Is Xbox’s direction focused too much on PC and less on consoles? Turns out that the answer is a bit more complicated.

Microsoft’s head of gaming said that the company needs to focus on the wider gaming market if it wants to be successful, despite the Xbox console being the core of the brand (it’s in the name). That means more than just making great games, because that alone will not change Xbox console market share (via Kinda Funny Games). Simply put, Xbox’s plan is to be focused on fulfilling developer’s vision of enabling customers to play their games on any console.

“We’re not in the business of out-consoling Sony or out-consoling Nintendo. There isn’t really a great solution or win for us. And I know that will upset a ton of people, but it’s just the truth of the matter that when you’re third place in the console marketplace and the top two players are as strong as they are, and have in certain cases a very, very discrete focus on doing deals and other things that kind of make being Xbox hard for us as a team, [and] that’s on us, not on anybody else.

I see commentary that if you just built great games everything would turn around. It’s just not true that if we go off and build great games then all of a sudden you’re going to see console share shift in some dramatic way.

We lost the worst generation to lose in the Xbox One generation where everybody built their digital library of games. So, when you go and you’re building on Xbox, we want our Xbox community to feel awesome, but this idea that if we just focused more on great games on our console that somehow we’re going to win the console race, I think doesn’t really lay into the reality of most people.”

In the same interview, Phil Spencer apologised for the launch state of Xbox’s latest first-party game Redfall, made by Arkane Studios. Despite that, he is enthusiastic about the upcoming June showcase.