Console market in transition: Microsoft is bringing four of its exclusive titles to the Playstation

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Xbox stand at the Gamescom gaming fair: Microsoft's flagship titles in 2023 included, for example, the space game "Starfield"

Photo: Ying Tang / NurPhoto / IMAGO

When new consoles or blockbuster games are about to be unveiled, Microsoft relies on elaborately staged trailer shows. However, the US company only presented an update on its strategy in the video game market that was eagerly awaited by some fans on Thursday evening in a special edition of the official Xbox podcast. This may have been because Xbox management ultimately had more of a business experiment to announce than a radical change of course.

The announced initiative remains remarkable: Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond and Matt Booty announced in the podcast that four games from Microsoft's own development studios, which console players could previously only play on the Xbox, will soon also be released for "the other consoles".

The three managers left it open exactly which four titles were at stake. It was only emphasized that this is neither the space game “Starfield”, which was released in 2023, nor the upcoming adventure “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle”. It was also said that all four titles were at least a year old and had already exhausted their potential on the Xbox and PC. Aside from Microsoft's Xbox consoles, the console market today essentially consists of Sony's Playstation consoles and Nintendo's Switch consoles.

According to media reports, it had already become apparent in recent weeks that Microsoft would like to rely more heavily on third-party platforms in the future than before. Some Xbox fans even feared that the company would withdraw from the console business. Such rumors were fueled by figures from a presentation by gaming company Take-Two Interactive, which suggested that the current generation of Playstation consoles may have sold around twice as many as its Xbox counterpart.

Offers far beyond your own console

In the new podcast, Xbox boss Phil Spencer made it clear that Microsoft's plans for the four games do not represent a fundamental change in strategy when it comes to dealing with exclusive titles. According to the podcast, new Xbox hardware is also being planned. At the same time, Spencer also emphasized that one of the Xbox team's goals is to reach as many players as possible. They try to use the other platforms to advance their own brands, for example with regard to possible follow-up titles or similar games from their own portfolio.

Microsoft has long since abandoned the strategy of marketing its own titles exclusively for the Xbox consoles.

For example, there is an Xbox cloud gaming app for Meta's virtual reality glasses Quest 2, Quest 3 and Quest Pro. And PC gamers, in whose world Microsoft is the market leader in operating systems with Windows, have had the opportunity to play Xbox blockbusters on their computers from day one of their release for several years now. Microsoft is also experimenting with cloud gaming on iPhones and Android smartphones. Most recently, the group made more sales with its gaming business area than with its Windows business area.

In order to better position its games division and its flat-rate offer Xbox Game Pass, which has so far fallen short of long-term expectations with around 34 million subscribers, Microsoft has purchased various game companies in recent years. Part of those deals included all sorts of well-known studios such as Bethesda Game Studios (“Starfield”), id Software (“Doom”) and Obsidian Entertainment (“The Outer Worlds”).

The most expensive acquisition in the company's history to date was Activision Blizzard in 2023, whose portfolio includes series such as "Diablo" and "Call of Duty". As part of that takeover, Microsoft agreed with Sony last summer that all “Call of Duty” games would be available for the Japanese console for at least another ten years. Activision Blizzard's titles will be added to Xbox Game Pass in the coming weeks, as has now been announced. “Diablo IV” is scheduled to begin at the end of March.

Exclusive titles influence many a purchase decision

How Microsoft's push towards Playstation and Switch will affect its own business in the long term remains to be seen and also depends on the appeal of the four selected titles. If you believe insider information from the tech magazine "The Verge", the four titles are about the medieval game "Pentiment", the action-rhythm fighting game "Hi-Fi Rush", the pirate spectacle "Sea of ​​Thieves" and the survival game Game “Grounded”. All four games have been on the market for more than a year and otherwise fit with hints that Spencer made without naming names. System sellers, i.e. titles that make you buy a particular console, are not all games.

Basically, the question of which games are exclusive to which console is likely to continue to influence the decision to purchase a device for many gamers. Nintendo's Switch console, for example, is the only way to play the blockbusters from the "Super Mario" or "Zelda" universe. And Sony's flagship titles include series like "God of War" and "The Last of Us," while the Xbox stands for series like "Forza Horizon" and "Halo." All three major console manufacturers operate their own online shops through which they earn a lot from the sale of third-party titles.

Incidentally, Sony also recently indicated that it wanted to bring more flagship titles from the Playstation world to the PC. However, there was no mention of publishing your own games on the Xbox.