During the latest episode of Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb’s Xbox Podcast, division head Phil Spencer teased the long-term game.
First of all, Spencer talked about Game Pass, mentioning that 2020 was an important year, but 2021 is going to be an “incredible year” when he looks at the lineup of games coming to the service and at the continued work to bring it to more people.
Speaking more in general, he mentioned that he sees what is coming in the next year as “Horizon 0,” while things coming between two and three years in the future are “Horizon 1.” Finally, there is “Horizon 2,” representing things that may come three to ten years out. Most of those may not work, but some do. Backward compatibility was one of them.
Among those there are some things he’s “incredibly excited about” and they will be talked about in the next year or two. According to Spencer, those may get people as excited as xCloud or Game Pass are doing today.
While the team is in the moment, they’re also thinking about things that have the potential to be real changers, but are also risky.
“There are some cool things on the horizon there as well. It’s just an incredibly exciting time for the teams right now.”
Spencer is proud of the ability of the team to take some longer-term bets that can really make the difference.
Incidentally, we hear that 2021 will be an important year for Xbox, as it will bring the 20th anniversary of the launch of the brand with the original console in Nov. 15, 2001.
