It’s been quite a year for Microsoft and the Xbox brand. The General Manager of Xbox Games Marketing Aaron Greenburg stated in a blog that their collective group of first-party developers, known as Xbox Games Studios, had record year in terms of games released and other significant statistics. According to Greenburg, the developers launched 15 titles this year, 10 of which were brand-new IPs. In addition, Greenburg also announced that in the Xbox brand games that have released this year alone, players have logged in approximately 1.6 billion hours, which is an insane statistic considering all of the other major titles that have launched in 2020.
One of those new titles that launched was Microsoft Flight Simulator, which has since become a hugely successful endeavor for both the Xbox brand and Microsoft. In the blog post, Greenburg mentions that players in Microsoft Flight Simulator have already flown over 26 million times, and flew over one billion miles, which is more than 15 times the average of actual flights each day from the year 2019 and is more than enough miles to circle around the globe over 40,000 times. In short, Microsoft Flight Simulator is one of the most successful titles of the year.
Another title to come out of the Xbox Games Studio’s system this year was Minecraft Dungeons, an ARPG spin-off of the widely popular Minecraft. In the post, it states that there have been more than 6.9 million multiplayer sessions in just the past two months, with nearly two-thirds being couch co-op. An additional game that has caught a lot of people’s attention is Grounded, also known as the Honey I Shrunk The Kids game. Grounded players have now squashed more than 500 million bugs, but since there are over 10 quintillion insects in the game, that only accounts for 0.000000000005% that have been exterminated. Talk about some serious number crunching.
Other major titles that have been huge for Xbox and Microsoft this year include Battletoads, Bleeding Edge, Gears Tactics, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary on PC, Halo 2 Anniversary on PC, Halo 3 on PC, Halo 3: ODST on PC, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, The Bard’s Tale Remastered, Tell Me Why and Wasteland 3, and later this month Age of Empires III Definitive Edition which launches on October 15. As of this all wasn’t enough, Microsoft shocked the video game industry last month when they purchased ZeniMax Media, which owns Bethesda, for $7.5 billion. This acquisition not only adds numerous IP’s to their already vast library but also almost guarantees that any new Bethesda and Bethesda subsidiary title will most likely be an Xbox exclusive.
Of course, all of this has been leading up to the moment that Microsoft has been waiting for, the eventual launch of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Now armed with 23 video game studios under the Xbox Game Studios banner, the company is looking to launch their new consoles with plethora of titles being available right off the bat, which only makes the Xbox Game Pass that much more enticing. All eyes will be on the company come November 10, and we’re sure to hear more about systems leading up to their release, hopefully with less heat than what has been reported thus far.