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Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said that gamers should not expect a new Xbox machine every few years.
Speaking to Game Informer, the exec said that regular machine updates are not something he is interested in, saying that is not part of the console business model.
Some took this to mean that the traditional generational cycle was no more, and that the firm was going to release incrementally more powerful bits of hardware, like Scorpio, every few years.
I don’t have this desire to every two years have a new console on the shelf; that’s not part of the console business model, and it doesn’t actually help us,” Spencer said.
The best customer I have is somebody who buys the original Xbox and just buys all the games. That’s the best customer for us in terms of the pure financials of it. I don’t have a need to get you to go buy the newest console, or I don’t have the need to create an artificial loop of, ‘Here’s a new console every two years,’ in order to get you to go buy.
"I’m not trying to turn consoles into the graphics card market where every so often Nvidia or AMD come out with a new card, and if I want a little bit more performance I’m going to go buy that new card. I think for consoles it’s different. I think you have to hit a spec that actually means something in an ecosystem of televisions and games"
Spencer was also asked whether he believed announcing both Xbox One S and Scorpio on-stage at E3 might have undermined the Xbox One S’ sales potential.
"It doesn’t seem like it, because we’re seeing a tremendous response to Xbox One S right now,even in markets where we’ve been behind this generation," he said.
"Clearly there was a lot of commotion after that reveal, that we just killed Xbox One S by announcing Scorpio. I say by looking at what’s going on in the market now, if anything the opposite is true.
"People said, ‘Well, is Microsoft reeling in Xbox One?’ Or, ‘Maybe Xbox hasn’t done as everybody was hoping – is there some question about their long-term commitment?’
"I think the fact that we stood on stage and announced two consoles shows that we are long-term committed to gaming and that this team is designing a product that really hopefully meets a customer demand. I’ll just say it again: the response to the S in Australia, the U.S. and Europe has been incredibly strong.
"I think there have been some news articles that have come our recently about the sales success we’ve had, which has been great."
