Phil Spencer On Game Exclusivity: 'We Have To Anticipate There's Going To Be More Change'

Sony and Nintendo beg to differ.

I don’t care about that Phil and I sort of understand.
As an Xbox day one user.
Just give us some definitive and absolute next generation under the tv no gimmicks Xbox hardware super assurance.

Because you have gone very very quiet on that front at gamescom considering you have had the chance during interviews.

I WONDER WHY PHIL !!!

It is difficult to imagine what the industry will be like in a few years, but I think it is clear that it will be very different from what it has been until now.

In any case, I think they are running too fast, being the first is not always good.

Some people see this as dilution of the brand but honestly I love playing Sea of Thieves with my PS5 owning friends and I’d love to do the same with Forza Horizon and Halo.

If you need exclusive titles to somehow justify to yourself the existence of your console, you need to ask why you even play videogames. It’s not the playground of 1992 anymore; the collapse of the Dreamcast worked wonders for my GameCube library.

If Microsoft can get Valve to bring Steam to the Xbox then it becomes the perfect platform to simplify play of PC titles. You’d also be able to play Sony’s PC ports too, benefiting everybody.

@Pabpictu
Of course they are running too fast and we don’t know exactly in what final direction.
That is why Xbox console users since day one like myself are shattered and splintered in the Xbox universe.

What about next generation console Phil.

Just quit with the constant double speak and go third party. There's no shame in it. Sega did it and is still beloved. But it's exhausting listening to Phil, Sandra and Matt go corpo-speak on its own customers. Even this is nothing more than a cushioning of an upcoming announcement. Probably the next wave of PS5 games.

The Xbox Loss, weighs in. In slimey Phil we trust.

Tbh come the next Xbox and playstation...I will most likely be picking up the playstation first and foremost ...simply because it's the logical option going forward by the looks of things....and I have always been an Xbox guy since the 360...didn't own a PS3 or ps4...have 4 series consoles in my house ATM.....but whats point if all the xbox games are going to go to ps....the way things are going may aswell get all ps consoles next gen

At this point you may as well just put since we announced day 1 games, our subscription hasn’t increased as we expected, so we are going to make money elsewhere.

It’s all about money. No other reason. If Xbox had the Sony/nintendo user base there would be no discussion about things on other platforms.

Sony again have no reason to put it on Xbox. Because Sony would have to specifically deal with the series S. they don’t have that issue on their own console.

They haven’t even chosen to release concord on Xbox and my god will that need the players.

If/when xbox demonstrates that there is money sitting there that these companies can have, then they will follow. I'm betting Sony execs are watching closely and will force playstation bosses to do this if they don't come to the conclusion themselves.

It would be pretty stupid of playstation to not be looking at games like concord, heckdivers2, returnal, etc for switch 2 and xbox.

Nintendo is iffy because they are not a part of a larger company and they have ignored shareholders before. But who knows, maybe another wii u sized mistake will have them looking for more sources of revenue.

Every article and doom and gloom in the comments. Play games and have fun. Let it play out and see what happens. MS is playing the long game.

It is true that we users are confused with this direction, but well, they are the most valuable company in the world, they did not get there by luck, I understand that they know what they are doing, and they seem to be sure of this path.

What is clear is that if they are right and the industry is going to move in this direction, the rest will too. Some time ago we used to worry about launching all Xbox games on PC, today Playstation launches everything on PC, in fact games like Helldivers 2 work almost exclusively on PC.

They have a vision from a business point of view, we have a vision from a user point of view, and they don't coincide, time will tell which one is the right one.

I wonder how many of the people commenting negatively have to run a business?

At the end of the day it’s a business. I choose Xbox because I enjoy the interface, controller and have love Xbox live since day 1. So I wish it had some exclusives to rub into the Sony fanboys faces at times, yes? Am I gonna switch my preference of console because we don’t, no. Most people have both consoles or access to them to play the games they want to. It’s not the end of the world. It’s funny seeing people but hurt about PS5 getting games when I see a ton of people complaining when Sony gets an exclusive and they go “That’s BS it should be multi-plat”.

Probably not exactly how Phil envisioned this going, but all this does circle back to his original promise of meeting gamers where they are. Could they have done better and have been more clear with their massaging? Absolutely.

If they have all this IP, some of which could sell well on other platforms, why not take the extra money it would make to funnel back into the XBOX brand? In an idea world, it should lead to more games and funds to invest in new hardware. It's the end of the day, as a company they have to do whatever is going to get them the biggest return on investment.

For the Xbox only crowd, they still get to play day one with GamePass Ultimate.

@Sir_JBizzle I absolutely agree that everyone needs a good massaging from Phil and the team. 😂😂 Sorry mate, I just had to.

To be fair it is going to change more and more. I actually think hybrid PC’s will be a huge part of gaming future now.

