Xbox will be ‘bold and different’ with Series X reveals, says Spencer

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said the platform will continue to be “bold” and “different” with its Xbox Series X reveals between now and launch.

Spencer took the unconventional decision to reveal the next-gen Xbox console at The Game Awards in December, instead of a bespoke media event or trade show.

He has now admitted that initially he “wasn’t the biggest fan” of The Game Awards reveal idea. However, the Xbox head told Gamertag Radio that the platform holder feels it needs to approach Series X “in a different way” to its past consoles.

“The [Game Awards] decision was actually pushed forward by one of our marketing leads,” he explained.

“She just stood up in the room and said, ‘we should go do something bold, something we’ve never done before. Let’s face it, we’re not in the market position we wanted to be in for this last generation. I don’t think we’re going to disrupt and grow our business by doing what we’ve always done. Let’s go try to do new things.’”

Overall, Spencer said he feels the reveal went well, even though it “could’ve been a disaster.”

He said: “The thing that really made it work though was the work the team did around the video assets that we had. I’d say for both Hellblade and for Series X, I thought both of them back-to-back really played well.

“It was cool to do it and I think the response has been great,” he added. “But to be completely honest with you, I could be sitting with you today and it could’ve been a disaster. You have to make those decisions and you make them without all the knowledge of how it’s going to play out.”

The Xbox boss added that he likes occasionally trying “something bold” and indicated that Xbox will be approaching Series X’s reveals between now and launch differently to how it has with past consoles.

“I’m really happy with the way [Game Awards] played out and the response from the fans, but every decision we make between now and launch… we’re trying to think about things in a different way,” he said.

“Some of them we’ll get right and some of them we won’t, but we’re definitely not going to be meek: we’re going to be bold in what we’re gonna try to do.”

Xbox moved to position Series X as the “most powerful” games console in January when it trademarked the “power your dreams” marketing slogan for its next-gen system.

Xbox also recently confirmed plans to attend E3, following the news that rival PlayStation won’t be at June’s industry showcase.