Xbox's Mike Nichols: 'We have gone beyond the notion of console generations'
Telegraph: You have announced that you are working on the next Xbox console. Why is now the time to fire the starting gun on that conversation?
Mike Nichols: Our thinking coming into briefing yesterday was to say: 'Hey Xbox fans there’s great stuff now and there’s great stuff to look forward to.' We really wanted to check all those boxes. Of course our designers are working on the design for future versions of the console, of course we have engineers working on how we can stream games to any device so that people who perhaps can’t afford a console can get access to these games on the move.
They’re not pending, they’re further out, [those announcements] are acknowledgements that we’re working on those things. We thought that was important because one of the things we’ve taken pride in in the last few years is that when we promise something we want to deliver it.
There will be more information in the months and years to come, but we want people to have confidence that if they opt into our ecosystem, that it’s an ecosystem that we are fully committed to making state of the art in every way we can.
Telegraph: What are your hopes in the short-term then? It feels like you are building the blocks for the next-generation, but you must have goals for the short term to be in the best position you can?
Nichols: Increasingly the way we think about things is less about the traditional generational console cycles where there’s a new generation of console and it starts from scratch and what’s your launch catalogue and it’s games that are only for that new generation of console. That’s not really something we have bought into.
You see Xbox One X when it launched and it played every Xbox One game and that’s the way we think about the future for us. The phrase we used was going beyond the notion of generations. Where you have a content library that you own or you subscribe to. But then if you choose to upgrade your hardware so it plays that content library better then you have the ability to do that but you don’t have to.
That move is something that when we released Xbox One S and X, and what future things we do is important to us. I would look at the news from us at E3 as from the perspective of Microsoft studio investments: we are invested for Xbox One owners. From the perspective of third parties we are providing the best place to play. Pretty much any game that anyone sees this week will play best on Xbox One X.
Almost every one of the new third-party games that were revealed on our stage for the first time will be Xbox One X enhanced. This is after people have had some time to take advantage of all the hardware. So whether it’s Microsoft studios or having great content for third party games and an amazing lineup of third party games that are coming in the next year.
Telegraph: So are you expecting to continue that console family that you have had with Xbox One S and Xbox One X?
Nichols: We’re not going to share specifics on console family or not. But we do believe in the notion of you owning a content library and for us to help you retain value in that content library.
You saw that with the backwards compatible announcements. We’ve seen it with the launches of Xbox One S and X, so I expect that to continue. That’s important to us. We want people to feel if they invest money in our ecosystem it is money well invested.
Telegraph: You speak about streaming and your commitment to that, but also that you are making a new console. Yves Guillemot recently said that he could see a streaming-only future. Where do you stand on that, and does developing a streaming service and new hardware not compete against each other?
Nichols: I think they’re quite complementary. I prefer console gaming, I prefer to have the highest quality experinece on the largest TV I can afford with the nicest sound system I can afford. I believe there will always be an important role for the console in people’s gameplay. We believe so much in consoles that we’ve launched two in two years and acknowledged that we’re working on another one.
I think about streaming as complementary as it might reach people that consoles can’t or that the consoles aren’t appropriate for. If you don’t have the large TV or you don’t have much space. Or if you want something that’s mobile with you, if you’re leaving the house and you want to carry on playing, it’s hard. I think of it as far more complementary than as a replacement.
Telegraph: You are already heavily exploring a subscription service with Xbox Game Pass, is this the pre-cursor to a streaming service that is something like the fabled ‘Netflix-for-games’ that people often refer to?
Nichols: I don’t love that term but I totally get the point. The way I think about streaming is bringing the experiences we have to as many devices as we can. So it makes sense for Game Pass to be part of that. We have nothing to share right now as to whether it is Game Pass that’s streamed or individual titles that are rented.
Telegraph: This year felt like something of a reboot for Microsoft to invest so heavily in first-party exclusives, which is an area you have lacked in the last few years. Is that what you were going for this year?
Nichols: I think one thing is clear is that it’s a pretty unprecedented expansion to Microsoft Studios on a couple of different levels. We announced so many new games within the established franchises; Halo, Gears 5, Forza, Ori. But basically taking it from five game studios to 10 was an exciting part of the announcement.
Many of us feel in love with the Xbox because one of those original games and we wanted more of that. The team really set out to go find really interesting creative talent from around the world. And the four acquisitions we announced and the one new studio we announced are a collection of talent with different skills, different approaches, different places where they’re from.
Telegraph: Is the new studio made up from alumni of another studio or is it brand new?
Nichols:It's a brand new studio, based in Santa Monica led by Daryl Gallagher who lead the reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise for Crystal Dynamics. He had been talking with our leadership team and they came to an agreement where he had a creative vision. We believe in him and we believe in the vision.
Telegraph: Ninja Theory are the most intriguing of the acquisitions. They create games that perhaps wouldn’t have fit in with your lean towards multiplayer and games-as-service titles. Is buying Ninja Theory a statement that you are backing rich, single-player adventures?
Nichols: Frankly from our perspective one of the things we wanted to do with these studios is to cover a number of genres, different play styles. We don’t want one class of game, we wants lots of different types of games and appeal as broadly as we can.
Whenever we see a gap in what third parties are doing where we think we could fill the gap or we have an idea that’s very different, that’s what we wanted to fund. One of the things that’s important to us is not to insist on a certain game type of business model and then design everything around that.
