Phil Spencer Says the Metaverse Should be Player-Focused - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 April 2022 / 2,871 Views
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer in an interview with Protocol discussed the new obsession in the technology and gaming industry, the metaverse.
He thinks of Minecraft with how open it is and how it can be used to build your own creations, create your own worlds, and more. The creations can be shared on the community marketplace.
"Minecraft is really an open creation tool, where people can go and create things, share them through our community marketplace and sell them to other members of the community," Spencer said. "And I think that openness inside of Minecraft is such a critical part in terms of what it's become."
Spencer also brought up a point that talks about metaverse all seem to be focused on how it can be better for companies, rather than how it can be better for players.
"We're spending a lot of time as leaders coming together talking about the learnings that we've had and how the technical underpinnings might come together," he said. "But more fundamental to me is why Microsoft? Like, why is this metaverse that a lot of people are focusing on, why is it better for players? Why is it better for creators?
"I think it's easy for a lot of tech companies to describe why the metaverse might be better for their company. But we've just learned that if we put the player at the center, to use my gaming vocabulary again, and try to build an ecosystem that works around their needs and creator needs, that the platform dynamic will take off."
Spencer also pointed to Xbox and how it is growing outside the console market with first-party games coming to PC and now available on smartphones with Xbox Cloud Gaming.
"We're kind of in a unique position in that people play Minecraft on our platform. They play Roblox on our platform. They play Fortnite on our platform," Spencer said. "We don't actually view Roblox or Fortnite as competitors to what we're doing. They're critical partners in the progress that we're making as a gaming platform company."
He added, "I want to be able to experience the things I own on any screen that can render those. I want to be able to have the experiences I have anywhere. I want to have them with the people I want to experience them with and it requires a lot of cloud infrastructure to make that happen. It requires, like I said, a real open approach."
"We will go at this on the metaverse side with the same sensibilities that we've had in gaming, that people should be able to play the games they want, where they want to play them, with the people they want to play with," he added. "Because we've actually thought that in the end that opens up the largest experience for creators and for players."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Man I am so tired of these tech industry buzz words
The whole field of "business" is loaded with buzzwords. I'm just happy they finally stopped saying "synergy" every other sentence.
What a novel idea… designing a product for the target audience.
That sounds like something they would say in a Dilbert strip.
meta was such a cool word before now facebook fcken ruined it hahahaha
huh, what?
Phil just stfu already and stop trying to redefine gaming. Gaming is fine.
You're right! Phil is the mastermind to ruin gaming. Stop answering questions and do your Job, Phil! Oh wait..
I'm so tired of what comes out of Phil's mouth. Honesty, regarding "playing anywhere with everything that has a screen" can please someone tell me what's great about playing a triple AAA game (or a fighting game, a racing game, a jump'n run game, an action game or any core game) on a smart phone? Do you really want that? And if you are satisfied with the tiny screen don't tell me that you actually bring a controller with you onto the bus or train and fix it to your smartphone.
Hey Phil-Just retire already!
It involves NFT's, so you really don't wanna know...
It’s basically web3
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