Microsoft CEO: I've Never Been More Excited About Xbox's Pipeline Of Games

@Sebatrox This was being talked about a few months ago, I'm not sure why it's suddenly gaining traction again.

@Sebatrox I'd already given up on it to be honest, liked FF15 but this insistence on making games like others ("FF but now with God of War combat!") had dulled my enthusiasm plus the strong likelihood Sony will soon acquire them.

No great loss though, Deus Ex is closer to my heart and it's now away from the mismanaged monstrosity that is Square Enix...

@Kaloudz Yep think this year and the next few are make-or-break.

With all the investment Xbox hopefully gets its act together and delivers a consistent tempo of games plus GP additions - allowing it to at least gain market share, probably the best we can hope for the generation after the fiasco with Donny M.

Hopefully they'll push Play Anywhere too and encourage more PC-and-Xbox releases so it significantly increases the number of games coming to Xbox and create an even bigger ecosystem too

@Kaloudz It's exactly what we talked about here. Nothing new - still referencing the same document from October 2022.

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2022/12/microsoft-causes-confusion-with-statement-about-sony-excluding-games-from-xbox

I mean he's hardly going to say anything else is he? But I agree that 2023 feels like it needs to hit big. Both Starfield and the not-E3 to propel Xbox forward, as they are currently losing ground.

@Kaloudz the thing is deals like this are quite common, just usually on smaller games. Don't you think it's strange that plenty of games release Day 1 on Game Pass but don't come to PlayStation for 3-12 months? It works both ways. I agree that Sony picks larger games and usually ties them up for longer, but I don't think we can finger point at one and call it scummy without calling the same on Xbox's side. Reality is they are ALL at it.

@Sebatrox You know what most of those Senators and congress have in common? Ties to Microsoft. Whether though the state of Washington, where Microsoft main office is in Redmond, or campaign donations from them.

That isn't to say Sony doesn't have some question to answer, but currently the named people asking the questions are hardly impartial.

@Sebatrox I assume a lot of people missed it the first time around as well. There's a lot of confusing messaging around this.

@themightyant Games coming to PlayStation three months later is very different to games being "timed exclusive" but in reality being paid to stay completely off Xbox.

Final Fantasy is the prime example - no FF7 Remake despite the timed exclusivity long having ended, and no 14 and likely no 16.

If it was a publishing / development deal and they said "permanent console exclusive" that'd be one thing, but the shady deals Sony pulls where Xbox owners can never know where they stand is just terrible practice

@themightyant In all honesty no US politicians are likely impartial and nor should they be - MS is a US company and should have its government support in the same way Japan clearly gives its companies support for example by making them difficult to take over.

I live in the UK and it'd actually be refreshing to have a government do that - ours instead is happy for all UK companies to be bought out and eventually outsourced, or crushed by outsider companies with unfair advantages

@Sakai @FraserG Yep wtf

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/microsoft-activision-deal-prevented-to-protect-innovation-and-choice-in-cloud-gaming

Losing the Activision deal is big - Microsoft will now either have to decide if Game Pass / consoles / cloud have a long term future or not.

If they do, then expect MS to buy loads of smaller publishers and developers that escape regulatory oversight, and likely to get super aggressive with Sony - regulators have now said blocking platforms etc isn't their concern so MS now could actually pay to keep a future CoD off PlayStation for example in revenge.

If they don't, then the monopolistic Sony has won, gaming will become an expensive elitist hobby with a terrible consumer experience and we'll all be poorer for it...

**** the CMA

EDIT: Schrier reports MS have already said they'll appeal

@ShadowofTwilight30 It's ok, with Activision gone (if appeal fails) and MS CEO seemingly behind Xbox with $70bn to burn, maybe Tango will takeover Square instead or Sony will live to regret such deals as Xbox starts to sign them with everyone.

Activision I doubt are going to be particularly friendly with Sony either given they just cost Bobby his payday...

@Kaloudz Oh yeah the PushSquare trolls will hit us hard here today!

And yes they're going to appeal but no idea if that can be expedited or whether it'll make the deal go past the current expiry date...

Either way more sodding months of this stuff, would rather it was over one way or the other - and if the other I want to see angry MS using that fund to aggressively compete using deals, takeovers of stuff too small to trigger regulators and buying many more marketing and Game Pass deals

How do you feel about other games that are loved across the board like Doom, Elder Scrolls etc. that likely will now be locked to exclusivity in future?

My point isn't to flame Xbox only to demonstrate that it is happening in different ways on different platforms. Either way it's ultimately gamers that lose.

@Kaloudz Yeah I think Tango could be a backdoor to Japanese takeovers if MS decide to do many smaller acquisitions instead.

I'm worried today primarily because of what the MS response will be.

Either it's dragged out for ages while Xbox stays meek or goes through everywhere eventually with lots of concessions that hamper Xbox while Sony goes mad with acquisitions and exclusivity / blocking deals.

But if say the EU blocks it or the USA does, or the CMA appeal is eventually lost, I really want to know the Xbox backup plan - do they have one, and is it as aggressive as it'll need to be?

@Kaloudz I meant Tango Gameworks are a Japanese subsidiary so could be used in takeovers to avoid the block on foreign takeovers.

And yep fully agree

That's an interesting perspective. But I can understand that. Frankly XBO had so few exclusives It was one of a few consoles, along with Wii U, I ALMOST feel wasn't worth the cost of the box. (Ori 1&2, Forza Horizon and a couple of others saved it). To be clear if you ONLY had a XBO, it was a good enough console, 75+% of the same games came out as on PS4 so it was a decent library. But if you had both there was little to recommend as it played 90+% of games worse than PS4 and had so few top tier exclusives, especially not many I liked.

But we are the minority. Most gamers don't have access to all the consoles, nor should they have to, consoles are expensive and it's FAR too big a barrier to entry for most who aren't enthusiasts like us. So I think it's better for the games industry to be more inclusive not exclusive.

Hence I don't like this mass consolidation that is happening. And this ABK deal is only going to make even more of it, if it goes through.

I agree it's LESS of a violation if MS is paying all costs, but it's still a violation (using your terminology). And at what point does X lesser violations equal a larger one. Because that is what is happening with Starfield, Redfall etc. and will with Doom, Elder Scrolls etc. All games that would have been on other platforms before MS pulled out their giant check book. It's the same end result, less games for most gamers. Not good.

Your idea about everyone making their own version of the game, while fun as a concept, is just not realistic in reality. Cost of making games is too big now and we would end up with games that were much smaller in scope and budget.