It seems that there could be a growing partnership between two of the biggest names in the gaming world. According to Phil Spencer, Executive Vice-President of Xbox, Xbox has a great relationship with Nintendo and expect to continue to grow their partnership for better and better things.
This isn’t surprising to hear, of course, as the gaming community has long enjoyed the outstanding partnership between these two developers. Collaborations between these two has ended with some of the most notable titles coming to the Switch, like Cuphead or the Ori franchise. Most recently, we’ve seen the addition of the famous Banjo & Kazooie into the world of Smash.
“The relationship with Nintendo is great,” Spencer said on a podcast with IGN. “Doug Bowser and I, we talk often. Furukawa-san, the CEO of Nintendo and I, know each other well and we have conversations.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean that every single Xbox title is going to be defined by Nintendo, or vice-versa. Spencer worked to caution the high expectations of others, saying that several instances of an IP being moved to the Switch has been driven by their development partners more than Microsoft, Xbox, or Nintendo.
“Right now it seems like when any game comes out, it’s ‘Is this one going here? Is this one going there?’ And I’d rather be able to set more of an Xbox-level expectation for our fans where things are gonna go. . . I definitely have a ton of respect for the role Nintendo plays, and I love having great games on their platform. But I don’t really love this idea that for every one of our games, there becomes this little rumor on is it going to end up on the Switch or not, and I feel we should set a better expectation with our fans than that.”
Spencer’s words obviously have great merit, and it’s no doubt a sizeable headache from the production view of things to have every moment of development shadowed with whether or not a title would end up on another company’s console. There’s a fantastic amount of collaboration between the two massive companies, but that doesn’t mean that every single move one makes needs to include the other.
At the end of the day, there are some IPs that we just aren’t going to see on another company’s property. You likely aren’t going to be playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on anything other than a Nintendo console, and you probably won’t be playing Gears of War on anything that isn’t Xbox/Microsoft-owned. While this might be a bummer, it’s this shreds of uniqueness and exclusivity that keep these consoles relevant and alive.
