Phil Harrison is an exec who’s been around the video game industry for quite some time. In fact, in his years in the industry, he’s managed to work for both Microsoft and Sony.
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So when he was asked what the differences between the two companies are, he had a pretty good explanation. He noted that Sony was more about focusing on the games business in general, while Microsoft was looking to do more than just video games with its Xbox One – hence the focus on technology like HoloLens.
“They all have tremendous positives and some small challenges. If Microsoft’s Xbox business was a stand-alone business, only focused on games, that would be an incredible business. When you look at it as a part of Microsoft spitting out $20 billion in free cash flow every year, it just shows up as a tiny little dot, which is always a deep frustration for the leadership in the Xbox business. They do an incredible job, but they don’t show up that often on the scorecard,” he explained.
“It’s a different pressure that Sony has. They have a much smaller balance sheet. They’re a much more focused company through necessity, through the challenges they’ve been through, which have been public over the last 10 years or so. It’s a good question. Which would you rather be: a focused company with a smaller balance sheet or an unfocused company with a very large balance sheet?”
While he appreciates what both companies have done over the years, he talked about a force that could very well shake up the game industry as we know it – Amazon. The retail giant has been buying up certain companies (like Killer Instinct developer Double Helix Games) and trying to expand its game business – and Harrison believes they’ll make quite an impact in the long run.
“Ultimately a strong balance sheet is a good thing to have, which is why a company like Amazon could end up being a disruptive force in games. They have AWS as this secret provider of incredible services to so many games companies, which they’re monetizing like crazy,” he said.
“I think Amazon knows they have a games business. It’s interesting that the games bit of Amazon reports in to the AWS leadership. That’s not a surprise or an accident. That’s very purposeful.”
Will Amazon really make that big a deal in the long run? We’ll find out soon enough!
