A year ago, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer hinted at four Xbox-exclusive games headed to rival consoles like PlayStation and Nintendo. At the time, and as a way of testing the waters, Xbox hadn’t yet announced any plans to change its exclusivity strategy. However, on a recent episode of the Gamertag Radio podcast, he seems to have a change of tune. Sharing his thoughts on the Xbox brand and its games, Spencer hints that Xbox exclusivity as a whole may be a thing of the past.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, previously a timed console exclusive, now has a PlayStation release date of Spring 2025. Moreover, this week’s Xbox Developer Direct showcased four upcoming titles, of which three already had PlayStation 5 as an available platform upon release.
Gamertag Radio host Parris Lilly touches on this subject during the episode. Asking, “…You’ve also talked over the past year or so about more open platforms, as an example, you know, no red lines with some of your portfolio, things like that. In your interpretation, so, it’s coming from your words, what does that mean now for Xbox as you head into the future?”
“I want people to be able to experience the games that we build, the services that we offer, on as many devices as we can,” Phil responds. “The thing that I’ve learned and continue to learn when I listen to creators, not only our own studios but other teams building games, is every creator out there wants to build a game that can find as many players as they want.”
“It’s really game first, not platform first,” says Microsoft Gaming’s Phil Spencer
While Microsoft has been trying to expand its games to multiple devices for years, its newest ad campaign makes it abundantly clear. Last November, Microsoft launched the “This Is An Xbox” marketing push, showcasing a variety of devices able to play Xbox games.
“We’re not gonna put walls up around where people can engage with the great games our studios are building or where they can experience Xbox through different forms. Whether it’s Cloud, whether it’s on PC, whether it’s on handheld PCs, whether it’s on phones. I want everybody to be able to play on Xbox,” says Spencer.
Parris leads with a follow-up question we’re all wondering: “You’re putting all these games on these other platforms – why would I still want an Xbox? What is going to be the reason for me to want Xbox hardware when I can get that experience on another platform?” To that end, Phil Spencer wants gamers to pick hardware based on their preferences and the capabilities they want. “I think the difference that we’ve seen in the last 20 years, and I think this is good because I come from building games, is it’s really game first, not platform first.”
Other publishers, like Square Enix, have also announced plans to drop console exclusivity for future games. Could this mean we’ll possibly see an Elder Scrolls 6 release on PlayStation on day one? We’ll see. Fingers crossed that Nintendo takes a page out of Spencer’s playbook.
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