Microsoft's decision to "dilute" the meaning of "Xbox exclusive" has been met with some fierce resistance in some quarters and quiet scepticism in others, lamenting
the possibility of a collapse in Xbox console hardware sales
So much negativity in this simple extract.
The objective is not to dilute the notion of exclusivity but to seek new income, maintain franchises which have reached their full potential to grow the Xbox ecosystem. (I quote what was said during the Xbox Business Update).
And then it's funny that you only distinguish 2 groups: "the very unhappy" and the not too unhappy. When in reality, I only see this negativity among certain influencers like you. Most Xbox fans were reassured by the latest Xbox business update which clearly showed that the goal was not to kill consoles (the term hardware was repeated 20 times) but to grow the Xbox ecosystem (cloud, pc, xbox consoles).
How can you say that some people fear a collapse in sales of Xbox consoles. Do you really think these 4 games are system sellers? I don't see anyone around me who thinks so. Xbox precisely measured whether they were seller system games or not and whether there was a risk of harming the attractiveness of the consoles.
I quote what spencer said at podcast: "that were never really meant to be built as kind of platform exclusives and all the fanfare that goes around that"
Xbox has never considered these games as having to be exclusive games, small niche games and service games that do not support xbox brands, why is this a problem for the sale of consoles?
This proves that Xbox clearly differentiates between games that must be exclusive games (with all the fanfare like he said), important to the Xbox brand, and other games.
I quote: "just four games, not a change to our kind of fundamental exclusive strategy". They are not diluting anything at all, because before these 4 games, they already had multiplatform games, but they never sent system-sellers, games strongly attached to the Xbox brand, and this is not the case no more. So what is the change?
And have you measured what these 4 games represent in relation to all Xbox licenses? It's nothing at all !
I don't understand this fear that certain old little exclusives without an Xbox identity are multi-platform, especially since at the same time, Xbox is releasing around ten first party exclusives and a few third party exclusives in 2024 alone. The latter more than compensate for the "loss " of these 4 old exclusives.
And yet, some people like you insist on being negative, it seems like these 4 little games hide everything else, it's crazy!
If xbox didn't care about exclusive games, why do they bother to see exclusive third party games like ark2, stalker 2, age of mithology, etc... think about it !
In your defense, you are more enthusiastic after:
Microsoft is already a prolific publisher on PlayStation / Xbox console monthly active users are higher than ever
Then, I quote you:
However, Microsoft will likely be interested to see if Sea of Thieves on PlayStation moves active Sea of Thieves users from Xbox to PlayStation, for those with both consoles.
I don't understand how you can make this assumption. Already the % of players who have 2 consoles must not be huge and then how would someone who has both consoles, who already has Sea of Thieves on Xbox, want to play it on PS5? What's the point especially since the gaming experience is the best on Xbox?
Microsoft would want to see Sea of Thieves acquire new users
Yes , thats's the point !
Your fears about the rest seem excessive to me, such as for example that Xbox One players prefer to switch to PS5 to play Sea of Thieves, that seems highly improbable to me or really on the margins.
In any case, it'll be interesting to see how this strategy evolves over time. Microsoft has confirmed that new Xbox hardware is in the works for the next-generation, accompanied by widespread rumors that the firm is exploring its own
Xbox handheld device, with native gameplay support akin to the
Steam Deck or
Nintendo Switch.
Yes bro ! I prefer that ! that's the spirit ! hardware, exclusive games, cloud, these are the 3 pillars of their strategy. When they talk about "play anywhere", this is what spencer said about the cloud:
I think that's a technology I'd love to see applied to more platforms. But it is this view that people are going to play Xbox in multiple places
It is the cloud above all that allows players to play anywhere, certainly not competing consoles because that would be contrary to one of the fundamental pillars of their strategy.
The sale of xbox games on ps5 is very good news, it means more exclusive games for the xbox ecosystem (xbox, pc and cloud) and more games in the gamepass (gamepass avalaible on xbox, pc and cloud, nothing more).
Xbox's strategy mainly goes where the Xbox ecosystem is located and where the gamepass is located (Xbox console, PC, cloud). It's that simple. As long as there is no gamepass on other consoles, there will be xbox exclusive games and xbox consoles.
Thanks for reading
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