A reader explains why he thinks Microsoft embracing multiformat publishing with Xbox will only make it harder to compete with PlayStation.
The last 12 months haven’t been great for Xbox. Despite the successful releases of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Indiana Jones And The Great Circle last year, Xbox is struggling. Mass layoffs and studio closures aside, there is a third issue which, for me, has severely reduced my trust in Xbox. Their approach to multiplatform releases.
Console exclusivity is an approach which has been around for decades. For example, Gran Turismo and Fable have remained exclusive to consoles produced by Sony and Microsoft, respectively, since their first release. In recent years, however, this approach has changed. PlayStation has released their first party games on PlayStation 4 and 5 first, before porting them to PC a year or two after launch (to varying success, as recently seen with Spider-Man 2).
Xbox, however, has typically released their first party games on both Xbox One/Xbox Series X/S and PC at launch, with a small handful occasionally releasing on rival platforms (such as Psychonauts 2 and two Minecraft spin-off entries). Now, though, times are changing. Last February, Microsoft Gaming was preparing to go multiplatform. The first four titles were previously first party Xbox exclusives (Hi-Fi Rush, Sea Of Thieves, Grounded, and Pentiment).
Considering these were all original IPs, the response that PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch players would soon be able to play them was mostly positive. But later that year, the scale of Xbox’s multiplatform plans became clearer. Indiana Jones would swing onto PlayStation 5 a few months after its release, despite a previous deal allowing it to remain an Xbox exclusive. Forza Horizon 5 is also revving up for release on PlayStation 5, a first for Microsoft’s flagship racing series.
And that’s before you get to games such as Doom: The Dark Ages and The Outer Worlds 2. Although their predecessors were multiplatform releases, being developed just before Xbox bought their developers, had Microsoft decided to reverse course and prevent a PlayStation 5 or Switch port, there would no doubt be backlash. This strategy is one, I fear, that will not guarantee long term success for Xbox, for two main reasons.
Firstly, won’t these multiplatform releases prevent customers from buying an Xbox in the future? I’m considering upgrading to an Xbox Series X as I write this, yet I have my doubts as to whether I should wait and see what the tenth generation of consoles have to offer. Xbox’s decision to release first party titles such as Forza (and maybe Halo) to rival platforms, even a few years after launch, severely diminishes the overall value of the brand.
PlayStation, meanwhile, has only allowed one first party series to come over to rival platforms: the yearly MLB: The Show, and even then they didn’t directly publish it [They only did that because the MLB insisted on it – GC]. Seeing the Xbox or Bethesda logo on a PlayStation 5 suggests that exclusivity isn’t a priority for Xbox but rather a potential stagnate to profits.
The second issue is one which, I believe, is a direct consequence of Microsoft’s purchases of ZeniMax Media (Bethesda’s parent company) and Activision Blizzard in the last few years. Microsoft Gaming may have double the number of studios under their belt as PlayStation Studios, but how many of them are currently making games that will remain exclusive to Xbox now or in the near future? The answer is not a lot.
Out of the 20 game studios owned by PlayStation, only three (Bungie, Nixxes Software, and San Diego Studio) are developing games for release on non-PlayStation platforms. By comparison, around half of the studios owned by Microsoft Gaming are working on games with planned multiplatform releases. The few games Microsoft and Xbox have released which have been kept off rival platforms haven’t been very successful: Redfall, Starfield, Hellblade 2 – none of them have retained a lot of, if any, popularity since their release.
But what’s this? Phil Spencer hasn’t ruled out a PlayStation 5 port for Starfield? What happened to keeping some Bethesda games Xbox exclusive, Phil? To prove my point further, let’s compare how Sony and Microsoft have bought up studios in the past. Microsoft may have thought that gobbling up IPs such as Call Of Duty, Warcraft, Doom, Fallout, etc. would strengthen their position within the world of gaming. This is not the case.
None of Bethesda or Activision Blizzard’s most popular franchises are exclusive to one platform and to restrict them to Xbox-only would elicit negative feedback. Sony, meanwhile, collaborated with developers such as Sucker Punch and Insomniac Games to release a handful of PlayStation exclusive games years before they acquired them, rather than swallow up multiple studios all at once, which had always released multiplatform games.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe these plans might pay off. Giving more people more choices to choose what they play, on their preferred console, can only be a good thing. But if it doesn’t, then Xbox will continue to lag behind Sony and Nintendo. First party exclusivity was thought to be Xbox’s saviour a few years ago, but now, it may be their curse.
By reader George White
The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
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