Last night, Microsoft waded into the world of podcasting in an attempt to assuage its fans about the future of Xbox. The last few weeks have been riddled with rumours of the company giving up on the idea of exclusivity and bringing its games to the PlayStation and Switch. It all started with news of Hi-Fi Rush’s departure to the Switch, before eventually snowballing into grandiose ideas of Starfield penetrating PlayStation hardware.
Despite having what we assume were good intentions to confirm the company’s solid plans, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer still left some players in doubt after a cryptic discussion with The Verge that could see players walking around planets on the PS5 soon enough.
Xbox… everywhere
From what Phil said, PlayStation and Switch users should get four of Xbox’s exclusives. Only four (for now), and none of them are Starfield or Indiana Jones. Fine. Keep ’em. We’re not exactly itching to spend our time fast travelling between lifeless planets. But thanks.
Unfortunately, despite setting out to quell the fears of both investors and fans, Spencer continued to leave us in the dark about the specific games that would make the leap from exclusive to… not. It did say that two of the games are on the smaller side, while the other two are community-driven. According to The Verge and its sources “familiar with Microsoft’s plans,” those include the already-mentioned Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment with Sea of Thieves and Grounded set to follow in their wake.
“I do have a fundamental belief that over the next five or ten 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,” Spencer said on the podcast.
Should the slight excursion from the Xbox brand go well, it’s unlikely that Microsoft will stop at four. Hell, even Spencer wasn’t able to “rule out” Starfield or Indiana Jones eventually arriving on rival consoles. That’s thanks to another interview Spencer did with The Verge.
“I don’t think we should as an industry ever rule out a game going to any other platform,” says Spencer. “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.”
That’s about as non-committal as it gets, but it does give us some valuable insight as to how Microsoft sees the possible future of gaming. It’s adopting what it calls the “Xbox Everywhere” strategy which will see Xbox games, well, everywhere. It’s right there in the name. Spencer clarified that potential fans should temper their expectations, as not every Xbox title will bridge the exclusive gap.
“We’re making these decisions for some specific reasons,” says Spencer. “We make every decision with the long-term health of Xbox in mind, which means a growing platform, our games performing, building the best platform for creators, reaching as many players as we can. We’re always looking to learn as a leadership team and to grow, and we think this is an interesting point in time for us to use what some of the other platforms have right now to help grow our franchises.”
The Xbox Podcast delved into a few other areas, too. It touched on the future of Xbox Game Pass, with some confirmation that it won’t be heading to other consoles, and will remain under Microsoft’s hardware for the time being. That wasn’t all, however, with the news that Diablo IV will hit Game Pass on 28 March. Rad.