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Rumour Xbox First Party going third party/multiplat - Discussing and Summary Thread (UPDATE: 4 Xbox exclusives are coming to Nintendo Switch and PS5)

My quick knee-jerk reactions:

  • This podcast doesn't really do much to explain their long term plans in terms of exclusives.
  • Saying that they will be porting four games without saying what the games makes little sense. They need to do a better job of explaining why said games are going to other systems besides "It will make sense when we announce them."
  • No fundamental changes to GamePass is good from a consumer perspective.
  • Announcing that Diablo 4 is coming to GamePass in March is nice, but there is no mention about the rest of the back catalog.
  • Zero mention of Call of Duty is eye opening, especially in the context of GamePass.
  • Saying that they have a lot of hardware devices planned doesn't surprise me at all. That wasn't going anywhere.
  • The talk about helping their first party studios grow and get better after all of the layoffs is an eye roller, but whatever. That is corporate speak.
For all of the wait and speculation, today was kind of a nothing burger.
 
BassForever said:
They just acquired Activision Blizzard King, they could potentially have a lot more titles become exclusive in the future even if they don't make CoD one. I think the plan will be if a game is moving people to buy an Xbox like Halo or Starfield, it stays exclusive. GAAS titles that need a larger player base (Sea of Thieves, Grounded) or smaller titles that only appeal to the core audience (Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush) will be year exclusive before being ported.
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Halo is a GaaS title!

So is Forza Horizon!

So is Doom!

So is Gears of War!

These are their biggest franchises!
 
I mean technically
Couldn't they just put
Starfield
CoD

and other titles that really should be multi playform anyway?
unless he addressed that more specifically and I missed it
 
carbvan said:
So a giant nothing burger that came from an employee jumping the gun on Xbox's plans and insiders extrapolating Xbox is doomed. Welp.
Click to expand...

People are extrapolating Xbox is doomed because GamePass has flatlined and Xbox has started selling terribly and these moves happening right after those really bad sales numbers sends a certain signal.
 
Well, that was a big waste of time.

There was so much there that could have been boiled down to just a few sentences on an email or a press release. "We are releasing four games on other platforms which we will share soon. High profile releases like Starfield and Indiana Jones are remaining exclusive. AB games coming to Gamepass Day 1, Diablo IV coming March 1. We remain committed to hardware and our vision of Xbox." Bam, saved us all 20+ minutes.
 
4 games planned multiplat (we wont tell you which ones???) (likely the 3 leaked ones and probably grounded), Indi and Starfield are NOT part of those 4 (but we won't specifically say they ARENT coming, just not part of this batch, very weasely words, but leaves for system sellers to stay exclusive should Microsoft want).

Games will be considered if they are > 1 year old. Makes sense. (but also implies there will definately be more than 4 titles in the future).

Trying to downplay the whole concept of multiplat "exclusives" but the overall messaging is STILL bad, and frankly I get the feeling more IS still to come later on.

Hard confirmation of more Xbox hardware in the future (including maybe a handheld, neato). Maybe a new console this holiday (2 tb adorably all digital? meh).

Re-dedication to day 1 "first party games" (whatever that means to Microsoft right now). gamepass exclusives. Which is good. (Actiblizz games will come, but may or may not be day 1?, they didn't really emphasize they would be day 1, maybe my comprehension is bad.)

Growth growth growth growth growth, buzzword, buzzword

"if you don't have a healthy industry [that] leads to eliminations" Phil, shut the heck up.

"streamlining Windows" god yes please. Its bad on handhelds now and honestly needs generally improvement and refinements for PC. Bloody bloatware and telemetry.

Overall...This should have been tweet/blog. What a strange way to deliver the message. I never want to see a pod cast like this again. The whole vibe around gamer uncle xbox ceo is so off. Who ever is in charge of PR needs to refocus. And yeah no, I still get the feeling Microsoft themselves aren't 100% sure of the future strategy and are very reaction oriented right now.

Also, this is absolutely not a nothingburger, like some are implying. But it was vaastly overstated by some leakers (xbox hardware in jeopardy, Starfield is going multiplat- all exclusives will go multiplat etc...). Yeesh.

I guess call me in a few years to see where Microsoft is doing, because I still don't really know for sure. But there will at least be a physical box with at least 1 year exclusives. So that's a starting point.
 
most of what is going multiplat are all games from acquisitions anyway. nothing here is newsworthy, especially considering he won't name the games. probably because they're going to appear in a Direct or SoP.

well this was all a big waste of time lol.
 
