Phil Spencer wants Sony and Nintendo games on Xbox, but says he doesn’t expect it

Xbox head Phil Spencer says he’d like to see Sony and Nintendo bring its games to Xbox, but that he isn’t holding his breath.

In an interview for journalist Stephen Totilo’s Game File newsletter, Spencer said the decision to bring four Xbox games to other consoles wasn’t intended to make its rivals follow suit.

“This is not for me, like, some kind of bartering system,” Spencer explained. “We’re doing it for the better of Xbox’s business.”

Despite this, Spencer said he would of course welcome other consoles’ games on Xbox, and noted that it would be beneficial for multiplayer games in particular, where building a large online community is important for a game’s lifespan.

“I will say, when I look at a game like Helldivers 2 – and it’s a great game, kudos to the team shipping on PC and PlayStation – I’m not exactly sure who it helps in the industry by not being on Xbox,” he said. “If you try to twist yourself to say, like, somehow that benefited somebody somewhere.

“But I get it. There’s a legacy in console gaming that we’re going to benefit by shipping games and not putting them on other places. We do the same thing.”

Spencer also noted that Helldivers 2 – which Sony released on PlayStation and PC on the same day – is doing well on the latter.

“I will say shipping more games in more places and making them more accessible to more people is a good part of the gaming business,” he said.

Earlier this week, Sony president and PlayStation chairman Hiroki Totoki said he wants the company to be “aggressive” when it comes to improving its gaming division’s profit margins, which he says can partly be achieved with a greater focus on bringing first-party games to PC.

During an investor’s call, Totoki made it clear that he feels releasing first-party games “multi-platform” will be the way forward, though he did then appear to clarify that he was only referring to PC when he said this.