Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has said he feels “really good” about how Xbox Series X lines up against PlayStation 5, on power and price – but says Series X pricing will “stay agile” in the run up to launch.
Speaking to IGN’s Podcast Unlocked, Spencer was asked how he felt after watching the PS5 tech specs reveal with Mark Cerny, and how Xbox Series X stacks up against its key rival:
“No doubt, I felt really good about how Series X lines up. Now, I think Mark and the team did some really good work on the audio processing that they talked about, their SSD technology is impressive, we like that. We saw the work that they did. But you know, we we took a holistic view on our platform, from CPU, to GPU, to RAM, to throughput velocity architecture, latency, back compat – you know, it took us years to get to this point.
“I will definitely have respect for any platform team that’s launching, it just takes a lot of work. But I will say, when we finally saw the public disclosure, I felt even better about the choices that we made on our platform. And I kind of expected that I would.”
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It’s a confident response, and Spencer continued that line of thinking with regard to one major unknown for both next-gen consoles – price. The Xbox boss explained that Microsoft began with a solid price target for Series X (one he doesn’t disclose), and whether that could alter depending on Sony’s choices:
“You have to set a price target at the beginning for yourselves. And then you kind of roll in as you see the competition come in and start to go to market planning. I feel good about the price that we’re going to be able to get to. I feel good about the price and the performance capabilities that we have with Series X. I feel incredibly strong about the overall package.”
“We’re definitely going to be continuing to keep our eyes wide open as we go towards launch, looking at what the competition is doing, but you know, we have a plan and we feel very solid about our plan. We think it’s a winning plan. I believe we have a plan that can win, we’ve got to go execute. But I feel really good about the plan that we put together.”
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Famously, Sony was able to undercut Xbox One’s price when it revealed the PS4 at E3 2013, a move many saw as calculated, perhaps even pivoted to at the event. Asked if Microsoft was able to make the same kind of moves, and be flexible about the Series X price, Spencer explained that the PS5’s price point was absolutely being taken into account ahead of launch:
“We’re getting incredible support from Microsoft […] they’re very linked into what our plans are, and we’re going to make sure we stay agile on our pricing, and that we have a good plan going into launch.”
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You can watch the full episode of Podcast Unlocked above, where Spencer also talks about Microsoft isn’t working on a Plan B for Series X’s launch, and the practical reasons for why the console doesn’t have an optical port.
Xbox Series X is scheduled to be released during Holiday 2020. RIght now we know the Xbox Series X specs, we have an educated guess on its price based on those specs, and a full comparison with PS5. What we know far less about is Xbox Series X games, but we have a list of confirmed and rumoured titles for the next-gen console.
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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News, and he has intuited from this piece that Xbox has a plan. Follow him on Twitter.
Source: IGN.com Xbox Series X vs. PS5: Phil Spencer Feels 'Really Good'