Phil Spencer: Xbox's New Plan Is 'Not A Change To Our Fundamental Exclusive Strategy'

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. So we're going to do that." is they key part of that sentence for me. Effectively, any franchise would benefit financially from being put on other platforms, so they are all absolutely under consideration. For me, bringing in extra cash is not the same as ensuring the future of the Xbox console. It just means that money will reach the studios enabling them to make more games...

I'll say it so other people don't have to..... Bluh bluh something something read between the lines bluh bluh more then 4 games are still coming to PlayStation bluh bluh bluh (did i do that right ? )

I’m happy with their answers and their strategy I guess. I don’t really think the single-player games should be made multiplat but whatever.

I think people want them to give specific answers for every game until the end of time but it just doesn’t work like that. Plans change, strategies change. Who knows where the industry will be in 5 years. Even Playstation is pivoting and I doubt they would specify the exclusivity of all their games coming out in the future too. Especially the live service games.

At some point you just have to trust the product and trust that they want to stay in business.

I think Xbox has an incredible and varied line-up going forward. I hope people can see that and can get involved in Xbox’s games instead of just wishing they come to other platforms. As i’ve said before I understand financial and time restrictions stopping us owning everything but thats just life.

For me - I would rather not wait for games to come to other platforms. That is why I will be playing FF Rebirth in Feb/March this year on Playstation; and will be playing Indiana Jones at the end of the year on Series X. Half of NintendoLife have been asking for Rare Replay since 2015 - almost 9 years. Just buy an Xbox.

@ConsoleGamer86 No, you need to add that Phil is lying like always and that he changed the trillion dollar company plans in the last minute because of the internet rumours and that he needs to be gone and that Xbox is dead and that my digital library is gone and that Scalebound was cancelled and that Rise of the Tomb Raider was a timed exclusive and that Xbox One was almost an always-online console and that it hurt my experience as a player although the plans were cancelled and that I sold my Xbox but still read every piece of news about Xbox and complain on all the sites.

Being really honest don’t trust any of them right now, Sony, Xbox and even Nintendo.
Gaming is going through a lot of changes right now and things can change on a dime.

It is what is today, but tomorrow is another day.

I do think this makes sense. Sea of Thieves or Grounded for example have built up a great community that enjoy playing. The ONLY way to expand that Community and grow those IP's, keep bringing in 'Revenue' to keep building upon the content already provided is to open these to more players. Look at CoD that grew and grew or Minecraft.

Games like Starfield or Indiana Jones are 'Single Player' focussed games - the games that you'll buy an Xbox for to play. These are the type of game that it really doesn't make sense to 'sell' on Playstation. If you have a LOT of extra MTX, expansions, seasonal content etc, it makes sense to have as many people invested in that 'IP' to buy that extra content that in turn helps fund the next seasons content or sequel.

Halo FTP Multiplayer would probably have benefited if it was available across more platforms, more Season passes sold, more people playing and more money coming in to invest in more Halo content. Even keeping 'staff' on that IP costs money so the more coming in, the better. It also benefits 'Xbox' gamers as they have more 'players' in lobbies for a 'better' online experience (lower ping, more filled games etc)

Anyone that trusts any of the these big three gaming businesses really needs to think what all three are really about, a business to make money and not to please you, maybe sometimes it works for you and sometimes it doesn’t.

@OldGamer999 I mainly play on the PS5 but i agree with you. Doesnt matter if your team green, blue or red. None of these major companies care about us. They aren't our friends, dont care if we all get to play whatever games on all consoles. Its all just face. All they care about is the share holders and making money. Were all cash cows to them.
The one thing all of us gamers have in common.

I understand the thought process, but will most consumers? That remains to be seen, but I don't think so. Most people will just assume everything is coming, eventually. And those kinds of situations are self-fulfilling prophecy.

Loads of exclusives? Absolutely! All of them timed? Yes, probably...

Spencer: "Why isn't Helldivers 2 on Xbox, who does this benefit"
Spencer the next day: "exclusives are here to stay"

Absolute hypocrite.

They are in last place in the console race and carry on like they are leading the industry...

...it's weird.

