The Sea of Thieves PS5 version will be a crucial test for other former Xbox exclusives coming to rival platforms, according to outlet The Verge.
26.03.2024 - 20:19 / videogameschronicle.com / Phil Spencer / Tom Ivan
Xbox’s new exclusivity strategy has partly been shaped by research into Gen Z consumer behaviour, according to Microsoft’s head of gaming.
Through its acquisition of multiplatform blockbusters like Minecraft and Call of Duty over the years, Xbox is already a major publisher on PlayStation and Nintendo consoles.
But in February, Microsoft delivered an Xbox business update which confirmed plans to bring more first-party games to rival platforms, initially in the form of Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves and Grounded.
Discussing this strategy shift in an interview with Polygon, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said ballooning development budgets were making exclusives harder to justify.
He said it can cost “$300 million to build a video game” these days and “[the case for] exclusivity gets pressured as the cost of the game goes up.”
Spencer also said a bid to stay relevant with younger consumers was contributing to the decision to make more Xbox games available on as many platforms as possible.
“This notion that Xbox can only be this one device that plugs into a television isn’t something we see in the Gen Z research. Because nothing else is like that for them,” he said.
“Some of them will have an iPhone, some will have an Android, but all the games and everything is the same. I can still get to TikTok on both of them, at least for now.
“All of their stuff is available wherever they want. So for Xbox, our brand pivot — as we attract and maintain relevance with a younger audience — is ‘Xbox is a place where I can find the great games I want to.’”
Xbox has also reportedly weighed up the idea of releasing Gears of War, Microsoft Flight Simulator, the next Doom game, Starfield and Indiana Jones for rival consoles, and Spencer recently said he wouldn’t ever want to rule out any game going to another platform.
“I know sometimes things get weaponized, that there’s some evil in the background that’s making us do things–‘Phil hates exclusives and that’s why we’re like PlayStation and Switch now,’ Spencer told Polygon.
“Every decision we make is to make Xbox stronger in the long run. It doesn’t mean everyone’s going to agree with every decision we make. But it is fundamental for how we make decisions.”
The Sea of Thieves PS5 version will be a crucial test for other former Xbox exclusives coming to rival platforms, according to outlet The Verge.
While the name Kareem Choudhry may not be as well-known as, say, Phil Spencer or Matt Booty, Xbox fans who keep abreast with the company’s announcements and showcases are likely to be familiar with his face. As corporate vice president of emerging technologies at Xbox, Choudhry was in charge of a lot of the more innovative things Microsoft’s gaming division offered in recent years, including backward compatibility and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
The early months of 2024 have seen Microsoft stepping up its efforts to bring its first-party Xbox titles to audiences on rival platforms, with Hi-Fi Rush having released for PS5 and Obsidian duo Pentiment and Grounded both having launched for PS5 and Switch. Sea of Thieves arrives for PS5 later this month, and though Microsoft hasn’t officially announced further plans to bring any other of its games to rival consoles beyond that, reports continue to insist that there’s more stuff in the pipeline.
Hi-Fi Rush was recently released on PlayStation 5, where an analysis identified the game to be running slightly better than on Xbox. Despite being a first-party Xbox title, Hi-Fi Rush continues a trend of such releases either performing worse or lacking features on Xbox Series X when compared to the PS5 launch.
Artificial intelligence and its uses in games remained a hot topic in the industry during the Game Developers Conference in March. And while some studios were touting AI-generated NPCs or AI-driven level creation, Warcraft franchise director John Hight was a bit more conservative.
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