this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2024
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Honestly, I'm curious to see if this rumor turns out to be true. If it does then I'm not really sure what that means for Xbox in the long-term. Putting just Starfield out on PS5 is one thing, but it sounds like they are thinking of putting most if not all of their first-party games on other platforms. If you're releasing your first-party games on other consoles then what exactly is the point of the Xbox? Is it just going to become a Game Pass box or are they planning on pulling out of the hardware business entirely like Sega?
I think that’s the plan. Rumour is that Microsoft want out of the console hardware business. They want to just be a game producer and subscription platform. They want gamepass on PlayStation and Nintendo and, well everywhere and then they can stop making consoles.
Who knows if that’s even possible though. It seems like hell would freeze over before Sony and Nintendo let gamepass on their platforms but, stranger things have happened.
I think it's fair to see the Xbox as a Game Pass box in the short to mid-term, yes. Microsoft's efforts have been focused on getting everyone on Game Pass, be it Xbox, PC or Mobile (and they would love for other console manufacturers to have it as well).
They are selling Xbox consoles at a loss and are only recouping money on games and Game Pass subscriptions, now that neither Nintendo nor Sony is onboard with bringing the latter to their ecosystem, might as well port their first-party games to competing platforms to make more money.
They're destroying consoles, as a concept. The Xbox has arguably been about that from the get-go. It was a stripped-down gaming PC aimed at crossover between PC and console games. Microsoft encouraged multiplatform development by selling a glorified compiler target. The 360's hardware was bizarre, for that goal, but you may remember it had excellent ports when the PS3 was struggling.
By the PS4 / Xbone generation it was over. Both machines are nearly-identical AMD laptops. Both machines got mid-generation "pro" upgrades. Every hardware launch is in lockstep, so there's no point getting in early or waiting for more power. It's just - do you want the blue one, or the green one?
Making developers publish separate blue and green versions is a situation they hate. They want to sell games to players. Players want to buy those games. At this point, the branded console market is a rent-seeking middleman layer for mildly-obfuscated midrange PCs. There's one or two neat tricks that consoles have enabled and Windows doesn't... for some reason... but the bigger obstacle to smooth PC performance has been broken-by-design DRM like Denuvo.
The point of the Xbox will become the same point as a Steam Deck.: a reasonably-priced game-centric alternative to managing a desktop or laptop. Yeah, a PS6 will play most of your Xbox Whatever games, if you buy the versions that only work on PS6. But the Xbox Whatever should play absolutely goddamn anything, except the three games a year that Sony hordes.
Microsoft doesn't want to win the console war. Microsoft wants to win at computing.
Thanks for being honest with us.