Over the course of this generation Xbox has become one of THE most prolific video game publishers out there. Xbox Game Studios only finished building up in 2019 and have been cooking ever since (with many an unfortunate roadblocks popping up). Then there was the Zenimax purchase and ABK. All of these were aquistions (even the studios for XGS), but they still now fund and provide resources and are in charge of/responsible for each and everyone of these studios and their games. In terms of video games content, Xbox is massive now.
Multiplatform isn't a surprise. A lot of the games and studios were previously multiplatform and when game margins are tighter than ever, you probably can't easily justify acquiring an entity for billions, making a bigger more expensive game, and selling it to less people. I also think it's very telling when we look at Sony's first party exclusive output. They are similarly spending more on games than ever and they've drastically scaled back because the customer base on Playstation consoles just isn't enough. 4 console exclusives in a year is pretty much as good as it gets these days, but I'd go a step further and say Xbox will have none because they support PC day one. That's all to say that Xbox has a healthy customer base across platforms to support their games. Sony doesn't right now because they continue to drag their heels on even just PC multiplatform releases. That's not going to continue to be sustainable. Nintendo for example has massively controlled game development costs and scope and sells them at full price despite those costs being much lower than a game like say Starfield. But Nintendo's overall quality and the strength of their franchises keep their customers paying those prices. That's an example of a company that can afford first party exclusives and limiting their customer base. Sony could either pivot to smaller scale releases like Spider-Man Miles Morales and Astrobot or continue to do the big blockbuster releases and make them available on more platforms, but they can't do both.
Anyway, I really think Xbox has done a great job with the "no games" this generation. Ignoring first party for a minute, they have more third party support than ever. Playstation has lost more former console exclusives than Xbox this generation as many franchises and publishers pursue a day one multiplatform approach. Xbox has also done a good job of going the extra mile and ensuring developers port older entries in these franchises to the console. There's even MLB the show now (which it says a lot when the person that gives you a license to make a game, demands it be on more platforms for the first time). In terms of first party releases Xbox has gone bonkers due to how much they've grown. That said they won't do anything about the narrative until they properly market any of this. Even their own newly purchased first party games don't release with Xbox or even Microsoft logos anywhere in sight. Most gamers probably aren't even aware how much Xbox first party encompasses (and certainly not non gamers), and the fuss the media make over former exclusives focuses on first party and not all the third party exclusives which used to sell consoles and have since become multiplatform. I'd say Xbox will have "no games" until they figure out how to market the state of things properly. This can just be an updated Xbox logo animation that includes all the the new first party IP.
It's easy to get hung up on "the box is the platform".
It isn't.
Take a step back.and look at the basics:
Companies write software to make money.
The platform is where the software runs.
Everywhere the software can run is the platform.
Thus, the platform is the API set that lets the software run and the marketbis simply everybody who *can* run the software. How they run it is secondary to their ability to run it, somehow.
Once upon a time the XBOX was an NVIDIA GPU and an Intel CPU.
Then it was an AMD GPU and a PowerPC CPU.
Then it was an AMD CPU and GPU.
Or a SAMSUNG or LCD TV or an AMAZON FIRE TV running off a custom SOC in a server software.
Next? Who knows?
HALO CE is still HALO CE. MORROWIND is still MORROWIND.
As long as the software run fine, what's the fuss?
Likewise, it takes money to make games and the more people who can choose to play your game the more money you rack up to keep on making games.
And as games get more expensive to make the developer needs more money to stay afloat. Which is ever harder every year because the hardware gets more expensive to make because there are more and more uses for advanced chips so they no longer get cheaper to make but other parts of the supply chain are getting more expensive. So you sell the box at a loss or don't drop the price.
It used to be $200-300 was the price for getting into console gaming.
Then $400.
These days it runs from $300 for the much maligned SS to $900 or more for the PS5 PRO. Not everybody can or wants to spend that kind of money to tie themselves to a branded box.
And none is selling as well as they used to.
In part because the old boxes are still pretty good and a lot of the games out there still support them. In large part because there's a lot of them and not enough of the new ones to make a profit off the new ones alone.
What MS is doing is three-fold wise.
First, they lower the cost of getting into gaming via the SS, Gaming PCs if you can afford one, and streaming. Which is where "everything is an XBOX." comes in. This increases the size of the pool of potential game buyers beyond consoles. Anybody's consoles. The people who have a newer console can still buy the game as always but those that don't can still buy into the ecosystem. MS isn't too proud to accept their money. They welcome it.
Second, they *selectively* send out games to other platforms to suck money *out* of their customer bases, people who will never buy an XBOX console because they long ago handcuffed themselves to a different brand. Again, money is money.
And third, don't forget that people's playtime and *budgets* are finite. Time and money spent on XBOX games is time and money *not* spent on the other consoles' first party games.
Sending old games to other platforms isn't a mistake, its crazy...like a fox.
Show them what they've been missing and they just might pick up a Fire TV stick and sign up for Game Pass to get all the XBOX games, old and new, cheaper. Or if they have a Samsung or LG tv and a bluetooth controller, Game Pass alone will do the trick.
Microsoft has a mantra many ignore: "what's mine is mine, what's yours is negotiable." Through GAME PASS and 3-4 high profile exclusives a year they keep what is theirs, theirs, all the while they raid the other platform's customer bases. And cash flow.
All the angst over multiplatform games is misplaced: the best (only!) way to make the XBOX ecosystem dominant is by selling more and more XBOX games year after year. Make it so that even asian developers have to support the ecosystem to be profitable. and that's what they're doing.
Leave'em be; they're playing to their strength.
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