Can Sony's Deals Hold Game Performance Back on Xbox One X?
You've all seen the tags. 'Play it first on PS4.' 'Map pack available on PS4 one month before [...]
Xbox Isn't in to That
Eurogamer: I'm wondering about the situation you're going to get with big third-party games where Sony has done a marketing deal. Do you anticipate performance and image quality parity between PS4 Pro and Xbox One X for those games because of some parity requirement on Sony's part, or do you anticipate the Xbox One X version will look significantly better and perform significantly better? I'm thinking of the Call of Dutys, the FIFAs, the Battlefields.
Phil Spencer: I know exactly what you're talking about. Here's what I'll say...
Eurogamer: Honest answer, Phil.
Phil Spencer: I will give you an honest answer. Xbox One X is the most powerful console ever built, and this fall it will be the most powerful console in the market. There's nothing technically that would keep any game a console game maker is building who wants to take advantage of the capability here from making Xbox One X the very best version of every one of those games.
I don't know what deals get written. I've been pretty open about, I'm not a fan of doing deals that hold back specific pieces of content from other platforms. You don't see that in the deals we've done with Assassin's and Shadow. We'll have a marketing deal on those, but I don't say, hey, I need some kind of Strike or skin somebody else can't play.
I don't think it's good for our industry if we got into a point where people are holding back the technical innovation of game developers based on a marketing deal. I don't know anything about what's in other people's deals. But this, clearly, from a technical perspective, is the most powerful console by quite a wide margin. So, when I stood on-stage and I said this will be the best place to play all those games, there's nothing technically that would keep any developer from not making that true.
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