Microsoft’s
gaming division
seems to be undergoing an overhaul. Soon after the company acquired
Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard
, it announced 1,900 job cuts, a change in leadership and Xbox
CEO Phil Spencer
revealing plans on bringing games to rival platforms. Spencer also talked about console business and how Windows is a weak link in handheld gaming PCs.
During the official Xbox podcast, Spencer said that he is a big fan of handhelds but the company has nothing to announce, adding that the company have real work to do in that space.
“One of the weak points in the experience on a ROG or the Lenovo [Legion Go] is Windows. How Windows works on controller input only on that kind of DPI, on a smaller eight- or seven-inch screen. That’s a real design point that our platform team is working with Windows to make sure that the experience is even better,” he said.
Spencer added that Microsoft is “kind of learning from what Nintendo has done over the years with Switch”.
In fact, we wrote in our Asus ROG Ally review that the Windows 11-powered gaming handheld comes with some compromises. “While Windows 11 opens a whole lot of possibilities, it does run into issues quite often, which is frustrating at times,” we highlighted.
Xbox ‘doing well’: Spencer
Spencer noted that the company is doing well when it comes to Xbox as a platform.
“I look at how many players there are, I look at how many hours get played. It turns out that the number of hours played on a monthly basis across Xbox, across cloud, PC, and console is a pretty good metric for how we’re doing,” he added.
Microsoft will be bringing four games to rival console – something its top leadership, including CEO Satya Nadella and president Brad Smith told regulators in multiple markets that the company will do once they close the acquisition of the Call of Duty maker.
English (US) ·