Xbox has not had the best year, so far. In January and February, a leaked announcement that formerly Xbox-exclusive games were about to make their way on to rival consoles the PlayStation and Nintendo Switch sent the most vociferous portion of its fanbase into a tailspin, convincing themselves that Microsoft was about to give up on Xbox exclusivity altogether. (In the end it was only four games, but Xbox’s leadership took their time clarifying.) In May, Xbox closed two well-loved studios that it had acquired in a spending spree a few years ago: Tango Gameworks (Hi-Fi Rush, The Evil Within) and Arkane Austin (Prey, Dishonored). All this comes on the back of flagging sales for its Xbox Series X/S consoles; analysts have estimated that the PlayStation 5 is outselling them lately by a factor of 5:1.
Microsoft will have been hoping to rescue the narrative with its Xbox games showcase, which was broadcast live on Sunday and screened at an event in Los Angeles for media, games industry and a coterie of Xbox fans. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, a new Indiana Jones game and the return of brutal action-game series Gears of War led the pack in blockbuster games, but there were also plenty of smaller-scale announcements. With its Game Pass service, which offers an ever-changing library of games for a monthly fee, Microsoft has made a billion-dollar bet on Netflix-style streaming as the future of video games – and after its recent merger with Activision Blizzard, it now has a huge number of game studios making games for it.
