It has been a very trying week for the team at Xbox, one would imagine. From rumors about games going elsewhere too concern about future viability of the Xbox brand, answers were needed.
Phil Spencer and the Xbox team announced last week of this writing a business event to clear up confusion. As of this writing, the Xbox Podcast addressing the rumors and concerns came out. But do they give answers many asked for, or just create more questions?
Spreading the Wealth – Exclusivity ‘Answered’
The first topic of discussion was exclusivity and thankfully, Phil Spencer gave an answer on the topic. From his own words:
So we made the decision we are going to take four games to the other consoles – just four games, not a change to our kind fundamental exclusive strategy. We’re making these decisions for some specific reasons. We make every decision, really, with the long-term health of Xbox in mind. And long-term growth for Xbox means a growing platform, our games performing, building the best platform for creators, reaching as many players as we can. We’re always looking to learn as a leadership team and to grow. And we think this is an interesting point in time for us to use for some what of the other platforms have right now to grow our franchises.
Phil did not say which games are coming to other platforms, but the Verge claim’s that those games will be Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment, with Sea of Thieves and Grounded following suit. My core question is… why didn’t Phil mention those very games? His reasoning for not naming the games are;
I’m not going to name those games. The teams that are building those games have announced plans not too far away. As we know, game teams put a lot of energy into announcement with the partners. We don’t want to take away anything from those teams.
Missing Answers
I can respect Phil and team Xbox for wanting the developers to share when they are ready. But I also look at this cynically for specific reasons.
It takes the backlash off Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond and Matt Booty, and puts it blatantly on Rare, Tango Gameworks and Obsidian respectively. Meanwhile it doesn’t settle the concerns of many Xbox players who wanted clear information on the future of their games.
Confirming or denying the rampant rumors should’ve been the first thing done for this Business Event, but only half-answers were given. The question about Starfield and Indiana Jones & The Great Circle followed suit and Phil gave a firm no on the question. However, in an interview with the Verge, he said this answer when asked if more games were on the way to PlayStation and the Nintendo Switch:
Yeah, but we haven’t seen that yet. We’re obviously one of the biggest publishers on PlayStation and Nintendo today, when you think about the Activision Blizzard and Bethesda lineup of games. So we know what it means to ship games on Steam, PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox.
These are games that originally launched on Xbox. They were Xbox-branded games and we want to see what happens, because going and doing the development work to bring them to new platforms is real work. We want to make sure that the return makes sense. We want to make sure the audience that’s there has an appetite, maybe they don’t.
What this tells me, is that more multiplatform games are very firmly on the table. They just don’t want to disclose them until earning metrics with this first wave of releases.
As someone who commented on this approach before rumors started getting out of hand, pillar Xbox IP coming to PlayStation and Switch, like Halo and Gears of War, should be avoided.
Activision-Blizzard on Game Pass
It finally happened. Coinciding with the upcoming expansion for Diablo 4 later in the year, the game is finally coming to certain tiers of Game Pass. Statement via Xbox Wire goes as follows:
There will be even more to play as we begin to fulfill our commitment to offer Activision and Blizzard games with Game Pass, both new releases and classic games from its legendary catalog. We’re happy to share that Diablo IV will be available to play by the 34 million Game Pass subscribers on both PC and Xbox consoles beginning March 28! This is only the start of Xbox players being able to enjoy Activision and Blizzard games on Game Pass – we look forward to sharing more soon.
While it is fantastic news seeing ABK games coming to the service, their wording is a little misleading. Not all 34 million of those Game Pass subscribes will have access to Diablo 4, only Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate players will. Game Pass Core will not be getting the game. I say this because those Game Pass numbers, not unlike the PlayStation Plus numbers from 2023, roll in all tiers of the service into the overall number.
It also shows a key difference in how Microsoft is handling the ABK content compared to when they acquired Bethesda, where a large wave of games from the publisher entered Game Pass not long after the announcement of the acquisition. What will the future games from ABK be? Will the rumored 2024 Call of Duty game come day one to the service?
No answers were given about either question, bizarrely.
Xbox Has a Future
Day One Game Pass will continue to exist, and the service will be on console, exclusively, for Xbox platforms. They also made a promise of future hardware, coming as early as later this year.
We’ve got more to come. There’s some exciting stuff coming out in hardware that we’re going to share this holiday. We’re also invested in the next-generation roadmap. What we’re really focused on there is delivering the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation, which makes it better for players and better for creators and the visions that they’re building.
This puts many fears to rest regarding the future of many Xbox players vast digital libraries and ensures owning an Xbox, both now and in the future, has value.
Muddied Waters at Xbox
They did clear up the air on some major concerns, make no mistake. But they could have been more transparent.
Why not name the four games coming in the future? Why say on the podcast specific games won’t be coming over but say elsewhere “we can’t promise that for sure”? And why even cause the minor confusing with Diablo 4‘s inclusion into the service in the first place?
It may sound like I am nitpicking. But this continues the Xbox team talking out of both sides of their mouths. When you have a platform to make it crystal clear to your base, a loyal one that earnestly asked for answers, you choose to continue with these half-truths? It’s disappointing.
