Xbox Head, Phil Spencer, Is Bullish on the Metaverse

The head of Microsoft’s Xbox, Phil Spencer, is bullish, yet cautious (due to economic and speculative aspects) on the overall metaverse space and play-to-earn games. Interestingly, he suggested that gamers have been plating in metaverse worlds for 30 years.

The Xbox Head’s Thoughts

Speaking to Bloomberg’s Emily Chang, Phil Spencer expressed his thoughts on the metaverse and play-to-earn games. He stated: “My view on Metaverse is that gamers have been in the Metaverse for 30 years. When you’re playing games, if you’re playing a World of Warcraft game, you’re playing in Roblox, you’re playing in a racing game where everybody’s in a shared world.”

He did mention that the commercial opportunities in the metaverse space continues to pique the interest of himself, Microsoft, and the company’s CEO Satya Nadella, too.

Speaking specifically on P2E games, he said: “Play-to-earn specifically is something I’m cautious about. It creates a worker force out of players, for certain players to kind of monetize.” He added: “I think sometimes it’s a hammer looking for a nail when these technologies come up. But the actual human use — or player use, in our case — of these technologies, I think there could be some interesting things”

His thoughts this time around are more positive than the last time he spoke on the topic. In November of last year, he was billed as an ‘NFT naysayer’.

About Phil Spencer

Phil Spencer is an American business executive and the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, making him the current head of the Xbox brand. He joined Microsoft in 1988 as an intern and has worked in various roles, leading the development of Microsoft’s first CD-ROM-based titles, and being the Development manager for Microsoft Money, for example.

In his early days at Microsoft, his colleagues knew him as an avid gamer, as he would often play video games when in the office.

With the launch of the Xbox in 2001, Spencer joined the Xbox team and served as general manager of Microsoft Game Studios EMEA. Then, in 2008m he became the General Manager of Microsoft Studios and the Corporate Vice President a year later. He then began leading the Xbox-related teams in 2014, which he has done in various roles since.

Xbox NFTs

Xbox has yet to step into the NFT world officially yet, alongside their parent company Microsoft, who “put an end” to Minecraft’s NFT games in July of this year. However, an unofficial art NFT was created by @pabloandrespozo, a digital artist. You can see the crazy piece of zoom-out art, on his Instagram.