It's a really good question. I always bring it back to team. Make sure you've got the right team in place. That was an amazing team, a good team to be part of, and make sure the teams are enabled to do great work. I think that's fundamental. I think on 360 we did a nice job trying to get games from many different places, even funding games from Japan. You think about Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey. I was somewhat in charge of those and getting those done. I think that was important, being able to try new things. It's never lost on me we did connect in the 360 generation. Not getting stuck in how...
I've talked about this moment before, so I won't go too long. When we were deciding how much RAM to put in the 360, we used Gears of War and looked at the difference in texture quality with different RAM setups. That loop of letting content and games drive the definition of the platform, what your creators are seeing, what they are saying, that's fundamental for us on the platform side. Making sure our creative voices help define where we're going.
You may not even remember this, but the very first time we got the chance to talk to you in 2014, I said I didn't like connect. Looking back on that in hindsight, that was probably a crazy thing to say. But you're more than willing to make a change. So we're talking about 20 years of gaming, Gamer Tech Radio. In my opinion, you have probably been one of the most successful gaming CEOs we've ever had in the history of gaming. So how important is it for you to directly engage with the community and hear what they have to say about where Xbox is headed?
It's how I learn, it's how I stay balanced. I'm sitting here in my office in Redmond, Washington, and I know that not all gaming happens here. Not all gaming happens with a controller in my hands, playing online with friends. Listening to what people are interested in, and even taking the negative, getting outside of my bubble of the people I see every day, I think is critical. That's why I love the connections I have with you two. We see each other on air sometimes, off air a lot, and you guys are always very straight with me about the things you see and the questions coming up. It's really important because it's so easy to get trapped in my own lived experience, especially as someone who plays the games. So it's critical to me in the role that I do.
One of the things I loved about Xbox 360 was that you guys started having more relationships with Japanese studios. I'm glad to see that's coming back. Now with Square, with Sega, I'm very excited about Ninja Gaiden 4 coming back. I was just playing Ninja Gaiden 2 Black before I jumped over here. So how's that been, working with more Japanese companies since last time you were on the show?
I feel great about our relationships with the publishers in Japan. It's taken a lot of flights, a lot of face time, a lot of listening, as Paris was asking about, making sure I'm hearing their feedback. I think about Metaphor last year and our partnership on that game, probably my game of the year last year. The work we've done with Sega, with Square, being on stage with Square... wait, what if six or seven years ago? Just getting to roll it out yesterday and see the response was fantastic. We want global creators. Gaming is a global business, a global art form. Different people with different perspectives telling their stories on screen, and us getting to play them, what could be better than that? So it was one of the things we started early on in my career in this role: getting on planes, getting to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, talking to creators, listening. I love to see the progress we've made. There's more work to do, no doubt, but it's what the Xbox community deserves and I want to stay focused on that.
Absolutely. On a quick side note, Game Camp is something Xbox is doing. But I have to stick with community and listening to the community. I have to ask this because if I don't, people will kill me. A year ago, you had the business update and talked about the four games going to other platforms. Obviously you've learned something because we're now seeing Indiana Jones going to PlayStation 5, Doom: The Dark Ages day and date on PS5. You've also talked about more open platforms, no red lines. So what is the strategy behind this shift?
We want to enable people to experience the games we build and the services we offer on as many devices as we can. Obviously some devices and platforms are closed and don't allow everything we do. The thing I've learned, listening to creators, is that every creator wants to build a game that can find as many players as they want. Frankly, there aren't many platforms that try to build connections to people on so many different screens. It's almost like a single platform, single device, single game, and that's the history of our business. We're really taking an approach where people can engage with the great games our studios are building, or experience Xbox through different forms: cloud, PC, handheld PCs, phones. I want everybody to be able to play on Xbox. It does mean more of our games shipping on more platforms, not just PlayStation. We love the work we do with Nintendo, with Valve on Steam. That's going to continue. We'll just continue to do more of it because what we learn is put the games first, make sure the games can be as great as they can. We love the experience on our own hardware and platform, but our games will show up in more and more places, no doubt.
If I can follow up really quick before we go to you, Danny. Along those lines, one of the concerns I hear in the community is about your own hardware. There is concern: if you're putting all these games on other platforms, why would I still want an Xbox? What is going to be the reason for me to want Xbox hardware when I can get that experience on another platform?
I want people to pick hardware based on the capabilities of that hardware and how it fits into the choices they want to make about where they want to play. We want our hardware to win based on its capabilities. The difference we've seen in the last 20 years, and I think this is good because I come from building games, is it's really game first, not platform first. Most of the games you and I will talk about run across so many different platforms, and those are the games that are having success, at the top of the charts. Hardware is fundamental to what Xbox is. It's not lost on me that 'box' is in the name of our brand. In the position I'm in, I look at hardware as a critical part of what we do, but not trying to gatekeep the games off of other places. Let's go build innovative hardware that people want to use to play, whether in their hands, on their television, or other places. I love the hardware team. I spent some time with them just this week. The roadmap they have, we're learning a lot from Steam Deck, ROG Ally, Lenovo. What does Xbox mean on those platforms? I don't think we've tuned it perfectly yet, but I want to make progress there. LG and the work we're doing with cloud...
As a gamer, what are your thoughts on the Nintendo Switch 2 that Nintendo just showed a couple days ago?
I exchanged messages with the CEO of Nintendo. I gave him a big congrats. I said my old eyes appreciate the larger screen. I know how simple that is, but it's not always true that I can read all the text. Nintendo and their innovation, what they mean in this industry, I always applaud the moves they make. I think they did a little flash video. I know we'll get more detail over time. I'm really looking forward to supporting them with the games we have. That team is masterful in what they do. Switch was a massive success, and I think Switch 2 will be as well.
