Xbox boss Phil Spencer said its brand identity is “evolving” now keeping first-party games exclusive to its own platform is no longer “a path for [Xbox]”.
When asked by independent games journalist Dustin Legarie if, like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Starfield would continue to have an “exclusivity window” on Xbox systems, Spencer replied with a strikingly simple: “No.”
“There’s no reason for me to put a ring fence around any game and say this game will not go to a place where it would find players, where it would have business success for us,” Spencer explained.
"Our strategy is to allow our games to be available.
“Game Pass is an important component of playing the games on our platform, but to keep games off other platforms?” Spencer added.“We don’t think is the path… that’s not a path for us. It doesn’t work for us.”
"What we’re doing now we think really enables us to build the best platform for the world’s best games. 'Cos the world’s biggest games are available in multiple places, and more and more creators are asking us, how do we stay connected when our game might be playable in all these different places, and we want Xbox to be absolutely the platform that enables that.
"We think that makes us unique. Most of the other platforms out there are single platform on single device, whether that’s PC, whether that’s mobile, whether it’s a console.
And we want Xbox to be a platform that enables creators across any screen that people want to play on."
When pressed on whether Xbox’s change in strategy means it may lose its identity, Spencer was firm about that, too.
"I hear them. I’m pretty active in our playerbase, and I’m active in the community. I listen. I think our identity will continue to evolve, which, frankly, it always has. But when I hear concerns, I hear concerns about is: my library of games safe. Am I still going to be able to play the games. And I think over the years, I’m proud of the commitment we’ve shown to respecting purchases on our platform through back compat, through cross entitlement, Xbox Play Anywhere, through crossplay. Things that we’ve done to enable people to continue to play, so I hear that.
"I see the investments we’re making in platform and how we want Xbox to show up in multiple places, and your library to be available there. When I think about buy-to-stream - so when if I buy a game, I’ll be able to stream it to devices - this is all about making sure that your library of games that you own on Xbox are playable in multiple places, so I’d say it’s in evolution of our identity. But I believe it’s an identity that this industry needs.
“When you think about where this industry is now and you see the challenges, the business challenges that are out there for many companies, I think us making games more accessible to more people has just gotta be front and centre for us as an industry so we continue to see great games that we’ve seen over the years.”
The comments echo Spencer’s position at the end of last year, when he said there were “no red lines” over any Xbox game coming to Nintendo Switch or PS5.
So, it’s like how we were discussing exclusivity last time.
Xbox won’t have any exclusive now, but PS and Nintendo aren’t reciprocating. So, when buying a new console, why would I get Xbox and not PS?
I guess gamepass is one reason, I highly doubt that PS and Nintendo will allow gamepass, except for a special game pass version that will only have MS first party games on it. That shouldn’t give much loss to PS, and they will still get a cut from people who wont’ buy game pass, and from any game pass bought from PS store.
Thoughts?
IMO this misses the point of their strategy moving forwards: they don’t care if you buy Xbox hardware or not, as long as you buy the games or a subscription to play them.
If anything, that approach is more financially sustainable for them than developing and releasing console hardware, which traditionally is sold at a loss.
Perhaps. But it also has a high probability of the overall brand dying out. Instead of being Xbox the game maker AND console maker (which gives them autonomy and the ability to things strictly publishes can’t), they’ll just be another EA or Ubisoft.
You’re forgetting about Windows lol
What about Windows?
It’s a giant market for gamers/xbox
It’s a giant market for third party sales platform. Have you looked at the Game store on windows? It has like 1/3 of the games as all the other platforms.
There’s a fairly large amount of gamepass pc users, idk if they report stats but anecdotaly.
Yes, that makes sense. I was just opining about the future of Xbox hardware. If they are getting out of the hardware race (in the sense that they don’t care about selling more than PS), then the strategy makes a lots of sense.
Going by your logic, why would I ever buy anything other than a PC, which inevitably gets all games either directly or via emulator.
Console vs PC is a completely different discussion, for them to compete we will have to go to something like SteamDeck, which acts like a console. But if choosing console, which console to choose is generally decided on multiple factors, and exclusive games is a very big factor, I think “friends are using that console” comes second after that.
So, if Xbox can play all Xbox games and PS can play both Xbox and PS games, and all other games are both on same, what’s the difference that would make one want to buy Xbox? And for arguments sake, let’s say we are talking about new players, not the ones who have dozens or hundreds of games already on Xbox, so have an incentive to staying where their library is.
They’re not a completely different discussion though. You can’t just dismiss a huge part of the market because it’s easier to argue your point.
If your point is that exclusivity factors into decisions, then I stand by my point that PC gets everything eventually.
Okay, so your argument is that exclusives don’t matter?
No, my argument is that they do not matter as much as people seem to think and for those that it does matter for, PS isn’t much better than Xbox.
Interesting. Well, let’s wait and see what happens. 😀
Yeah, sounds about right. I’m worried they just won’t make hardware anymore at this point. Become basically only a publisher and let the Xbox brand as we know it now die and it’ll become like an EA Play or Ubisoft whatever you’re forced to download on PC to play some games.
I don’t think they can do that without upsetting their long time supporters. Not to mention game pass, you can only use that on Xbox (or PC). But the question is game pass attractive enough to gain new customers?
Can only play it on Xbox and PC for now. But their “Everything is an Xbox” campaign makes it seem like they really don’t want to continue the hardware. Which is indeed going to piss off a loooooot of people. Myself included. I’m 100% for no exclusives, I’m not for turning Xbox into a hollow shell of themselves that wraps a third party store on other platforms.
From everything I’ve heard about their plans for the next Xbox, they’re aiming to compete on game portability, graphics, and ecosystem preference (including GamePass).
For portability, it sounds like they mean playing on your console, moving your game to your SteamDeck-like Xbox handheld, or even playing via cloud streaming on your phone. Cloud streaming has never interested me, but an Xbox handheld that played your back catalog locally could be compelling and a reason to continue buying for Xbox.
Graphics, well, I think we’ve long-since reached the point of diminishing returns, given I can’t even really see the difference between PS5 and PS5 Pro.
And even though I prefer Xbox’s ecosystem and have invested quite a bit in it over the years (I have nearly 100,000 GS), I would have to see a pretty compelling reason to buy an entirely redundant console when every game I might want would be available on PlayStation or Nintendo.
Basically, if they introduce a SteamDeck-like handheld, that would do it for me. Otherwise, I’d have to put some thought into whether or not I’d want yet another giant console in my TV stand.
Yeah, that makes sense.
They can release a portable Xbox. That, with cloud streaming to everything and game pass, might be tempting enough. Will have to wait and see.
