Xbox Boss: We'll See Less Platform Exclusive Games In The Future

It would be dumb to not put call of duty on a system with 117 million users with a high percentage of them only playing & purchasing that game ever year religiously.

I sure hope there'll be fewer exclusives in the future. Consoles these days are so similar in architecture and capabilities that really there's no reason why 99% of games can't be played on any platform, and allow for cross play as well.

Though maybe they should put their money where their mouth is, and start releasing more of their games on PlayStation then?

No duh. The move toward multiplatform game development has continued unabated since seventh gen. Even series that long remained exclusives on Sony platforms are now on Xbox, PC, and Switch. Meanwhile, both Xbox and Sony are all in on PC game development.

The biggest obstacle toward a multiplatform future is honestly Microsoft at this point. If they really don't think games should be locked to specific platforms, then they should allow games from Bethesda and related studios onto Playstation.

@Warriooh It would be a mistake splitting up the community of Call of Duty gamers by omitting a 'platform' where a lot of that community play.

However, dropping Playstation isn't that 'big' a deal if they can 'grow' their communities on other platforms. There are supposedly over 3bn gamers in the world and the Playstation ONLY gamers equate to a 'small' percentage.

Now MS has the Cloud platform, they can reach many more gamers than they could/would without. Games like CoD for example don't get released on mobiles (not the mainline CoD), tablets, Smart TV's or any other platform that cannot run the game natively - so you automatically 'split' the community with 'every' new release. Those still on the 'older' games who cannot afford to buy the 'new' CoD, maybe have to wait for Christmas, birthdays etc, those on 'Last gen' hardware and can't afford/find a next gen console...

If they lost the '20m' or so PS gamers that buy CoD, they could 'replace' those and more by all those people that could now play via Cloud.

MS is also 'multi-platform' and their games are all on more than just the Console. Exclusives will still 'exist' but it won't be limited to a Single hardware platform - it will be playable on MANY platforms, just Exclusive to the MS ecosystem - and I'm sure Sony will go the same route in the future too.

You have the potential to reach 'every' gamer with the cloud and reach any platform.

Microsoft have been investing heavily in studios/IP and network/cloud infrastructure, and these will probably prove wise investments in the future when people start to question why they need to keep buying expensive new boxes to sit in the living room when they have a super fast/low latency network available. At that point the battle won't be about console manufacturers and exclusives. I don't mean right away of course, home consoles have life left in them yet, but there will surely come a time. We've already seen a rapid move towards games as a service and the freemium model, things which not so long ago didn't even exist in the console world.

@FraserG That's the way i see it Frasier. It's 2022, limiting games to 1 device is simply stagnating your audience at that point. The total number of consoles players between the big 3 has barely grown in the last decade, it's simply the same people buying a variation of the 3 consoles over a lifetime over and over. Adding to PC and cloud is going to be the future to reach a wide array of audiences going forward. Evolution is coming and whether it's slower or faster everyone will go down that road at some point. Accessibility is the key.

Even fewer exclusives than now? Well then, just create a console together with Sony, call it Playbox and create one common subscription service, say Game Pass Plus Premium Deluxe and you've got a winner for next gen.

We're already seeing less platform exclusive games in the present mate

One console, all games
It will come one day

i've BEEN saying this. the economics of game development make it harder to justify not selling your games to as many people as possible. i expect, literally by the end of this generation, to see an "exclusive" be a game that stays on its home platform for a year, MAYBE two, before being ported everywhere. despite how much money Sony has made off the IP, how much money are they leaving on the table by not letting everyone play Spider-Man? Exclusives serve no one but the fanboys...and to hell with them lol

Well when you dont release any games Phil, You kinda dont get any exclusive games.

All them studios all that Money and still struggling to manage 2 games a year. lol And i thought Nintendo was bad.

@PhileasFragg They need to start releasing their games full stop first...

Like it or not, gaming definitely seems to be heading in the service direction — a handful of distributors made avaialable on a wide variety of hardware platforms.

@Dezzy70 you best hope that day never comes. Can't think of anything worse. £90 games ftw! £600 consoles...yes please. £100 controllers...take my money!

It's more likely subscription services will make consoles redundant than there ever being just one console needed to go to.
And subscription services will have more exclusives than ever before. So if Phil is suggesting exclusives are going to be a thing of the past he's talking nonsense again...and the timing is spot on for such nonsense.

