Microsoft’s four Xbox video games will be available on alternative platforms soon. Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, has made this announcement. Well, the names of these four games are not revealed yet.
He just gave some hints while making an announcement. Some of them are: all four games are community drives and more than one year old. Also, it was mentioned that these releases do not include Indiana Jones or Starfield.
This move signifies a big change in the strategies used by Microsoft. Earlier, this company preferred exclusivity to its own Xbox platform and Games Pass subscription service. So, why this sudden change? What are the driving forces behind it?
To understand the concept, it is important to understand what young players want.
Young players love games and they love to play them wherever they can. Whether it is a phone, tablet, PlayStation, or dad’s Xbox, they just want to play. They don’t care who is the owner of the game and they don’t show brand loyalty to any kind of specific device.
Microsoft has thoroughly studied the minds of young gamers and they have concluded that these gamers don’t care about the hype. Therefore, Microsoft has decided to release its four Xbox video games on alternative platforms. After doing in-depth research on its young target audience, Microsoft has started responding very cautiously.
Phil Spencer said that these four latest games do not have any significant change in their game strategy.
But he said: ‘I have a fundamental belief that in the next five to 10 years, exclusive games, which are exclusive to one piece of hardware, are going to be a smaller and smaller part of the games industry.”
Special hardware used by gamers would not be required anymore in the future.
This statement is not just signifying Xbox, but there are various other devices introduced by Sony. Gaming president Hiroki Totoki said that he will introduce more PlayStation games onto different platforms.
Just like Microsoft, he has not revealed the names of any specific game or any platform. Also, while giving statements, he gave hints that the firm might continue with the status quo for releasing PlayStation games onto PC several months or even years after their release.
These two firms have faced fierce rivalry against each other for several years. Moreover, these two giants in the gaming industry indulged in the expensive acquisition of game studios producing popular games. The primary objective behind these kinds of acquisitions is to lock in the best content for their customers only.
Now, Microsoft has decided to bring a huge change in its strategy. It has decided to launch its own four games on alternative platforms. Well, the idea of converting any screen into a company’s console is quite simple. But what is the point of creating and selling expensive hardware when most people have high-performance computers in the form of smartphones?
Restricting games to only a few devices will act as an obstacle between the audience and your product. By removing this restriction, Microsoft can easily capture a vast young audience who can play games on different available devices. They are also ready to buy them, play them, and pay for in-game extra.
According to Ampere analysts, a total of 46.5m consoles were sold in 2023. And, out of which 7.6m were only Microsoft’s Xbox. It means only 39 million gamers that are using Xbox waited so long for Starfield from Bethesda that didn’t reach them.
It is an old-fashioned business model with only one motive which is money.
Analyst Pier from Ampere said that the main reason that Microsoft pursued this multi-platform strategy for its game content is because it failed to achieve the desired success in the Xbox 360 era and failed to take market share from Sony and latterly, Nintendo post-the launch of the Switch.
Moreover, Microsoft is already spending a lot of time in making successful game studios. And, creating only games is a quite big and expensive business.
Microsoft has made contentious acquisitions of big game makers like Activision Blizzard. During the acquisition, Sony’s chief objection was that it could make smash hits like Call of Duty, played by millions on PlayStations, and Xbox exclusives. Microsoft was forced to make a promise that it would not do it for the next 10 years.
Many have started speculating that Microsoft is preparing to quit hardware making and is also going to abandon the Xbox console entirely. But Harding Rolls doesn’t think that it is going to happen.
Ampere is not expecting that Microsoft will exit this console platform-making business soon because this exit would leave a gaping hole in games-related revenues.
Sarah Bond even teased the idea of brand-new hardware released by Microsoft. Also, she said that Microsoft is now focusing on creating futuristic hardware that may have not been seen in hardware generation.
Well, rumors are rumbling loud that the futuristic device that Microsoft is creating is capable of competing with the huge success of Nintendo Switch.
Darren Edwards, a renowned personality from the gaming news website TheXboxHub sums said “It’s hardly a doomsday scenario for Xbox.”
Microsoft’s preferred gateway is via Game Pass. This game pass is available for £12.99 per month. With this pass, you will get unlimited access to streaming various titles.
Also, recently Microsoft has revealed the number of subscribers for this game pass and it has reached 34 million. Game subscriber pass was launched in 2017 to reach 100m by 2030. Well, there are six years to reach the objective.
Well, the growing number of subscribers is good news for those who are making games that are on the Game Pass, like the UK-based publisher No More Robots.
Mike Rose has given a statement “We want as many people on Game Pass as possible, because that naturally leads to more people playing our titles, which is especially useful for multiplayer titles that require larger player counts to keep the community alive.”
After this statement, many Xbox owners have taken a sigh of relief after reading this statement. However, some have anticipated this statement as anti-climax. For them, this statement has raised many questions than answers.
Also, there is one more statement by a gamer on X: “Xbox isn’t going away or going 3rd party. Can we all chill now?” This statement is getting viral on social media and getting more views.
