You aren’t wrong on that, but nobody is saying that every game will be ported except for people have latched on to the worst case scenario as an inevitably. Every indication we have is exclusives will remain.
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I agree. But is honestly infuriating to see people not seeing future ramifications of Xbox exiting hardware. Its like they think the other console makers would do no such thing. Its like they have forgotten what happened when sega was out of the picture in the hardware space.
I think Microsoft more closely aligning Xbox with PC drastically reduces the chances that they ever exit hardware, even if console sales go to crap.
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Gotta say, respect Jez and his opinions but when he goes ahead and say stuff like Halo, Gears of War, Forza and Starfield, which are considered flagship titles for Xbox brand, going to other platform while making an article tends to make people more annoyed with their investments on Xbox.
Like, does Jez really think Microsoft is foolish enough to sacrifice an flagship ips that brought consumers to the actual platform and porting to another platform is a wise idea? Like that’s killing of brand one on one, both console, pc and otherwise game pass as well.
Article in question:
Jez has been pretty good about maintaining that there will still be exclusives. He (because of his sources) is not in the everything is going multi platform bandwagon.
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I believe that Microsoft is foolish enough to port their games to Sony/Nintendo consoles because they’ve already done it and it’s only going to continue so would I be shocked to see Halo Infinite for example on PlayStation? Nope.
I believe that Microsoft just wants to get back the $70B that they spent on ABK as quickly as humanly possible and don’t care how they do it even if it means damaging the Xbox brand.
You’ve probably heard this before, but that’s not how this works. They spent money that was sitting there to acquire another asset that makes money. They don’t need to make that money back.
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I know this and I know that they don’t need to make that money back but other than money, let’s be honest, what other reason would there be for Microsoft to port their first party games to Sony/Nintendo consoles?
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Because they’ve realized that is where the industry as a whole is heading. Exclusivity only costs money in the long run with most games.
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The industry already was mostly multi-platform but none of the third party publishers have their own console, brand, platform and eco-system like Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony does.
Exclusivity costs them money but at the same time, we’re talking about a $3T dollar company. Come on. They don’t need more money. I need more money. You need more money. Everyone here needs more money but Microsoft, not so much.
If not for exclusivity, what’s going to separate Xbox from PlayStation? I’m sorry but as we’ve discussed before, Game Pass just isn’t enough for me especially when all I care about are the day one games which coming into 2024, I have averaged 2 a year which isn’t enough for me to for example, spend hundreds of dollars on their next generation console if that’s all they’re giving me.
It’s just very disappointing that Microsoft didn’t at least go into next generation with a two year head start and see what they could actually do with all the studios, Game Pass and an amazing lineup of console exclusive games.
But whatever, it is what it is at this point Jesse.
You want them to be green Sony and all that would do is kill their business. Ignore it all you want, but PlayStation’s margins have completely fallen apart with the current system and they too are pivoting heavily.
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Thats not how Microsoft works. They spend the big bucks to make big bucks.
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I see people still stuck in the old mentality huh
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Even more specifically, it is not how any corporation works.
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I don’t think it’s where the industry is going but it is what makes sense for them. The idea of trying to win a console war is needless and ultimately just ends up making them a monopoly which puts a roadblock in front of them.
This store fronts idea could change the dynamics of the industry bringing more players and more platforms to the mix and could even unify the format for gaming as a whole similar to the VHS to DVDs and the sort. There are certainly risks but Microsoft is big enough to take them and weather the storm.
If more games do get ported to other systems, will it really just be Halo, Gears & Forza that stay exclusive? Because for years all people online said was that all Xbox has is Halo, Gears & Forza and it if you go back farther in time Fable was part of that list too.
It would be crazy if that would be the case, again.
If I’m being honest, I can easily see the next Elder Scrolls selling better than the next Halo and that game being the reason to pick up Xbox over the next PlayStation.
So, if more games get port and I think they will, hopefully more than just Halo, Gears, Forza and Fable will be exclusive, because those four alone won’t sell the next Xbox.
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They just had their 2nd best quarter ever with 16% margins, this is how the industry is moving.
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I doubt Forza, Gears or Halo will stay exclusive for much longer tbh, and as for the next Elder Scrolls, might be pointless to release it exclusively on Xbox by then, unless MS changes it’s strategy which is not likely, the console HW numbers will be too bad to not release it on other consoles.
Seems MS gave up on the console years ago, they’ll probably release SteamDeck-like consoles, but nothing based on exclusives anymore.
In my opinion their focus now should be on creating more successful GaaS games like Sea of Thieves, looking at projects like State of Decay 3 specifically
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they have like 20+ successful GaaS titles as a publisher now