Phil Spencer Says Xbox Showcases Will Now Feature Logos for All Platforms a Game Will Release On - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 15 February 2025 / 19,329 Views
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in an interview with XboxEra was asked about the PlayStation logo being featured during the Xbox Developer_Direct in January and if this will continue going forward.
"I think it's just being honest and transparent about where the games are showing, and we actually even had this discussion last year for the June showcase, and by the time we kind of made our decision, we couldn't get all of the assets done and it felt weird to have some of them in and some of them out," said Spencer (via ResetEra).
"But I just want to be transparent with people – for shipping on Nintendo Switch, we're gonna put that. For shipping on PlayStation, on Steam…People should know the storefronts where they can get our games, but I want people to be able to experience our Xbox community in our games and everything we have to offer, on every screen we can.
"And obviously not every screen is equal. Yeah, like there's certain things we can't do on the other closed platforms that we can do on open platforms, cloud – it's different. But games should be the thing that we're focused on. And the strategy that we have allows us to do big games, while also supporting our native platform from hardware to the platform and services that we have and that's going to be our approach.
"And I know it's not what everybody else is doing, but I just believe games should be the thing that's at the forefront. Maybe it's because of how I've grown up in this industry. I came from building games. But I think the games are the things that I see growing in their strength in what we're doing and it's because more people can play. So yeah, I'm just trying to be open and transparent with people."
He was also asked about concerns from Xbox fans on Microsoft releasing more games on rival platforms like the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.
Spencer during the FTC trial when Microsoft was in the middle of acquiring Activision Blizzard said Sony used the 30 percent cut they make from Xbox published games on PlayStation to reduce Xbox's standing in the market. However, the flip side to this is that Microsoft makes the other 70 percent, which can be used to funding more games.
"I would love to make all of the money for all of the games that we ship right, like obviously we make more on our own platform," said Spencer. "It's one of the reasons that investing in our own platform is important. But there are people, whether it's their libraries on a PlayStation or Nintendo, whether it's they like the controller better, they just like the games that are there.
"And I don't want to then look at that and say, well, there's no way that we should be able to build a business there, find fans of our franchises there. I'm not trying to move them all over to Xbox anymore. People were all so invested in where our games are. Let's just allow more people to play and yes, the 70% that we make on games on other platforms is helpful to us being able to build great portfolios like we showed at the Dev Direct and I hope this will continue to show through the rest of the year."
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 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
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how is this guy still employed at Microsoft?
I'm happy Xbox is doing this now and it would be nice if every platform showcase did this too. It's better for the consumer.
Shaping your identity around a brand is silly. Phil should just come out and say 'do not buy into our platforms', concerned fans worried about games going to PlayStation or switch need to grow up.
Yeah I never understood why hide the logo if a game is coming to other platforms.
as somebody who’s not as informed on Xbox/PlayStation games, giving the full list of platforms saves me a ton of confusion. Certainly a welcome change!
too purposefully mislead.... the idea is then maybe more people buy it on your own platform (xbox) instead. Some might even think, if exclusive to that platform, thus may be tempted to jump to said platform. Giveing it all way, does reduce "confusion" as firebush noted, but that was basically that point of it (its marketing).
To not advertise your rivals. Imagine an advert for a supermarket that shows products that are available at multiple supermarkets. A Walmart advert isn't going to put a Target logo on screen just because a product in their advert is available at their rival supermarket too.
But with their own games going to other platforms it now makes sense for MS to show logo's for other consoles in their own show, they no longer care if you buy a PlayStation instead of an Xbox because they've given up on that battle. They're not just competing against PlayStation anymore they're business partners.
Add a linux logo!
I'm fully on board with the current Xbox strategy. I think everybody wants to play Halo, Gears, Forza, and whatever Bethesda games are coming along on every system. Gamers win bigtime. (Though the loss of competition for Sony could be bad in the long term. We'll see.)
The way i see it is MS waving the white flag, nothing more. What do 70% help if there is no USP for Xbox anymore? Its all Sony vs Nintendo now. GTA won't kill Nintendo as it never did. People are acting like it was the coming of Messias. GTA will be on Xbox and later on PC as well, yet some act like it was an exclusive. It would be te same when people say that when GTAVI releases on PC later, all consoles would be dead. Thee are other great games as well. Remember: As record breaking GTA is, it did not get GOTY2013. Please remember this.
I am not bouncing like a grashopper😂🦗. But i think your ideas are quite funny. Its just that revenue is overestimated. Apple makes a damn lot more revenue than MS, Nintendo or Sony. What does it help us? Is there an Apple console with exclusives justifying its presence? I amm not talking about the infamous "Pippin" here.
