- It’s rumored that Xbox plans to launch its personal unique video games on rival PlayStation.
- Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, promised a “business update event” to make clear the scenario.
- The controversial rumors got here weeks after Microsoft introduced layoffs in its gaming divisions.
The period of Xbox exclusives could also be in its finish recreation.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer is telling Xbox followers to “stay tuned” amid a flurry of rumors and controversy on social media suggesting the Microsoft-owned platform might port over a few of its marquee video games to its rival PlayStation.
“We’re listening and we hear you,” Spencer wrote on X, previously Twitter. “We’ve been planning a business update event for next week, where we look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox.”
Spencer didn’t particularly deal with any of the rumors, nor did he deny them.
If true, it could be the primary time that video games developed and marketed solely for the Xbox could be out there for PlayStation, which is owned by Sony.
Some of the video games rumored to be making the cross-platform leap embody “Starfield,” thought-about one of many greatest video games of final 12 months, in addition to the upcoming “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.” The solely recreation confirmed to be making the leap to Sony’s platform is “Hi-Fi Rush,” Forbes reported.
Xbox gross sales have lagged behind Playstation for years. By the tip of 2023, the PlayStation 5 was outselling the Xbox Series X/S by a margin of almost three-to-one, in accordance with knowledge cited by the Financial Times.
“The main idea is that Xbox has lost the console war for two generations now and they’re going to just stop pretending otherwise,” mentioned Paul Tassi, a online game columnist at Forbes. “They have repeatedly said their future is in services, and bringing Xbox games to as many people as possible.”
The rumors have drawn sharp backlash from a number of outstanding Xbox influencers, whose content material is predicated on video games marketed as Xbox exclusives. Some have publicly withdrawn their help for the model, VGC reported, and no less than one has mentioned they are going to progressively shut down their account.
“It’s so easy to see Xbox is killing its hardware and putting a stake in the heart of it by doing this,” one influencer mentioned, per VGC.
It’s the most recent turbulence for Microsoft Gaming, which introduced final month that it could lay off 1,900 staff in its Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and Zenimax gaming divisions.
That was lower than three months after Microsoft closed a $69 billion deal to amass Activision Blizzard, recognized for titles similar to “Call of Duty.”
The gaming trade as a complete has limped into 2024, with a report 10,500 layoffs final 12 months and 6,200 extra in January alone.