Exciting news for Xbox but raising a lot of eyebrows among fans at The Game Awards 2024 was the sudden announcement that Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds 2 would release on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X all on the same day turning up the heat on the multi-platform discussion revolving around Xbox.
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Jez Corden: Xbox Exclusives Are a Thing of the Past, Timed and Multiplatform Releases Ahead
Phil Spencer, Microsoft Gaming CEO, had previously suggested that porting was not firmly restricted to Xbox and PC, and Matt Booty, President of Content and Studios, just recently made comments that exclusivity decisions would be assessed on a game-by-game basis. A conflicting approach is tangible in Obsidian’s output for 2025, with Avowed presently slated solely for PC and Xbox Series S|X.
Jez Corden from Windows Central recently tweeted about the fact that, from now on, true Xbox exclusives will basically never exist. From here on out, most games will just be timed exclusives, and only a handful of titles will stay console-exclusive. Speaking about the exclusivity of Playground Games’ Fable, due out sometime next year, Corden suggested that although the game itself was prohibitively expensive to produce, it would eventually be available on other platforms.
Since the Xbox hardware segment hasn’t yet reached a point of ignoring, Corden’s guess, further down the road, is a “niche” product for customers. But user demand and revenue haven’t waned, he believes, and as long as that remains, Xbox will continue building hardware, even if they need growth for long-term sustainability, most especially as the now decades-long scrutiny of the $70 billion Activision Blizzard deal hangs over the platform. If Xbox hardware stagnates, then shareholders are unlikely to put up with it.
Corden doesn’t expect Xbox to be closing up shop anytime soon, but he does believe that it could exist in a flat trend which would ultimately not be sustainable for a giant company. That leaves us with a count of five new Xbox exclusives for 2024, with DOOM: The Dark Ages and The Outer Worlds 2 confirmed for PlayStation 5, while Fable, South of Midnight, and Avowed appear to be on the way too.
FAQs
Will Xbox games remain exclusive?
No, according to Jez Corden, Xbox exclusives are essentially gone. Most games will be timed or multiplatform.
Is Xbox hardware at risk of being discontinued?
Corden believes Xbox hardware will continue as long as revenue and users remain steady, despite flat growth.
