Matt Booty has chimed in once again on Microsoft’s multiplatform strategy, with new quotes that are bound to drive both PlayStation and Xbox fans a little mad.
In an interview with Variety, Xbox’s president of gaming content and studios said this:
“We are very much making the [exclusivity and windowing] decisions on a game by game basis. And each of our studios is in a little bit of a different position. There’s also the production timeline on a game, so the decision on spacing comes there first.
We want to make sure there’s a great experience for our Xbox players, and then the gap between [when it becomes available on PlayStation] is as much a production decision as it is anything else. This is a game that was in production before we acquired Bethesda, even.”
We already know some fans will already decide that this statement conflicts with what Microsoft Gaming head, Phil Spencer, said last month about there being no red lines. But let’s review that quote here:
“I do not see sort of red lines in our portfolio that say thou must not. It’s too early to make any sort of decision on the next version of Halo.”
It only sounds like Phil and Matt are contradicting each other, if you jumped to conclusions based on both statements separately. The truth is, the two come together to form a bigger picture of how Microsoft now sees their multiplatform strategy.
So let’s review where they are at, briefly. Because of regulation surrounding their Activision deal, Microsoft has committed to making specific games under the Activision Blizzard umbrella multiplatform. They were already a third party on PlayStation and Nintendo platforms, as the publisher and producer of Minecraft. This new commitment pledges that they won’t withhold access to games like Overwatch and Diablo that are already well established and popular on rival platforms.
Earlier this year, they took that a step further, and published four of their first party games, outside Activision and Bethesda, to PlayStation and Nintendo platforms. They had no commitments to keep Bethesda games multiplatform, and so we see that they can decide that Starfield still won’t be ported to PlayStation, while Doom the Dark Ages will launch on all platforms at the same time.
When Phil said there were no red lines in their portfolio, he didn’t say that all the floodgates were open. Matt’s newer quote is essentially still Microsoft’s position in general. Microsoft is open to bringing their games to other platforms, but they’re being careful on what games make sense for them to do that with.
This means that there is no guarantee that Xbox franchises like Halo won’t go to PlayStation. At the same time, there is no guarantee that PlayStation 5 owners will get all of the big games Microsoft will make in the future, like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. This all comes together to create a perfect picture that makes none of the console warriors happy. But maybe gamers can be happy, if they spent more time playing their games than arguing about consoles.