I still feel he could say more about the specifics of Xbox hardware though as they do deserve some loyalty in return but I gutted loyalty is rarely two ways these days.

@BRT15 🤦🏿‍♂️🤣🤣🤣 definitely leaving it as is for the LOLs (damn autocorrect). It's the least he could do! 💆‍♂️

@BacklogBrad funny how people forget that it's not just Xbox that's going 3rd party. I agree with you. With Hiroki Totoki pulling the strings & Microsoft showing there is money to be made being everywhere. It's only a matter of time before Sony will follow.

Sony will never bring games to Xbox. They don’t need to. Xbox doesn’t have a big enough user base to give them money. So enough of the talk, Sony won’t put games on Xbox.

If you bring up MLB and Bungie, first of all MLB demanded that the games go multiplatform if Sony wants to keep making them. And Bungie has demanded that their games stay multiplatform during the acquisition.

And Nintendo will NEVER put games on PC or other consoles. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to rethink some more.

@cragis0001 Sony is already changing their exclusivity plans, so yeah. The new CEO is the opposite of the old. Even Nintendo will do it, depending on the success of their future hardware.

Constant economic growth is a blight on humanity, in general. Within the microcosm of video games, I still feel that expectation is a bit unrealistic.

Just make the rebrand official for effin sake 🙄 I'm sick and tired of Phil tip-toeing around so many issues around Xbox. I never dreamed that we would reach this state over such horrible business decisions. This company is spitting in its consumer's faces and laughing about it too...

@StylesT
You have more faith than me fellow gamer.
What next Xbox?
Strange how nothing has been mentioned to reassure Xbox fans at gamescom considering the recent rough ride.
And Phil has had the chance at interviews.

The Xbox shattered and splintered universe continues.

@somnambulance The game is doa. 5 more players on Xbox..... and all the entire work that the developer will need to put in, introducing series s into the development of an ongoing game, will not change this. (I'm only going by ALL THE 2020 announced Xbox games that are in development hell at this point because of series s).

Bringing a PS5 developed game to series s/x is NOT the same as bringing a series s made game to PS5. Please understand this.

@cragis0001 Who else is going full 3rd party? Oh right, nobody else but Xbox.

So what happened to PlayStation "following" suit and putting their games day and date on PS Plus??? Remember that prediction?
Xbox refuse to do that now. You need the ultimate tier for that.

I wonder if Marathon will stay multiplat after all the Bungie shenanigans.

If you want PS to release Xbox games that will be your chance to show them!

Honestly, exclusives just aren't for me right now. The last one I played was Spiderman on PS5 before I realised I was finished with PlayStation. I don't even play exclusives on Xbox. Most of the stuff I play is all third party stuff.

Like maybe it's just because exclusives aren't as plentiful to my tastes anymore. Like out of all the exclusives that are big at the moment on any of the consoles, none of them scream play me first to me. Hell, even when Starfield came out, I only got around to it two months ago and then got overwhelmed with what to do in it and quit it for now. I'm sure I'll go back to it at some stage but I'd genuinely much rather 3rd party stuff.

I don't get why people only choose a console for exclusives. There's so much more to a system then what games are exclusives, like for example, there's the controller, the kind of games that are on the system as a whole, the features, the ui, backwards compatibility, the types of games on the streaming service it may have and the like just off the top of my head.

@Banjo- exactly. Why is it so hard to believe that like Microsoft. Sony & Nintendo will follow where the money is.

@andrewsqual so future Playstation titles releasing on PC, cloud, mobile with the odd Switch & Xbox release isn't Sony going 3rd party 😅😅😅.

Much as I hate to see an Xbox without Phil, I kinda wish he'd retire rather than drag his own image through the mud until he descends from the second Iwata down to "standard industry snake."

He now talks in circles, speaks made up nonsense, and constantly contradicts himself. It's sad to watch him go from what he was years ago to this hollow corporate puppet.

No matter what consumer face he almost halfway puts on, it recently comes down to "we're running a business", "change is coming", "the health of Xbox" (is it healthy?), "the health of the platform" (srsly?), and finally from this interview "pressure from within to give back to the company." Handfuls of statements about what they won't do (that then they do within months), and no firm statements on anything at all that they will do. If Phil wants to say they intend to not sell traditional consoles, just say it and tell us what he WILL be selling.

@RadioHedgeFund I absolutely think Xbox becomes a PC, internally. However I don't think it will have Steam. And when Phil talked other storefronts he notably mentioned everything except steam. If they intended Steam that's the first thing they'd have said. There's little incentive for Valve to lose a cut for Microsoft as their own market leader by a landslide, and there's no reason for Microsoft to just sell PCs they don't make any sales revenue on unless they price it like a PC, in which case....just buy a PC? An $1099.99 Surface Gaming. Fine, one and done sale.