Would be nice if we had someone who cares about the brand … he should’ve just put every game on other platforms but household gears and halo should remain loyal to pc and Xbox …. Basically Nintendo and Sony will be pimping Xbox because Phil is so nice to his competition

It's really not any different. Hi Fi Rush and Pentiment fall right in line with previous decisions to port Ori and Cuphead to a console that's not xbox/pc. The criteria right now is pretty clear for which games are serious contenders for multiplat (live service, small projects).

I was hoping that we could finally put this to bed but glancing at push square headlines shows they are still adamant that it's just a matter of time for all games.

From the logo to the color and the controller I always connected with Xbox more than PlayStation even Xbox live I liked way better than Sonys online ..

@BacklogBrad

Except Spencer immediately had an interview and didn't commit to Starfield or Jones being permanent exclusives. This is on him, not on PushSquare.

Corporate babble as expected. Nothing interesting. No answers.

The whole situation was overblown, simple as that. It's not a surprise that Microsoft is reviewing titles for rival platforms, because this practice has occured previously. I was cautiously optimistic of what the announcement would be, but it was nothing more than business as usual.

If anything, they drummed up additional viewers to hear Diablo IV is coming to Game Pass, which is pretty awesome if you ask me. As a GP subscriber who largely plays games over the Cloud via mobile, this is a welcome addition.

I can't help but think that all four games will come to the Switch successor at the very least, possibly one or all being launch titles.

@Divide_and_Wander

Then Spencer did an interview and didn't commit to big titles being exclusive. They will still consider them in the future so people who are immediately acting smug should be a little cautious.

@ShadowofTwilight31 taking it as a given that it is happening because he didn't say never is ill advised. This mentality is exactly what led to the overreaction last week.

@Kidfunkadelic83
Very well put.

@Kaloudz

"No one knows what the landscape will be like in a decade or two."
"Will all Xbox exclusives become multiplat? Not in your wildest dreams. Not even close."

Pick one please and stop acting like you're some insider that knows all of Microsoft's business strategies when you really don't.

It's 4 games at the moment but if those games do very well then it's very likely that they will change course. Of course they will consider bigger games in the future, they could easily dispel the rumours and mudslinging but they won't because it's likely going to happen.

Sony and Nintendo don't need Xbox sales to be successful, same can not be said for Xbox.

@BacklogBrad

No one is taking it as a given, I just don't believe a word that comes out this greasy hypocrites mouth.

@ShadowofTwilight31 how is he a hypocrite? Please explain.

@BacklogBrad

Spencer: "Why is Helldivers 2 not on Xbox, who does this benefit?"
Also Spencer: "Lets buy publishers and make them exclusive."

@ShadowofTwilight31 so you do believe they will continue to make games fully exclusive? You seemed unsure of that earlier.

Does Helldivers not make sense as a fully multiplatform game? Live service games tend to die pretty fast even when they are on every platform.

@BacklogBrad

I believe that Microsoft will port more and more to other consoles if the first 4 do well.

So when can PS5/Switch owners expect Halo, Gears and Perfect Dark since they all have live service aspects? Sony finally have a successful one of their own and as usual, Spencer has to start his garbage.

@ShadowofTwilight31 helldivers 2 is just an online multiplayer. There is no single player element. If you are playing a community driven game, your best interest is to have as many players as possible. Sony as the publisher should also want the most players as possible. Not just from a profit standpoint, the longterm health of the game may depend on it. So Phil's question still stands, who does it benefit as a console exclusive?

@BacklogBrad

It benefits the publisher (Sony). Why should they immediately port over a new game of theirs?

@ShadowofTwilight31 to sell copies to people who don't have their console. Exactly what they did with PC.

@BacklogBrad

Goes both ways, when can Switch and PS5 owners expect Starfield and the rest of Microsoft's offerings that they took away? PS owners supported the first Hellblade before an Xbox port was even made, why is it fine for them to lose the sequel?

@ShadowofTwilight31 if it works both ways then you would be in support of spider man, God of War type of games going multiplatform?

Starfield and Hellblade 2 clearly don't fit the criteria they laid out for multiplatform. Helldivers 2, if published by xbox, probably would have had an exclusivity window then gone multiplatform based on what we heard yesterday. Who knows maybe it will end up that way with sony.

@BacklogBrad

This again? Microsoft didn't want Spider-Man and nope, God of War was made by Sony so nope, should stay exclusive.