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YolkFolk said:
Games like Sea of Thieves coming to Playstation (and Switch) is definitely something changing.

These games will be the first of many.
Click to expand...
Is it though? They reference massive multiplayer games like Minecraft going multiplatform. And smaller games like Cuphead, Ori, and now probably HiFi coming.

A real change would be something like Starfield, Hellblade or Indie imo
 
D4 on GP is cool. You always get juicy nuggets of distractions in times of crisis (like how Civ7 was revealed) - even if they're both pretty obvious.

And they threw down the gauntlet on biggest hardware leap. so much for the no more hardware shit lol
 
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qfu9UNV.jpeg
 
Lozjam said:
They are 100% bringing Starfield and Indiana Jones to PS5. The rumors were 100% right, you even have Phil Spencer doing damage control with his "exclusives will be a small part of the business in 5-10 years"
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This is my opinion as well. They left the door wide open on future exclusivity, and only said Starfield and Indiana Jones weren’t part of the four games being discussed. They will absolutely go multi platform. There’s no doubt about that.
 
Red Monster said:
This is my opinion as well. They left the door wide open on future exclusivity, and only said Starfield and Indiana Jones weren’t part of the four games being discussed. They will absolutely go multi platform. There’s no doubt about that.
Click to expand...
Yeah I can see something like that towards the end of the generation, like some deluxe edition type beat. Maybe early next gen cause companies love to port a previous gen's games to the new gen haha.
 
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Well, that explains why this was just a podcast. Not enough substance for a grander livestream event, and too little specificity for a press release.

On that latter point, I find it a bit odd that they didn't even say the name of the games despite everyone already having a solid guess at which four games are going multiplatform from the descriptions alone, but if marketing wants to stick to their original plans, so be it. At the moment, my only question is if these games are Switch 1 or Switch 2-bound.
 
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Sunshinemario said:
Internet overhyped this shit out of this tbh, only 4 games and most of them make sense to go multiplat.
Click to expand...

To be fair, Microsoft could just have quieted the whole thing last week with a blog post instead of letting things drag on. There was nothing in this podcast that says this was an emergency situation that needed a podcast discussion to address. Phil didn't name the 4 titles going to other systems. He still left open the possibility of other titles going to other platforms in the future. No real change to Game Pass. This podcast I think did little to address people's concerns or hopes one way or another.
 


Microsoft announces the release of four of its own titles to PS/Switch. It is also clear that Xbox hardware will continue.

The four titles affected are `Hi-Fi Rush,'' Pentiment,'' Sea of Thieves,'' and `Grounded.'' Also announced plans for new consoles this holiday season.
Click to expand...

Machine translated.

Grounded of all games.
 
Imitatio said:
Spencer saying exclusives won't matter as much in 5-10 years time screams preparing for going fully multi-plat sooner than later, tbf.
Click to expand...
That and with the costs of AAA games getting crazy...it's almost a bad thing to keep games exclusive lol. Like...Spiderman 2 cost 300M right? That's insane.
 
the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation, which makes it better for players and better for creators
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Games are already so expensive to make and that's their plan for the future? This industry is driving towards a wall and they're deciding to press the pedal down to the floor.
 
I share the sentiment of most people here. This really didn't need to be a ~20 minutes podcast, they've probably done more pr damage with that than if they'd just made a press release 👀
 
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
Why would that be much different from Sea of Thieves?
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This could totally just be a me thing. But Sea of Thieves is just that Xbox One game that came and went but still has a huge player base. Like would you ever say SoT represents the Xbox brand in any way?

Like Halo and Forza are synonymous with Xbox, it would be like Grand Turismo or The Last of Us multiplayer coming to Xbox. SoT going to PS feels more like Marathon or Helldiver's going to Xbox
 
Looks to have been a case of overhyped sensationalism. But I do think them just waiting this long has done nothing to help the Xbox brand or Series X sales. When you could have just posted this vague info somehwere asap.

And having it in this boring long winded format, how is that going to make anyone on the fence about buying an Xbox feel confident?

Oh well, looking forward to the games coming out.
 
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Sort of mixed messaging from Phil Spencer, he both wanted to downplay the amount of Microsoft games that will come to other platforms but he also stated ''The number of console exclusive games in the industry will decline considerably in the coming 5-10 years'', that can only mean that Microsoft will end up releasing much more than just 4 games to other platforms in the end. I think the mixed messaging is just a tactic to drip feed ports to other consoles over a longer period of time which will lessen the blow for Xbox diehard fans.

