Many people are still trying to process everything that happened during Xbox’s “Business Update” that transpired yesterday. This is because the whole presentation read as nothing more than “this could’ve been an email,” as nothing truly significant was revealed. The only “big pieces of news” were that Microsoft would bring four titles that had been out for a while to other platforms and that Microsoft was already working on their next-gen console to follow the Xbox Series X/S. But now, a separate interview from Xbox’s Phil Spencer has further shed light on what he feels is “best for business” from both Xbox and beyond…and it’s really telling.
In a chat with the Game File Newsletter, Phil Spencer noted several things about games going away from exclusive releases and instead doing multiplatform releases to help “extend their lives.” He pointed to a recent game as an example of that:
“I will say, when I look at a game like Helldivers 2 – and it’s a great game, kudos to the team shipping on PC and PlayStation – I’m not exactly sure who it helps in the industry by not being on Xbox. If you try to twist yourself to say, like, somehow that benefited somebody somewhere. But I get it. There’s a legacy in console gaming that we’re going to benefit by shipping games and not putting them on other places. We do the same thing.”
Yes, you do, Phil, and so it’s really curious that you’re calling out this studio for NOT being on your system despite it doing well everywhere else.
That led to another statement by Spencer where he said he would love to have exclusive titles from Sony and Nintendo’s libraries coming to Xbox, but he’s not “holding his breath” on that happening.
To which many gamers will say, “Gee, wonder why?” First off, it’s been well documented by various developers that while the Xbox Series X/S is a powerful console, it’s not the easiest to work on. Many developers have been forced to augment their games so that they will work on both versions of the Xbox console, which has caused problems in the past.
Furthermore, Sony and Nintendo are both doing well enough to great with their exclusive titles selling well on their platforms. Nintendo had a fantastic 2023 regarding its releases, with each of its 1st party games reaching over a million units sold, if not several million!
So why would they need to bring their games to Xbox when they’re doing fine? Exactly.
