Needless to say, yesterday was a big deal for Microsoft and its Xbox brand. The latest Xbox Showcase was easily the highlight of the “Summer Game Fest” week that started last Friday. Between the main Xbox Game Studios crew and others within the Xbox banner, like Bethesda, they dropped numerous titles that excited gamers of many genres. That included dropping highly-anticipated trailers for games like Call of Duty Black Ops 6, which will be the first true game in the series that Xbox fully owns via the Activision Blizzard merger. However, the team reiterated during the show that it will be available on multiple platforms at the same time and that all versions will be “equal.”
In fact, in an IGN Live presentation that came right after the Xbox Showcase, Xbox head Phil Spencer noted that if players were to get the upcoming title, they would have the same content experience no matter what platform they were on:
“It’s a choice. We didn’t say to anybody ‘you have to subscribe to play’. If you want to buy Black Ops 6, that’s great. It’s great for us, it’s great for the developer. If you want to subscribe, it’s also great. I want to give you the choice on how you play your games, and who you play with, and not try to do slimy platform things to force you to do what I want you to do.”
If you hear a bit of “passive-aggressive” talk there, you’re not the only one who heard it. Phil Spencer mentioned twice yesterday his feelings about past deals within the franchise that pointed to how Sony got special exclusive content and timing deals to ensure that people went with that version of the game versus the Xbox versions.
And that’s…a bit hypocritical, and that’s not the only time you would use that word in reference to the Xbox Showcase yesterday, as they took time out of its presentation to praise the teams they were working with…knowing full well that they had JUST closed down companies like Tango Gameworks in the name of “running a sustainable business.”
Plus, even if they’re not doing it with Call of Duty Black Ops 6, they have had exclusive content in the past to try and bring people to the Xbox line of consoles. Not to mention, they pushed HARD at the Xbox Showcase to make it clear that Xbox Game Pass existed and would get all of these games on day one.
What’s that line about glass houses, Phil?
