Microsoft Exec Talks Differentiating Xbox One From PS4, Says Xbox is the Place to Play Shooters

Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg has a message for those who want to play shooters like Halo, Call of Duty and Star Wars Battlefront: “there’s one place to do that” – the Xbox One. During an interview with GamesBeat, Greenberg talked about differentiating Microsoft’s console from the PlayStation 4, and said that the company is doing that by offering games that set it apart from its competitors. 

You always want to try to differentiate against your competitors. Where we’ve focused first and foremost is on games. We know that games are why people buy the console. We want to have all the best quality games. We want to have the biggest blockbusters. But then frankly we’ve invested at a scale that may be unprecedented from a first-party standpoint in building exclusives. With Halo and Gears and Forza and Rare Replay — we have Fable Legends. What we’ve done with Tomb Raider as well in the partnership with Crystal [Dynamics] — I think the games lineup we have this holiday, the exclusives we have this holiday, it’s probably the biggest we’ve ever had. We believe that will fuel the ecosystem and fuel a lot of differentiation.

Greenberg then went on to say that Xbox One is the place to play shooters, which happens to be the largest genre in the games industry today. 

If you’re a shooter fan and you want to play Halo, want to play Gears, want to play Call of Duty and Battlefront, there’s one place to do that. Shooters are the largest genre in the industry today, representing about a third of game sales. That’s the tip of the spear on how we differentiate.

In a separate interview with GameSpot, Greenberg expressed his confidence in Call of Duty: Black Ops 3‘s performance on Xbox One despite Sony’s partnership with Activision for timed DLC exclusivity. He told GameSpot that Microsoft expects Black Ops 3 “to be a really big title” for the company this year.

We expect Black Ops 3 to be a really big title for us this year just like it has been in previous years. The fact is that there is no content in Call of Duty that we don’t get. The fact is if you want to play Call of Duty and Halo, you’re gonna want to do that on Xbox One. If you want to play Call of Duty and Halo and Tomb Raider or Forza or any of the seven big exclusives we have this holiday, you’re only going to be able to do that on our box.

Speaking about Rise of the Tomb Raider‘s exclusivity deal, Greenberg told GamesBeat that Lara Croft is a great addition to Microsoft’s portfolio and it’ll continue to follow similar opportunities that benefit the company. 

That said, Greenberg believes that the games industry is in a better shape overall than it’s ever been, dismissing Michael Pachter’s remarks about the current console cycle being the last real cycle. “Customers determine, ultimately, the success of this industry. This holiday — just look at how many great games we have,” he said. 

In presence of Sony’s current deal with Activision for Black Ops 3, and its Star Wars Battlefront bundles, it remains to be seen how the games will perform on each of the two platforms.

[Source: GamesBeat, GameSpot]

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