Why do you think Nintendo could have a "Clean Sweep" against PS? Nintendo won't wipeout Playstation because of one game, as well Sony won't do the same. Are you aware of the fact that GTA is multiplat? If the Switch 2 got GTAVI what then? There are rumors it could come.
I'm glad you're approaching this with humor but you either forgot what happened or are too young to know. Killer apps are not mythical, they have appeared in the industry and made their impact. Notably, we have GTA 3 for PS2, FFVII for PS1, Zelda BotW and AC for Switch, MK for all Nintendo consoles, Pokemon for all Nintendo handhelds, Monster Hunter for 3ds and many more similar examples that cemented a console in the market. For example, Nintendo booted out the PSP entirely from Japan almost exclusively due to securing Monster Hunter, one highly strategic move that made a total impact. I believe that if Nintendo wants to really make PS irrelevant, games like GTA can't be absent from their library. And I say that though I personally believe the game to be mental moral garbage.
Xbox definitely has a better controller feel. But, aside from the terrible battery life, I find the Dual Shock to be a great controller. (That battery life though. It's terrible. Unacceptably so for 2025. They gotta do better next time.)
Live services are also better on XB, as is their game subscription service. But, PS is catching up. So, the reasons to buy XB are becoming fewer. If I can play Halo on the next PS, Series X may be my last Xbox.
That's not what I'm saying though, at all. I'm saying that GTA VI could save playstation from a Nintendo clean sweep. Slow your thinking a bit, I notice you bounce like a grasshopper when you disagree with someone. As for 70% versus USP, which is untrue but l'll roll with you, the calc is simple, I'll use some typical values and assume a common MS Studios SW tie ratio across the board for simplicity:
Switch + PS Gen 10: 250M units x 70% = 175
Xbox alone: 50M units x 100% = 50
Revenue increase: 175/50 = 3.5
Assuming they will have no more USP (which is not true), they would make more than 3.5 times the amount of revenue on game sales by selling on the most popular platforms of the industry.
Not only would this be an undeniable win for them, but this is just the beginning. MS in contrast with Sega, are maintaining their XB console line, so can continue to make their 100% on 50M, so the numbers actually become:
175M + 50M =225M, 225/50 =4.5
So they may possibly make up to 4.5 times the sales they are currently making. That's excellent.
Since you already commented to me on Sony having no real edge, graphically or IP reach-wise, we may as well say Sony is going to go third party eventually and Nintendo will reign supreme and we'll all be super comfy with some oddball form of "competition", where everyone is third party but Nintendo.
What "solid" plan could Sony possible have that keeps this little charade going for say, 50 more years?. Another Astro bot?, another Twisted metal, Sly cooper, how many more of those can we get before it becomes the same, and then we start to argue IP value as the next point of contention?.
I think some of you look at Nintendo as some Galatica level overlord, and that's just a very weird way to view a company like them, especially when there are far, far bigger and more powerful corps on the planet, but a gaming one is apparently supreme king over an entire industry, or "will be".
As for GTA VI, people are likely to buy it on the other two consoles, then double dip on PC later, like it has been for decades now. It showing up on Switch 2 at a later date (if even possible) is not going to magically take "the competition" away from 3 other platforms to just the Switch. Again, you're putting way, way less stock in everyone else and far more into Nintendo, and that tells me there is absolutely without a doubt, bias at play here.
What other company sells as many first party exclusives on a console? I don't care personally I just think my prediction is the best and will come true because it's based on the actual capabilities of Nintendo as a publisher of exclusive games on a product they make that has proven one generation after the other to resonate with audiences (I'm mainly talking about their handheld line, which is the strategy they're following now on the hybrid). I just don't see the same for PlayStation once it is head to head with Nintendo, it seems to lose by default. I have no stake in this, I just like being right. Much like I predicted, much before the Switch was launched, that Nintendo won hands down, because of the combined HW library strategy. It was a no-brainer. I just love strategy and love predicting things years ahead and then to look back and smile. As for competition, it will always exist, and if Nintendo does anything stupid to destroy its inevitable dominance, another leader will dethrone it, be it Sony, MS, Apple or anyone really. Nintendo is their own worst enemy, most of us on here understand that. Sony has IPs but they are getting more sparse and not all devs are willing to pursue them. For instance, when will the next Uncharted or TLoU release? ND are not the type of studio to stick to an IP, and games take much longer to make now. Games like Spider Man greatly help PS, I just wonder how many IPs it would take for Sony to resist Nintendo's dominance, and I highly doubt they will be able to resist more than 1 more gen before going multiplat as well.
