Spencer: Market share has nothing to do with it – Sony is buying third party deals

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has rejected any notion that PS4 is home to more third party titles than Xbox One due to its superior market share.

They don’t ‘gobble’ the deals up. They buy them,” he told GameSpot when asked if PS4’s high sales were making it difficult for Microsoft to ensure a decent third party release slate on Xbox One.

You know, I read the same things you do, and I know some people think it’s somehow less expensive to sign third-party exclusives if you have a bigger market-share. I can tell you, it has nothing to do with market share.

When you go in to do a deal, with a third party, that third party has its own view of the global market and the value of it. And they should, they should think about their assets and how valuable they are, just like anyone would when they are selling their goods.”

Spencer went on to say that Microsoft has consciously opted to focus is energies on its first party titles.

I do think that building up first-party exclusives is creatively more difficult than signing a deal, just by the nature of what it is,” he added. For us, right now Xbox is in a stretch where all its first-party teams are doing an incredible job. I’m proud of that as the head of Xbox, and as the head of first-party.”

Sony said last month that worldwide PS4 shipments have now reached 25.3m consoles. Microsoft’s last Xbox One update, from way back in November 2014, had Xbox One shipments at 10m.