Phil Spencer Praises Competition in Interview

Xbox head Phil Spencer certainly has a lot to be happy about: the Xbox One is quickly gaining momentum in the market (outside Japan of course) for having an increasingly impressive library of games, taking gigantic leaps forward for both indie gaming and backwards compatibility (which if you think about it, just means the Xbox One is “more PC” than PlayStation 4), and, to top it all off, revealing an impressive showing at this year’s Gamescom.

Well. Recently, Mr. Spencer did a lil’ interview with Eurogamer, where he had some rather… telling things to say about his competition:
 

"Sony's had great success with PlayStation, they've earned that success over multiple decades of building a great product. Kudos to them for their market position. On the Wii U, I think people downplay how many units they've sold. I've got a Wii U, I think there's some great games on there. I think Splatoon's a really nice game and I don't think there's a first-party out there that has the strength of IP that Nintendo has. They're always a beacon to me when I look at what it means to build a first-party portfolio of products, they've done a great job."

 
...huh. That’s certainly a big change from the ol’ bloody console wars from ten years ago. Perhaps that’s a sign of the slow maturing of our corporate culture? Or maybe… it’s because we have a common enemy:
 

"I see nothing but opportunity in front of us. The console space is so healthy right now - and that's also not a terminal point you can write about anymore, the death of the console! - it's nice to see Sony doing well, PlayStation 4 and Xbox is selling more than we've ever sold before. That health is great. I really think about us coming, more about putting the gamer at the centre of our decisions over the next 12 months, and less centred on specific ties to any platform that those people want to play on. It's such a huge opportunity. We have a unique position being both the Windows company and the Xbox company, that allows us to go do more."

 
Which, I grant you, is an odd position for Xbox One to be in, given that their mother company works mostly in computers. I suppose that’s a third reason why he might have such kind words for the competition: thanks to that unique position, they can turn the Xbox One’s biggest competitor into its biggest asset… and fuse two fanbases together into one, super fanbase that will crush their competition. That's probably why they've been pushing Windows 10 and that whole Xbox One integration.

Let’s see your first-party games get you out of THAT, Nintendo.