Are you trying to say Nintendo never ever play it safe, and only ever produce brand new IP's all the time?.
Xenoblade has existed since 2010, so that's an IP for 15yrs now. Bayonetta wasn't even theirs, and that's largely fizzled out (especially with DMC coming back, and new hack n slasher games due out this year).
Astral chain was a 2019 game headed under Kamiya, and he's no longer with Platinum games, and most of plat's talent is now gone, so in most fan eyes, that studio should be dead (unless none of you care about the cooks who actually come together to make these great games?, because the combination of cooks is actually very important to get that "just right" recipe for a banger).
Also Nintendo still does Mario and Zelda, like how Sega still pushes Sonic and Yakuza to this day.
Time changes everything, Leynos, the same thing will eventually happen to Nintendo as what happens to studios and people that move on and get around. No one truly stays in the same exact spot for 100 years (big nod to Nintendo starting out not making consoles, owning love hotels, making toys and so on, because the times changed and so did Nintendo).
I think the only difference with Nintendo is that they are actually able to carry the entire industry once graphical jumps become less of a thing, as they are the greatest international publisher in existence, fully dominate Japan and have no obligation to be cross-plat. For that reason Nintendo is the only manufacturer who has no reason to not be the only manufacturer and everything would be fine. We can't say the same about Sony. Also, look just 1 gen forward, there is no more graphical advantage for Sony to use as leverage against Nintendo, or hard disk advantage or anything like that. Sony will be playing catch up to Nintendo very soon. The only thing PS may be able to still leverage is the industry-old disdain of putting games on Nintendo systems, for example the absence of GTA on Nintendo platforms.
SEGA has so many dead IP's because it no longer made financial sense to make them when they had 3 consoles and 2 handhelds and a PC to consider. Nintendo is constantly making new IPs but they are often smaller in nature. That evaporates once they go multiplatform Xenoblade was almost never going to come to the US. It took Operation Rainfall to get it to happen and even then was Gamestop exclusive in limited supply. Kamiya did not direct Astral Chain. He was a supervisor. Kamiya also left Capcom and DMC continued on. Franchises continue without original directors. Kamiya never directed any Bayo sequel either but 2 different people for 2 and 3. Bayo has not fizzled out. It's sales are on par with the series always been and DMC5 is now 6 years old. Over half a decade. You think people just want 1 game in a genre? Ok tell Kong of Fighters to stop making new games. Ninja Gaiden II Black just came out. NG4 is on the way. Soulstice is from 2022. Phantom Blade Zero is out soon. Hi Fi Rush is 2 years old. The genre is coming back and fans of the genre always want more esp since very few games fit inside the genre.
There's plenty of dead IP's Ninty hasn't been using either?.
Like where in the hell is our new Starfox AAA sequel?, or Kid Icarus (2012 was the last game, it's now 2025)?. Golden Sun (another 2012 game), a proper F-Zero that isn't a PVP MP version like F-Zero 99,.
Also it's now going to be more than 5 years since they last worked on AC New Horizons, and we know how long we had to wait since New Leaf.
Splatoon 3 was more or less 2 with slightly different paint (yes pun intended).
Again, you can talk about time and directors moving, but that still doesn't make Ninty impervious to the faults you list for others. Again, some of you guys have this weird attachment bias, and I've owned all the Ninty handhelds since the gameboy, loved Zelda/Pokemon and AC for decades, but I don't feel any form of attachment to need to compare everyone else as "gutter trash" in terms of IP and passage of time.
Also whenever someone uses sales, you guys realise there's like 8 billion of us on this rock right?. There's a reason why "line must go up" guys are around often these days, because they take a look outside the window and realise we are now longer in colonial times, where there wasn't untolt billions of us.
You know how long ago Nintendo made love hotels? I don't see any indicator of Nintendo stopping to make videogaming systems anytime soon. All i see is that they get into completly new fields but not multiplattform like some hope but themeparks like Super Nintendo World. They just advanced it with the DK themepark and many more will follow. With their integrated restaurants they (indirectly) went in te restaurant business as well, you are right. But multiplattform? I don't see it. There is no evidence that could happen in the future...
Without money from hardware, accessories, the eShop 30% cut, and licensing fees and subscriptions I think Nintendo would only focus on their properties that sell really well (Mario, Zelda, Animal Crossing) and would take even less risks with their games.
As much as I would love to play anything on a single console I'm also a fan of some of the less sucessful Nintendo games (Fire Emblem, Pikmin, Xenoblade, Kid Icarus) so no, I don't want Nintendo going third party and that wouldn't be a win for me at all lol
Not saying it won't happen ever like some of other people here, because it's possible. Anything can happen in this industry, a few years back Sony releasing their games on PC was unthinkable to me, and look where we are now.
