Xbox Head Phil Spencer Hints at TV App Release

Could Xbox be coming to smart TVs sooner rather than later? Xbox head Phil Spencer recently indicated as much, implying that it might even release before the end of 2021. While nothing has officially been announced, it seems like this would likely be via some kind of app to allow for cloud gaming. While Xbox is still in the relatively early efforts of its cloud gaming plans, the recent addition to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate certainly doesn't seem to be where it will stop.

As part of a larger interview with Spencer by The Verge's Nilay Patel, Spencer was asked about the possibility of Xbox coming to smart TVs as an app or something of the sort given that smart TVs are essentially just giant tablets at this point with plenty of processing power and Xbox itself has been experimenting with cloud gaming via what was previously known as Project xCloud. Spencer's response basically indicated that it was almost certainly going to happen -- and soon.

"I think you’re going to see that in the next 12 months," Spencer said. "I don’t think anything is going to stop us from doing that. I thought what you said about the TV was spot on. What we used to call a TV was a CRT that’s just throwing an image on the back of a piece of glass that I’m looking at. Now, as you said, a TV is really more of a game console stuffed behind a screen that has an app platform and a Bluetooth stack and a streaming capability. Is it really a TV anymore or is it just the form and function of the devices that we used to have around our TV, consolidated into the one big screen that I’m looking at?"

The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are both now available for $499 and $299, respectively.