Xbox boss Phil Spencer has reassured fans that Microsoft won't replace physical gaming with streaming.
Phil Spencer
The company's video game chief has reiterated its stance ahead of the Xbox Series X launch alongside the expansion of the xCloud streaming service, and he described the latter as simply an option for those who want it.
SPeaking during a Gamelab fireside chat, he said: "I've never tried to position xCloud as a replacement for your gaming PC or for a console.
"I like to sit down in front of the big screen and play on a console. I'm sitting here at my PC rig right now and I like to play here.
"But I'm not always in front of those two devices and I want to be able to play where I want to go play on the device that I choose."
Spencer insisted the streaming technology isn't a "replacement" for consoles.
He added: "I don't think the highest fidelity place to go play a game is going to be streamed from an Azure data centre or anybody's data center any time soon."
However, Microsoft's head of gaming is keen to build a better xCloud product for people who do want to use the platform.
He said: "We're going to bring xCloud into Game Pass. A natural way to extend where you can play your Game Pass library is to add the ability to stream to mobile devices.
"We'll be talking more about that pretty soon - it's actually not too far off now - where we'll give more clarity on the business model, which I think people will really like, as well as the library of games to go play and where you can go play that.
"We're close. We feel good about the tech."
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