Thanks! You have an idea on potential acquisitions which could make sense for you?
I think Xbox has been critiqued too long for their 1st party lineup that I can’t see them giving future games to the competition. People on both sides and even the media we’re asking for this for years and Phil delivered. 100% expect anything after deathloop and ghostqire to be exclusive.
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It probably won’t happen, but I could see something like Xenoblade or Fire Emblem being a good fit. They are more “mature” games that didn’t sell super great compared to other Nintendo first party titles that could maybe find a second life on Xbox. Maybe even something Pokemon related, just because it’s sort of a platform unto itself now in the same way that Minecraft is.
Exclusive to PC/Xbox.
Why? Because it makes Game Pass drastically more compelling, and in turn makes Xbox Series X|S and MS’s PC game storefront drastically more compelling.
Putting those games on PS5 means they would be sacrificing Game Pass, Xbox and their PC storefront’s potential sales increases in favor of software revenue directly. That sounds fine at a surface level, but it flies in the face of what MS has been doing for yrs now. For yrs, they have gone the other way, launching 1P titles all day 1 on Game Pass and thus sacrificing tons of software sales revenue at the altar of boosting the service, their X1 consoles and their PC storefront.
Let’s say having all their games exclusive means they only pull in some 40% of PS5 owners who love Bethesda’s games. They will make FAR MORE $$ in the long run from pulling those gamers over to Xbox ecosystem and holding em there than they would targeting 100% of those interested PS5 gamers with one off software sales individually. Sure, you can argue that they can do both and do timed exclusives. I think that would lead to far fewer than 40% (or whatever the real number is) switching to Xbox’s ecosystem. Those gamers on PS5 have plenty to play to hold them over so you’d end up with the vast majority just staying put imho. MS will do whatever it has to in order to peel off as many gamers to Xbox’s ecosystem as they possibly can.
I think MS might try to even get Sony to let Game Pass exist on Swtich and PS5. If/when those platform holders say no (since it murders their own software sales revenues), Phil Spencer can be seen as the good guy trying to reach out to those PS5/Switch gamers only to have the bad guys at Sony/Nintendo cut their own userbase off from Phil’s hyper generous offer. That just makes Phil, Xbox and GP look that much better from a PR pov.
The only reason I think they won’t do much with Nintendo is because once xCloud grows a bit it will be a competitor to Switch.
Shiiiiiiiiit, imagine Xenoblade in 4K. Damn!
One of my favorite games. I was kinda dissapointed with the switch version. Very ugly, at least in hand held mode, didn’t play it on the tv.
Now that Luna is real… Yes.
Exclusive to Xbox/PC but some go to Switch. They need content for Game Pass and xcloud having them on ps5 for $70 could make them money but takes away potential users switching over to Xbox/pc for a game pass sub.
I think Starfield will be the test. If Starfield does amazing just on Xbox/PC then Elder Scrolls/ Fallout will only be on Xbox/PC. If Starfield does just ok, then I think we see Xbox/PC one year exclusivity, then PS5.
I’m thinking ESO and Fallout 76 multiplat, current deals honored, everything else exclusive.
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Yes, MS did not spend 7.5 billion to help out other consoles. With PC and Xcloud MS offers enough alternative ways to play Xbox games so they don’t have to resort to farming them out to Sony consoles.
The switch may get a handful of ports of Zenimax games like MS does now.
I do believe so. They are for once finally ready to play ball with Sony, they have a good strategy with Gamepass, forward/backwards compatibility, xCloud, and one way to attract customers to their ecosystem now is to bring more exclusive content. The push to Gamepass will require the content and heavy investments into it just like Netflix. So in the end releasing your games elsewhere is counter prouve to the end goal. It would still make sense to release the games elsewhere after maybe a year or more for a few select titles. But if they want to show they are serious they need to keep ES6, Fallout, Doom, Starfield exclusive to Xbox and PC.
Xbox just announced that gamepass grew from 10 million to 15 million subs in less than 6 months. That’s 50% growth. Now imagine how much it’s gunna grow with the launch of series s/x. With Ps5 games being 70$, with xcloud with gamepass finally rolling out. With halo infinite launching.
By the time starfield rolls around in late 2021 or 2022 there will be 25-35 million subs. And when elder scrolls next/ doom next in 2024 or so there will be around 50 million. They don’t need PlayStation and switch anymore. Putting their games on Those platforms would actually slow gamepass’s growth.
They bought Bethesda because of gamepass, it’s all about growing that service.
Fallout 76 and eso will stay on the platform. Sony’s timed exclusives will go through of course. Everything else Is xbox/pc only.
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I don’t know how anyone can justify that Bethesda will stay multiplatform after seeing the following image, which is available on Microsoft’s announcement of Zenimax’s acquisition.
The message is clear. “Anywhere” means “anywhere on our extremely broad platform”.
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I am sure most people with common sense knew that when Microsoft talks about enabling people to play games on the devices they own, they mean PC, Xbox or on tablet and mobile via the cloud.
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Agreed on all accounts with the quoted article. There’s simply no reason for Ms to not make those games exclusive
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This sums it up nicely 
By @akahmiii
https://twitter.com/akahmiii/status/1309507216299323392?s=19
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Important hints from Phil Spencer in his interview with Yahoo. He is asked directly about the exclusivity issue and while he gives the case by case basis retort again the entirety of his answer seems VERY suggestive to me:
I think @YoungGrumpyMan’s image there is also quite suggestive. It lays out precisely what they mean when they say play with who you want and where you want. They really do mean this stuff only within the context of the Xbox ecosystem.
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I think what that image adds is that it directly prescribed the context for which all their commentary is being couched in. I think more and more commentators are now turning towards the reality of these titles being exclusive with only the previously committed PS5 titles coming (Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo) along with ongoing PS5 versions of GaaS stuff like Fallout 76 and ESO.