Xbox is on a roll right now, but questions remain about the future viability of the platform.
Since this time last year, it was revealed Microsoft is abandoning video game exclusivity for its Xbox platform. A drip feed of Xbox games are heading to PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. It started with Sea of Thieves, and the next one will be Indiana Jones some time this Spring. I reported recently that even iconic Xbox games like Halo are slated to hit PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 in the future, following comments from Xbox CEO Phil Spencer that the firm has "no red lines" over what games will go multiplatform.
In that universe, you have to wonder exactly why someone might want to buy Xbox hardware in the future. Indeed, Xbox hardware has seen year-over-year declines for several quarters, and a "common sense" explanation could be the lack of exclusive games up to this point. But is that truly accurate?
A new interview with Xbox CEO Phil Spencer up on OG gaming podcast Gamertag Radio (via Klobrille) sought to shed some light on Microsoft's gaming strategy, and the trajectory Xbox is heading in.
Parris Lily asked Xbox CEO Phil Spencer, "there is concern in the community that if you're putting games on other platforms, why would I still want an Xbox when I can get that experience on another platform?"
Xbox CEO Phil Spencer described how Xbox can win using hardware innovation, rather than exclusive games. "I want people to pick hardware based on the capabilities of that hardware, and how that fits into the choices they want to make about where they want to play. We want our hardware to win based on the hardware capabilities that we have."
Spencer described how the most successful games in 2025 are simply games that are everywhere, describing games like Fortnite, Minecraft, and so on. "I want to build a platform that services creators that are trying to meet people on every screen." Spencer reiterated previous comments from the likes of Xbox president Sarah Bond that the firm remains all-in on hardware, describing it as "fundamental" to Xbox. "On our own hardware, I think it's fundamental to what Xbox is. It's not lost on me that "box" is in the name of our brand. I say from the position that I'm in, I look at hardware as a critical part of what we do, while not trying to gatekeep the games off of other places."
"Let's go build innovative hardware that people want to use to play," Spencer described an Xbox future that targets multiple hardware endpoints. "Whether it's in their hands, whether it's inside TVs. I love our hardware team, I spent some time with them just this week, and the roadmap that they have. We're learning a lot from this, like Steam Deck, ROG Ally, Lenovo [Legion Go], what does it mean for Xbox to be on these platforms?"
Xbox has been working hard to bridge the gap between Xbox "We haven't tuned it perfectly yet, and I spend a lot of time with the teams on that. I want to make progress there. From LG [TV] and the work we're doing on cloud. All of that helps us evolve our platform software, so that we really embrace allowing someone to be a member of Xbox on whatever screen they want to play on."
A risky bet, or a disruptive winning strategy?
I recently wrote about how the main thing keeping me on Xbox isn't exclusive games, but is instead Xbox Play Anywhere. It feels like few people know about the fact that a purchase of an Xbox game also comes with the PC version, complete with cloud saves, which is ideal for multi-device use. It's unclear, however, how much of a selling point that is more broadly.
Spencer describes it as so, "Because of the amount of travel I do, I probably play on my [ASUS] ROG Ally as I play on any device. The nice thing is, when I pick it up, 'there's my games!' In our Xbox Developer Direct yesterday, I pushed the team on putting Play Anywhere at the start. More and more it's important that my save files travels to whatever screen I want to play on." I'm in the same boat essentially. I do a lot of travel, but that isn't everyone. Yet, the fact I can take my Nintendo Switch with me, or leave it plugged into the TV, has naturally been a huge part of the console's success story. I think Xbox is clearly onto something here, but execution will be key. Only yesterday, I found myself writing about the disparity between Ninja Gaiden 2 Black on Steam vs. the Microsoft Store PC versions, where the former sports NVIDIA DLSS and the latter does not.
Without exclusive games, it's a more complicated message to put forward to consumers. "Buy an Xbox and it's the only place you can get Halo," seems more compelling to me than "Buy an Xbox, and you can also play Halo on your phone potentially maybe." On the flip side, there's so much competitive in the free-to-play space. On-going cultural linchpins like Fortnite, which can be played anywhere with friends across devices, seem impossible to compete with unless you are also "everywhere." Even if the next Halo was absolutely amazing, would the casual audience buy an Xbox just to play it when they already have so much existing free to play shooter content available on devices they already own? That's the question Xbox seems to be answering here. The answer is most likely no.
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Then, the question falls upon hardware innovations Spencer was alluding to. Right now, we can only speculate as to what the next Xbox console can do to become compelling without exclusive games, but it's not like Xbox hasn't succeeded here previously. The Xbox 360 didn't beat the PS3 on exclusive games at the beginning, it beat the PS3 on value and modularity. Could the next Xbox pull off something similar? I wouldn't count them out just yet. What I do know is the upcoming Xbox games list is fit to bursting, exclusive or not.