"Phil Spencer has been talking to Bloomberg today in a new interview, and as part of it, he mentioned that he believes there will be "less and less" platform exclusive games as we move into the future."

And thank fuc*k for that. As someone who's main platform is Xbox I'm hopeful he actually means it since I don't give a flying fudge about it. No doubt the Sony defence force will completely rip apart Jim Rayan if he ever dared to say something similar 😂.

I know some people will go into anti-Phil frothing at the mouth mode about this, but what he's saying isn't particularly a revelation. It's obvious. Proprietary walled garden consoles are an outdated concept stuck from when each one was a totally unique architecture that could run completely different types of games from the others. Business models formed around that, and old players in those models depend on those models for their financial goals if they can help having to change it.

Today, each generation consoles just become slightly custom PCs. Xbox may have more horsepower, PS may have faster or easier memory addressing. A few optimizations here and there can make something work differently on one or the other. Ultimately they're both little more than differently designed low power graphics-specialized gaming laptops in pretty shells. The only value to either company of keeping "exclusive" proprietary systems has nothing to do with the consoles or games and has everything to do with their digital storefronts. That's it. The money comes from licensing and storefronts. Fighting over "install base" is otherwise defeating for all of them. And the best example of the "future" is Fortnite, unsurprisingly, the biggest, most profitable game, and it's the same game wither you play on PS5, Xbox, iPhone, a MotoG, a Switch, or streamed on a smart TV.

MS is lining themselves up as both a mega multiplat publisher, and as a platform vendor and storefront. Sony is updating more slowly, still tied to that hardware/software retail model, but they're slowly but surely breaking out of their shell. PC for now. And I'm sure they're watching their timed exclusives like Ghostwire/Deathloop, and Forespoken to see when/if they cross to XB how sales perform ,etc, and considering what a future of HFW and Spidey could look like and running numbers on the cost-benefit of such a change. Eventually they'll hit a tipping point, no doubt.

Jim "The Accountant" Ryan may be gross, but he knows how to make money, and the day the numbers show that going multiplat is more profitable than trying to drive a walled garden, that's where they'll go. And I'm pretty sure Phil's basically alluding to that here. As soon as a "platform" (and MS is banking on making theirs the largest) can garner more money than the walled garden yields, Sony and Nintendo will eventually move in that direction if they want to please shareholders.

The "console war" always assumes all 3 have the same goal with the same angle.... But all 3 seem to have totally different angles and goals for what their real core profit line is intended to be. Their only goal is money. And whatever route yields the most money is the direction they'll go.

@gollumb82 If Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony could all create a console together, and it could undock, it would have to be called the PlayBoy S | X

@Bleachedsmiles I'm pretty convinced 90/600/100 is the pricing for the next closed console generation. You'll have to shoot higher for a monopoly. What's an Alienware running for these days?

@Bleachedsmiles
Not sure maybe Phil means more console games going onto PC and Cloud like Xbox and now Sony are doing.
Nintendo will be the last to do anything like that.

@FraserG yeah course he is...Xbox brand has already broken away from the console. He wants gamepass on everything. Gamepass' needs exclusives...gamepass will get plenty of exclusives. But gamepass won't be exclusive to Xbox console...it already isn't.
It will be interesting to see at the end of this gen, when gamepass is an app to download on your TV...if games like deathstranding will be available on it...or if they break up gamepass further - if gamepass cloud edition has games that aren't available on Xbox and pc...or less games etc...if there's a PlayStation gamepass edition...

One thing's for sure, they'd leave the Xbox console behind in a heart beat if they could.

@NEStalgia If there's a next console generation...next Xbox generation console (not a half step)...I can't say I'd be confident in saying that's a cert

What annoys me about Phil is when he talks about the whole 'reduce friction and allow people to play with their friends'...and all the 'inclusivity' nonsense we get from him...not once does he ever address the archaic paywall Xbox place on their customers with MP - something that directly places obstacles playing these cross platform games...and something that makes the whole notion of 'inclusivity' hot air.
I just wish instead of constantly pandering to the audience he'd actually show us he's removing barriers ...rather than just talking about it to win some limp applause from rhe most gullible.

Also, release some damn games before moving the discussion as to whether they should be exclusive or not. Like me deciding if I should do heroin today when I've no heroin or access to heroin. Lets have the conversation once I'm an addict FFS.

These questions are no longer viable questions to ask, the questions should be about the PlayStation and Microsoft ecosystem, right now multiplatform includes PC/Streaming etc etc.

