Phil Spencer Confirms Xbox Won’t Hike Prices And More Acquisitions Coming

In an interview with CNBC, Phil Spencer, the CEO, and face of Xbox spoke out regarding a fairly controversial topic in the gaming industry currently. With PlayStation making the decision to hike up the prices of the PS5, Phil Spencer was asked if the same was to follow for Xbox. To which he replied:

“We’re always evaluating our business going forward. So, I don’t think we can ever say on anything that we will never do something. But when we look at our consoles today, and you talked about it – Series X and Series S, we think value is incredibly important. We love the position of Series S in the market, which is our lower-cost console. Over half of our new players that we’re finding are coming in through Series S.”

Major Takeaway:

• Xbox is committing to its base price point.
• Xbox is going to continue acquiring more studios and publishers.

The PlayStation 5 has proven to be one of the most infamous (and somewhat controversial) console releases in recent memory.

While it’s a great console that offers tremendous processing power, most people already can’t find themselves affording a PS5 either due to scalpers or Sony being unable to keep up with the demand for more consoles.

Sony in response to this has only done more to rub salt on the wound of consumers looking to buy a PS5, choosing to hike up the prices of the PlayStation 5 for most of the world except the US.

What makes this decision more controversial is that news broke out recently that PS5s was made easier and cheaper to produce recently due to a reduction in their weight. 

Another interesting detail talked about during the interview with CNBC was more acquisitions, when asked if XBOX had plans to temporarily stop after the Activision deal. Spencer responded: 

“This is such a competitive market. I don’t think we get to press pause on anything. Uh you know, Tencent is the largest gaming company on the planet today and they continue to heavily invest in gaming content and game creators. Sony is a larger business than we are in gaming today and they continue to invest. When you look at the investments that we’ve made, it’s a highly, highly competitive market. We strive to be a major player here. We want to deliver great content for our players and we’re going to remain active. Like I said, whether that’s investing in our internal teams that are already building great games that people know and love. Whether it’s building new partnerships.”

So, it is incredibly likely that we can expect way more studio acquisitions in the future possibly even on a similar scope as the Activision and Bethesda acquisitions. A glaring issue about this that many players involved in the gaming industry are concerned about is the steady rise of monopolization within the gaming industry.

Sony itself responded to Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Activision by saying, “By giving Microsoft control of Activision games like Call of Duty, this deal would have major negative implications for gamers and the future of the gaming industry” 

This is also followed by SIE CEO Jim Ryan stating that he was unhappy with XBOX’s acquisition of Activision and eventually losing Call of Duty.

Which, if you’ve followed the gaming industry for any length of time, is a hilariously hypocritical claim to make for Sony. Especially considering they’ve had their own exclusive FPS franchises dormant for years.

More and more studios and publishers are uniting within one banner, while Xbox is no Disney. We are starting to see the signs and the inevitable effects of this long-running arms race between the major gaming brands like Sony, Xbox, and Tencent and the future looks a tad bleak to many players around who do not support any of these major brands.