I imagine they don't REALLY want to support Epic either but because no publishers want to play ball with Windows store they kind of have no choice but to use another store on a PC-Xbox.

@OldGamer999 That's the crux of the problem, "we don't know what direction" they're running. It may be good, it may be bad, but we don't know. And I honestly think they don't know. They're just going to try things and stick their fingers up and see what way the winds blow and keep changing the destination. And that's the entire problem. You'll know the destination when they know it and they'll change the goals every 6-10 months for years to come depending on results of every experiment. Maybe that's a good thing. Keep the industry on its toes. Lousy to be a customer of though.

But this is all Nadella. He's done this to every single MS division. Chase the quarterly, sacrifice the entire platform behind it. How many once #1 brands were destroyed by execs like that? They're a dime a dozen. Shareholder's best friend. As long as you're a short term shareholder. Guaranteed the Series Y's USP will be Copilot. I ----ing guarantee you.

@cburg Satya Nadella does not play "long games." His whole MO is built around maximizing short term gains at the cost of everything else, even main pillars and myopically chasing every trend and fad that shows up in the rear view mirror. It's why the day traders love him, even as he collapses they company's main revenue generators. Phil tries to frame it as a long game which is disingenuous if you recognize the Nadella playbook. Nadella would make Windows into a launcher for Mac if he thought it would give him +5% on the quarter.

@Pabpictu "they are the most valuable company in the world, they did not get there by luck"

No, they got there by being absurdly wealthy by being a monopoly in the 1990s and then having smart banker types invest that money into acquisitions and investments to generate massive amounts of passive income, and were recently boosted to the top by positioning themselves at the center of the AI tulip mania investor windfall (but using someone else's licensed product.) Not by luck. But also not by leading in tech. At least since 1999.

@WhiteRabbit I do get tired of people white knighting Nintendo. Yes, they're the most traditional still. Yes they're not always teetering on bankruptcy. But they have a captive audience that they milk as hard as possible on an industrial scale like Disney. We're talking about a company that was slapped down for antitrust behavior, while not even being a public corporation at the time. An act so rare MS is one of the only companies in the past 25 years to have had it happen as well.

You've got to wonder if the end goal is to ditch Xbox as a hardware platform slowly. 20 years ago before the original Xbox Microsoft approached Sony and Nintendo because they just wanted to distribute games. In the wake of 'Games for Windows Live' failing to the growth of Steam. They only built a hardware console because both platform holders wanted nothing to do with them.
If Microsoft over the next few years end up distributing all their first party IP's on other platforms in the console space then they don't have to deal with the R&D on hardware manufacturing. Competing with a platform holder that outsells theirs every time. Maybe, maybe not. We'll see what happens.

@WhiteRabbit there is also that which lead to delays like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Wukong.

At least with the PS5, it’s the same specs except one is digital only.

Same with Switch. 3 iterations with slight differences here and there, but the specs in all 3 are the same.

And Nintendo is fully an entertainment company unlike Xbox and PlayStation which are only brands of a bigger corporation (Microsoft and Sony) who indulge mainly in other things with gaming being only one of them. Nintendo is pretty much fully gaming along with other entertainment forms like toys, merchandise, theme parks and movies. Them going multiplatform and PC would kill their console business.

All this going in circles is exhausting, I can’t trust a single word that comes out of Philnocchio’s mouth and for whoever that is still somehow trying to excuse or defend all of this just look how many games are already skipping Xbox for whatever reason.

Personally my problem isn’t that X game goes to PS5, but the fact that the platform is becoming irrelevant, it already is for many developers as it’s the platform with less users and therefore less sales, so no third-party dev prioritizes the Xbox version of their game, causing to launch after other platforms, just like Wukong right now, and some are already choosing to skip the platform altogether.

This is only going to get worse, and it’s starting to look like Windows Phone which struggled to get support from developers to bring their apps, MS in their business greed removed Office mobile exclusivity from WP releasing Office for iOS and Android and it slowly made Windows Phone irrelevant for both users and developers alike, sound familiar?

@IOI you are right my friend. We also have that as well.

If more Xbox first party goes multiplatform, next gen or maybe even this, people would switch to PC or PS5. Less Xbox consoles sold would soon lead to a lack of 3rd party games on Xbox as well.

I don’t mind games going on ps5 as I’m not a fan boy but what does bother me is the lack of innovation from Xbox.

Yes we can get the same old releases. Online shooters, huge fetch quest ridden rpgs etc but what I miss on my Xbox are games on ps5 like Astro bot. If you play astros playroom it feels like so much care has gone into it and every level brings something new and innovative.

Same with single player good stories like the last of us. Xbox doesn’t seem to want to care about campaigns it’s all online to make money.

For what it’s worth I don’t think there will be a new Xbox console. I think they’ll bring game pass to as many devices as possible and become a publisher. That’s fine but considering how much they’ve invested in studios I really hope they put a bit more effort in.

