Microsoft opens a crack in console gaming’s decades-old walled garden

Enlarge / Will the fragile Xbox balloon pop if that cage is opened? (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty Images)

Since the days of the NES, the one unshakable distinction between the PC and console gaming markets was the latter’s “walled garden” approach to game distribution. For decades now, console makers have completely controlled the licensing and sales methods available for games on their own hardware.

So when Microsoft Xbox chief Phil Spencer says that he’s open to breaking down that walled garden for his consoles, it’s a big deal.

Speaking to Polygon in an interview at last week’s Game Developers Conference, Spencer said he could foresee a future in which competing game marketplaces like the Epic Games Store or indie clearinghouse itch.io were available directly on Xbox hardware. “[Consider] our history as the Windows company,” Spencer told Polygon. “Nobody would blink twice if I said, ‘Hey, when you’re using a PC, you get to decide the type of experience you have [by picking where to buy games].’ There’s real value in that.”