Reading between the lines of what Spencer said i think Xbox is moving more towards timed exclusivity, i think they are open to port a lot of Xbox games after a certain timed exclusivity period in the coming years. Maybe 1 year or more exclusive releases before they are open to releasing those games to other platforms.

So i basically take this whole presentation as a way for Spencer to announce a change of strategy while pretending that nothing has changed and then just drip feed the change in strategy the coming years which will cause the change to be more and more normalized because the change is happening slowly but surely.
 
Hocot8 said:
new hardware was leaked months ago. They have a digital xbox series x coming.
Click to expand...
Yeah I see that. But I really don‘t get their strategy because I don‘t think they will get much more new consumer who would buy their games because of the XBOX Brand.

I feel like their whole ecosystem is lacking more and more identity.
 
Phil, buddy, Nintendo delays the Direct for you and you won't even tell us the 4 games? I mean, I know we have the leaks, but still.

I wonder if Microsoft asked Nintendo to delay the Direct till after their podcast since at least one of those games will be in the Direct and they wanted to quell the "MS going 3rd party" fears before that?
 
After all the talk, it was a load of proper fecking gobshite, then? That's disappointing 🥲
 
Aurc said:
After all the talk, it was a load of proper fecking gobshite, then? That's disappointing 🥲
Click to expand...
No, Phil Spencer also made an interview with Tom Warren where he is more clear that these 4 games are just a test run for what they want to do in the future:

www.theverge.com

Microsoft: four Xbox-exclusive games are coming to PS5 and Nintendo Switch

Microsoft is starting out small but has big ambitions.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com

Basically what Spencer says is that if these 4 games bring in the revenue Microsoft wants to see, more and bigger things are coming.
 
VolcanicDynamo said:
Well, that was a big waste of time.

There was so much there that could have been boiled down to just a few sentences on an email or a press release. "We are releasing four games on other platforms which we will share soon. High profile releases like Starfield and Indiana Jones are remaining exclusive. AB games coming to Gamepass Day 1, Diablo IV coming March 1. We remain committed to hardware and our vision of Xbox." Bam, saved us all 20+ minutes.
Click to expand...

They can't say that because they know those games are coming to other platforms. It's just a matter of time.
 
I'm not sure why they had to wait a week to say this. I assume 1 or some of the exclusives will show up in the direct that got delayed, but they could have said this last week and avoided all the nonesense drama

It's also interesting the story got spun up into PS5 getting everything last week by many commentators and news outlets to 4 games coming to PS5 and Switch.
I was a bit irritated Nintendo was barely brought up at all despite Switch Hi-Fi Rush being the catalyst of this whole thing.
 
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I don't know how folks are reading this as a nothingburger. It's essentially a confirmation of the whole panicked kerfuffle barring the changes to GP which didn't have much traction behind them anyways.

The bigger titles might still be a point of contention but everything that came out of today's podcast points towards them coming too. Might being the keyword here as for all we know MS could have already settled on releasing them on other platforms. Spencer's words are clear as they come.

As of right now Xbox first party is going multiplatform through a timed console exclusivity staggered release plan, simple as. It's as big of a change as when they announced that their games were coming Day 1 to PC. This is a massive, massive shift in strategy, and there's no need for Xbox hardware to stop existing for this shift to take place.
 
So this is them boiling the frog, right? Like how when Sony started putting games like Days Gone and Horizon on PC, their fans went "that's OK, the flagships like TLOU and Spider-Man will stay exclusive" and now nobody really cares that even those Playstation crown jewels come to PC eventually?

Like, I think Xbox thinks if they slow-walk this, they can get to a point where everyone will just kinda shrug their shoulders and go "eh, Starfield/Indiana Jones/Fable have been out for a year or two at this point, no biggie if they come to Playstation/Nintendo at this point" and I think they're probably right about that
 
Danny said:
Sort of mixed messaging from Phil Spencer, he both wanted to downplay the amount of Microsoft games that will come to other platforms but he also stated ''The number of console exclusive games in the industry will decline considerably in the coming 5-10 years'', that can only mean that Microsoft will end up releasing much more than just 4 games to other platforms in the end. I think the mixed messaging is just a tactic to drip feed ports to other consoles over a longer period of time which will lessen the blow for Xbox diehard fans.

Reading between the lines of what Spencer said i think Xbox is moving more towards timed exclusivity, i think they are open to port a lot of Xbox games after a certain timed exclusivity period in the coming years. Maybe 1 year or more exclusive releases before they are open to releasing those games to other platforms.