Just go play games folks. You'll be much happier than arguing about corporate decisions 😁 I'm currently playing Creatures of Ava right now, such a cozy and relaxing game.

@NEStalgia
But when a ship is directionless then some aboard will jump ship, as we starting to slowly see.

I don't care what anyone has to say about me multiplatform and exclusivity until it applies to Nintendo games coming to PC

also port gamepass and directx to Linux if you genuinely care for multiplatform

I suppose this all boils down to 'we can't catch our competitor, we can't get folks to leave their ecosystem so, hey, we're gonna sell games on their platform because that's how we can make more money'.

Regardless of how good the next xbox is (if indeed we get one in the traditional sense), folks are building digital libraries on another system and they won't simply walk away from. The majority of console sales aren't to folks who read websites like this. They are folks who will see the next playstation lets you keep playing what you bought already, and that's job done. Just as it was with the PS4.

Sony don't need to put games on xbox, it's that simple as they continue to grow their market share. Now MS are giving their games, sure they take a chunk of the sale price, but it cost Sony zero to develop so it's easy money in their pocket as well.

It's just a logical business step by MS to continue turning a profit. Now as the chap above said, let's just enjoy some games.

I think he's correct to be honest. Things are going to change and as gamers we have to accept that. But, are these changes going to be in the gamers best interest, or the corporations?

Go #FullSlate

They're all looking for areas of growth, but Microsoft is the only one aggressively doing so at the expense of their own base. Sony is still being cautious with their PC approach, and I'm convinced Nintendo would sooner go bankrupt than start releasing internally developed games on competing platforms.

@robe
That is an easy answer. Corporations will and have always done what is best for them.

I think what Phil is getting at is that for gaming to have growth the entire business model needs to evolve as it has for for decades now.

It is no longer feasible to ship a game on one platform because they are so expensive to make.

The way games are made needs to be re-evaluated because what we are seeing is longer and longer times to make original new games. And many frameworks and game engines are becoming more and more mature. But they need to go into new directions to innovate. Things like AI.

The storage requirements of games keep getting larger and larger but storage tech isn't keeping up. I used to put all my games on a few hard drives, connect them to my console and life was great. Now, with the NVMe storage systems and all games coming out requiring them I can't keep my entire collection (not even close to it) local.

Like it or not more than 50% of all games are sold digitally now.

With networks continuing to get faster and faster and more accepted, cloud gaming will get more and more viable as the standard way to game. I can see most casuals thinking, "Why buy a console when I can just cloud stream?". Especially since inflation has made it harder and harder for people to afford consoles. And by the way $199 consoles are a distant past even near the end of generations.

All these add up to major changes in how the gaming industry works and delivers games.

@OldGamer999 If Xbox were a pirate ship it would sink itself then decide to float then decide to run aground, then teleport to deep sea, then become a pontoon plane with one propeller but proclaim it has the most powerful engine.

At this point, running adrift is guaranteed to sink the ship. They need to pick a direction, run the engines at full speed. Either they hit an iceberg or they find Atlantis. Just get to the crow's nest, plot the best course, and make all haste to it. It's got to be better than filling the hull with water one red Solo cup at a time.

@WhiteRabbit That's true, though that's also what got them in trouble in the 80's (all games on Nintendo must be exclusive! Want FIFA on Nintendo? EXCLUSIVE ONLY!) LOL. Today, it's easy to focus only on your own platform when you have household name child demanded IP that sells itself and people will spend vaults to get. That's what both XB and Sony are missing. They keep buying more military games with guns. They forgot how Nintendo did it. Go for the kids, you get the parents. Astrobot as an exception, I daresay even TLoU, arguably Sony's biggest property now, or GoW would really sell hardware by itself. Certainly not Halo and Forza. Pikachu and Mario? Yep. They have an easier go of selling hardware via software.

The industry may well change, but anyone expecting Sony to suddenly start porting their games to the Xbox is going to be sorely disappointed. The very best we can hope for is their Live Service games to come over, but I think the only time we would see that is if the game is already flagging or failing. So, we might get Concord, but not Helldivers.

The more Spencer speaks at the moment, the more I feel that my Series X will be my last console. I am in the fortunate position of owning all 3 consoles and a very capable gaming PC. The Xbox is always my preferred platform to play on, and as such is used all the time, as an example I currently have more that 1400 digital games in my Xbox library, and around 250 Xbox 360 games on disc. I've only ever played one game on my Switch (yes, I know!), and my PS5 gets used only for the big single player games, which means this generation I have only played Returnal, Spiderman, Horizon Forbidden West, God of War, The Last of Us Remastered, and Demon Souls (so 6 games for a console that came out 4 years ago!).

