Back in September, Xbox Division head Phil Spencer joined Microsoft’s senior leadership team as Executive Vice President of Gaming. In order to learn more on what this means for the Xbox brand, we asked Xbox Games Marketing General Manager Aaron Greenberg for his insight on the situation.
Greenberg mentioned that Spencer’s appointment and the fact that he now reports directly to Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella shows the strategic importance of gaming for Microsoft as a whole, and is a reflection of the “great work” that the team has done.
While it’s hard for Greenberg to say what kind of changes this will bring at Xbox, but now the person running the gaming business is now sitting in the same meetings and doing the same reviews with the CEO and all of the most senior executives of the company, and Greenberg thinks that’s a good thing.
Xbox is a “great consumer brand” and an “incredible service with Xbox Live,” delivering games and services across many different devices. For instance, Mincraft lets people play across Xbox One, PC, mobile and even Nintendo Switch. If you look at what people are doing and how they’re spending their time across devices, gaming is definitely one of those things. And it’s no longer just about playing games, as watching them is getting just as popular or even more, which is why Microsoft is investing in initiatives like Mixer.
Stay tuned on DualShockers for the full interview coming soon, and if you want to read more, you can read Greenberg’s comments on cross-platform gameplay, and about the situation of Xbox One X pre-orders.