Game news “The players will be the big losers!” Why is more Xbox video games on PS5 and Nintendo Switch not a good thing?

The day everything changed

Whether you love Microsoft consoles or hate them, next Thursday’s event will be not to be missed. The Redmond firm sends its three generals – Phil Spencer (CEO of Microsoft Gaming), Sarah Bond (president of Xbox) and Matt Booty (president of studios and game content) – to lay the groundwork on a minefield, that of the brand’s strategy which is still struggling to plow a furrow capable of protecting the group from opposing attacks. Since the company behind Windows began to lose the battle of the eighth generation, the most important according to Phil Spencer, the one where everyone built their digital library of games, the Xbox brand has made drastic changes in its policy.

I will remember two major events: the arrival of Xbox Play Anywhere in 2016, leading to a simultaneous PC/Xbox release of most first-party games, and the creation the following year of Game Pass, a service – which has become famous – which allows subscribers to access an unlimited catalog of games for a few euros per month, including first-pary titles on day one. These two strong, even disruptive, decisions had a dual mission: to put the PC back into the gaming equation of the creator of Windows, and to encourage gamers to embrace 100% digital at Microsoft rather than at a competitor.. At the time, the survival of the brand depended on it.

See Xbox Game Pass on Microsoft

Gaming under the microscope

Wishing to accelerate the adoption rate of its Game Pass thanks to regular large-scale content, the American juggernaut has spent lavishly. First by creating The Initiative and buying Compulsion Games, Playground Games, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs in 2018, then by securing the services of Double Fine and InXile in 2019. Like a green ogre, the group then gobbled up Bethesda in 2021 against 8 billion dollars, as well as the publishing giant Activision Blizzard King in 2023 for the tidy sum of 69 billion dollars. The appetite of Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, seems insatiable and nothing seems to be able to resist his desire for grandeur, not even market regulators. Nevertheless, these investments mean that gaming is more scrutinized by the group, especially now that the turnover of this segment exceeds that of Windows.

One-way

I must admit, I thought at one point that the acquisitions of Bethesda and especially Activision Blizzard would protect Xbox from any rumor suggesting an exit from the market, or an abandonment of consoles, and that Microsoft would take advantage of this striking power to make its home console an increasingly irresistible piece of hardware, even if the slope to climb would be steep. Not so long ago, our dear 87 listed the many advantages of exclusives. At the risk of stating the obvious, healthy competition between the three manufacturers is beneficial for everyone. If Microsoft is the only manufacturer to port several of its software to PS5 and Switch, this would only expose a one-way relationship which would not be healthy, since it would accentuate the imbalance already observed. Although we don’t have the end of the story yet – will we really have it on Thursday? – the future of Xbox seems to be open. With the good and bad consequences that this could cause.

As it stands, Phil Spencer and his teams must ensure regular revenues with the models in place while launching several lines in the hope that at least one will bite, in an unpredictable market. The American company is trying to move certain lines in order to get back into the race in its own way. As the underlines Derek Strickland of TweakTown, the problem with Spencer’s current strategy is that the brand continues to promote a future that doesn’t yet exist and that it can’t predict. In other words, it is very difficult to know, even for Microsoft today, whether porting first-party games to other machines will actually have the desired effect. In 2020, I wrote that exclusives were essential to the success of manufacturers. My opinion has not changed in 2024, although the most popular works are multiplatform.

Always higher, stronger, faster

We regularly heard those responsible for the brand declare that they wanted to release games on “consoles”, PC, mobile and Cloud. I assumed that the word “consoles” only qualified Xbox machines. Perhaps wrongly. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, recently said he wants to be a good publisher on “Sony, Nintendo, PC and Xbox machines” now that the acquisition of Activision has been validated. During the trial against the FTC, he also explained that “if it was up to him“, “he would like to get rid of all console exclusives”, before specifying that it was Sony which forced them to act in this way. “It’s not my place to choose, especially as a low market share player in the console world, while the dominant player has defined the industry competition with exclusives” he added, before concluding: “This is the world we live in, and I don’t like this world”. His words ring louder today.

As early as 2020, Phil Spencer said he wanted to fight against giants such as Google rather than fighting against Sony or Nintendo. Today, the current market leader is none other than the Chinese behemoth Tencent. Last summer, we discovered that Satya Nadella wanted Microsoft to become “the industry leader in revenue generated in 2030”. Has he determined that this ambition could only be achieved by using the console fleets of Sony and Nintendo, at a time when Cloud gaming seems to be having difficulty taking off and where we have been waiting for two years for the figures updated Game Pass subscribers?

No one wants a world where the Xbox console is worthless, not even you

Releasing more Xbox exclusives on other platforms will increase the American company’s profits in the short term, without really knowing what this will bring in the long term. Why buy a console whose games are released everywhere else? This question could do a lot of harm to Xbox consoles in the future in the event of a more multiplatform shift. What I fear is that the arrival of more first-party titles on Sony and Nintendo machines could lead to the disappearance of Xbox consoles, whatever the Redmond company tells us to reassure us.

Sold at a loss, Xboxes are not profitable, and they especially seem interesting today for Microsoft because they remain a preferred entry point for Game Pass subscribers. That being said, the dangerously slowing sales, as noted in the quarterly reports, worry me. With the deaths of HoloLens, Microsoft Band, Mixer, Zune, Surface Duo/Neo and even Windows Phone, the American company has the sad reputation of killing products in which it has invested millions, even billions. In fact, Xbox consoles are almost an exception in all the brand’s hardware lost in action.

If Microsoft ultimately withdraws from the console market, those who have invested hundreds (or thousands) of euros in their digital game library risk losing access to these titles. In addition, Sony would then find itself the sole representative of the home console market.premium”, which would be good for no one, neither for the developers, nor for historical fans of the Japanese brand. The manufacturer could increase its prices and strengthen its negotiations without fearing a leak to the direct competitor, while avoiding taking creative risks. I understand that the installed base of PS5 must be too important for the Redmond firm, in search of better profits following its check for 69 billion dollars, to decide to ignore it… but it would be regrettable to make decisions that could lasting damage to the brand without letting the Activision takeover bear fruit. No ?

What is unfortunate, in my opinion, is that this policy of “large opening” could come at a time when Sony has something to prove again, the Japanese brand having difficulty presenting large-scale first parties since it planned significant investments in service games. Strategically, I would find it regrettable that Microsoft could become one of Sony’s best supporters in 2024/2025 if the policy of abandoning certain exclusives is confirmed. Satya Nadella had urged the court to let Microsoft become a real competitor to Sony by authorizing the acquisition of Activision. It was only a few months ago…

Spencer assured him here And there, exclusives are the key to the success of a console. On Thursday February 15 at 9 p.m. we will see if the CEO of Microsoft Gaming will sell us some “Xbox Everywhere” in all sauces or if he will find a way to reassure Xbox owners. “When everyone plays, everyone wins” say again for several years the brand with the big “X” in his publications. From my point of view, if Microsoft lets go of its exclusives, the short-term winner will surely be the American manufacturer, but players of all stripes will ultimately be the big losers. Xbox gamers, first of all, if the console becomes insignificant. PlayStation players, next, if Sony feels too confident.