Xbox Head Phil Spencer Misspeaks Regarding PC Gaming Versus Console Cost, Retracts On Twitter After Backlash
In an interview with gaming outlet IGN, Xbox Head Phil Spencer talked about the melding of Windows 10 and Xbox One. During the interview, the Xbox One chief was quoted saying that in order to get console level resolutions you would need a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) two times the cost of the Xbox One. However, his comments, after the interview went live today, have been met with massive backlash from the PC gaming community and press, spawning Reddit threads and articles refuting the statement.
During the 15-minute interview with IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey, Phil was asked about the public backlash after is was announced that Quantum Break was not an exclusive to the Xbox One, but also coming to Windows 10. The interview, in its entirety, is up on YouTube, the quote in question from Phil Spencer is at the 21-minute mark.
“From a financial standpoint, absolutely the most cost effective way to go play these games is to own an Xbox One. […] The graphics card alone is 2x what the Xbox – uh, to run at a similar resolution.”
After the quote went live, media and PC gaming fans started to question the logic, considering there are multiple examples on the market of graphics cards which outperform the Xbox One and cost less than the console itself. Forbes writer Jason Evangelho questioned the statement, as well as calling into question the commitment that Phil Spencer has with unifying PC and Console gamers, especially when he “drives a wedge” in-between his own two bases.
“It’s insane to me that the same man who admirably refuses to incite a console war between Xbox One and PS4 would choose to drive a wedge between his own users by spreading such exaggerated mistruths about the PC, Microsoft’s other platform. I hear it’s kind of a popular one too. Spencer is a man with great ideas on how to push gaming forward regardless of platform, so this kind of comment is jarring.”
The comment is clearly wrong, as many know. Graphics cards from 2012 have been outperforming the Xbox One on every level since the console itself debuted. It’s especially interesting that Phil would mention the console’s resolution, specifically since the Xbox One lags in that category compared to similar games on the PlayStation 4 and PC. Xbox One consistently plays games at 900p, or even the extremely weird 792p in the case of Watchdogs and Titanfall, whereas cards such as the AMD Radeon R7 290x (which costs less than $200 via PC PartPicker), as well as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 ti (which you can find under a hundred bucks) outperform the Xbox One, as well as the PS4 in every test. This is proven time and time again by Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry crew.
Spencer, instead of commenting on any of the press inquiries, took to Twitter to clarify his comments in the most invisible way possible. When a fan on Twitter called him out, he responded saying he was “wrong.”
@FlaxeLaxen No and the 2x comment is wrong, my mistake. My point is from a performance/price standpoint console is a great value.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) March 3, 2016
Many feel that instead of hiding behind a tweet to someone — a statement many will miss — Phil really needed to come out in a more public manner to clarify the comments. As it stands now, many fans will listen to the podcast, which remains unedited, and take Spencer’s incorrect statement as truth, especially since the journalist conducting the interview did nothing to question the statement.
Phil Spencer’s new initiative with Xbox One and Windows 10 unifying has been met with backlash from PC and Xbox One gamers alike. Statements and misinformation like this only drive PC gamers further away from Microsoft’s overall goal of creating a unified gaming environment for their consumers. Have a thought about Phil Spencer’s quote, and his handling of the backlash? Sound off in the comments below.
[Images via Microsoft]