@Bleachedsmiles Heh, I hear you, but I'm pretty certain there's a next gen.....I'm not certain there's one after that, though. And I'm actually more certain there's a Series Z than I am that there's a PS6. For MS it's just "Microsoft Game Surface (2028 Version)", even if it's nothing but a square SurfaceBook Pro minus screen and keyboard. A power optimized PC to run Windows 11 and DirectX games from the Windows Store.

PS6.....we'll seen what happens over the next 6 years. I have, like , 70% confidence it will exist.

@NEStalgia see I'm more confident on there being a PlayStation 6. The consoles make Sony so much money...the ps5 will make Sony a lot of money (though I'll be surprised if it's as success as the PS4 was). I can't imagine PlayStation ever being reduced to an app....where as I can easily see Xbox being nothing but an app in 7-10 years time. I can definitely see gamepass being more on a PlayStation console than I can see ps extra/premium being on an Xbox console anyway

I do wish Xbox would have more hardware though - particularly a VR headset. I really think VR gaming needs MS to come into the market for some proper growth.

That's loser talk...sometimes xbox being nice is not the way....That dumb quote when we all play we all win....dude Playstation is #1 because they haven't been nice or put their better exclusives on their competitors console. this happy gamer woke bs we all play we all win stank.

@Bleachedsmiles Yeah I see it the other way, so many talk about "Game Pass is the platform, MS won't make consoles in the future", which I don't see. Game Pass is a fraction of the library, the real product is the Windows Store (just as the PS Store is Sony's and Steam is Valves, and EGS is Epic's.) For MS I think it's really about "PC"...I mean it was always about PC, Xbox exists to secure DirectX and dev dependence on Windows, and today I think it's still really about their footprint in the "PC game" launcher business, console or not. So for them even if the next "console" is just a branded PC from within the Surface family (named or not) with a custom launcher/interface/experience, one way or another there will be a packaged game-playing-box from Microsoft, probably called an "Xbox." Considering even Valve has one now, I think that's a guarantee. Streaming-only will still miss too much market over the next 10-15 years to go all in quite yet.

PS, though, I think their business strategy is going to become something totally different over the next 5 years. They've already started pulling the cover off that with the services push and the PC push. I think there's a chance they could shift over to publishing more in that time, but only a 30% chance. For Sony, they're not the Walkman/Betamax company they were when PS came out anymore focused on set top boxes. I see them more interested in their film studio model, long term.

I think PS would be VERY shaky as an app. Their history with platforms is, frankly, abysmal. However, I also think as the costs for hardware go up, and/or losses get higher, and at the end of the day all they have is a semi-custom PC in a world shifting to cloud....I'm not sure they're going to see much reason to make the consoles anymore when their real business is built around their publishing and deal making, like with Sony Pictures/Columbia/Tristar.

I think I'd put money down that the future of Xbox is basically a convenient, packaged, cost-friendly PC ecosystem. I mean...it's Microsoft, that's kind of an obvious end game. And plays right into their competitors (apple/google/steam) lane. PS.... I think it's very clear their future doesn't look like their past past one more generation at most. But I'm not quite clear on exactly what their future does look like. I'm not sure they're clear on it either yet.

@NEStalgia xbox already saw this future years ago, thats why theyve been building this structure for so many years. hell, jim ryan already told ps gamers they werent enough and flipped on the "generations" talk. they will slowly adopt the ms model as they already have. they see where the industry is going. question is, do they wanna be blockbuster or netflix.

I don't need my games to be exclusive, I just need them to be fun, and to be on hardware that fits my needs.

@NEStalgia Saying that "Game Pass is the platform" would be like saying "MS Office is the platform" they just aren't. Xbox/Windows are the platforms. Game Pass/Office are a service. Xbox consoles/Surface are the hardware. All can exist more or less independently of each other.

@Widey85 As long as Microsoft is able to snap up gigantic third-party publishers and make their catalogue mostly exclusive to PC and Xbox, they're obviously a much bigger threat to widespread game availability than Sony and their habit of locking down certain big releases with timed exclusivity deals.

Which is my issue. I'm not saying Microsoft should have to put games from companies they bought on rival platforms. But it's ridiculous to virtue signal to the press about how you think people on different platforms should all have access to games (as Spencer frequently has), and then lock up gigantic, financially successful third-party publishers in your own ecosystem.

@J_Mo_Money The way Netflix earnings have been going, is there a third option to that choice?

