Microsoft: Digital is an ‘unstoppable force’; Drops Premier League Xbox One TV hint

Phil Harrison has said that a digital-only future for the games industry is an inevitability.

The general trend of the world is to be more digital and less physical,” Microsoft’s EMEA corporate VP Phil Harrison told Eurogamer. That is in our opinion an unstoppable force.

Depending on where you live on the planet, that transition has already happened. Some parts of South East Asia, Korea for example, don’t have a physical disc or media-based games industry anymore. It’s all digital.”

Harrison also dropped the biggest hint yet about the possibility of Microsoft striking an interactive TV deal with Sky Sports and the Premier League that mirrors that it enjoys with the NFL in North America.

The short answer is we have nothing to announce,” he answered when pressed specifically about the Premier League. The long answer is, two floors below you is a large team of people who are working on some really interesting things.

Microsoft earlier this month confirmed that it is actively pursuing more interactive sports deals with various potential partners across the globe.