Phil Spencer has been talking about the prospect of cross-platform play between devices such as Xbox One and PC, suggesting that the idea "makes a lot of sense" and that they had learnt lessons from earlier attempts (such as with Shadow Run).
Microsoft's Spencer told AusGamers that he believes a "connected ecosystem" between different devices is the future of gaming: "I'm not allowed to leak things. But I think what you're talking about makes a lot of sense. Now you have differences in Windows gaming and console gaming around control and input... in fact if you go back to Shadow Run on Xbox 360 -- something I worked on -- we had PC players playing against Xbox 360 customers. We didn't have tremendous success with that, but we learnt a lot from it."
"And then earlier this year we released Skulls of the Shogun," he continued, "which was a game we launched on all three platforms on the same day, and you could start on one platform and then save the game to the Cloud and play across any of the screens and progress. And then Halo: Spartan Assault has some links between Halo 4 and Spartan Assault, even though they're very different games."
Spencer then went on to explain that he feels that connected experiences hold possibilities for the future, and that he believes Xbox One will be central to that.
"This connected ecosystem across all the different devices is definitely where I think the future of gaming is going; you don't have to do it as a developer, but you have the capability and I think a system like Xbox Live across all those screens where you know who someone is and who their friends are, what their Achievements are and their progression is really critical to that."
Xbox One is set to launch in the UK on November 22.