Xbox fans were certainly surprised to see from The Game Awards 2024 trailer that Obsidian's The Outer Worlds 2 was confirmed to launch immediately on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X. There's been a lot of conflicting talk about the multiplatform strategy, with Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer stating that there are no red lines when it comes to ports to other consoles, only for President of Content and Studios Matt Booty to say a few days ago it would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Even Obsidian's 2025 games show that inner conflict, with Avowed only currently announced for PC and Xbox Series S|X.
However, Windows Central's Jez Corden confidently tweeted on X that real exclusives for Microsoft's console exclusives are essentially gone for good in the company's plans.
Xbox won't have exclusives going forward. Everything is timed exclusive at most. If some games are exclusive it's gonna be incidental at best, the "case by case" argument is by and large going to be multiplatform, timed, and with maybe a few (very few) outliers.
When asked about the exclusivity status of Playground's Fable (which is scheduled to launch sometime next year), he replied:
That game was monstrously expensive. It might not be day one, but it'll come with the current plan in place, in my opinion.
Where does that leave Xbox hardware, though? Corden believes it won't be shut down...Unless it continues to shrink as it has over the past few quarters. In that case, all bets are off.
I don't think they'll stop providing hardware as long as the users and revenue are there. But growth is the issue. Without finding growth elsewhere, the shareholders won't accept it, especially with the 70 billion ABK scrutiny.
Don't think they'll shut it down. It'll just be flat. When you're a giant company with trillions in market cap, flat isn't viable. They need to grow beyond console for that, but maintaining what they have will power that effort. If... it doesn't shrink. And it may well.
So far, out of the five Xbox exclusives announced for next year, only The Outer Worlds 2 and DOOM: The Dark Ages are already confirmed to launch on PlayStation 5, too. However, the likelihood of Fable, South of Midnight, and Avowed getting there is pretty high.
Do you think this is the right path for Microsoft in gaming? Let us know through the poll, and write your opinion in the comments section below.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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