Xbox One has been through a number of huge changes since the console's launch. From a rocky announcement that emphasized all the wrong things to the upcoming release of the new Xbox One dashboard, Microsoft has had to fight tooth and nail to keep up with Sony and the runaway success of the PlayStation 4.
In a new interview during the GeekWire 2015 summit, Xbox boss Phil Spencer spoke candidly about stepping into his role as the head of Xbox, competing with Sony, revitalizing the Xbox brand and having to fight for every customer.
"I started off making some statements like 'we wanna win' and turning it into a competitive thing but what I quickly realized is that you can only control, as a leader, the things that you can control," Spencer says. "The products you can build, the features that you add to your platform, the way you talk about yourselves and your team and the products you build. Basing your success off an external view of your share of what Sony's doing, Sony's had incredible success and they've earned that, but for me and as a leader of my team and somebody who is interacting with the Xbox community, it was much more beneficial and I could have much more of an impact focusing on the product we had.
"You'll hear me talk a lot less about the competition. And it's easy, people will say 'you're losing, of course you're not going to bring that up.' I think, maybe we'll test it someday, if I'm winning, I think I will stay in the same swim lane. It's really about the product we have, the features that we have and how we treat the customers of our box."
When asked bluntly if he thought Microsoft could outsell Sony this console generation, Spencer had this to say.
"I don't know," he says. "They have a huge lead and a great product."
He would go on to say that Xbox isn't so much looking to beat Sony as it is looking to gain as many customers as it can.
"I have to earn every customer," Spencer said. "My biggest competitor is apathy."
Sony's lead is in large part thanks to what may have been one of the greatest misfires in the history of gaming, when Microsoft lifted the veil off the Xbox One and announced that it wouldn't work without an Internet connection and, as a result, that used games would possibly not work on the console. It was a miscalculation that alienated longtime Xbox fans, a miscalculation Spencer has been hard at work attempting to repair from both inside the company and out. He says that the Xbox team needed revitalizing after the Xbox's initial announcement. Now with features like the Xbox One's upcoming backwards compatibility, Spencer says the team is more energized and passionate about what they are doing.
You can read more about Xbox One backwards compatibility here. Xbox One's biggest exclusive, Halo 5: Guardians, releases on Oct. 27.
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