The last couple of weeks has been a weird one around the Xbox fandom. Rumours about a few first-party Xbox games making their way to other consoles led to further rumours about Xbox apparently stepping back from the console business altogether and becoming a third-party publisher for other platforms, like Sega did in the early 2000s. That led to fans freaking out (to put it mildly), and many proclaiming the death of Xbox as we know it.
But, rest assured, that’s not the case. Phil Spencer (Microsoft Gaming CEO), Sarah Bond (Xbox President), and Matt Booty (President, Gaming Content & Studios) appeared on the Official Xbox Podcast this morning to set the record straight. The long and short of it: nothing is really changing, other than four to-be-announced games coming to “rival” platforms, and Microsoft still sees Xbox consoles as an integral part of its ecosystem.
As part of an effort to expand the communities Xbox games can reach, and in the spirit of “When everyone plays, we all win”, Xbox has four games making their way to other platforms. Per Xbox Wire, “these are titles which have been available to Xbox players for at least a year, including hidden gems that deserve to be experienced more widely, and live service games whose communities will benefit from welcoming even more players.” Titles haven’t been announced, but some of the games from earlier rumours fit that bill: Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, and Pentiment. Starfield and the forthcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle were also the subject of multiplatform speculation, but Spencer dismissed those rumours during the podcast.
In terms of Xbox hardware, the company will have more news to share later this year. Even as Xbox takes a “play anywhere” attitude with Game Pass’ availability on mobile and Windows, Xbox consoles are still an important part of that vision: “Xbox consoles will continue to provide a flagship experience for players; it’s where you get the best value and convenience, it’s where Game Pass provides unprecedented access to an ever-evolving library of games. To be clear: Game Pass will continue to be only available on Xbox platforms.”
So, no, the Xbox world as we know it isn’t ending. Some Xbox games will come to other platforms in the future, to help those games (and their creators) find new audiences, where that makes sense, and as they have before—(Ori and the Blind Forest on Switch, anyone?). That’s a good thing.
