Game News PS5: the boss of Xbox reacts to Sony’s project to compete with Game Pass, the start of a showdown?
Some time ago, first clues, spotted by the Bloomberg site, spread on the web about a restructuring of PlayStation Now and PlayStation Plus, services offered by Sony. Internally, this “Spartacus” project is seen as a sort of response to Microsoft’s Game Pass. In this regard, Phil Spencer, the boss of Xbox, gave his opinion on this mysterious project.
The business model and the services offered by Microsoft’s Game Pass have undoubtedly given Sony ideas. At the very beginning of December, we learned that the Japanese manufacturer would consider its own formula, the famous “Spartacus” project, to somehow walk on the toes of its eternal competitor, Xbox.. At the moment, the officialization is still pending, but it could be that an announcement arrives very soon because time is running out for Sony !
Over the past few days, we’ve noticed quite a bit of activity from Sony around some highly requested features, such as backwards compatibility, as well as new clues and recent finds presage the establishment of the “Spartacus” project. This information, of course, reached the ears of Microsoft and, more particularly, of Phil Spencer who indulged in a few comments on this subject at the microphone of IGN.
The correct answer, according to Phil Spencer
Before discussing the case of Sony, Phil Spencer first returned to the Microsoft experience around the Game Pass. Allowing gamers to play the games they want, anywhere, while allowing them to build their own library is definitely the right response for the community, he says.. Without being presumptuous about their work on Game Pass, Phil Spencer believes that the brand “ don’t want to give the impression that we have it all figured out “but, according to him, when he hears that the other actors of the video game” are doing things like Game Pass or getting closer to PC ”, it makes sense and he considers it as “ The right answer “.
For us, we should continue to innovate, to be competitive, because the things that we do are maybe advantages that we have in the market today, but they are just based on the fact that we are the first, not that we have created something that no one else can create. — Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox Game Studios and Xbox Product Manager
According to the words of Phil Spencer, the Sony project sounds less like competition than like a way to start an evolution within the industry. The fact of seeing other actors embark on this type of project boosts team enthusiasm in a way to improve existing formulas.
I like it because it fuels our energy on the next things we should be working on, while continuing to build on the things we’ve done in the past. Because I think the right answer is to ship great games, ship them to PC, ship them to console, ship them to the cloud, ship them on day one of the subscription. And I think that’s what our competitor is going to do. — Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox Game Studios and Xbox Product Manager
If the formalization of Sony and PlayStation has not yet been made, Phil Spencer seems convinced that the Japanese manufacturer will take the path cleared by the Xbox Game Pass, without copying the approach. Like him, players are eager to know what the “Spartacus” project is about to offer within the PlayStation ecosystem: all you have to do is wait!
