Four Xbox games soon available on other consoles?
Xbox, the video game entity of American giant Microsoft, announced Thursday that some of its previously exclusive games would be opened up to other platforms.
A major strategic change to allow it to compete more with its major Japanese rivals Sony and Nintendo.
“These are games that have been available to Xbox players for at least a year, including some little-known gems that deserve to be released more widely,” writes Xbox on X.
“We believe that the time has come for us to use what other platforms offer to grow our franchises”, that is to say video games developed exclusively for Xbox initially, explained the boss of Xbox Phil Spencer during an online presentation.
“I strongly believe that within five to ten years, media-exclusive games will represent a smaller and smaller part of the industry,” he added.
Today, we continue our commitment to continue growing our community.
We are preparing to port 4 Xbox games to other platforms.
These are games that have been available to Xbox players for at least a year, including some little-known gems that deserve…
— Xbox FR (@XboxFR) February 15, 2024
But Xbox is starting cautiously, since it will only make four of its games accessible to the competition initially.
“We are not promising anything beyond these four games,” warned Phil Spencer.
“So if you're on another platform and you see them coming, don't take it as a signal that everyone else is going to follow.”
According to the information site The Verge, specializing in tech, these would be the Xbox games “Hi-Fi Rush”, “Pentiment”, “Sea of Thieves” and “Grounded”.
However, none of them are blockbusters.
This announcement caused some disappointment.
Many had hoped that Xbox would open up its catalog of exclusives, which includes big hits like “Halo,” “Indiana Jones” and “Starfield.”
“Why did Xbox wait a week and leave its entire community on the verge of collapse, if the only thing worth reporting was that four small titles were going cross-platform?
», Reacted a member of a forum on Reddit dedicated to Phil Spencer's podcast.
“It’s a major change,” however assured another, believing that it was only the beginning.
Strong competition from Sony and Nintendo
The announcement comes as the Xbox still suffers from competition with Sony's PlayStation 5 (PS5) console.
According to the Ampere firm, sales of Microsoft's console fell by 15% last year, when those of PS5 jumped by 65%, Sony selling triple the volumes of its competitor.
Beyond consoles, Microsoft is counting on the purchase of games and updates online to boost its activity in the sector.
The American group also wants to boost its sales in video games after the finalization last October of its giant acquisition ($69 billion) of the game publisher Activision Blizzard, which has several huge multiplatform successes in its portfolio, such as “Call of Duty” and “Candy Crush”.
“The development of video games is increasingly expensive, so if you make them accessible to more platforms you increase their profitability,” reminds AFP Serkan Toto, head of the specialist research firm Kantan Games in Japan.
VIDEO.
Palworld, the new record-breaking 'Pokémon with guns', accused of plagiarism
After its costly acquisition of Activision, Xbox is "under pressure" to find new ways to accelerate its sales, further underlines this expert who, beyond the "trial balloon" announced Thursday, expects to see " many more Xbox games on other platforms in the future.”
Could its big rivals Sony and Nintendo be tempted to do the same?
Nothing is less certain, according to Serkan Toto.
Even if sales of the PlayStation 5 are starting to run out of steam, "I don't think Sony is under pressure to bring its exclusive games to Microsoft," he said.
Especially since in a way, Sony is already in a multiplatform model: several of its titles are playable on PC and the group wants to extend its offering in this segment.
For its part, Nintendo “will never give up its exclusive games” because they are “absolutely essential” for its identity, underlines Mr. Toto.
“So you can forget about the idea of one day seeing Mario or Pokémon games on PC or PlayStation, for example.”