So i basically take this whole presentation as a way for Spencer to announce a change of strategy while pretending that nothing has changed and then just drip feed the change in strategy the coming years which will cause the change to be more and more normalized because the change is happening slowly but surely.
Click to expand...

That's effectively the end of the XBox hardware brand long term, they can call it whatever they want, but the brand as is is sinking and declining, moving to put their games on other platforms even after a certain exclusivity window is going to destroy a big chunk of whatever sales they were getting as is.

Why bother buying an XBox when you just wait a bit and get the XBox games plus everything else that Nintendo or Sony offer in their ecosystems.
 
Machrider said:
That's effectively the end of the XBox hardware brand long term, they can call it whatever they want, but the brand as is is sinking and declining, moving to put their games on other platforms even after a certain exclusivity window is going to destroy a big chunk of whatever sales they were getting as is.

Why bother buying an XBox when you just wait a bit and get the XBox games plus everything else that Nintendo or Sony offer in their ecosystems.
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I don't understand their gameplan that well but it seems they are doubling down even harder on gamepass with this presentation, announcing all activision blizzard games will come to gamepass in the future. So the strategy seems to be we will have timed exclusive releases and then release our games on other platforms but Xbox is the best platform to play those games because they will be free on gamepass. So basically they could be hoping that after their franchises gain more and more popularity on Playstation and Nintendo platforms people will jump over to get a gamepass in the future.
 
Previously on Lost said:
Sarah Bond on hardware (@ 18:28):

"And we got more to come. There's some exciting stuff coming out in hardware that we're going to share this holiday. And we're also invested in the next generation roadmap. And what we're really focused there is delivering the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation, which makes it better for players and creators and the visions that they're building"
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exciting... and adorable stuff?
BlackthornOrion said:
So this is them boiling the frog, right? Like how when Sony started putting games like Days Gone and Horizon on PC, their fans went "that's OK, the flagships like TLOU and Spider-Man will stay exclusive" and now nobody really cares that even those Playstation crown jewels come to PC eventually?

Like, I think Xbox thinks if they slow-walk this, they can get to a point where everyone will just kinda shrug their shoulders and go "eh, Starfield/Indiana Jones/Fable have been out for a year or two at this point, no biggie if they come to Playstation/Nintendo at this point" and I think they're probably right about that
Click to expand...
From the Xbox circles I follow this is working brilliantly
 
Danny said:
No, Phil Spencer also made an interview with Tom Warren where he is more clear that these 4 games are just a test run for what they want to do in the future:

www.theverge.com

Microsoft: four Xbox-exclusive games are coming to PS5 and Nintendo Switch

Microsoft is starting out small but has big ambitions.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com

Basically what Spencer says is that if these 4 games bring in the revenue Microsoft wants to see, more and bigger things are coming.
Click to expand...
Ah, I see! That's reassuring, at least. I suppose anyone could've figured this was just the initial batch, but it's good to have confirmation from daddy Phil himself. I certainly don't reckon Microsoft would be daft enough to port any filler bollocks like Redfall over, so it's only a matter of time until we get to send Master Cheetos into the fray with our Joy-Cons and DualSenses. Come to think of it, it kinda makes me wish Xbox controllers suffered from drift to the same extent as the competition. Could be the bloke would've drifted onto other platforms much sooner 😂
 
In regards to Sea of Thieves, this interview with Matt Booty from 2019 is fun to look back at now:

www.ign.com

Games From New Xbox First-Party Developers Might Launch on PlayStation and Switch Too - IGN

Studios like Double Fine and Obsidian might not be tied exclusively to the Xbox.
www.ign.com www.ign.com

“But then obviously we’re going to have our big franchises like Forza, Halo and Sea of Thieves, where those games are designed from the outset to really exist on Xbox, I think that will continue.”
Click to expand...
 
So, sounds like…

Xbox games that have peaked/halted on the platform and have reached a satisfactory number of players will qualify as titles that can expand to other platforms and grow further with additional sales and exposure. I’m thinking mainly AA titles with occasional AAA titles here and there. Would definitely be a case by case basis.

I can see this working. Keep Game Pass exclusively on Xbox/PC platforms and keep certain games/franchises exclusive as well. Gotta give your customers a reason to pick up Xbox consoles going forward if you’re going to produce devices beyond XSS/X. Curious about “new devices” this holiday. I would guess XSX Pro. Also wondering if they’re considering jumping into the handheld space. That could be interesting.
 
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