Microsoft's Phil Spencer no longer considers rival gaming consoles as the company's biggest competitor. Instead, Amazon and Google have earned the honor.
Spencer said in an interview with the technology publication agreement that Sony and Nintendo are no longer considered competitors due to the lack of cloud technologies such as the Microsoft Azure platform.
But Google Stadia and Amazon's upcoming game streaming services are seen as a competitive threat.
"When we talk about Nintendo and Sony, we have a lot of respect for them, but we see Amazon and Google as our main competitors," Spencer said. "It's not disrespecting Nintendo and Sony, but traditional game companies are a little lost. I think they can try to recreate Azure, but over the years we have invested tens of billions of dollars in the cloud.
He once said that he was willing to work with Nintendo and Sony on cross-platforms, which is an interest he has expressed in the past. Spencer has repeatedly stated that the company is committed to cloud computing, which will allow people to “ play Microsoft games anywhere, on any device they need ''.
But this may never happen, and Microsoft is more concerned about how to compete with technology giants such as Amazon and Google than with Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5.
"I don't want to compete with these people for format battles, and Amazon and Google are focused on how to provide games to 7 billion people worldwide," he said. "In the end, that's the goal."
Earlier this year, a report from The Information revealed that Amazon was developing its own game streaming service. Although early at the time, the report indicated that the company was already in talks with large publishers. The company is expected to announce its game streaming service sometime this year.
At the same time, Google Stadia went back online in November, launched 22 games, and plans to add another 120 this year. Spencer was originally announced at GDC 2019, when it was announced that Google might scale up its announcement, but Microsoft will "scale up" this year by going against its own statement. It did it.
Microsoft outlined its Cloud Gaming plan at E3 2019, when it revealed Project xCloud, a feature that enables users to stream games from the Xbox One console to Android, and the technology is expected to work with the Xbox Series X.
The feature entered preview in October, and another 50 new titles were added to the library in November. In January, other content such as "Destiny 2", "Halo: My Client Center" and "Civilization 6" have been added to the preview.
