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Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Believes There Will Be Fewer Exclusives In The Future, And Not Just For Xbox

Lunatic_Gamer

Gold Member
spencer-phil02_feature.jpg


Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft Gaming, has said there will be fewer platform-exclusives in the future. Speaking to Bloomberg, Spencer said the idea of games being made for one device and one device only is "something we're just going to see less and less of."

Expanding on this, Spencer said this is all about helping "bring more players in" and reduce "friction."

"Maybe you happen in your household to buy an Xbox and I buy a PlayStation and our kids want to play together and they can't because we bought the wrong piece of plastic to plug into our television,"
he said.

He continued, "...making people feel safe, secure when they're playing, allowing them to find their friends, play with their friends, regardless of what device--I think in the long run that is good for this industry."

In the short term, "some people in some companies" won't love this approach, Spencer said, without singling anyone out. But in the long run, Spencer sees a future with fewer platform exclusives in it.

NPD's Mat Piscatella reacted to Spencer's comments, saying he believes "console exclusives are fading--and have been for some time."

"Locking content to one piece of hardware just won't make financial sense in the future. And yes, even some manufacturers that remain focused on one device exclusives today will eventually shift,"
Piscatella said.

 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Man, fuck them kids. Who cares if they cant play together. Go play catch or tag outside if you cant kill each other in CoD all day.

Exclusives are good for the industry. You cant tell me that Bethesda wouldve delayed the game from 2022 if they were still owned by Zenimax. First party MS and Sony can afford to delay these games because they are still making billions in revenues from console sales, third party sales and online subs.

EA, Activision, Ubisoft and dozens of smaller publishers continue to release broken games at launch. We need exclusives because it not only forces publishers to release a quality product but also it drives competition. I really dont like to hear this commie bullshit from capitalist corporations. Competition is good. If Halo was on PS, Sony would not have greenlit KZ. If Uncharted, GOW and Horizon were on Xbox, Phil would not have felt compelled to buy all those studios. Competition is what moves this industry forward. Any industry for that matter.
 
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Man, fuck them kids. Who cares if they cant play together. Go play catch or tag outside if you cant kill each other in CoD all day.

Exclusives are good for the industry. You cant tell me that Bethesda wouldve delayed the game from 2022 if they were still owned by Zenimax. First party MS and Sony can afford to delay these games because they are still making billions in revenues from console sales, third party sales and online subs.

EA, Activision, Ubisoft and dozens of smaller publishers continue to release broken games at launch. We need exclusives because it not only forces publishers to release a quality product but also it drives competition. I really dont like to hear this commie bullshit from capitalistic corporations. Competition is good. If Halo was on PS, Sony would not have greenlit KZ. If Uncharted, GOW and Horizon were on Xbox, Phil would not have felt compelled to buy all those studios. Competition is what moves this industry forward. Any industry for that matter.
Exclusive ecosystems will remain. Exclusive console games will not. It'll be like Windows vs MacOS or Android vs IOS.
 

RaySoft

Member
Well ofcourse.. In the future, the only differential will be the game/software itself. And software is becoming more and more complex, so an even higher level of tools are required, wich again means less defragmentation/specialization in the industry.
In the end, it's the hardware that's optimized towards the software/tools.
 

DaGwaphics

Member
Makes sense. I think everyone expects CoD to remain multi-plat, the size of the machine there almost requires it. The advantage MS gains there is not exclusivity but content for GP that can't be blocked by deals with a competitor. That's the big get. I honestly don't think they ever flip CoD exclusive, not unless almost all the player base moves to GP anyway.
 

skit_data

Member
It’s a pretty obvious trend. Higher costs of development means having to release on more platforms in order to minimize risk. I assume Xbox had to change their strategy last gen already because their established base was too small to bear the costs associated with development and this gen Playstation is doing the same.

Edit: The outlier is Nintendo, but then again Nintendo isn’t really pushing the envelope when it comes to the technical aspect of game making(which could save some manpower). But eventually I think this will reach them as well.
 
