Single player games will be exclusive, multiplayer games case by case.
Elder Scrolls is a much bigger IP than both and it’s expected to be exclusive.
Using LAD and Persona to gain market share in Japan would be a smart move.
The Sega part is too much of a departure from Microsofts strategy with XGS and Minecraft. Mojang hasn’t released many games, but the Minecraft IP is too strong to just remove it(even if I think they should have kept spin offs exclusive) from other platforms.
So it does both the case by case with Minecraft spinoffs, and it does the updating games that are already on other stores.
With Zenimax, the case by case is remasters of older titles, while they keep updating games like ESO and Fallout 76(Skyrim and Fallout 4 to some extent, as the mods keep getting updated even if Sony won’t allow as much as Xbox).
Going full 3rd party with Sega on the other hand goes completely against what they already established imo.
Any Japanese publisher they purchase will remain primarily multiplatform IMO.
I think post-BGS, the acquisitions are more about Game Pass growth than they are about boosting Xbox as a platform with exclusives. They’ll likely need to keep games multiplatform even to continue to be allowed to acquire more publishers.
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This
That Sega strategy page thing literally spells out their strategy, they wouldn’t be buying Sega for exclusives, they are for making GP more appealing and their mobile and PC output
Keeping them multiplat ensures the franchises long term health, lets MS bring in all the revenue and still makes GP more and more appealing worldwide due to the crazy back catalog and future releases
Everything will be exclusive. Like Microsoft will have bought 29 studios in the last 10 years…and 2 IP will be multiplatform.
It’s Minecraft and Cod (on an oath)
vs.
- Hellblade 2
- Project Mara
- Bleeding Edge
- Fable
- Clockwork Revolution
- South Past Midnight
- Project Dragon
- PCF Game
- The Outer Worlds 2
- Deathloop 2
- Doom 3
- Indiana Jones and The Confirmed Xbox Exclusive
- Hi Fi Rush
- Ghostwire Tokyo 2
- Diablo V
- Overwatch 3
- Warcraft
- Everwild
- Redfall
- Grounded
- Avowed
- Pentiment
- Psychonauts 3
- Redfall
- The Gears IP
- Starfield
- Fallout
- Elder Scrolls
- Crash
- Spyro
- Tony Hawk
- Guitar Hero
- Hexen
and the rest.
It would take an extreme example (GTA and Fifa) to go against the pattern…and even then, its what Microsoft can get away with.
Sega doesn’t own anything near on that level.Potentially there’s a game that could ship on multiple consoles, but I couldn’t say what it is or if it will ever exist. The rule is 97% of the time, its Xbox exclusive.
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I mean the Activision deal had to go through the CMA, FTC, and EU for it to be approved. Would SEGA also go through a similar process like that or would SEGA be able to go through without the need for regulators as it is a whole lot smaller than Activision?
It’d go through regulators, it has to be very small to.avoid it.
I see. I feel that if it is possible, SEGA would probably be the last major publisher that Microsoft could acquire especially if the Activision deal does go through. The current Activision deal is already going through a lot of scrutiny as it is. Other than that I would think Microsoft will be looking at smaller acquisitions and developers which would also help with Game Pass.
And why would they be jealous?
As a director of a game studio… I would like to ship on as minimum platform as possible so that creative work could be given priority over ports
Just my take.
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Imo, the Sega strategy that were seeing is likely the same thing that Microsoft went over with every acquisition. They understand the benefits of it being 3rd party, it means more money by sacrificing the growth of your platform.
Imo, they likely start with that pitch and then workout what money they’re willing to leave on the table to grow their platform. So things like no XGS games being 3rd party except Minecraft happen, remasters and game content update with Zenimax happens, maybe even multi-player games.
People are going to need to get used to Microsoft caring more about content for their ecosystem and gamepass than exclusive Xbox stuff.
It’s pretty clear that whether you like it or not the exclusivity on Xbox is a headache for them with their plans and also isn’t really central to their long term vision.
All this only really matters if you are bothered by current exclusivity and Xbox sales. There is going to be no massive exclusivity push and you can see that future purchases could very easily be multi platform games. Not saying they all will but it’s clear that internally they have pivoted away from fighting with Sony for bragging rights.
That’s what we all thought about Indiana Jones and here we are.
As of now the only thing we know is nothing. Talks within Microsoft happen all time and whatever we think their plan is, we won’t know until someone gives Nick the ok. Or Microsoft reveals those plans themselves.
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Definitely not what people thought about Indiana Jones, at least not for the same reasons.
Only reason that Indiana Jones was going to be multi platform was because of a potential obligation to Disney via contract.
It still means we know nothing. Because ABK has a much wider reach than Sega, and they’re not making any contracts on anything other than CoD.
It’s clear that the way they have managed the publisher acquisition is difficult to really build buy in on exclusivity. The email from Hines may be mainly in regards to comms but it also shows there is some disquiet in Bethesda about exclusivity. Like it or not.
Managing that is more difficult when you are trying to build this huge content portfolio than for Sony who are more about curating a specific studio lineup.
Xbox I don’t think are going to want to be in the weeds arguing over console releases with ABK forever. I suspect most will end up multi platform if the deal ever closes.
My Wishlist:
Publisher - Sega
Developer - IOI, Remedy, Asobo
Anything else is just icing on the cake.
As a person in the Xbox eco-system, I’m very happy with how much they are going all in on Gaming now.
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The only thing they have even been promising is CoD, and again, we know nothing. Were Jon Snowing out here because the small glimpse we got into how they operate, is making us think we know what they’re going to do, but nothing is set in stone. It’s possible they do decide to go full 3rd party with ABK and onward, but it’s also possible they won’t, so until we get full confirmation all assumptions are just as valid.
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Part of the Sega risks was Sammy not wanting to part with Sega because Sega is half their revenue source… And their value has only gone way up since then. To be real I think Sega may not happen, MS seems to have still strategized with them, no more skips and stuff like the Yakuza series seems like permanent GP inclusions at this point (they’ve been in there for so long now) which is quite rare.
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I could see Microsoft being both a first party and third party publisher. Xbox already has over 20 studios developing exclusively for the Xbox ecosystem, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they keep Activision (or SEGA) games multiplatform, but with all the Game Pass privileges.
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Exclusivity is I think still a key play for Xbox, it looks like new IPs will be exclusive while the old existing ones are still undecided. It seems that’s why the push for Zenimax studios has been to develop new IPs rather than the existing ones like Doom, Wolfenstein and Fall out to avoid this PlayStation fiasco.
I’d imagine if they get Sega, they will have them start working on new IPs or old ones that don’t really have a presence on PlayStation. Sonic, the Yakuza series and the known Atlus games like the Persona series will most probably continue as multiplatform.