Xbox Series X boss confident it will beat PS5 — here’s why

Xbox Series X
(Image credit: Xbox)

The man in charge of the Xbox Series X has confidently declared that despite what Sony has revealed about the PS5, he's not worried about the competition.

Speaking on the IGN Unlocked podcast (via Wccftech) with Ryan McCaffrey, Microsoft's head of Xbox Phil Spencer explained that he feels the Xbox Series X has a great strategy behind it and the tech it needs to beat the PS5.

Commenting on the pricing of the Xbox Series X at launch, Spencer said that Xbox will be staying flexible, likely to make sure it isn't too far off the price of the PS5. 

“We're definitely going to be keeping our eyes wide open as we continue toward launch, looking at what the competition is doing, but we have a plan, and we feel very solid about our plan," said Spencer. "Long ago, [McCaffrey] and I sat in a room and I said that I wanted to win, and you got frustrated with me for years about "Where is this winning plan?" I believe we have a plan that can win.”

Commenting on Sony's recent deep dive into the PS5 hosted by the console's chief architect Mark Cerny, Spencer had some kind words for the Sony team's efforts. 

"I think Mark and the team did some really good work on the audio processing that they talked about, their SSD technology is impressive, we like that. We saw the work that they did," said Spencer. 

"But we took a holistic view on our platform from CPU to GPU to RAM to throughput, velocity architecture, latency, [backwards compatibility]," Spencer continued. "When we finally saw the public disclosure, I felt even better about the choices that we made on our platform. And I kind of expected that I would."

We are expecting both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X to appear on store shelves around November, just in time for the holidays. Despite fears of potential delays to both consoles, it currently looks like there are no major obstacles to either making it to retail on time. And given Spencer's recent comments, we can't wait to see what hidden tricks both platforms offer to try and win next generation's console wars.

Richard Priday
Assistant Phones Editor

Richard is based in London, covering news, reviews and how-tos for phones, tablets, gaming, and whatever else people need advice on. Following on from his MA in Magazine Journalism at the University of Sheffield, he's also written for WIRED U.K., The Register and Creative Bloq. When not at work, he's likely thinking about how to brew the perfect cup of specialty coffee.