Honestly yes... I think gamers win from this as well. If your on PC or PS5, theres nothing but good news from this, as it means more games for you. If your a xbox user, your not loseing anything.... The future there might be less xbox hardware sold, but thats obviously a choice by xbox to pick software over hardware.
You're not looking at the bigger picture. One console to rule them all has always been a fantasy of gamers, even going back to the 16-bit days. But it's a fantasy for a reason, because if that ever happened, said console would be nose-bleedinginly expensive, and said games would be lesser in quality because there's no competition. Halo would not be Halo if not for PS2. Same for Gears of War or Forza. Forza in particular only exists because Microsoft needed a Grand Turismo to help sell Xbox consoles. So this idea that you're going to get everything you want with one console is short-sided. It will not happen. If you need tangle proof, just have a look at Sega. They use to release world-class games that changed the industry... and then they became third-party and that was that. Done. Their output suddenly went from the best of the best to, at most, mediocre. That is what you're going to see happen if Playstation gets Xbox's games. Watered down, meh titles that don't matter anymore, and prices through the roof.
Of course, Nintendo is still a thing, and they will somewhat help offset the above. But it's going to have a negative impact despite this. It's not a good thing.
Yakuza and Persona/Metaphor are great tho and belong to the best in the industry
Metaphor is great, but it was made by a studio that Sega bought. a few years back. Atlus had a long history before Sega - the first Megami Tensei game was published by Namco in the 1980s. In fact, Atlus games are still published under the Atlus label. Sega's name only appears in small print on the copyright notice. LaD is great, no question. But there's no Phantasy Star, no Shining Force, no Altered Beast, no Sakura Wars, not even Valkyria, which was Sega's best-known series as a third party other than Yakuza/LaD. No one-offs like Burning Rangers, Gunstar Heroes, Guardian Heroes, either. It took almost two decades for Sega to reveal Virtua Fighter 6, which used to be their flagship series in Japan.
Sega as a hardware manufacturer took a lot of risks. Sega as a third party pretty much focuses entirely on Sonic, LaD, and Atlus.. They couldn't even sustain the Alien franchise. Even Atlus is pretty much the Persona studio nowadays (and Metaphor, which was my GOTY 2024, is fantasy Persona). They used to make all kinds of unusual titles.
During the 16-bit war, according to the book Console Wars, Sonic was more popular than Mario with US children, and the Genesis outsold the SNES in that territory until 1994. Sega as a hardware maker went toe-to-toe with the greatest video game company of all time... and bested them.
Then they got greedy.
Then they started end-fighting.
Then they went third party.
And then...
Crickets and tumbleweeds.
A huge win for gamers and I completely love it too. I find it a really elegant way for Microsoft to get out of the squeeze it found itself in within the hardware space, all the while creating a giant opportunity for growth and income, even if only at 70%, on the much more popular competitor platforms. I also don't believe it will reduce competition for Sony, because they are now going to be in a much more cut-throat head-to-head battle with their main competitor and will have to produce very compelling 1st party offerings to attract gamers who, otherwise, could find plenty for their tastes on either PC or Switch or even xbox depending on the path MS may take on their next console. Nintendo will be enjoying much more 3rd party content than ever, making things much more competitive than when they were battling Microsoft. With MS, so long as Sony offered parity and a few compelling exclusives, they almost won by default. Against Nintendo and a possible deluge of 3rd party support, even if only from Squaresoft and the now enormous Microsoft game studios, Sony will have to really pack a bigger punch to fight Nintendo and not lose a significant amount of players on their platform. If Japan is any indicator as to how threatening Nintendo can be, I hope Sony have a very solid plan ahead of them if they want to maintain a level of dominance or at least parity or competitiveness with Nintendo. The only game I see thwarting what to me is the inevitable course of things is GTA VI and its possible traditional absence on Nintendo platforms. The game is an inescapable killer app and always has been, even though I personally dislike it, I think it's important to be aware of reality. This could sway everything in Playstation's favor. But the game will be out on PC and xbox so, it's really hard to predict how things will play out. But next gen will be absolutely competitive and very exciting to watch.
XBOX is clearly on it's way to being a 3rd party brand. Of course showing other platforms won't be a problem going forward. Has nothing to do with consumers per se
"the strategy that we have allows us to do big games..." this basically implies, that xbox alone and gamepass,... cannot support the studios they have, and the budgets these games get. Like they need Playstation gamers to buy their games, so they can turn profits on said games.
