"At some level, it is a competition, and I've said before I want to win," Spencer tells us. "At the same time, I want to build a great platform for gamers. If somebody else does that to, and they do really well? Hats off to them, but I can have success in our own space if we're selling a lot of consoles and people are buying games."
Spencer knows that the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will continue to be compared. "We shipped at the same time and we're in direct competition with the PS4," he admits. "I'm not going to duck that. I want to win. I want to win this generation, but I want to win more than I want the other guy to lose. I own a PS4, and it's not like I want it to get dusty or not have games. But I do want to sell a lot of Xbox Ones, and for many people that's a direct competition with the PS4. As the Xbox team, we are the underdog."
He acknowledges that his team is building its momentum against a Sony that currently is rolling forward. "They beat us in June. They beat us in May," Spencer says. "These months are small if you look at the sales. I think the whole month of June is about one week in November. They're winning, and they'll do their PR around it, and that makes sense. The battle is really September, October, November, and December."
The Xbox team is looking ahead to a big fall with Forza Horizon 2, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Sunset Overdrive, and Ori and the Blind Forest. Microsoft may not complete its recovery in 2014, but for Spencer, the generation is only just beginning.