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YCoCg

Member
Solidus-Snake-Federal-Hall.jpg

Can't you see Jack? The vision of the future I have, a world without exclusives, without timed deals, an open network of cross platform freeing us from the fake borders given to us by the "platform" makers. We must destroy the 30% cut, entice those to develop for a wide array and not just the few, that is how I'll bring peace to this aging redundant console war.​
 
Okay, Phil, but then the console manufacturers would have to find another way to lure people in to buy their console, which usually means offering something that other console can't possibly have, what would that be?
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Interesting.
Im struggling to understand it though, why would a platform reduce its USP's? Reducing the selling points to just hardware, OS and services is going to make things harder for themselves.
And why would MS buy $billions worth of studios?

I guess it would work if gamepass was everywhere, because gamepass being on PS5 would ultimately provide more installbase for gamepass, but if gamepass is on playstation and ps+ extra/premium is on Xbox whats even the point in making a console? Ms might want there to be PCs under peoples TV's but sony probably wont even though it could potentially increase installbase.
 

Godot25

Banned
Of course.

I mean, even Jim Ryan was crying not that long ago that only few million players are experiencing "amazing" games like TLOU2.

And he is sure as shit not increasing that numbers when that games will be Playstation only...
 

Fredrik

Member
This sounds good and all but the reality is that Sony and Nintendo will keep on using exclusives to lock people to their hardware and their customers would simply stop playing on Xbox if it’s not needed if Microsoft’s games can be played on a Sony and/or Nintendo console.
 

//DEVIL//

Member
As a pc gamer only I like this . Especially when I enjoy console and I don’t even touch pc games like LoL and dota or whatever.

But. This also sadness me as it kinda kills the point of owning a console for its exclusives.

I mean I like how I am starting to get PlayStation games on my pc . But it kinda defeat the purpose of owning one if you have a decent pc. Just like I gave up on the Xbox as a console platform ever since Xbox one going pc

I am guessing it’s pc and switch 2 for me .
 
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Three

Member
This sounds good and all but the reality is that Sony and Nintendo will keep on using exclusives to lock people to their hardware and their customers would simply stop playing on Xbox if it’s not needed if Microsoft’s games can be played on a Sony and/or Nintendo console.
So will MS. He's just whispering sweet nothings again because he needs approval while doing the opposite.
 
Console specs, Controller Preference, Customer Support, Exclusive features like GamePass and Xcloud.
Hm, I can see Game Pass being used as leverage, but then it implies exclusivity, which is something that Phil said they would be moving away from, unless I am mistaking the concept of exclusivity in this matter, in my mind you either eliminate all exclusivity or none of it, you can't have it both ways, but then you have another issue, now people don't have the reason to prefer your console over your competitor's and vice versa, what do we do next?
 
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Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Okay, Phil, but then the console manufacturers would have to find another way to lure people in to buy their console, which usually means offering something that other console can't possibly have, what would that be?
Gamepass.

Im mean, this approach does favour Xbox and Microsofts abilities where they are able to buy $7.5 and $69 billion publishers.
They probably think having sony on board with gamepass is more valuable then trying to destroy them.
 
"Maybe you happen in your household to buy an Xbox and I buy a PlayStation and our kids want to play together and they can't because we bought the wrong piece of plastic to plug into our television,"

Yeah he's totally talking about PC or some streaming shit on TV or mobile.
Starfield is a single-player RPG. How does this analogy of kids wanting to play online together tie into Starfield? Think things through before posting lol.
 
Yeah he's right this good guy Phil, why locking a content to one piece of hardware ? They wouldn't do that, like Starfiel... oh shit

Starfield is going to be available via xbox cloud gaming on iphones, android phones, android tablets, ios tablets, televisions and pc web browsers. Starfield will also be natively available on PC and Xbox Series X|S. Starfield is going to be playable on many more types of devices than Call of Duty currently. Think about that one.
 
Actually, I take that statement back, because I forgot that he said that there would be fewer exclusive titles, he never mentioned that there would be none of them.
Hm, I can see Game Pass being used as leverage, but then it implies exclusivity, which is something that Phil said they would be moving away from, unless I am mistaking the concept of exclusivity in this matter, in my mind you either eliminate all exclusivity or none of it, you can't have it both ways, but then you have another issue, now people don't have the reason to prefer your console over your competitor's and vice versa, what do we do next?
 
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