Xbox will 'respect the investments that people have made' and encourage backward compatibility in the future

For the best part of this generation, Sony’s been pressured by a vocal part of the gaming community to borrow Xbox Game Pass’ unproven business model with PS Plus. The platform holder eventually decided to take a half-step, merging PS Now with its existing subscription but resisting the urge to add day one first-party software to the service. It’s described this strategy as unsustainable.

Microsoft will bring four first-party titles to PS5, but it’s refusing to name which. Said titles will not include Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which will remain exclusive to Xbox and PC, until circumstances change. Xbox bigwig Phil Spencer, however, has seen the success of Helldivers 2 – and is struggling to see the advantage of the PlayStation-published shooter not being available on Xbox.

Microsoft shared new details about its plans for Xbox hardware, teasing the next generation of Xbox consoles and providing updates about its gaming business in a special edition of the Official Xbox Podcast Thursday. While the company confirmed that four Xbox-exclusive games would launch on PS5 and Nintendo Switch, it reiterated its commitment to developing Xbox hardware and exclusives titles on the platform. In the podcast, Xbox president Sarah Bond said that Microsoft was focussed on delivering the “largest technical leap” for a new console generation for the next Xbox.

The last 10-days-or-so have been quite the roller coaster for Xbox fans. Team Green was thrown into turmoil earlier this month by rumors that everything from Starfield, to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, to even Gears of War may be going multiplatform. Granted, some of those rumors were later walked back, but still, the spectre of a third-party future for Xbox was raised.

As part of a 'business update' confirming four first-party Xbox exclusives are coming to PlayStation 5 and Switch, Microsoft has moved to assuage fan fears it might be considering abandoning the console market, saying it's planning a new Xbox that will deliver «the largest technical leap...ever seen in a hardware generation.»

If it weren’t enough that Microsoft detailed its plans for bringing first-party titles to other platforms (which doesn’t include Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle), it also discussed its next-gen hardware. Xbox president Sarah Bond promised the “largest technical leap” in a hardware generation.

Xbox's Phil Spencer has confirmed that two major Bethesda titles, Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, will not be going multiplatform. The announcement comes after recent rumors that the Xbox titles would be released on competing consoles.

Xbox has put worrying rumors to rest by teasing fans about its future hardware plans. Reliable insiders and leakers recently caused a bit of an uproar when it was suggested that Xbox could be going completely multi-platform. Head of Xbox Phil Spencer promised to address the issues in an Xbox Business Update stream, which was released to the public on February 15.

During today's highly anticipated Xbox Podcast, Microsoft confirmed that while four Xbox games are going to other platforms, big titles like Starfield and Indiana Jones are remaining exclusive for now. Nevertheless, Xbox boss Phil Spencer believes that exclusive games are going to become much less important in the industry over the next decade.

Seemingly speaking to Xbox devotees worried by rumors that the core platform is getting thinner, Microsoft Gaming boss Phil Spencer has committed to future hardware generations that "respect the investments that people have made in Xbox." 

So, to say that the Xbox event that dropped today was “eventful” might be a bit of an overstatement for various reasons. One of those reasons is that nothing significant was truly revealed on the gaming side, and despite all sorts of “the sky is falling” statements about Microsoft going third-party, it didn’t happen. All Microsoft stated was that they wanted to “test the waters” by having certain titles go multi-platform despite being exclusive in the past, which is something numerous titles have done across several publishers. However, lost within that indecisiveness was a small glimmer of information that highlights the future of the company’s console brand.

Microsoft will release four games for rival platforms, two of which are service-based and the other two “smaller games that were never really meant to be built as kind of platform exclusives,” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in a business updated-focused edition of the Official Xbox Podcast.