Not that I have been innocent of this myself, but at this point, I think we have exhausted Phil Spencer across a dozen interviews asking him the same questions over and over again when at this point, it seems that his and Xbox’s future plans are pretty clear, whether you like them or not.
The latest round of news comes from a new interview on the Xboxera podcast where Phil explains that yes, they will be showing PlayStation and Nintendo logos during their showcases of first party games releasing on those platforms, not attempting to hide the fact that they’re going multiplatform. I’m not really sure how this is a news item, but here we are.
Despite the fact that there are a wide range of opinions on Xbox’s strategy from here, it is more than clear what it is now, for better or worse.
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1) Xbox will potentially release any first party games on Nintendo and Sony hardware. That means putting logos in trailers sometimes. The release options are:
- Day one
- Time delay
- Unannounced, or perhaps never.
2) The Xbox goal is to appeal to gamers who want to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass to get these games “free” on day one using that service, and play across a range of devices. Xbox does not care if people use this service to play via the cloud on phones, tablets, whatever.
4) As such, Xbox cares far less about selling hardware than they used to, even if they still have plans to make it. If rumors are true, they could be releasing a portable Xbox that could change the dynamic a bit.
So essentially Xbox is acting as a third party developer that also makes hardware that has a somewhat confusing multiplatform release schedule plus its own subscription service. Yes, you can opine that isn’t a good strategy, but we at least know what it is. I don’t particularly see the point of asking Spencer about trailer brand logos or quizzing him or other executives if X, Y or Z game is coming to PlayStation and when.
What will happen from here is that Xbox will:
A) keeping announcing hardware sales drops
B) probably debut a portable console relatively soon
C) still make a next gen console
D) at least periodically announce Game Pass milestones
E) get more and more games on Xbox Play Anywhere
F) release and port a lot of first party games to PlayStation or Switch. The most likely ones are existing franchises (DOOM, Call of Duty, Elder Scrolls) and the least likely are new, original IPs like Avowed or Starfield, though it’s still a safe bet they may make the leap someday.
This is all pretty clear by now. It may not work, but that’s strategy in place now.
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