Ever since fans threw together this big old Xbox Play Anywhere 'master list', Microsoft seems to have paid more attention to its multi-device purchasing program - and the team has again acknowledged the service in a new post about its ID@Xbox successes.
In a fresh blog post that says indie devs have now been paid out $5 billion through ID@Xbox, Microsoft has again put more emphasis on its Play Anywhere program. The team mentions that it's "focused on helping independent teams enable Xbox Play Anywhere to reach more players" - with the service now containing more than 1,000 games in total.
This is all happening at a pretty intriguing time for the company. After years of XPA being a pretty in-the-background service, Microsoft is now shouting from the rooftops about it - as the team reportedly pulls together plans for an Xbox-branded handheld later this year. If that comes to fruition, Xbox Play Anywhere would work very well with a PC-based portable device.
Of course, until Microsoft announces such a device that's pure conjecture, but what is certain is that the Xbox owner is making a much bigger deal of Play Anywhere right now. The team goes on to mention some big titles making use of the program in the coming months, including a cheeky mention of Hollow Knight: Silksong alongside the likes of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and FBC: Firebreak.
"No matter where people choose to play, we’re working with developers to make the most of the features unique to that device or screen. Looking ahead, our lineup is incredible with upcoming games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Descenders Next, and FBC: Firebreak to play across the whole Xbox universe… and of course Hollow Knight: Silksong too!"
Happy to Xbox making a bigger deal of Play Anywhere these days? Tell us what you think of this down below.
[source news.xbox.com]
Comments 6
This I like to hear I'm getting more into indie games lately on gamepass mullet madjack is amazing but the end of the game is glitched for now on Xbox the road 96 games,donut county and I've just started the hotline Miami collection which is good so far indie games should have a big presence on whatever Xbox is going to be going forwards ✌️
That's absolutely amazing. You just can't knock ID@Xbox and the emphasis on Play Anywhere lately is clearly a nod to the future. I'm all for it.
Love play anywhere. I genuinely split my time between console and handheld because of it. Happy for the additional support
Won't this make indies lose revenue from not being able to sell multiple copies or what's the actual incentive for any company to want to do this? If they gave a higher profit percentage per sale or reduced the Microsoft/ Xbox store fee percentage then maybe it makes sense. For the consumer it's great but I remember being disappointed with what was on Xbox Play Anywhere with my ROG. I returned it within a week
@Kilamanjaro This is MAYBE a concern for a game like GTA VI which is huge enough to potentially have gamers buy multiple copies on different platforms. Heck, they can squeeze multiple copies on the same platform out from gamers. But for the vast vast majority, they are only selling their game once to a gamer no matter how many platforms that gamer owns. In such a case indie developers benefit a lot more from being given the tools and support to reach as many customers as possible. This is also following an announcement from Xbox that Xbox gamers spend 20% more time on a game with Xbox Play Anywhere than other titles. For a lot of games engagement is far far more important than an extra sale or two. Even a game like GTA VI with how so much money is made in Microtransactions and how the active online userbase keeps that gane populated, higher engagement can be worth a lot more than an additional base game sale.
It depends on the developer (or publisher, but in this case these are independent developers) at the end of the day. But generally speaking I think more reach and higher engagement will be more important to most. Especially considering that very, VERY few people double dip and when they do it's usually because there was a deep sale involved and they're also still one person who likely only plays one version of the game. Certain games (like Ubisoft games) will have cross progression, but for indies that's not typically a feature they'll put in the work to implement.
@WildConcept6 those are fair points. If they're doing only one sale engagement is probably not so important as the sale itself, unless they have DLC or an economy where players spend real money. Like I for example own maybe a dozen games on both Switch and Xbox, I even own some of those same games on Steam and Epic and they're a mix of AAA with majority being smaller studios I found on the Switch. I still feel it's a part of Microsoft's plan to get away from hardware and swap over to the PC ecosystem regardless of device. A rebrand to Microsoft Gaming Anywhere would solve this ambiguity imo and would be something I support.
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