It’s never a dull time in the land of Xbox, is it? We’ve barely returned from our holiday vacations and settled into the new year before a new rumor began swirling, which has caused a lot of disarray in some corners of the Xbox community.
The rumor, from trusted “insider” NateTheHate, suggests an acclaimed Xbox exclusive will be making its way to competing platforms in 2024. Many signs point to the game in question being the beloved critical darling Hi-Fi Rush, but again, its just rumors for now. Windows Central’s Jez Corden chimed in on the rumor as well and suggested that Microsoft may be looking to bring even more games to other consoles. Shortly after these rumors appeared, multiple sources indicated that at one point Xbox may have looked to put Sea of Thieves on Playstation 5 and Switch, but none could verify if this was still happening.
This has caused a lot of fervor in the core Xbox community, leading to spiraling discussions of Xbox going entirely third party and leaving the console space for good. Now, while this slippery slope fallacy may be on the extreme edges of irrational thinking, there is some discussion about what this all may “mean” and how it impacts the core Xbox fan.
This article and video is intended to be a counter opinion to a recent piece made by our very own Sikamikanico. We encourage you to read or watch that piece down below.
Xbox’s Goals
Again, assuming rumors are true of Xbox at least exploring bringing some of their previously exclusive games to other consoles, we have to remind ourselves what Xbox’s number one vision is, to bring more games to as many players as possible. This makes a great marketing line and has worked in Xbox’s favor to paint them as the lesser of all evil, but it is also really how Xbox seems to think.
It has been an open secret for a long time that Xbox would love a world where their industry leading service, Game Pass, existed on all devices possible, and yes that includes Playstation and Nintendo. For many reasons that world does not exist today and may have difficulty happening in the future.
They have also been open to bringing their games and subscription service to other non console devices, especially in this new wave of handheld PCs. Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has said in the past that he sees these devices as “Xbox’s” even though they are obviously third party devices. Spencer has also frequently commented on the need to move beyond the console wars for their long term success, even admitting how badly they lost it during the Xbox One era during that fateful Kinda Funny Interview. To further accentuate my point, Spencer thinks of anyone who plays an Xbox game as a member of the Xbox community, even if they do so on Switch or Playstation.
So, what does this all really mean? Well, from my perspective at least, the writing has been on the wall for a long time, even if many, including myself, struggled to see it. Xbox really, really wants to put their games everywhere. Not just on PC, or Cloud, or the occasional Switch port. Every device that can play a game is Xbox’s end game here.
Does this mean we all wake up tomorrow and Xbox has become a third party publisher? And by that, what we really mean is to put all of their games on Playstation and if possible, the Switch or “Switch 2”? Well, no. There still is value in having exclusive games for Xbox consoles to at least try and persuade new customers to buy their console, and they still compete directly with Nintendo and Playstation, moreso the latter company really as Xbox and Nintendo seem to have a good relationship.
Community Response
Now there have been some more emotionally charged responses to these rumors that go beyond what is being presented. Everyone is entitled to feel the way they want to, but no matter how upset some may feel, thinking that Microsoft is suddenly going to stop making consoles, or that your experience is somehow worse because others can play the same games is… Asinine. No, Xbox hardware isn’t going anywhere for at least the next couple of generations, and other platforms getting to play some of the games Xbox players have enjoyed isn’t going to make your experience any worse.
In the hypothetical scenario of Microsoft having a decreased focus on console exclusives is the potential of further decreasing the popularity of the Xbox console itself, which could in turn lead to some third party companies seeing Xbox as a less viable option. While this generation has had much better third-party support than the last, this is indeed a valid area of concern for those who don’t want the smaller titles to skip the platform. It’ll be up to Microsoft to make sure that this doesn’t happen.
Forward Thinking
Xbox clearly doesn’t view the industry in the same way their competitors do. They already lost the console wars, they admitted it, so there is little value to them to try and compete this way. Xbox has made many moves that seemed incomprehensible or downright stupid before. They were the first console manufacturer to venture into PC and many insisted this was the beginning of the end for Xbox. When they put their first party games on a subscription service, many believed this was a sign that Xbox was heading for their demise.
The truth is, Xbox has always been a leader in innovation and first movers to do things a new way. Many people thought their strategy of looking beyond the console was laughable when they first started, but now in 2024 they seem to be ahead of the curve, so much so that their direct competitor in Playstation seems to be following suit. You would have been laughed out of the room last generation if you would have suggested that Playstation would eventually port their games to PC, acquire a mobile developer, or look to grow their Cloud gaming initiative.
Should they take the risk?
There has been a lot discussion online about what Xbox’s ambitions may mean for an Xbox console brand that already seems to be losing steam only 3 years and change into the generation. While it is simply unknowable how the potential “loss” of some exclusive games impacts the console brand in the long term, I’d argue its a risk Xbox should be willing to explore
While Xbox doesn’t give out console sales, we do know from various analysts and sales trackers that the Xbox Series X/S have been slowly losing steam since launch. Estimates put the console behind the Xbox One, and it is clear the wider gaming audience outside of the competitive but trailing North American and UK markets do not see the Xbox console as a viable competitor to the Playstation and Switch console. Xbox in many ways is to blame for the collapse of their worldwide console success. They’ve truly never been able to make the console appealing globally outside of a few strong markets, and the Xbox One generation set them so far back that they have been unsuccessful in recapturing the market share they enjoyed during the 360 days. Xbox’s solution to this issue? Bring games to where the players are. That started with PC, expanded to Cloud and Mobile, and will in the future mean more of their games on rival consoles.
Conclusion
Will this strategy work? That’s unclear. Microsoft Wants their hands in all the pies, like most mega conglomerates do. Their ambitions stretch beyond what may have previously been thought possible and it might end up failing. For now though, we need to see how things pan out. The industry is rapidly shifting, and Xbox are amongst the leaders of the changing Tide. If you’re a fan of video games though, there’s a lot to look forward to, especially on Xbox, and it’s important to remember that when thinking about all of this. Gaming should be fun, Xbox will be the ones to figure out how their business works.
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