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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.

 

[mightymuffy]

It was the little mentions that made the biggest news here: new hardware announcement in the Holidays... biggest technical jump in any generation ever (yeah, I'm gonna call bullshit on that one haha, but it's still good to hear)...
Phil Spencer talking about Windows being perhaps the biggest one though - bloke doesn't mince his words - seems to point to the next hardware perhaps being Windows based (and potentially more open ended?) (Why mention Windows on an Xbox podcast with such a large topic to address?!)
And it makes sense: AAA games cost 100s of millions to make, and that's only gonna rise further, why narrow your profit margins to one console and PC? The move to PC has worked for both MS and Sony already, it won't stop there.. they're gonna follow Valves lead and make a Steam Deck with their own marketplace on instead. And a higher end 'console' (or basically a PC) too. With Sony letting MS go first to see if it works, just like the move to PC.
(Probably!)

 

[retKHAAAN]

Microsoft has been releasing their best games on other platforms for more than 20 years…

 

[Spider_Man]

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

We all knew how Microsoft wanted to prevent gamers from buying and using 2nd hand games, they tried to take that away from us on the xbx1.

Now this is plan b and everyone who supports digital are to blame, they've given them the perfect excuse to push digital only, they want to be the ones to maximise profits and ownership, while the gamer gets knack all.

This new BS console is just it, MS will start crapping out more shitboxes that will be digital only and next will be stream only subscription.

I just hope sony don't follow because that'll be the end of console gaming.

 

[retKHAAAN]

We all knew how Microsoft wanted to prevent gamers from buying and using 2nd hand games, they tried to take that away from us on the xbx1.

Now this is plan b and everyone who supports digital are to blame, they've given them the perfect excuse to push digital only, they want to be the ones to maximise profits and ownership, while the gamer gets knack all.

This new BS console is just it, MS will start crapping out more shitboxes that will be digital only and next will be stream only subscription.

I just hope sony don't follow because that'll be the end of console gaming.

Am I living in an alternate reality where Sony isn’t already pushing digital games and releasing digital only consoles?