The state of Xbox is one that is still not clear. If you look at certain game sales stats, you’d be told it’s “one of the biggest publishers in the world right now,” which is technically true, but there’s some serious context to that that can’t be ignored. If you look at the hardware stats, it’s emphatically in 3rd place, and even the Xbox Game Pass can’t say it’s doing incredibly well due to stalling subscription numbers. It’s due to this that the company is shifting to a multiplatform approach, one that Phil Spencer opened up to Xbox Era about recently, including talking about how Sony and Nintendo will factor into their approach.
Recently, Xbox did a Developer Direct, which focused on four titles, only one of which was a true Xbox exclusive. In the interview, Phil Spencer revealed that going forward, if a title is available on say, the PS5 or Nintendo Switch, the company logos will be present in trailers and presentations so that gamers can know what all their options are:
“I think it’s just being honest and transparent about where the games are showing, and we actually even had this discussion last year for the June showcase, and by the time we kind of made our decision, we couldn’t get all of the assets done and it felt weird to have some of them in and some of them out.
But I just want to be transparent with people – for shipping on Nintendo Switch, we’re gonna put that. For shipping on PlayStation, on Steam…People should know the storefronts where they can get our games, but I want people to be able to experience our Xbox community in our games and everything we have to offer, on every screen we can.”
While this answers some questions about Xbox’s multiplatform strategy, it raises new questions, including the lingering question of “How many Xbox titles will be on Nintendo Switch 2?”
There are numerous rumors about that question, and some have even said that Microsoft is ready to publish more games on Switch 2 than anyone else. In that same interview, Spencer said that he’s really trying to make sure that Xbox gamers are “open to as many gamers as possible,” which you could take many different ways.
In the end, the “true state of Xbox” might simply be that it’s not going to be the hardware-focused platform that it’s tried to be for generations, but merely someone who makes games that go to other systems to sell more units.
