Xbox to slow down PC and smartphone expansion to save console business

Xbox's new Chief Strategy Officer believes the mobile market is the biggest growth opportunity for the company. However, Microsoft first intends to strengthen its own console business.

Speaking at The Game Business Live panel, Xbox's new Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball discussed Microsoft's current priorities. According to him, the company has decided to focus on strengthening its console direction before more actively developing the ecosystem on other platforms.

Ball acknowledged that, in terms of pure numbers, the mobile sector and PC currently look much more attractive than consoles: the mobile market brings in more money and players, while PC leads in terms of hours played.

"The important thing is that we have to rebuild that [console] business before we look further, to other platforms. Do we need to get better on PC? Yes. Do we need to get better on mobile? Yes."
Matthew Ball

Nevertheless, the console market remains a giant industry with a turnover of $40-45 billion, and Microsoft "has no right to ask partners and players to bet" on the Xbox ecosystem on other platforms where the company is currently lagging, until it gets its own "platform, which many believe we have treated poorly [in recent years]," in order.

"To those people we asked to buy a console a few years ago, we still owe it to them to meet their expectations and make them feel satisfied with the platform they chose. Many of them play on multiple devices, and that's great. But regardless, we have to treat them well."
Matthew Ball

Matthew Ball's appointment is part of a major restructuring of the gaming division under the new CEO Asha Sharma. According to Ball, during their first conversation, Sharma directly asked him: "Is it even possible to fix this?"

Ball himself calls himself a strategic optimist and is confident that the brand has already begun to regain its position, thanks in part to a strong lineup of upcoming games like Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution, which will be "eternal Xbox console exclusives."

Xbox to slow down PC and smartphone expansion to save console business - Matthew Ball

Read more on the topic:

Комментарии