@Richnj true, though still off the mark a little. I think the argument has been going that "Game Pass" is the Xbox platform, not the console ecosystem, which, I agree with the sentiment that the "hardware coupled software" (to quote Furukawa/Nintendo) isn't Microsoft's business model, but I think people are missing the picture by saying "GP is the actual platform" they're banking on, because it's not, GP is a fraction of the library on offer, that's more just a spearhead and delivery mechanism, not the platform focus. Xbox is Windows + Windows Store, or more pointedly, DirectX + Windows Store. Game Pass is more or less a function of Windows Store under a more marketable banner. GP is a fixed set of a handful of games, and they want to sell you the thousands of games on the store. AND coming soon the ability to stream them over the GP sub (or at least some of them at first), Stadia/GFNow style.

Focusing conversation on "Game Pass" (as is common both from fans and anti-fans) really misses the full picture by a country mile.

@Ralizah Not sure about that. Sony's habit of locking down certain big releases really achieves the same goal for less money and is arguably shrewder/more brutal. When Sony does that, they just skim the cream off the top, guiding the market where they want it by controlling the most powerful titles of any particular publisher's catalogue, using their power and market influence to cement the publisher's signing up for a deal that hands too much of their brand power to Sony alone. Microsoft's deals look "bigger" but instead of just skimming the cream off the top and using it to their advantage, they're absorbing the entire burden of the entire catalogue and operating expenses. Sony buys FF rights, and they can ignore the rest of Square's screw-ups, getting purely the rewards and market power of FF for the low price of a single contract. Microsoft gets Call of Warcraft.....but they also have to absorb the sinkhole of Diablo Immortals, the Destiny debt, and the 15 years of chronic mismanagement. It's too easy to look at "MS buys whole publishers, that's evil, Sony just buys a game here and there" without realizing the cleverness of Sony's tactic of getting ONLY the good things out of a company for themselves, for cheap, never having to take the hit of absorbing the bad and mediocre, and the fact that they can only get away with leveraging that kind of one-sided contract purely due to being the market leader and for no other reason.

@NEStalgia lol i was using netflix as a symbolic statement, not necessarily Netflix themselves, as in blockbuster died when the future went left.

@NEStalgia @Widey85 I'm discussing the long-term availability of games across various platforms, not what's immediately accessible on PS5 vs XSX. Timed exclusivity deals are obviously more impactful short term, while snatching up entire giant publishers and making the majority of new games they develop exclusive to your ecosystem is obviously humongously more impactful long term.

There were ways Microsoft could've countered Sony's deals without triggering an acquisition war that'll likely end up gutting the third-party sector of the industry over time. Things were already trending that way naturally.

One doesn't need to approve of Sony's tactics to see that Microsoft's impact on game availability industry-wide is going to be devastating.

I feel like there's a lot of hemming and hawing around apologia for industry consolidation in Microsoft's favor. If that's your preference, then just own it. But I don't appreciate Microsoft's attempts to gaslight the public about what's very clearly happening.

I've always never understood the exclusivity argument when inclusivity benefits everyone. We also need more Co-Op and multiplayer PVE games.

“Hold my beer”

• Nintendo

@Ralizah The way i picture this, Microsoft is not likely to just say "we will make our games for PS and sit here waiting for Sony to reciprocate", but instead more likely something along the lines of "Dear Sony, so... you want CoD to continue to be on PlayStation... how about we make a mutually beneficial deal?"

so Phil your telling me to get a ps5...since they won't be as inclusive as xbox.
...to this day ps5 is a exclusive game changing king.

I hate it when xbox trys to take the high road...its dumb playstation is curb stomping ur face and xbox response is would you like to play our inclusive games for everyone and their pronouns

Makes sense really, the Xbox business strategy has simply grown beyond the need for exclusivity, I mean they aren't a company that is just trying to sell you game consoles after all. Microsoft has a massive software environment, they are involved in loads of platforms, and their developer catalog has grown beyond the need for it as well. Heck even Sony has lost their exclusivity ways recently with all the PS4 exclusives that hit PC.

Not less, Fewer

Says the boss that only 3 games that are exclusive and arent very good except for Forza.

I get it that ppl dont like them but in imo, exclusives is what gives the console/brand a identity. I get Xbox hasn't been popular in that front as of lately or for the past 10yrs really, Xbox saying gives it less credit. I am definitely supportive of crossplay and such for live services.

If Nintendo said this or Sony I would pay attention.