When it comes to the PC, I had so many poor experiences with it when I first started playing that it has tarnished my view of PC gaming. That said, gaming on a PC has become much more straightforward in recent years. I play sat in an armchair with all consoles and the PC linked up to my TV, so using a keyboard and mouse is by no means easy. However, in recent years, pretty much all games also come out with controller compatibility at launch, which is not how it used to be.

So, unless the next Xbox is basically a simplified PC, I think I might forgo buying it. I can play every Xbox game I want on my PC, plus have access to Game Pass, and then access those Sony exclusives on my PS5/6. However, the issue I now find myself battling with is do I effectively jump-ship from the Xbox now? Do I buy the third-party games I am interested in on the PS5 or on the PC? I genuinely cannot decide what to do because I am utterly conflicted due to my preference for the Xbox.

The thing is, if I, as a lifelong, and ardent Xbox gamer am conflicted in this way, just imagine how people who are not so invested in the brand are feeling...

@Fiendish-Beaver "So, we might get Concord, but not Helldivers."

That's such an unintentional summary of modern Xbox right there.

@GADG3Tx87 Games for Windows Live was post-Xbox not before it. That was part of Vista. Xbox launched (and therefore was developed before) 2001 in the Win98/2k/XP era. Xbox was a response to the rapid rise of Playstation and 3D console graphics starting to steal developer dependence from Windows/Direct3D monopoly towards OpenGL which then steered consumer dependence, while gaming was a huge source of new Windows sales.

TL;DR the timeline is wrong, but the idea is right, Xbox always existed only to secure computer games depending on Windows/DX. It got weird in the 360 era where it became a true "console" in its own right. Maybe by accident.

Sad but true, isn't it, @NEStalgi...?

@WhiteRabbit I do hope Astro Bot is a success for PlayStation.

@WhiteRabbit I love Astrobot, but Astro, Sackboy, even Spyro and Daxter and Sly. Somehow none of this ever created that Disney-like eternal cult fandom and kid appeal Nintendo brands do. I don't think even Nintendo could create any of that today. True lightning in a bottle. It was the genius of Miyamoto that built it, and I think he's still the only one there with that level of once a century innate creativity, preceded only by Walt Disney himself. Plus the pure luck of associating with Masuda when they did. I wonder, without Pokemon, would Nintendo be Nintendo even with Mario?

Even without making consoles OR video games, Nintendo would still be an empire built on their IP/characters/brands. Movies, clothing, tourist destinations. They'd have a business on their identity. Even PS just never built anything like that. No company has. Other than Disney. Even WB not so much.

Happy to see MS pushing games on more platforms. Hope they eventually push all of them to cross platform and cross play

I'll continue to support MS as long as they focus on making games available to more gamers, instead of Sony trying to lock everyone to their console.

And to all the gamers threatening to leave...bye. You're probably toxic anyway, you won't be missed.

@somnambulance

I’m sure we’ll see Sony give big exclusives like Concord to Xbox soon

Now, now - I understand we Xbox owners are the butt of jokes at the moment, but there's really no need to be offensive with the likes of Concord...😅

@Fiendish-Beaver mate I’m was in the position of being a lifelong PS guy who has just got into PC gaming. I bought a Series X (having dabbled a little with the 360 back in the day) this gen and had a good time. Then finally bought a PS5. I enjoyed Xbox but I’m in the UK and it’s dead here. No advertising. After Xbox started porting their games and the future in Europe seemed bleak I found myself not wanting to spend any more money on 3rd party games and fully pulled out. I’ve got GP on PC until next year. For me, Xbox massively changed after the huge merger. I said people may regret it and everyone laughed at the CMA blah blah.
Best thing all round is that Microsoft Gaming goes full slate.

@RadioHedgeFund This argument is not as great as you think it is.

Why do you think your friends purchased a PS5 (or 4) to begin with? Exclusives, whether you like it or not, are exactly how a console thrives. Otherwise it's just which one you think is shinier. Nintendo would not be sailing high with an underpowered tablet that gets miracle ports of games like DOOM unless it was carrying something really special on it; the exclusives.

I'm not making an argument that Indiana Jones should be exclusive, because I think Bethesda and Activision should remain third party (which does include Starfield and Redfall despite the memes, yes), completely, but there would be no PS5, there'd be no Halo Infinite, if they weren't building off exclusives of the past. This is not a mentality that has just 'gone away', it's just one CEOs in charge are trying to push to justify that nuking their hardware division is a solid plan.

Let's not even consider the point that Sega was circling the drain for a time after leaving the hardware space. They only held on thanks to Isao Okawa saving them with debt forgiveness, not due to porting their games to other platforms.

Phil (back shot) Spencer

@Moby competition is what makes a brand and console strive and get creative .. if all went multiplat why have 3 systems ….

