Game developers and publishers are in a tenuous position right now, as video games are having a small boom due to the COVID-19 pandemic— leading to people spending more time at home. A line must be drawn between wanting gamers to check out a game or make a purchase and capitalizing on the surge of players in an exploitative way. That's a line that Xbox boss Phil Spencer recognizes and claims that Microsoft is going out of its way to avoid.
Spencer says Xbox's priorities, for the time being, are in no way trying to leverage the situation. "We're not putting in place any different business tactics or other things," Spencer says. Instead, Xbox is focusing on maintaining all services, both in terms of maintenance and security, and continuing to work toward the company's future plans.
Due to the unique nature of the world right now, Spencer says that he's "proud that we can provide this activity for people." In doing that, Spencer says that Xbox wants "to be very thoughtful and not exploiting the situation." It's part of the Xbox's role being there during a time of need.
Xbox is currently setting records for engagement on its online platforms. Xbox Game Pass is now over 10 million subscribers, while there are over 90 million active Xbox Live users. Regardless of Xbox's intentions or priorities, the company is massively profiting due to the higher engagement as a result of global stay at home policies.
Being the best platform that it's able to be is all Xbox can hope to do for now. It's not able to change the pandemic directly, but it can provide Xbox users the escape that they're looking for in this time of high stress. As Spencer says, "You wouldn't wish this is the way we get here."
Xbox continues to move forward with its major 2020 plans. The Xbox Series X console is still planned to launch during holiday 2020, and between now and then Xbox has a lot of game announcements and details to share. Its next major Xbox event will be on May 7. The best way Xbox can pay the brand love it's receiving forward is to keep being passionate about the hardware and games it's making, while continuing to protect the health and safety of its employees.
Source: GameSpot