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Xbox has just uploaded their Official Xbox Podcast regarding Xbox and their business going forward in the industry, with the podcast lasting for around 22 minutes, and while the podcast isn't that long, it does cover quite a bunch of things regarding exclusivities, Game Pass and other things.

We'll sum up the points as Phil and his team talks about them:

1. Four game titles will be coming to other consoles. As to what those 4 games are, it's still unknown. Phil mentions how some games, despite them having reached their "completion" status for about a year or so, have build a strong community and are still going strong as of today, and this one of the key reasons to expand the reach of said games. Two of the 4 games are those community-driven games.
   
   
2. Xbox plans on making their future titles to focus on "playing the games you want, with the people you want, anywhere you want, when everybody plays, we all win", which is part of their strategy for years now, and they want to continue it to expand and grow the games industry.
   
   
3. For AAA titles coming to Xbox's Game Pass, Matt Booty comments on this, mentioning 3 keys aspects:
   1. All of our games will be on the Xbox platform
   2. All of our games will go into Game Pass on day one
   3. Game Pass will only be available on Xbox
      Matt mentions that while they have games being exclusive to Xbox, they want to make them available to more players as well, and also cites two key aspects, which are cross-play and cross-saves.
      
4. Activision and Blizzard games are coming to Game Pass, and they will start off with Diablo IV on March 28th. They also mention that there's currently around 34 million players on Game Pass.
   
   
5. Phil specified that he wants Xbox to be a platform for creators to reach the most players possible.
   
   
6. Phill talks about how some of their games and franchises have indeed been multi-platform for several years even on mobile devices, and while he understands that this is a success on its own to reach more players, he mentions that at the end of the day and from a business perspective, the Xbox hardware is a key component, and that they're gonna have Xbox players across all kinds of devices.
   
   
7. They want to keep up with the industry by wanting players believe that they will find the best games on platforms they love, they want people who invest their careers to work there (Xbox), to feel it's a place where they can be successful. Phil also cites two ways of how to go forward in the on-going industry business, one which is to cater to the already existing player base to monetize from them, or find new ways to expand and reach new players so they are added to the current player base.
   
   
8. Matt talks about communities for highly popular franchises, like Call of Duty and Minecraft, and mentions two key factors when it comes to established communities and what devices they choose to play in, which is what platform do the player's friend play at, and what platform have the players built their library of games. Sarah Bond mentions specifically Palworld by Pocket Pair as one title that achieved outsized success, with it being the largest third party Game Pass release launch ever, by giving the creators options on how they can launch their games, with multiple options ranging from PC/Steam, consoles, retail, subscription, free-to-play, game preview, etc.
   
   
9. Sarah also mentions that while Xbox is their flagship hardware, that the options they give to creators and developers allows them to make their game run great on Xbox, but additionally, and thanks to their investments on recent years, that their game will be able to be accessed through any "screen" (possibly referring to streaming/cloud). She also mentions some "exciting stuff coming out in hardware that we're gonna share this holiday season", so perhaps a new revision or something else of the sorts for Xbox might be coming by the end of the year (through that's merely speculation). They also have their own roadmap in regards for the next generation.
   
   
10. Phil Spencer goes into some talk in regards to game libraries and their preservation, as well as compatibility between older titles and more modern hardware, and says that he plans to "respect" that investment that people make on Xbox going forward, saying that it's part of Xbox's foundation to do so and to try to keep things like cloud saves and other services for as long as they can.
    
    
11. To wrap up, Sarah Bond mentions that Xbox is a platform where some of the biggest games in the world are always gonna be in, and alongside that, they have Game Pass, which will feature new game releases on day one, and additional options like player-first features, cross-play, cross-save, cross-progression, backwards compatibility, and their cloud gaming investments lets Xbox players play from anywhere they desire.

And that's a wrap, Matt mentions at the end that they have around 10 major releases coming up in 2024, with some of those being Hellblade 2 and the Diablo Expansion, Indiana Jones, Avowed, Ara, and others.

 

[AdenTheThird]

Well, looks like the rumors had merit after all.
Kind of odd that the cross-platform games are coming to other platforms (especially since the community has a pretty good idea of what they are...)
That, and I still can't get over the name Matt Booty.

