Xbox Exec Phil Spencer Says He "Felt Good" After Seeing Sony's PS5 Event

Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently spoke during a Gamelab Live 2020 interview about Sony's big PlayStation 5 event and said Sony did a good job with its show and that he "felt good" after seeing what the competitor showcased. Sony's been trailing Microsoft in terms of how much its showed off about its new console and next-gen plans, and Spencer said it was "great to have them out there" now that we know what the PlayStation 5 looks like and what some of its launch lineup consists of. He added that the hardware advantages the Xbox Series X boasts will show as we hear more about the console's games and things like frame rate settings that pertain to those titles.

Spencer spoke with journalist Seth Schiesel in the interview segment which was reuploaded here by a third party. He opened by saying he watched the show and sent Sony Interactive President Jim Ryan a congratulatory message afterwards.

"I watched the show, I thought they did a good job," Spencer said. "I sent Jim a note afterwards and congratulated him. I thought, you know, in this environment, trying to pull off a high-production value event is just not easy. So I applaud the team at Sony for what they were able to do."

As a competitor, Spencer said it was nice to have Sony's plans out in the open now. For context, Sony's PlayStation 5 was only just revealed on June 11th with the next-gen event offering us the first look at both the PlayStation 5 and the previously unheard of PlayStation 5 Digital Edition. The Xbox Series X, by comparison, was revealed in December 2019, and Microsoft has been more forward about its cross-gen plans since then with the reveals of things like the Smart Delivery feature.

With Sony's plans and the Xbox Series X hardware and games lineup in mind, Spencer added that he felt good after seeing the PlayStation 5 event.

"Just being honest, I felt good after seeing their show," he continued. "I think the hardware advantages that we've built are going to show up as we're talking more about our games and frame rates and other things. I thought the games lineup that we're gonna have at launch, I felt really good about. And we got more clarity on what they're doing obviously at their show which helped us just focus in on more of what we have, and I think that'll be a strength for us at launch."

Both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 are scheduled to release sometime during Holiday 2020.

H/T VGC