While the video game community sits and waits for Thursday, February 15 for the special edition of the Official Xbox Podcast where Microsoft Gaming leadership will go over the future of Xbox following the rumors and reports of Xbox exclusive titles going multiplatform, a new report has shed more light as to why things are changing and which games will be the first to go multiplatform as part of this new initiative.
Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that they will release a select number of Xbox games on PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment will be the first two games to go multiplatform. Xbox is also planning to launch Sea of Thieves on other platforms later this year. There are also other first-party titles under consideration.
The Verge reports that the reason behind the strategy to put Xbox exclusives on other platforms is due to the Xbox Game Pass slowdown.
Back in 2022, Microsoft wanted to get 100 million subscribers by 2030. At that time, there were 25 million subscribers which was up from 2021 with 18 million. Since then, Xbox Game Pass started to stall.
“It feels like we are likely to go through a gap of almost 16 months between big exclusive launches on our platform,” said Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in an internal email to Xbox leaders in May 2022, revealed in the FTC v. Microsoft case. “This is really a disaster situation for us given all we’ve invested in content across studios at our [Game Pass] content fund.”
It’s been more than two years since there has been any updates on subscriber numbers. Some analysts say that Microsoft is only around 33 million. If accurate, that’s around 33 percent growth in two years. Microsoft targeted 73 percent growth rate for Game Pass subscriptions for a single fiscal year that ended in June 2022, but only managed 28 percent.
Microsoft has been looking at other ways to boost revenue which was one of the main reasons behind the Activision Blizzard acquisition. Xbox is looking to launch new Xbox mobile store following the EU’s Digital Markets Act which is forcing Apple and Google to change how they distribute apps on mobile devices and opens it up to competition.
That being said, Apple’s new plan to comply with the new regulations doesn’t sit well with Microsoft and others. “Apple’s new policy is step in the wrong direction,” said Bond in reaction to Apple’s proposals last month. Spencer had previously described the Xbox mobile store and the EU’s Digital Markets Act as a “huge opportunity” for Microsoft.
Whatever the case, we’ll learn more about the future of Xbox later this week.