Phil Spencer says Microsoft is considering what's next for Xbox platforms, and it's using feedback from developers like Hideo Kojima to help shape it.
While it may feel like the new console generation is only just getting started, Xbox is already thinking about what comes after the Xbox Series X. In an interview with YouTube channel Same Brain, Spencer let on that Microsoft is already working on new hardware and talking to developers about what they want from it.
Regarding working with the developers at Xbox’s newly acquired studios, Spencer said: “They are giving a lot of feedback as we are looking right now at future platform stuff, and what we might be doing and getting those creators telling us what they wish they could do."
“As we have ideas about things we might want to try next, and how we might incorporate that either into the silicon work we're doing, the hardware work that we’re doing, or the service work we are doing, we test it with our first-party teams, but it starts with asking them what are you thinking about doing next.”
Spencer also spoke specifically about collaborating with Hideo Kojima, who is working with Xbox on his mysterious second independent game. “I was recently in Japan and I was spending time with Kojima-san and talking to him about the game he's building with us," Spencer said, "and it's just really cool to hear him like, ‘Here are the things I want to go do in this game', and our engineers are literally right there listening, trying to make sure that our platform makes those things possible.”
While Spencer may be referencing an incremental new console like the Xbox One X, if he is referencing an entirely new console generation, his comments could suggest that Kojima’s newest title is quite a ways away. Of course, this mystery game could always be cross-gen, but the intersection of Kojima's software ambitions and Xbox's hardware plans is interesting to see.