@TheSimulator Did you really think that comment thru? Exclusives only give an edge when selling consoles. Consoles are dying. We'll be lucky to see 2 new generations before they are obsolete. Or we'll see consoles becoming hybrid portables like the Switch, Steam deck, etc.

The market is all but demanding that game makers make their games cross console to increase revenue. MS is capitalizing on it now.

I think you are entirely correct, @x3King84. As much as I dislike gaming on a PC, I think that'll be my path from here on out...

@Moby wow I wish I had your console degree of knowledge sir .your silly if you think we won’t see two more generations of console wether it’s portable or not … Nintendo will never go full pc or Sony only the 1 American company will surrender due to incompetence

Phil being transparent for a change.

@Sol4ris Concord feels like the kind of game Xbox would have made. And, technically is made by a bunch of former Xbox (Bungie) devs.....

Not tough to see their strategy.

All aquired IP from Bethesda and ABK will be multiplatform.

All traditional, "home-grown" Xbox tentpole IP (Halo, Gears, Forza, Fable etc.) will remain Xbox console-exclusive.

At least for the remainder of this generation and the beginning of next generation. If their hardware sales continue to fall, then nothing will be off the table...

Xbox is the lead platform from now on, its the one that will be associated with CoD, Indy, Stalker 2, Flight Sim etc this Holiday. If you want to buy a console to play Indy, its only on Xbox this Holiday!!

CoD, Doom & Minecraft are all multi-platform Microsoft games - so these will always be on 'Playstation' as long as it exists. It still has 'Exclusives' and even if a few end up releasing on Playstation, its extracting money from Playstation gamers who wouldn't/didn't buy an Xbox.

If you are looking to buy hardware, assuming you haven't already got an Xbox, look at all these games - let alone 2025 with Avowed, Fable, Perfect Dark, Clockwork Revolution, Blade, South of Midnight etc...

All those are First and Foremost 'Xbox' Games - even if 'some' release on Playstation too. Its bringing in 'money' from users who wouldn't or didn't buy (not penalising them for buy Playstation - just delaying access). Xbox is still the Lead Platform, still the ONLY hardware to offer all these Day/Date on Xbox Hardware, and Xbox Hardware also is the ONLY console with Game Pass.

If you want to play Indiana Jones, CoD, Flight Sim 24, Stalker 2 etc this Holiday, the ONLY console is Xbox, and play them 'free' Day/dat with Game Pass Ultimate....

That's their Holiday Marketing to 'Sell' Xbox Hardware this Holiday season and the Games that will follow on in 2025...

Then when the Holiday season has cooled, Indy isn't 'selling much, (if at all with focus moved on to 'new' releases), sell the Game to all those who have Playstations to extract money from those that would never have the 'opportunity' to give MS money to play their Game(s) - 1m Sea of Thieves sales - how many Indy Sales on PS5?

For Xbox gamers, they still get all these Games Day/Date - Some may well release on PS5 too - but they always have - CoD, Doom, Minecraft - they all exist outside just the console gamers and all make MS money. Others may release later on PS but again, you've had exclusivity for a period of time, got to play it first and really shouldn't care that MS is selling their games elsewhere to extract more 'money' for 'growth' of their IP's and Revenue...

So much whining, its like I'm on Twitter 🤦

@SleeplessKnight I’m fine with Activision and Bethesda multi since it was always multi but halo and gears hell nooo plus even fable will drop on pc I’m cool with pc love but on a ps5 while we don’t get god of war Spider-Man or others he’ll mo

Meh, I still make use of my Series X and I enjoy it. What does bother me though are some games skipping Xbox. Such as the Marvel vs Capcom Collection, but I have other consoles at least.

@Pabpictu I don’t think it’s hard to imagine. The Japanese brands will try to get people to buy into their respective hardware. Through games and other deals. The PC realm will still carry on. Maybe a mega Chinese corporation will buy the Xbox brand and run it well to give the Japanese a run for their money.

@BacklogBrad Sony is a hardware company. They need consumers to buy their hardware. Sony would not share its software for its TVs and other electronics. As Sony needs people to buy its hardware. Microsoft is a rich software company with much larger profit margins since it’s easier to be a software company in which almost all computers at all echelons use their product. So Microsoft can be more liberal with how Xbox is ran. Now Sony would have short term gains to their profits but long term their console business may not be as strong. East Asians tend to be longer term thinkers, so I don’t expect the Japanese to make quick rash decisions.

@Moby consoles aren’t dying. So many young lads beg their parents for a PlayStation. Even if just to play fortnite. The sells of the PS5 today and switch beg to differ. Considering the cough era plant closures.

@NEStalgia

Concord feels like the kind of game Xbox would have made

Perhaps(?), alas Xbox were/are too busy making Fable, Clockwork Revolution, Avowed, PD , etc.

Having said that, I would rather Concord release on everything than Firesprite becoming a forever studio support for Destiny or Marathon in one of Bungie's basements. Or worse, get shuttered by Sony (after taking a happy family photo with Hermen Hulst of course 😉).

