Xbox on Every Box

We might be six months away from Forza on GameCube.

In the last week, it has been widely reported that Microsoft is on the verge of bringing some of its highest profile Xbox exclusives to other platforms, including Starfield and this year's tentpole title, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Rumours persist that this isn't just a dipping of toes, but a wholesale shift in strategy for Microsoft and the Xbox brand. 

MS hasn't denied the rumours, which should tell you plenty, and Xbox head Phil Spencer has said that they'll be addressing future strategies this week. He may or may not wear a PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale t-shirt while doing so.

As you would expect, the internet took this news in its stride. Very-online, console monogamists flipped their lid. The PlayStation cultists bragged about their imminent victory in the console war, and some of the Xbox hardcore were so disillusioned that they posted heartfelt messages online detailing their decision to withdraw from this ancient conflict. Us normies shared these messages widely and had a good laugh.

The Switch truthers were too busy playing their baby-console to notice that anything had happened.

This shift in direction would appear to make sense. Microsoft has indicated its desire to get Game Pass, and by extension its games, on as many devices as possible, and we've all had the Game-Pass-is-the-platform epiphany at some point over the last couple of years. Games developed by MS-owned studios have appeared on Sony and Nintendo hardware in the past, and promises were made during the Activision acquisition that would suggest that such arrangements will continue well into the future.  Furthermore, there has been a move away from boxed products, a push for all-digital, with Xbox games slowly vanishing from shelves at traditional retailers (see the recent Best Buy story). Going all-digital would make a lot of sense if a multi-platform business model is on the cards.

Ultimately, you have to wonder how long MS is willing to stomach Xbox being firmly in third place in the console pecking order, especially when their most successful service, by the raw numbers, doesn't need to be tied to hardware. Game Pass is the platform, and MS probably doesn't need physical copies or expensive-to-produce consoles, though I'm not sure whether consumers, or perhaps the industry, is ready for that truth just yet.

Get Game Pass on your PC, on your Smart TV; on your phone. Fuck it, get it on your PS5 and maybe even your Switch.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. For now we're talking about Xbox exclusives coming to other consoles, and it makes perfect sense. Some might see this as a failure, and that is one valid way of looking at it. MS royally cocked up the 7th-8th Gen transition and never fully recovered. All the money in the world, almost literally, couldn't fix that. Failure certainly put Xbox on this path, but it's a path that gave us Game Pass and to a lesser extent the backwards compatibility program, which earned a shit load of goodwill from nostalgic fools like me, but likely netted next to no financial gain. 

If this is the new direction for Xbox, then I hope it proves to be successful. We should all want an industry with at least three healthy platform-holders. In certain aspects, MS has been incredibly consumer-friendly the last several years - a complete turnaround from the Xbox One debacle. Ludicrous value in Game Pass, Gold to GP upgrade loopholes that saved us hundreds of dollars, which MS chose not to close, and a back compatibility system that put Sony and Nintendo to shame.

We'll know more once Phil and Sarah have addressed their strategy later this week. And in time we'll learn whether this shift, if it is a shift, is the beginning of the end for Xbox or an end that leads to a new beginning. I've got my money on the latter.

Regardless, I've got two years left on my Game Pass subscription, so if we could drag the Xbox brand out at least another 24 months, I think that would be best. Thanks.