Xbox Multi-Platform Event Details Leak Ahead of Announcement

15.02.2024 - 13:38 / gamerant.com / Phil Spencer / Sarah Bond / Shannon Liao / Dominik Bo / Nintendo

More details about an internal Microsoft meeting, held in the run-up to its upcoming Xbox multi-platform event, have leaked online. The newly emerged report even includes a description of a peculiar Palworld presentation that the company is said to have held for its employees, which may or may not make it to the public Xbox event scheduled for February 15.

Following a flood of rumors that some first-party Microsoft games are going multiplatform, the group is said to have held an internal townhall meeting on February 6. The gathering reportedly saw the company assure employees that Xbox consoles have a future, according to a recent scoop from journalist Shannon Liao.

Liao has now shared some additional details about the meeting in a new report for Inverse, stating that the internal event saw Microsoft showcase Palworld running on TVs, monitors, tablets, and unspecified handheld consoles. «Every screen is an Xbox,» said Xbox President Sarah Bond, several sources have claimed. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer was also reportedly present at the event, having been the one to offer the aforementioned assurance that the company will continue making Xbox hardware.

Spencer is also said to have suggested that there will be no major changes to the Call of Duty release cycle following Microsoft's blockbuster acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which was concluded in late 2023 to the tune of $68.7 billion. Specifically, the executive reportedly labeled an October 2024 release for the next entry in the popular franchise as a safe assumption. The upcoming Call of Duty game is rumored to be subtitled Black Ops Gulf War and be set during the eponymous '90s conflict.

Every screen is an Xbox.

How much of this newly leaked information will be reiterated during the February 15 gaming «business update» from Microsoft remains to be seen. But the event, which is to take place in the form of an Official Xbox Podcast episode airing at 3pm ET, is widely expected to see the company confirm the rumors of its platform-agnostic publishing push. One recent report has already leaked the alleged Xbox event multi-platform game lineup, which is said to comprise Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, and Sea of Thieves.

And while it's unclear whether the podcast episode—which is likely to be delivered in a video format—will include the aforementioned Palworld demo, that presentation is already said to have caused some joking speculation among Microsoft employees that the company is making a portable console, according to Liao's sources. Phil Spencer himself stoked the rumors of an Xbox handheld console several times throughout February. But even if such a device does exist, it is extremely unlikely to be mentioned at the February 15 event, as recent reports