After all the rumours about Hi-fi Rush and Sea of Thieves coming to rival platforms, in addition to the reports from both ourselves regarding Starfield, and from The Verge regarding Indiana Jones, Xbox finally have something to say.
From hardcore fans abandoning the brand, to many questioning what the ‘box’ in ‘Xbox’ means going forward, Microsoft have come together to update the community and indeed the industry on what’s going on.
Phil Spencer, Matt Booty and Sarah Bond appeared today on a special episode of the Official Xbox Podcast to fill us in
So what’s going on?
It’s confirmed. Microsoft are bringing “some” previously Xbox-exclusive games to both PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. Phil and team spoke in detail about the industry, and when it comes to exclusives, that “games that are exclusive to one piece of hardware are going to be a smaller and smaller part of the gaming industry.”
Strangely, they’re not revealing what those four games are, in wanting to let the developers tell the stories themselves. According to The Verge, those four games are Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves and Grounded, and I’m sure we’ll see those soon enough.
In speaking with The Verge, Phil confirmed that both Starfield and Indiana Jones are not any of those four initial games, but there’s certainly room for manoeuvring in the future.
Phil Spencer via The Verge
“I don’t think we should as an industry ever rule out a game going to any other platform. We’re focused on these four games and learning from the experience. We don’t have work going on, on other franchises. But for anybody to stand up and say something’s never going to happen, I think it feels like creating more certainty in a world of gaming where you really want to respond to what customers want and what our players and creators are looking for.”
I think it’s fair to say that this strategy is one that is going to evolve over time, and I don’t expect Microsoft to stay at just four games. Will be interesting to see what the world looks like for Xbox in a year from now.
Xbox isn’t going anywhere
Xbox is the biggest consumer facing brand for Microsoft, and since the acquisition, is now bigger than Windows. Hardcore Xbox fans concerned about the future of the box shouldn’t be – Sarah Bond, President of Xbox let fans know directly on the podcast – “There’s some exciting stuff coming out in hardware that we’re going to share this holiday, and we’re also invested in the next-generation road map,”
There’s more good news – the Activision Blizzard games are starting to come, with Diablo VI launching on to Game Pass on March 28th, and they also shared that Game Pass Subscribers across PC and Console have hit 34 million. The point is, according to Xbox – they are committed to a flagship experience for Xbox players, and as per Xbox Wire, summarise it like this:
- The biggest games in the world will be on Xbox.
- Our games will come to Game Pass day one.
- A robust and innovative multi-year hardware roadmap
- Compatibility with your library is a priority, inclusive of cross-play, cross-save, and robust cloud features.
- Xbox will continue to help game creators find the biggest audience possible.
This is clearly a message for the fans that really started to get very concerned last week, and it’s understandable. Microsoft faced similar backlash when they made the move to day-and-date PC releases, but they got through it, and it’s now just accepted. PlayStation are about to go on that journey themselves, and now it’s Microsoft’s turn to take the next step.
With the industry seeing more layoffs then ever before, and gamers demanding bigger and better games, Microsoft have come out first and told their audience that the status quo has to change. Soon, Xbox will be everywhere, and for Microsoft, that was always the plan.
I don’t think we’ll have much patience with more vague rumor talk again. If something actually happens then fine, but more vague teasing from insiders? Not interested
It’s coming from Nate but yeah, I’m just tired with all this 3rd party discourse, I don’t really believe it, but who knows I guess.
ya its getting old but again when you put your games on other platforms this is the talk that is gonna happen
Yeah, let’s just wait and see. I believe there is actually people within Xbox pushing for this, mainly the “finance” folks, but Phil calls the shots so I guess we will wait “if” it does happen.
Is this rumor comming from natethehate? if so how reliable is he?
I think at this point we should accept Xbox is open to the idea of putting their first-party games on other systems on a case by case basis.
How many first-party Xbox games on other systems is “acceptable” for you as an Xbox fan? That´s up to you. In the moment I am writing this I am personally not worried about this.
The thing that I don’t get though is that if Xbox didn’t go 3rd party in the difficult (from a resources/budget perspective) Xbox One generation why would they do that now that finally the results of their various acquisitions will come to fruition with a very very strong 1st party line-up coming up plus having fuckin’ CoD potentially a day one Game Pass release? if anything right now MS is in their best position ever to make a big splash in the gaming industry and gain marketshare.
Going 3rd party now simply doesn’t make any sense.
none are acceptable to me. I feel like making the quake remasters multiplat was a miss. I look at 2 games on ps ico and shadow of the collosus. These games will never come to xbox but most people arnt buying them so you can make the argument that they should. However it still makes the ps library and platform more appealing. Thats what xbox misses out on when they do stuff like this. I think the fallout 3 rumored remaster and oblivian remaster should not be multiplat for this reason but i think they will be
There’s only one recently acclaimed Xbox game I can think of, and I refuse to believe they’d do something that boneheaded.
Honestly, if it’s a game published by XGP like Ori, or even Contraband that’s fine, but first party games made by a studio owned by MS, unless it’s multiplayer already and has a established player base, putting a single player game on competing platforms will just lead to more questions about Xbox’s commitment to its longtime fanbase.