Report: Microsoft is considering bringing its flagship Xbox IP to PlayStation for the first time

[Windows Central]

A new report suggests that Microsoft is "considering" bringing its flagship Xbox IP, Halo, to PlayStation. If true, it would mark a watershed moment for the Xbox brand, plunging Xbox into uncharted territory.

Report: Microsoft is considering bringing its flagship Xbox IP to PlayStation for the first time : Read more

 

[Ron-F]

All this noise is poison to the Xbox brand. Spencer should come forward and outline what is exactly the plan.

 

[jasongw]

If true, it'll be the death knell of all Xbox hardware going forward. They've already **** the bed this entire generation so far. Their marketing and customer communication/community building is so god awful I doubt they can recover at this point anyway.

 

[fdruid]

If true, it'll be the death knell of all Xbox hardware going forward. They've already **** the bed this entire generation so far. Their marketing and customer communication/community building is so god awful I doubt they can recover at this point anyway.

Should people care about branded hardware nowadays, anyway? The brand identity is in the game portfolio. The best possible scenario is that their games can be played anywhere and everywhere. Hell, every game company wants that (excluding those weirdoes at nintendo who keep fishing in their bucket)

 

[K Shan]

The best possible scenario is that their games can be played anywhere and everywhere.

Except for people that have invested in the Xbox ecosystem. If they are the only one doing it and not getting anything in return, then it's going to be a death spiral of customers and developers leaving xbox hardware and anyone that purchased things on the Xbox store gets screwed.

This is made worse by Microsoft having done this so many times with things like Windows Phone and Mixer. Microsoft needs to explain their plan here and how it differs from all the other consumer products where they stopped doing exclusives while insisting they were still going to support it, and then killed it off.

 

[GraniteStateColin]

In general, I don't like this idea, but I think there is a way to do it that BENEFITS Xbox and INCREASES users joining the Xbox ecosystem, rather than driving them away.

Further, by the games MS is talking about moving, it does fit with this strategy.

It goes like this: if Xbox ports older games in existing franchises to PS (note that GoW 6 and other new titles are NOT on the list to migrate), then PS players who would otherwise not be exposed to those games other than by reviews on the Internet and maybe occasionally seeing them at friends' houses, have a chance to play them. If these experiences are positive, then some percentage of those players may buy Xboxes for the latest versions of games in those franchises.

The key requirement for this is to ONLY give the older versions of the games to get them interested in the franchise, keeping the latest and greatest exclusive to Xbox (or at least ensure a significant delay before releasing a new version to PS). This makes PS players always tardy to those franchises. If they care about the franchise, many (not all) will want to be able to get the best versions of the games.

The logic to this is clear: expose more people to franchises, get them interested, then they may convert to Xbox from PS either immediately or in the next generation when they upgrade.

The counter-argument is that just as there is a portion of gamers who will want to get on Xbox to play current versions of the franchises they like, there is also a portion who is happy to stay a version behind and will figure with PS they get all the PS exclusives plus are ONLY 1 version behind on the Xbox games too. What we don't know, but MS might, is the ratio of these two groups. If the eager players group is as big or bigger than the happy-to-get-all-exclusives-even-if-years-later group, then it's a good strategy. Otherwise, it could be very bad.

I would caution MS that the damage caused if they miscalculate this is severe. Some experiments and tests are low-risk, easy to win back customers (e.g., putting out a game late loses some sales and delays revenue, but if it's good, customers come back), but customers who move to another ecosystem may never come back, or at least not for multiple platform generations.

So I can't say if MS' plan will work or that the positives outweigh the negatives. I don't know if they do. But it is a valid strategy that might be better in the long run even for Xbox hardware sales.

 

[TheFerrango]

All they need to do is make their controller PS compatible and we're golden. I'm waiting for the next generation of consoles to put one in my livingroom and Microsoft is making the next PS more appealing by the day, despite Sony's tampering and self-shooting.

That way Microsoft gets money from the games, and Sony from the services. Although I do wonder, will XBOX games on PS have cross play with XBOX players? will I need a Game Pass Core account to play multiplayer, on top of whatever Sony has? So many ways to screw this up.