- Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty has discussed the brand’s biggest competition in a recent interview
- He says it’s “not another console” like the PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch 2
- Rather, Xbox now competes with apps like TikTok and other forms of entertainment
Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty has said the brand is now competing with platforms like TikTok and other forms of entertainment more than rival console makers.
The comments come from a recent interview with The New York Times following the publication of Halo: Campaign Evolveda game set to come to PlayStation 5 in addition to PC, Xbox Series X and Series S when it launches next year.
“We’re all looking to meet people where they’re at,” Booty said.
“Our biggest competition is not another console,” he continued. “We’re competing more and more with everything from TikTok to movies.”
This philosophy seems evident in recent Xbox marketing, particularly the somewhat controversial ‘This Is an Xbox’ campaign, which emphasizes how gamers can experience Xbox titles on all kinds of devices, from Smart TVs to virtual reality headsets and laptops.
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Your eyeballs are a commodity
While this may seem like an odd strategic shift that could alienate the core Xbox audience that values exclusive games, Xbox is one of the many gaming brands competing in an increasingly difficult attention economy.
According to the latest data from Circana Player Engagement Tracker, live service titles such as Fortnite, Call of Dutyand Roblox continue to dominate on consoles, reducing the amount of time gamers spend on more traditional gaming experiences.
Upcoming releases like Halo: Campaign Evolved not only have to compete with these titans when it comes to the dedicated gaming audience, but also the entertainment provided by devices like mobile phones that occupy the time of more casual players.
Per Statista, TikTok has more than two billion users globally, while viewers watched more than 100 billion hours of Netflix content during the first six months of this year.
By lowering the bar for accessing Xbox content through multi-platform releases and services like Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft clearly hopes it will be able to entice this audience.
Will the strategy pay off? We’ll just have to wait and see.
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