Xbox backs off Game Pass on every platform goal
Phil Spencer says other consoles "aren't really that interested in having a full Xbox experience on their hardware"
Xbox head Phil Spencer's long-stated goal to get Xbox Game Pass on every device appears to have been scaled back a bit.
In an interview with Game Star published late last week, Spencer suggested as much in response to a question about whether the company's focus on giving gamers choices meant the Game Pass would find its way to the Switch and PlayStation 5 in the future.
"The thing about other gaming console platforms is we're not able to bring a full Xbox experience on those platforms," Spencer said, noting that the company has been able to bring such an experience to PC and mobile phones.
"We know when somebody is playing one of our Xbox games there is an expectation that I've got my Xbox Live community, I have my achievements, Game Pass is an option for me, my first-party library is completely there," Spencer added. "And the other competitive platforms aren't really that interested in having a full Xbox experience on their hardware. But for us, we want to be where gamers want to be, and that's the path that we're on."
Microsoft has already ventured onto its competitors' platforms a number of times in the past, most notably with multiplatform releases of Minecraft and Switch releases of Cuphead and Ori and the Blind Forest.
The PS4 and Switch versions of Minecraft also give players the option to use their Microsoft accounts to allow for cross-platform play and adding friends through their Xbox gamertags.