The supposed death knell for Microsoft’s Xbox has not been wrung as many believed, but the gaming giant is preparing to bring a total of four games from its ever-growing catalogue to rival platforms.
This news comes following an over 20 minute-long podcast aptly titled Updates on the Xbox Business. The video, published on Xbox’s YouTube channel, features Xbox head Phil Spencer alongside Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, and Sarah Bond, president of Xbox.
Spencer spoke highly about the importance of the “long-term health of Xbox,” detailing the ways “we [can] continue to grow the games industry and Xbox.” He kicked off the pre-recorded sit down with an early jump into the exclusivity question, highlighting that only four games will be going over to rival consoles.
Later into the discussion, Bond spoke about the upcoming next-gen Xbox console, calling it “the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation.” It’s unclear if she was speaking on the previously leaked consoles, codenamed Brooklin and Ellewood, or something else entirely, but the news should quell fears of Xbox’s potential downfall.
Xbox brings 4 games to rival consoles
Spencer kicked off the discussion with the highly important Xbox exclusivity question, which took social media by storm last week in the run up to this very podcast’s release. The Xbox executive highlighted only a total of 4 games jumping ship to alternative consoles, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch, though which games remain to be determined.
In the discussion, Spencer highlighted that this would not be a major alteration of its “fundamental exclusivity strategy,” specifically citing games that would be considered for other platforms as being ones that are at least “over a year old” and “community driven games,” those that are “first iterations of a franchise.”
As for specifics, Spencer called out both “Starfield’ and “Indiana Jones” as not being among the mix. Inside sources tell The Verge that the 4 titles heading over to other consoles could be “Hi-Fi Rush,” “Sea of Thieves,” “Pentiment,” and “Grounded,” which to some degree makes a lot of sense and falls perfectly into the descriptor given via Spencer.
"And I do have a fundamental belief that over the next 5 or 10 years, exclusive games – games that are exclusive to one piece of hardware – are going to be a smaller and smaller part of the game industry.”
Phil Spencer
We also aren’t too sure on which consoles said games will be coming to. While Spencer did say “other consoles,” there wasn’t exactly any specific names thrown around, probably for good measure. Though, of the four aforementioned titles, realistically only “Hi-Fi Rush” and “Pentiment” could play at a reasonable rate on the Nintendo Switch without major drawbacks.
Interestingly, Spencer did note that while only 4 games are coming to other consoles now, there could potentially be more in the future. He denoted the previously mentioned descriptor of community-driven and year-old experiences as being games with the highest likelihood to join these other titles on other platforms later down the line.
It all seemingly falls in line with how Spencer and co. sees the company now and where he wants to take it, literally coining it “Xbox Everywhere” amid the podcast. Spencer also did note that he will be keeping a watchful eye on the community’s reaction to these changes and address them accordingly.
