Report: Xbox is planning to publish Starfield on PlayStation 5

[Windows Central]

The end of the "Xbox exclusive" is nigh.

Report: Xbox is planning to publish Starfield on PlayStation 5 : Read more

 

[dennarai]

All I get from this is Microsoft is trying to make their own gaming ecosystem fail. People already have very little reason to get an Xbox and now they are just giving people less.

 

[Jez Corden]

All I get from this is Microsoft is trying to make their own gaming ecosystem fail. People already have very little reason to get an Xbox and now they are just giving people less.

microsoft lets money-men run the company, and it's why they fail at consumer products so hard.

 

[CrashTest]

Feel like its time to cut losses. Sell the Xbox, cancel GP and move to a different platform.

Not excited about investing further into the ecosystem at this point, I don't want to be the last guy left when they pull the plug

 

[Ron-F]

I may not like it, but I can see how this could work for Microsoft. They would place their games in all platforms and stream it through Gamepass' subscriptions. The problem is that will kill the Xbox console and streaming will need to grow to replace the revenue from selling games in the Xbox marketplace.

However, at this point, I would recommend a Switch and/or a Playstation to anyone interested in getting in console gaming.

 

[Ron-F]

microsoft lets money-men run the company, and it's why they fail at consumer products so hard.

To be fair, although I know about the original pitch, I never quite understood how Xbox would ever fit well in Microsoft's business.

 

[Luuthian]

People have probably already seen my other posts around here but this really stings... I was huge in to the 360 and, following a ten year move to Steam, my choice of hardware from 2018 on was Xbox. This might sound dramatic but I feel foolish investing in a platform that never invested back in its fans. Gamepass has been very kind to me for what I paid back when the Gold conversion was a thing (three years of service for $180 Canadian which is insane). But when that subscription ends this December I'll probably cut all ties with the xbox brand. My Series X is already sold and I've already got a Steam Deck and that covers largely all my needs.

Really, really sad if this ends up being true because the brand as we know it, at least as far as hardware goes, is probably is living on numbered days. I'll keep buying Microsoft's games though. Just not within their own platform it seems.

 

[Sean Endicott]

microsoft lets money-men run the company, and it's why they fail at consumer products so hard.

Microsoft's actions over the years make it clear the company would prefer two PlayStation customers over one loyal Xbox user who has been in the Microsoft ecosystem for years.

I understand from a business sense that two is greater than one, but I wonder what the consequences of continuing this plan are.

 

[fatpunkslim]

This would be a problem not only for the consoles, but for the brand image and ultimately for the sale of games. I think that accountants at Microsoft are not aware of the specificities of the video game industry. The marketing around Xbox and its games exists because there is an Xbox console and because there are Xbox gamers attached to their consoles, Xbox sites talking about Xbox, mainstream sites talking about Xbox. If they remove this, it's over, Xbox will become a small publisher like any other and they will lose visibility, loose money in the medium and long term.

Furthermore, the cloud works with Xbox series, if there are no more Xbox consoles, third-party publishers will stop making games for Xbox, therefore fewer games for the gamepass and for the cloud! All this is not at all coherent, I expect an official communication from Phil Spencer tomorrow or at worst during the week. And the rumors about a portable Xbox? What's the point if Xbox releases its games everywhere ?

 

[fatpunkslim]

microsoft lets money-men run the company, and it's why they fail at consumer products so hard.

This would be a problem not only for the consoles, but for the brand image and ultimately for the sale of games. I think that accountants at Microsoft are not aware of the specificities of the video game industry. The marketing around Xbox and its games exists because there is an Xbox console and because there are Xbox gamers attached to their consoles, Xbox sites talking about Xbox, mainstream sites talking about Xbox. If they remove this, it's over, Xbox will become a small publisher like any other and they will lose visibility, loose money in the medium and long term.

 

[TBBudak]

Xbox fanboys don't want to admit that Xbox going third party will elevate the brand to nea heights.

Xbox sales have literally collapsed, even with a $250 Series S, nobody is buying Xbox'. GamePass has failed to reach growth goal for 3 years straight.

Microsoft spent $100 billion dollars IN CASH on Xbox since 2020. That's an amount of money we truly cannot comprehend. With its current strategy, it'll take a century to make that money back.

Microsoft has so many studios, so many amazing IPs, that hardware is no longer needed, and if hardware is not needed, neither is exclusivity.

Why purposely handicap the success of your games by locking them behind a dying brand? Microsoft will become one of the biggest third party publishers in the world, most likely outgrowing PS in the process.

