Microsoft Studios corporate vice-president Phil Spencer might bleed Xbox green, but he has a few warm words nonetheless for the competition. Speaking to OXM as part of a feature you’ll find in our latest issue, Spencer described Nintendo’s IP catalogue as “amazing”, and praised Sony’s commitment to franchises that aren’t guaranteed best-sellers.
“Nintendo, I think – and there’s some argument about this – that their first-party is such an amazing asset,” he began, when our colleagues in the US asked what he had learned from rivals. “Their first party studios and IP can lead what they do as a company and the platforms are almost in service to the IP – not in a bad way.
“They have such iconic stories and this will seem somewhat random, but when we go back and do something like Killer Instinct, a little bit of the history of your franchise can actually be important part of people feeling connected. Obviously the history of Killer Instinct isn’t a history on Xbox, but it’s Rare’s history and I think the reaction when we announced it on-stage at E3 showed that playing to the people’s heart, I think Nintendo does that as well as anybody in terms of hitting the franchises and having huge success with them.”