@RadioHedgeFund at some point there is no point in the Xbox existence. If Playstation can play all Playstation games, and all Xbox games, there's no reason to go Xbox. So pretending exclusives don't matter is kinda crazy to say.

@Kobeandodom What about hardware? Hundreds of Android handsets all run the same OS and play the exact same games. There are dozens of PC vendors whose machines have the same relative hardware under the hood.

If there were no platform exclusivity people would still buy the hardware because it did something different to the PlayStation; it’s just they’d never have to worry about isolating themselves from their friends to play online.

@RadioHedgeFund the hardware is 99.9% the same. And if you haven't noticed, people who game tend to buy Windows pcs, because it's where the games are going to be 99.9% of the time. Which is my point. If Xbox only plays Xbox, and Playstation plays both... There's zero reason to get Xbox. It's an equal cost console, with equal performance, missing a plethora of top tier games. And I love my Xbox, but this is a crazy road they are going down.

@species8472 playstation are already putting their games on pc. There is no growth in consoles

@Kobeandodom that's like saying there's no point in android phones when iPhones have all the same apps

@Toot1st if iPhone had all the top tier iPhone apps and all the top tier Android apps with the same exact performance and functionality. Meanwhile Android only has Android apps which means it's missing huge top tier apps, then yeah there would be no reason to get Android.

I don't really care about exclusivity, think it is limiting the audience.
I use Xbox because it is Xbox. Have nothing against Sony.
Same principal that I use Android instead of Apple; I'm more familiar with Android and it serves my needs.

Still going to support Xbox going forward.

@Kobeandodom
Terrible comparison because when it comes to the mobile world apps aren't the main focus. With an iPhone you're literally locked in to Apple's world and to make the most of it need their extras. It doesn't play nice with a Windows PC in which you need a tongue of third party programs for things like wireless file transfer, you have to use air pods rather than the plethora of options available. It's heavily integrated with MacOS rather than any other external software options. And good luck getting it to play nice with anything other than an apple watch or iPad. An android phone works with literally everything. And Google is heavily integrated into everything including MacOS software options. And that's the main focus. Be in 'Apple's Walled Garden' or have an almost infinite set of options if you're hardware and software agnostic.

So comparing that world to Xbox is entirely different.

Get lost phil you liar

@GADG3Tx87 basically if iPhone has YouTube, Spotify, Netflix and Android doesn't. Meanwhile iPhone has every app Android has, and the functionality is the same. Then yeah you'd be crazy to get Android.

And I didn't bring up the ridiculous comparison. So I have no idea why you went in a tail spin of irrelevant rambling about iPhone and Android. When Xbox and PlayStation is the conversation 😂

OK. So much fear and negativity towards "first party" games moving to other platforms. I have never understood this and have always been against "console exclusivity". I think I give Nintendo a pass on this because they have always built unique hardware that pairs with the games. For many of their games moving it to other hardware would actually, greatly change the experience.

Let me see if I can explain why this doesn't matter and in fact, is the right thing to do. What if Disney suddenly said from here on out all Marvel, Disney, Pixar, Star Wars etc. movies will only be available to watch inside Disney Theme Parks, and you have to pay to get into the park and then pay to watch the movies once you are in there. That is how the games industry has worked with exclusives. It doesn't make sense. Make a great entertainment product (games in this case) and get it to the masses. That is how you fund the next great product.

I hear people saying that if we lose exclusives we lose hardware, but I ask why? People can still choose what hardware they like best. This has happened in pretty much every other industry. Take cell phones for example (again). You can choose an iPhone, a Pixel, Samsung, etc. and in most cases get the apps you want on any one of those devices. You don't choose the phone for one or two exclusive apps, you choose the phone that best speaks to you. Game consoles should be like this.

Anyway, that's my 2¢ looking forward to hearing why I am completely wrong. Get at me....

@NEStalgia
Right now as it stands Nintendo are very much the white knight of the industry. While almost every other developer is cutting jobs , Nintendo have increased pay to their employees and continues to hire industry talent. The Switch itself has refined gaming by taking restrictions off of home gaming and highlighting portability. They have opened up a new wave of portable gaming which allows gamers the ability to play anytime, anywhere (Steam Deck, Asus ROG, PS Portal etc… all say thank you!) That’s a major boon to industry. In the same breath as the industry undergoes a very challenging time, with questions abound about the future of the industry…here comes Nintendo launching a gaming museum to celebrate gaming and its industry. Nintendo is very much thriving when the industry itself as a whole is not. They’re not the perfect company but they’ve really stood on their own this gen, it’s been impressive.