Hellblade was on PS4 and wasn't made by Microsoft so should remain multiplatform.

@ShadowofTwilight31 what does the first game have to do with where the second game goes? I don't understand that sense of entitlement.

@BacklogBrad

Xbox players never got God of War whereas PS owners had Hellblade, should remain multiplatform.

@ShadowofTwilight31 so you would rather hellblade die off instead of find a home on xbox? That is pretty selfish.

Xbox players had final fantasy 15 why not any of the others?

@BacklogBrad

How is it selfish to expect Spencer not to punish gamers?

Absolutely yes VII REMAKE and XVI shouldn't be exclusive.

@ShadowofTwilight31 he isn't punishing gamers. The studio he bought is probably going to be used for exclusives. He didn't buy ninja theory because they print money (like abk), they make unique games that would expand xboxs portfolio. Ps users have this selfish attitude that they are entitled to all of that studios existing IP. If that was the case they would not work on hellblade at all and everyone would be deprived of hellblade 2.

@BacklogBrad

Can PS5 owners play the sequel to a game they can still buy to this day? No, therefore they're being punished.

@ShadowofTwilight31 a game that was never announced for ps5, never promised to ps5. Just a selfish belief that they are entitled to something.

@BacklogBrad

FFVII REMAKE, XVI and most Square Enix games were never announced for Xbox yet you lot slander Square Enix and Sony non-stop, hypocrites much?

@ShadowofTwilight31 I personally don't care about exclusives. I have both consoles. It's just a one way street with ps users. When xbox gets an exclusives they pull some victim card and attack xbox leaders.

@BacklogBrad

That is an absolute lie, this goes both ways. All I ever see from Xbox users is port begging and screaming how evil Sony is for doing something that has existed long before either company entered the market.

Sony doesn't have to resort to buying decades long publishers to remain relevant.

The most interesting part of the stream was when Phil was asked if Starfield and Indiana Joans would be going to Playstation after the initial 4 titles and he said they would remain exclusive. So that was then and we thought we knew exactly where we stood and then literally minutes later Phil spoke to a gaming journalist and said we are bringing games to other platforms and are definitely not ruling out any XBox titles being released on PlayStation INCLUDING Starfield and Indiana Jones ! So he answered a question and then directly contradicted himself. I'm actually quite impressed that it only took him 20 Minutes to make a complete 180 reversal of the statement X Box customers have waited 10 whole days for ! What an absolute farce 😂

It's become difficult to trust anything he says on this subject and even though I don't think he likes where X Box is heading it's painfully clear he'll just tell us whatever he thinks we want to hear and if it serves him he'll probably contradict everything he said a few minutes later anyway 😂

The saddest part of all is X Box admitting they are stopping selling physical discs of new Xbox games. I will be forced to buy 3rd party games on PlayStation because they are the only current gen console selling new releases on disc. The X Box vision for the future is clear and they decided us peasants will own nothing and be happy about it in their disc less subscription service based X Box nightmare and I hate it 😭

@Jett it's not a 180 degree pivot to say starfield and indy are not part of the 4 games and then refuse to say they are never leaving exclusivity. That doesn't mean to expect starfield or Indy on ps anytime soon or at all.

You really don't hear many people use terms like never or forever in business. Why handcuff yourself like that? If the industry shifts away from exclusives like many are predicting he would have that statement to haunt him.

@ShadowofTwilight31 sorry but you just don't see the backlash on ps like xbox does. Not to the same extent. Xbox users, for the most part, accept that Sony pays to keep games off their platform. They dont like it, but they accept it. When xbox does it for a game they wanted, like tomb Raider, Sony users turn it into a PR issue that paints xbox as some villian.

You really don't see any "gamer lawsuits" when Sony buys a studio or exclusive.

@BacklogBrad

You mean like how Xbox fans have started a little petition for a Sony funded game?

You're deluded if you think that Xbox fans don't do this, simply deluded.

@ShadowofTwilight31 I never claimed it didn't exist on both sides, just not to the extent as it is on ps. Is that all the justification you need to follow the same bad path? There are others doing it too.

This whole conversation started with you attacking Phil Spencer because a game was "taken" from you. That is an absurd take.