Xbox and Nintendo have this sort of bromance going on in recent years, and gamers are here for it.
We’ve seen a number of Xbox games release via the Switch, bringing handheld playability to a number of titles that were once only playable on the big screen.
But Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, has said recently that releasing games on a case-by-case basis on the Switch was not a sustainable model in the long run for anyone.
Then the subject turned over the Xbox Game Pass. If Microsoft‘s premiere subscription service could be playable on Nintendo Switch console, it would bring an incredible amount of Xbox playability to the Nintendo platform.
But would Microsoft be interested in that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU1jOKJNfAw
Spencer stated in a recent interview that he’s “not sure” about the feasibility of such an idea, but he would be open to potential talks with Nintendo and possibly even Sony about launching Game Pass or xCloud on those platforms.
Of course, this would all bank on whether or not the other companies would be interested in such a partnership.
“I think for us it’s all about priority, and reaching more players,” Spencer said. “So we went to PC first after Xbox, because there’s just so many players there, globally, that don’t own an Xbox, that we could reach. We went to mobile next because there’s a billion Android phones on the planet. It’s significantly larger than any console player base.”
He also noted that the company has yet to go after iOS platforms, but that this move is definitely on his to-do list.
“We’re still working on some of our technology on PC for larger screens in terms of streaming, and getting to iOS. And I think once we get trough that, we look at what the other options are,” Spencer added. “There’s smart TV’s out there, there’s Chromebooks out there, there’s FireTV out there, there’s a lot of discussions we would have. We would prioritize it based on where we would find the most new players that we could naturally bring content to. I love the Switch, I love PlayStation, honestly. I think they’ve done an amazing job as being a part of this industry. I’m not sure that those are the next big set of users for us, but we could be open to those discussions.”
This is a huge about face from Spencer, who shot down this same idea back in July. Even earlier this month, he stated that Xbox games would require support from a full Xbox ecosystem.