 

[Anxiety_timmy]

The irony of talking about preservation while having first party games that aren't on the disc and need huge downloads

 

[ShadowOne333]

The irony of talking about preservation while having first party games that aren't on the disc and need huge downloads

They focused way too much on cloud and services stuff to be talking about preservation of any kind.

 

[Spectremint]

While I still sense an imminent AAA crash (unless you're Nintendo), I feel like Microsoft is at least... trying? I appreciate that they're bringing their games to other consoles. I hope Hi-Fi Rush is one of them, that game just feels like it'd be at home on Switch. Also, knowing Microsoft, Starfield will come to PS5 ... eventually, just not now.

Also gotta love the Xbox fanboys on Twitter out here making death threats to anyone who tries to tell them the truth lmao

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Okay, now tell XBOX to put the arcade Killer Instinct games on the switch... or we can just settle for the snes & N64 versions, those are fine too.... AND BRING BACK CONKER. (Shiny nintneod 64 emulator on switch over here LOTS of RARE WARE games over there.... BATTLETOADS)

 

[Xzi]

The four games coming to PS5/Switch are supposedly Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, and Grounded. All in all though, the whole thing sounded like an attempt to let down the die-hard fanboys easy, so I wouldn't be surprised if everything goes multiplat in the future.

 

[RedColoredStars]

Watched the replay before I read anything about it. What a complete waste of time.

 

[Marc_LFD]

The four games coming to PS5/Switch are supposedly Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, and Grounded. All in all though, the whole thing sounded like an attempt to let down the die-hard fanboys easy, so I wouldn't be surprised if everything goes multiplat in the future.

Hi-Fi Rush on PlayStation?

Then I'll want this too:

Post automatically merged: Feb 15, 2024

Oh, and if they want gamers to enjoy their games across any platform, then have Halo and Gears of War on PlayStation as well.

 

[tech3475]

I wonder if Halo MCC will see a PS5 port? If Xbox is abandoning console exclusivity then I'd like to at least see this ported.

 

[Spectremint]

The four games coming to PS5/Switch are supposedly Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, and Grounded. All in all though, the whole thing sounded like an attempt to let down the die-hard fanboys easy, so I wouldn't be surprised if everything goes multiplat in the future.

Honestly, I would not be mad if these were the four titles. They're all very solid games that more people deserve to play

 

[Xzi]

Oh, and if they want gamers to enjoy their games across any platform, then have Halo and Gears of War on PlayStation as well.

We're still missing the best Gears of War games on PC (2 and 3), and almost all of them are missing from Steam. They should do a new multiplat release of the GoW trilogy.

 

[Naster]

Phil Spencer is such a joke

 

[Bladexdsl]

lol xbox is finished just bury the brand already

 

[dragonblood9999]

I wonder... of those 10 exclusives, how many will be canceled?

 

[Xzi]

lol xbox is finished just bury the brand already

Console wars are over, and PC won. Even as a collector who owns every Nintendo and Sony system released up to this point, it's only gonna be desktops and portable PCs for me from here on out. Not worth buying systems for two or three long-term exclusives, or exclusives which are easily emulated.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

So after ALL this hubbub and rumor mongering it's just "We will wait 12+ months after a game releases and then decide MAYBE to port to other consoles" and even then only very limited select titles?

WHAT A LOAD OF NOTHING

 

[DarknessPlay3r]

Sarah also mentions that while Xbox is their flagship hardware, that the options they give to creators and developers allows them to make their game run great on Xbox, but additionally, and thanks to their investments on recent years, that their game will be able to be accessed through any "screen" (possibly referring to streaming/cloud). She also mentions some "exciting stuff coming out in hardware that we're gonna share this holiday season", so perhaps a new revision or something else of the sorts for Xbox might be coming by the end of the year (through that's merely speculation). They also have their own roadmap in regards for the next generation.

Every time one of these fucking corporate tools opens their mouths and says the words exciting stuff, you just know it's going to be something else designed around fucking us; the end user, over.

 

[osaka35]

Don't really care too much about what they say they'll do, just what winds up happening. Gamepass as a rental thing, like netflix, is great. But it's not for me. I have my own home server and physical media. I want the same options for my video games. "Preservation" is crucial.

 

[Xzi]

Every time one of these fucking corporate tools opens their mouths and says the words exciting stuff, you just know it's going to be something else designed around fucking us; the end user, over.

Or it just means what's coming next is actually very unexciting.