I don't know if these rumors are true, but if they are, good job on Microsoft for not allowing themselves to kill Xbox (unlike these so called fans.)

Would you rather have Halo on Playstation? Or no Halo at all.

I welcome this strategy.

 

[TBBudak]

microsoft lets money-men run the company, and it's why they fail at consumer products so hard.

Those "money-men" bought Zenimax and Activision. And i didn't see you complain about them then.

 

[TBBudak]

People have probably already seen my other posts around here but this really stings... I was huge in to the 360 and, following a ten year move to Steam, my choice of hardware from 2018 on was Xbox. This might sound dramatic but I feel foolish investing in a platform that never invested back in its fans. Gamepass has been very kind to me for what I paid back when the Gold conversion was a thing (three years of service for $180 Canadian which is insane). But when that subscription ends this December I'll probably cut all ties with the xbox brand. My Series X is already sold and I've already got a Steam Deck and that covers largely all my needs.

Really, really sad if this ends up being true because the brand as we know it, at least as far as hardware goes, is probably is living on numbered days. I'll keep buying Microsoft's games though. Just not within their own platform it seems.

I've been maining Xbox since around 2007. Bought the Xbox One on day one as all my friends switched to PS, pre-ordered the Series X too on day one.

I switched to PS5 during March of 2023, and i haven't looked back at my Xbox since. Once Phil said "great games don't sell consoles." I dipped from the Xbox ship before it began to sink. As long as Xbox games still exist, i'm fine with their strategy.

 

[K Shan]

They are windows phoning the Xbox and probably Game Pass after that.

 

[BINARYGOD]

"The part of the report from XboxEra I can corroborate is that the decision to do this has been the subject of stringent internal debate, and even now, seems to be perceived as a huge risk."

Risk? It WILL kill their console, there is NO risk, it's a guarantee - and Game Pass goes with it because subs not tied to a platform holder are just also-ran. Did you notice EA Play doesn't tend to get Ubi games and vice versa? Some of that is willingness to spend money, but you need the 3rd party relations to give you access first.

I guess they want to burn it all down and become the next EA /BK - guess they made the right purchases for it!

My S24 Ultra arrives in about week, so I will use that as my little line in the sand, if they have not countered ALL of these rumors by then, I am cancelling my PC Game Pass. I don't do console, but it's hard to care about GP if it's just going to be another EA Play or Ubi Plus - two things I don't spend money on. I can just go pirate MS games like I do now for Switch games - but a sub and sometimes purchase was easier when the sub was still worth it, but that's coming to end it seems.

 

[Luuthian]

Xbox going third party is a difficult proposition. This isn't as bad as Sega abandoning consumers in the Dreamcast era, this is worse. People have hundreds and thousands of dollars, or more, invested in the platform. Plus very personal attachments to achievements and game streaming and so on. People won't take that disappearing quietly. And in Sega's case they were in the low single digit millions of customers. Xbox still has low to high double digits depending on the service. That would be an incredible betrayal of trust. One that the brand may never recover from even if its games reach other platforms.

The other issue is when Xbox goes third party there's no guarantee of success, especially given the quality of the games coming out currently. And then you have this company that suddenly has to completely refocus all is hiring and business divisions on publishing and get all of its studios prepped and aligned, buying Switch dev kids and so on... That's an operational nightmare.

Calling for xbox to go third party is a dog whistle for Sony's success, or at least an incomplete thought. It's just not that simple. Where Xbox is taking their brand is dangerous... Especially since publishing games on Sony platforms diminishes the need for Gamepass. Why put yourself in Xbox's system when you can buy a PS5, get their version of Gamepass (which isn't as good and more expensive but that's not stopping subscription numbers apparently) and then just buy all of Microsoft's major games *there*, on top of everything else an Xbox can't offer? The xbox brand will be a confused mess of an ecosystem... People will only put up with it for so long. I don't see a way out of this for them personally. There's a lot of bad long term decisions here beginning to take root and who knows where it ends

 

[fatpunkslim]

It’s double or nothing, they can really take advantage of this buzz to clarify the situation, announce that the big exclusives will remain on Xbox, that exclusives are important in this game industry, that they will be able to launch small games 2 years later on multiplatform, some GAAS, announce the next Xbox, announce the next activivision games in the gamepass. And there, what was bad buzz can turn into good buzz, the Xbox brand will be grown, they will sell gamepass, they will sell consoles, they will sell games. Because everyone will talk about it, everyone will know that Indiana Jones, Gears 6, Blade, Fable, etc… will only be released on Xbox / PC / cloud / mobile / TV / handled console / gamepass (which is already a lot, Xbox remains an ecosystem much more open than playstation and that's fine). It must be clear, without ambiguity, to kill current rumors and kill future false information.