@Rainz I agree with what you said - at least externally. But, it's also a misunderstanding in the public thinking. Nintendo doesn't "cut" jobs often because they don't actually employ most of the people that work on their games. Their internal teams are more or less core management teams, the rest of the staff is all outsourced on contract work. So they create and cancel contracts, which in turn ends up in job cuts from the contractors but Nintendo gets praised for clean hands because the employees weren't technically theirs.

The switch definitely did open up a lot of avenues in the industry and started the protable wave, though it's also a house built on marketing mostly. At the end of the day Switch is a GBA2 with an HDMI port. But they sold the concept expertly and it influenced the industry in a great direction.

Iwata was visionary (and the Switch was Iwata's baby), I want Nintendo to thrive, but there's so much internet soft focus filtering over who the company is and how they operate that it's just amazing to me. Switch 2 will be interesting. First non-Iwata console since the N64. Do they chase the industry or stay unique?

@TheSimulator Unfortunately it's not an "eye for an eye" type scenario. Sony doesn't have to share any of their games with Microsoft as they are the market leader and their mantra is to sell as many consoles as possible. So how do you do that? Well having a ton of console-exclusive games helps A LOT. Just take the Switch for example. It would be virtually useless and pointless without Nintendo's own 1st party exclusives. The fact PS games are starting to go to PC is irrelevant as most console gamers only play on console and prefer to play there which is why the PS5's sales are still on pace to match or exceed PS4's.

Microsoft have pretty much thrown in the towel when it comes to the video game console wars / hardware race. For them, if you buy an Xbox, great, even though they make little to no profit off of the hardware. But if you subscribe to Game Pass, that's where they earn their money from you. So regardless if you're on an Xbox, PC, Laptop, mobile device, streaming over X-Cloud, or on a Firestick etc as long as you're a hamster on their wheel they're happy with that. So because selling you their box has become such a low priority, having exclusives on that box has also become low priority.

All MS games can launch on Ps , what is wrong with that? If you like Game Pass , Xbox platform is where you want to be.

@Kobeandodom
Because the devices you're comparing go way beyond just apps when it comes to making a choice when that was your point in comparing phones to consoles. And I'm showing all of the aspects to consider that differentiates two mobile platforms that makes your argument a ridiculous comparison in two vastly different situations. When making that choice there's so much more to consider than you suggested beyond merely apps when it comes to these two ecosystems. But you didn't grasp that because you're trying to simplify two completely different avenues to justify a choice in gaming consoles.

@GADG3Tx87 bruh I didn't bring up the phone to console comparison. That was somebody else's ridiculous idea.

Yes Phil, the end result does have to be better games. But, Microsoft cannot seem to make better games. Redfail, Starfailed, Hellblade 2, Scorn and many more - none are great games, only mediocre.

With the business aspects i can onderstand l, but also the consumer side. For me i dont see a reason to buy a next xbox console of everything will be on other consoles.
Normally i have almost everything. Gaming pc, switch, xbox and PlayStation. I mostly game on my gaming pc and switch.

At this point, I’d rather them just put the games on PS5 day and date so I can buy them there. Gamepass hasn’t had much of anything that interests me in over a year. Xbox just isn’t the value proposition it once was, to me at least. Maybe this is what they want.

I’ve been gaming since a child grew up reading oxm magazine following Xbox playing their games.
I don’t understand the constant negativity about what games over people are playing.
The comments section on these posts are so negative and depressing.
People play games on the box you prefer it’s a device for entertainment it’s not a sports team.
It’s that simple.
Couldn’t care less myself if PlayStation gamers can play Indiana jones it 100% doesn’t affect my life in any way or any one else’s
Think I’m popping over to Xbox era website this place is negative toxic and miserable

It is the Xbox team that should be aware of the change in gamer behavior.

Don't expect Xbox fans to enjoy gaming as much as they have in the past just because the Xbox team chooses not to take care of their console.

@OldGamer999 He likely won't talk about it yet because it's too fresh on our minds and that would be too dramatic. Just wait another year from now the PS5 Pro and Switch 2 will be out to tell us it's not happening anymore.
Then announce a bunch of games for the Switch 2.

If somehow a true next gen Xbox comes out it will likely be digital only anyways. I'm primarily physical purchases on Xbox so it's going to be a hard sell to me.

Though I'd still consider it digital only if Xbox can get 95% of all games that come to PlayStation that is 3rd party. We are still in the 75 to maybe 80% range especially since the majority of Final Fantasy games are still missing, same for half of Team Ninjas games.

Games missing/delayed are still Xbox's main problem for most of us. We end up with another console just for 3rd party games. They find a way to end that problem then maybe you keep gamers even in major change.

@Meehanuk_1987 It is sad, but with all the potential issues with saying one thing then backtracking within a year multiple times over team Xbox feels like they are abandoning the Xbox gamer.

If it wasn't for 'the deal' with the cost of GamePass what does Xbox have for most Xbox gamers? I really wonder.