Xbox is expected to reveal the fate of its war chest of exclusive games at a pivotal event next week.
Rumours have been swirling around for months that Xbox owner Microsoft is about to share its biggest titles with console rivals Nintendo and Sony. Games that currently need an Xbox or Windows PC to play, including blockbusters like Starfield and Sea of Thieves, are being considered for the PS5 and Switch, reports have claimed.
After what seemed like an age, Xbox has finally addressed the elephant in the room. In a tweet, Xbox head Phil Spencer said it would share its “vision for the future of Xbox” at a “business update event” next week.
We're listening and we hear you. We've been planning a business update event for next week, where we look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox. Stay tuned.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) February 5, 2024
The possibility of a multiplatform strategy has sparked fierce debate online, where some of the more polarised parts of the gaming community have taken sides in what they call “the console wars”.
In this toxic arena, where fans regularly belittle their opponents, some are now claiming that Xbox has given up the fight to PlayStation. Some gamers have even gone so far as to sell their Xbox consoles in anticipation of Microsoft’s armistice with Sony on the basis that they don't see the point of owning an Xbox if its exclusives will be available elsewhere.
Annnnnnd it’s done, bye bye Series X.
— Yung Kiryu (@yungkiryu) February 5, 2024
They don’t accept the storage device at GameStop sadly so I have a literal paperweight now, but I got UFC 5 for my PS5 and $300 worth of steam cards. So long Xbox, it was a good run pic.twitter.com/reXKdH8eua
Still, some may be jumping the gun. After all, the reports relate only to a handful of games, among them Hi-Fi Rush and the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
Meanwhile, Starfield is rumoured to land on PS5 following the release of its Shattered Space expansion for Xbox and PC. Considering that Sea of Thieves is six years old now, its jump to PlayStation may be intended to give it a much-needed player boost.
More broadly, Microsoft has made no secret of its multiplatform strategy for Xbox games. Its top brass have suggested that some first-party titles would eventually come to rivals.
Regulators overseeing its acquisition of Activision Blizzard also pressured it into giving the cloud gaming rights for the studio’s output to Ubisoft. That mega-deal also meant Microsoft was now a publisher of games on PlayStation, not to mention a mobile gaming giant.
All of which is to say that Xbox is not the company it was several years ago. Xbox Series console sales in the UK dropped 14.2 percent last year compared with 2022. By comparison, PlayStation 5 sales were up over 55 per cent during the same period.
Sony may race even further ahead if, as rumours suggest, it releases a PS5 Pro to capitalise on the sure-to-be blockbuster launch of GTA 6 in 2025. Elsewhere, Nintendo is primed to get a boost with the rumoured release of the Switch 2 later this year.
Like other console makers, Xbox subsidises its hardware in a bid to make bank from game and subscription sales. After surveying the landscape, maybe it has decided to become a gaming arms dealer. That way, it can profit from the upcoming boom in rivals' console sales, while turning players on other platforms on to its Game Pass streaming service, where the same games are available on launch day.
In fact, Sony has followed Xbox's lead, albeit more conservatively. PlayStation has its own subscription service, it has slowly opened up to PS5 streaming and released exclusives on PC. Clearly, no gaming company is an island – well, barring Nintendo, anyway. From that perspective, maybe Xbox is just ahead of the curve.
