In an interview with The Verge, Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, admitted that he was fully aware of the current financial situation. According to him, it is normal to see video game spending shrink as users deal with galloping inflation.
As you know, we are currently facing rising inflation which is directly affecting the cost of essential expenses such as energy, food and housing. A question inevitably arises for the video game industry in this context: what is the place of entertainment and video games in general in this context?
A few days ago, Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, gave a torrent interview to our colleagues from The Verge, in which the executive addressed several points. He first mentioned the future of the Call of Duty license on Playstation after the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. He was reassuring and stated that he had no intention of stabbing Sony in the back. Understand that Call of Duty will remain on Playstation no matter what.
Microsoft and Xbox are aware of gamers’ priorities
During this interview, the Xbox brand manager also talked about how the current economic crisis has affected the development of some games and the measures taken by the manufacturer to test to help players during this difficult time.
“No one claims that game consoles and games are essential things. We are clearly in the entertainment room. We are not food or shelter.” he acknowledges. In other words, Xbox and Microsoft are well aware that gamers are being recruited to lower their expenses in the JV when energy or food prices rise.
In addition, Phil Spencer is aware that video games can have a clear impact on energy costs. That’s why Microsoft is currently looking for new processes to reduce energy consumption on its consoles and on PC. In this area, we already know that it is advisable to use Xbox Series X/Series S power saving mode to make significant savings on their electricity bill.
Anyway, the head of Xbox is confident about the health of the video game sector. “Games tend to be a bit more resilient and weather these periods better than other industries because we have good value for money.” For him, keeping old consoles like the Xbox One running or even launching a cheaper next-gen console like the Series S is crucial to allow everyone to play within their budget. And of course, Xbox Game Pass remains an excellent alternative to play at a lower price thanks to the subscription system.