Spencer would like to offer them games that are as deep and as immersive as any of those you play on home consoles.

Spencer concluded by mentioning that it’s a pleasure for him to say that the excellent developers from Japan are supporting Xbox. Japanese Xbox gamers will be able to enjoy even more content from their favorite creators in the future, so they should look forward to further developments.