Well that’s quite a turnaround from their current policy of reveal embargoes for games shown on their shows, that even Sony and Nintendo don’t do. I.e. an Atlus game shown on an Xbox showcase would have a 48 or 72 hour embargoe before they can even acknowledge the existence of a PS or Switch version, even on their own social media or YouTube channels.
"Sega is a company that has always dared to innovate and push this industry forward," said Peter Moore, president and COO, Sega of America. "Sega will continue to do so with its new strategy, and the result for consumers will be what you would always expect from a 'rules-breaker' like Sega ¿ a library of pioneering, jaw-dropping content now available any way you want to play."
IGN, February 2, 2001
I think it's great. There will now be no confusion of what games are going to Nintendo and Playstation and which ones won't. South of Midnight is the only game from their direct that didn't have a PS5 logo, so we know it's not going to PS5, but the other 4 are.
SoM probably will find its way to PS5 and Switch 2 at some point.
He's officially saying that xbox consoles don't have any value (which we already know, all go day one on pc).
When they'll announce the next xbox, they'll see japanese xbox numbers everywhere if they released forza 9, fable, gears and the next halo on ps5 before that.
Xbox is dead as a hardware maker, microsoft gaming is the first third party group. Sad to sell a box with no purpose but if they do a sega... Well, sega seems better now than before, so...
The next move they have to do is to stop the hardware, let sony compete with nintendo in a 1vs1, we don't need 3 console makers if the third is just counting points between the other two (sega first, then microsoft).
If microsoft had play better, it should have done a good store before steam and be the number one pc store, it would have served them more than trying the console market (exception of the 360... but lights were already red there, a sign).
Imagine a world with no steam, gog, epic, ubi... etc and you get everything on microsoft store... just like what you get, at first, on pc is edge.
Too late for pc for microsoft, but they ate abk so they now are number one of third party, might well acknowledge that and stick to it.
The value is the games a system plays, not what can't be played on other systems. It's in the hardware and what it can do. It's also is in services like Game Pass. Let's go with your reasoning. This means only Nintendo has any value in the console market.
Thats cool. Always wonder which consoles third parties will release on when watching these showcases that only show their platforms.
Xbox could be playing the long game here. The way I see it is they are opening up games, series and the ecosystem to players that wouldn’t otherwise experience them. Get them hooked and educated on what is on offer and then in a generation or two, slowly move the games back to Xbox exclusivity. And the players may follow suit.
An absolute joke
To be fair, Sony is doing the same, being a third party, but they just don't show the logos.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Aaaand mmm... not all... but already had one PC day 1.
Oh boy...
Look, PC gamers don't care about day 1, they have loots of games, if Sony launches many of its games months later, no big problem. But for sure, Sony is releasing their big games for PC, since.... years ago. Accept the reality once and for all, fanboys.
I do not know if this it is "equatable" or not, but IT IS TRUE.
Sony is producing (and I mean FUCKING DEVELOPING IN HOUSE) "MLB The Show" series since 2020 for Xbox One, Series and Switch .
And NO, that is NOT "normal and a minor thing" you can magically omit, or any other copium you are using to not see that, sorry: I can't remember the Sony F1 games series, or Sony's "NBA ShootOut" series being released for direct competitors of its own consoles. Not even for Nintendo portables before Sony even having one. Sorry, they always were EXCLUSIVE Playstation GAMES, even when they were "official sport franchises".
Sony is a third party now, and is an official company policy, in PC, and also in consoles. Last time a Sony Studio developed for other consoles, was Psygnosis in 1998-1999, for the Nintendo 64, and that directly caused Psygnosis president and founder being expelled from the studio after many months of serious internal disputes with Sony Computer directives, and that studio being renamed and reduced to a minor role, starting late 1999, before its clousure 12 years later in the most absolute company silence.
And by the way, "Lego Horizon Adventures" developed by Guerrilla Games (yeah, THAT Guerrillla Games, from SONY), for Switch and PC... day one. Yeah, is a "Lego game". So what? is not a valid game? Is from a Sony owned series made by a Sony owned Studio. Oh my Gawd, you need more copium? Is a FULL price game.
So, here we are. You can be as denier as you want. Don't care a fuck.
Also, the Minecraft for Switch, from Microsoft, sold more in Japan than ANY OTHER game for PS5 there. So, maybe Sony has to do the same, for its own good,
All that text and you're still as wrong as you were 12 hours ago. What Xbox and PlayStation are doing with 3rd party titles,, and maintaining exclusivity are not "the same". Go write a book with the same conclusion, and your understanding of the simple concepts of time and volume will still be just as inexplicably bad.
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