On the other hand, if it is to announce that Xbox is going to release everything on others platforms day one. It’s over for the Xbox brand, not just the consoles, for the Xbox brand it’s over! They will become a small publisher that no one talks about anymore, it will become the brand that give up, Xbox will be a joke, the brand will be devalued, the games will be devalued, no one will be there to defend the Xbox brand, they will be prey to trolls and PlayStation players who will criticize the xbox games that are released on their platforms.,without anyone to defend the brand

The Xbox brand exists because there are Xbox players, Xbox sites, mainstream sites that talk about Xbox because it is a publisher AND a console and hardware manufacturer. If tomorrow. If tomorrow, everything is multiplatform, no more consoles, no more hardware, no more branding, no more third-party publishers who make games for Xbox, no more marketing which holds essentially because Xbox has a console. And that will result in fewer games, fewer gamepass subscribers, fewer sales of everything. It will become like Sega, which will fall into oblivion. What Xbox must understand is that having a big community like Xbox players behind you is a strength, a privilege, an opportunity, they must use it to move forward and not go against them, that would be a very serious and irreversible error.

It may seem like a simple equation for accountants and other financiers at Xbox, but it's not simple at all, the negative repercussions will be enormous for the business.

 

[Ron-F]

Xbox fanboys don't want to admit that Xbox going third party will elevate the brand to nea heights.

Xbox sales have literally collapsed, even with a $250 Series S, nobody is buying Xbox'. GamePass has failed to reach growth goal for 3 years straight.

Microsoft spent $100 billion dollars IN CASH on Xbox since 2020. That's an amount of money we truly cannot comprehend. With its current strategy, it'll take a century to make that money back.

Microsoft has so many studios, so many amazing IPs, that hardware is no longer needed, and if hardware is not needed, neither is exclusivity.

Why purposely handicap the success of your games by locking them behind a dying brand? Microsoft will become one of the biggest third party publishers in the world, most likely outgrowing PS in the process.

I don't know if these rumors are true, but if they are, good job on Microsoft for not allowing themselves to kill Xbox (unlike these so called fans.)

Would you rather have Halo on Playstation? Or no Halo at all.

I welcome this strategy.

It might seem that it could be advantageous to the gamer. He could skip the Xbox, buy the PS5 and Switch and have all the games. However, many gamers, including myself, have a digital library of games I would lose access to, except for streaming. Even if I buy a PS5, I would have to buy again many titles I previously brought in the Xbox environment. This would cause resentment and thus the Xbox brand will go to garbage.

I argue that Microsoft was misguided in their console strategy back in the launch of the original Xbox. In retrospective, the fight for the TV screen was inconsequential as mobile would be the only screen worthy of fighting for. As such, they would have done better as a third-party software provider.

 

[Luuthian]

It might seem that it could be advantageous to the gamer. He could skip the Xbox, buy the PS5 and Switch and have all the games. However, many gamers, including myself, have a digital library of games I would lose access to, except for streaming. Even if I buy a PS5, I would have to buy again many titles I previously brought in the Xbox environment. This would cause resentment and thus the Xbox brand will go to garbage.

I argue that Microsoft was misguided in their console strategy back in the launch of the original Xbox. In retrospective, the fight for the TV screen was inconsequential as mobile would be the only screen worthy of fighting for. As such, they would have done better as a third-party software provider.

That's the thing that just puts a pit in the stomach... The problem is in terms of revenue this is probably a good move for Microsoft. It's also obviously hugely advantageous to people who have the primary library of games on any platform but the xbox itself. None of these people are going to care about the tens of millions of existing xbox fans and hardware owners who will be left holding the bag again. We're too small minority. It's just like the folks who invested in windows phone... We never seem to learn, but Microsoft's graveyard is as equally haunting as Google's

I fully expect next week to get nothing but lip service. "We're not exiting hardware." Yeah, for now. We know things are already in motion, there's no turning this back regardless of assurances. If the core library of exclusive Xbox games is going to other platforms then the writing is on the wall no matter what any executive says. Once you move these games off platform the sales for the xbox hardware will hit a massive pot hole, and at that point days are numbered.

There's nothing anyone can do. No reason to pick up one's bags and leave today obviously but... The seed is planted