When Microsoft announced the Xbox Play Anywhere feature earlier this year during E3 2016, there were some who weren’t too pleased about it. For those who are unfamiliar, Xbox Play Anywhere basically lets gamers buy a game on the Xbox and get a copy of the game on their PC as well, and vice versa.The idea is that you can play the same game whether you are on the Xbox or the PC without having to purchase two copies. This has led to some worrying that it could be a sign that Microsoft was moving further away from the console space, something that Xbox executive Albert Penello has since denied.
Speaking during the Inner Circle podcast (via GameSpot), Penello said that bringing console games onto the PC won’t take away from the console itself, but rather it just gives gamers more options. “Giving PC guys the opportunity to play Quantum Break and Killer Instinct doesn’t doesn’t really take anything away from the console guys. It just gives more people a chance to play great games on the device they want to play on.”
He also says, So to me, the idea that you’re bringing games to the PC suddenly means that people don’t want consoles anymore…it doesn’t ring true to how gamers really behave.” In the meantime, Microsoft has recently stated that they believe this could be the last console generation, meaning that we could be looking at more frequent hardware upgrades versus big 7-10 year gaps between console upgrades.