Starfield Will Be The "Starting Gun" For More Xbox First-Party Releases

23.08.2023 - 23:07 / thegamer.com / Jerret West / Will

Xbox fans will be well aware that arguably this generation's biggest first-party exclusive is just around the corner. Starfield launches in just a couple of weeks, hopefully bringing to an end a rather disastrous dry spell for the platform that has been sprinkled with disappointing releases such as Redfall. It's no secret that Xbox has been struggling with first-party exclusives in comparison to PlayStation and Nintendo, but those at Xbox believe Starfield is the "starting gun" for a long period of regular releases over the next couple of years.

Speaking with gamesindustry.biz, Xbox chief marketing officer Jerret West has described the launch of Starfield as the beginning of "a multi-year relay race of first-party titles", in which different studios will metaphorically hand the baton to each other to get exclusives titles out of the door at a regular pace throughout the rest of this year, and even going into 2024 and 2025.

Related: Baldur's Gate 3 Has Given Starfield So Much More To Prove

"This is, in my mind, the doorway, almost like a starting gun, to what I think is going to be a multi-year relay race of first-party titles," says West.

"I was sitting there watching the same [Starfield presentation] you were this morning and I was like… this is really the start of something that's going to then lead to Forza, then in 2024 as we go to Hellblade, and we think about Towerborne which is on the show floor, we think about Avowed, and we've got stories we haven't told yet as well, that are going to unfurl in 2024 and 2025."

Even the most ardent Xbox fans out there has to admit that it's been lagging behind is biggest rival for PlayStation for a while now, something that was admitted by Xbox itself during the recent court battle agains the FTC. Despite buying up studios and announcing all sorts of interesting and promising projects, we've been given barley any updates on the development on so many, including Fable, The Outer Worlds 2, Avowed, Perfect Dark, and many more.

Of course, all of these games have to be released at some point, and it sounds like Xbox has plans to ensure a barren year like 2022 doesn't happen again until at least 2026. That should excite all of you Xbox skeptics just a little bit more time to prove that this current generation isn't another complete bust. We still have Starfield to get out of the way before we can look to the future of the platform properly though, and hopefully Bethesda and Xbox will knock it out of the park and give the platform the premium exclusive title that it desperately needs.

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