Microsoft has made no secret of their recent commitment to PC, with everything from bringing games originally announced as Xbox One exclusive titles to PC and opening the door for cross-platform play. Addressing some of the concerns raised about the new direction, Xbox Head Phil Spencer outlined his thoughts on what he sees as the future for Xbox.
Speaking after the Build Keynote (via GameSpot) Spencer pointed out that just because some games will come to both console and PC, it’s not a blanket push for them all. “Our intent is for when the genres and creative makes sense in both spaces that we’ll put our games in both spaces… I don’t want to make it some kind of artificial mandate because then I think we end up with a ‘Frankengame’ that really wasn’t meant for a certain platform. And because some suit said ‘Hey, everything’s gotta run on both platforms,’ you end up with something people don’t want.”
Even more than that, commenting on the recently revealed opportunity for cross-platform gaming (allowing players on Xbox to play games with players on PC and even PlayStation) he continued, “I’ll never force somebody in our games whose playing with a controller or a mouse and keyboard to play against somebody with a different control scheme… Mouse and keyboard rotation speed is faster than controller. We know that, you’ll lose.”
This echoes the original sentiment of Xbox’s cross-platform play announcement, where Microsoft promised it would be up to the player whether or not to use the feature.
Spencer has also talked in the past about Windows 10-to-Xbox One streaming, but this would require mouse and keyboard support. Will the commitment to not forcing players to play against different control schemes extend to those on the same platform? We’ll just have to wait and find out.
What do you think of Xbox’s PC-inclusive plans? Let us know in the comments.