“Everyone Deserves to Play”: Xbox Boss’s Comments on ‘Doom’ Strike a Heartstring

Have you ever said something and then realized it was going to come back to haunt you again and again? Xbox boss Phil Spencer might be spending his free time with his head in his hands after his most recent statement about the upcoming Doom: The Dark Ages.

Taking this new statement in the context of other things Spencer has said and other business decisions Microsoft has made calls into question the future direction of the entire Xbox platform.

“Doom is definitely one of those franchises that has a history on so many platforms,” ​​Spencer told IGN after the Xbox presentation. “It’s a franchise that I think everyone deserves to play in.”

A franchise that “everyone deserves to play”? What do you mean by that?

If you’re not up to date with what’s happening in gaming, Microsoft has started publishing some of its smaller games, like Hi-Fi Rush and Grounded, on non-Microsoft platforms like the Nintendo Switch and Sony’s PlayStation 5.

The common wisdom among video game industry executives, as well as gamers who have dedicated themselves to a single platform, is that exclusives are good. They are a necessity to show your players why they should buy your game.

If Microsoft is selling games on PlayStation and Switch, then what’s the point of having an Xbox in the first place? That’s the question posed by many in response to this decision by Microsoft.

The first batch of games that made the jump were relatively small games, and those that had achieved critical success or benefited from cross-platform play. However, Doom: The Dark Ages will be one of Microsoft’s biggest games in 2025, and the company announced, along with the bloody trailer, that the game will also come to the PlayStation 5.

“It’s a franchise that I think everyone deserves to play in.”

Microsoft has many franchises under its control, thanks to a series of high-profile acquisitions in recent years. Doom, Wolfenstein, Halo, Forza, Gears of War, Call of Duty, Fallout, and the Elder Scrolls series are all massive hits that Microsoft now controls. And we don’t think it’s hard to see the next logical step suggested by Spencer’s words.

What are the franchises that not everyone deserves to play? Yeah The Elder Scrolls VI isn’t coming to PlayStation 5 (or PlayStation 6?), is it because it’s a franchise that not everyone deserves to play?

Spencer’s words were intended to make Microsoft seem like the generous good guy while avoiding—hopefully—upsetting Xbox fans. However, what really It is, it is a value judgment. Worse yet, it’s one that gamers can apply to every game Microsoft releases in the future, at least as long as Spencer is in charge of the Xbox brand (if not much longer).

Or maybe it’s not a value judgment. Maybe it’s an early move. Xbox doesn’t want to put any of its franchises above the others, at least not in a way so clear as to suggest that some of them aren’t worth playing.

Spencer’s mantra with Xbox games in recent years has been that “when everyone plays, we all win.” They even have a complete web page dedicated to that idea.

So if Microsoft doesn’t want to disparage its franchises and you like the idea that all play your games, what does that mean for the Xbox brand? While we don’t know what Microsoft’s plans are for the future, this seems to suggest that the Xbox brand will eventually become cross-platform for all of its major titles.

Spencer has been a positive figure for Xbox fans since taking over, working hard for years to regain the trust Microsoft lost with the ill-conceived Xbox One and its TV-centric features. Typically, he offers realistic and balanced thoughts about the industry, which suggest that he is most interested in as many people playing as many games as possible.

This is one of the few times it looks like Spencer stepped in a puddle. Players don’t forget, not if they can use your own words against you later. And now, as Microsoft attempts a potentially transformative change in how it views the Xbox platform, we’re waiting for news on which games are the ones everyone deserves to play… and which ones aren’t.

Edited by Andrew Hayward