Sunday, December 15th 2024
Rumors Of End to Xbox-Only Exclusives Swirl As More Game Studios Embrace Simultaneous Launch Strategy
It looks like the end of the console-exclusive era is marching ever forward. On the one hand, more game studios are embracing simultaneous launch strategies, as was recently emphasized by both Square Enix and Ubisoft adopting multi-platform simultaneous launches for Fantasian Neo Dimension and Assassin's Creed Shadows, respectively. The latest game to join this trend is Outer Worlds 2, which will launch on all platforms—Xbox Series S|X, Windows, PlayStation 5, and even Game Pass—simultaneously in late 2025. The surprising bit about the multi-platform launch of The Outer Worlds 2 is that Microsoft purchased Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind The Outer Worlds, leading many to believe that future games in the franchise would be Xbox/Windows-first. While the original Outer Worlds was released after Microsoft bought Obsidian, the launch contract predates the acquisition, so it also had a simultaneous launch, regardless of Microsoft's ownership.
In addition to the swathe of new games embracing multiple simultaneous platform launches, Jez Cordon, executive editor at Windows Central and well-regarded source for gaming rumors, recently also sparked rumors with a post on X suggesting that no future games developed by Microsoft or its subsidiary studios will be permanent console exclusives. In a reply to a comment criticizing Microsoft for seemingly keeping some games on Xbox and others not, Cordon said "They don't. They're all coming to PlayStation over time."
Cordon also goes on later in the discussion to suggest that the only reason Microsoft hasn't forced its smaller subsidiary studios to pivot to the day-one cross-platform launch strategy is because of development load and those studios not being well-equipped to deal with a simultaneous launch. This is something that Square Enix veteran, Naoki Yoshida, also alluded to when he was talking about Square Enix's shift to the simultaneous launch strategy.
Sources:
Jez Cordon on X, Xbox on YouTube
In addition to the swathe of new games embracing multiple simultaneous platform launches, Jez Cordon, executive editor at Windows Central and well-regarded source for gaming rumors, recently also sparked rumors with a post on X suggesting that no future games developed by Microsoft or its subsidiary studios will be permanent console exclusives. In a reply to a comment criticizing Microsoft for seemingly keeping some games on Xbox and others not, Cordon said "They don't. They're all coming to PlayStation over time."
38 Comments on Rumors Of End to Xbox-Only Exclusives Swirl As More Game Studios Embrace Simultaneous Launch Strategy
Not that they'll succeed, but k.
The whole console/PC wars been caused mostly by the MS themselves. They humiliate console users with worse performance and abilities/options, and humiliate the PC users, by advertising their Xbox consoles, as "superior" gaming platform. It baffles, for why it took so long for people of both camps to suffer and tolerate this attitunde.There's no issue at all. There's no need in exclusivity, at all. These console maker-publishers can easilly survive as superior game makers. Just make great, interesting games, and people will prefer them over bad games. So simple.
Some of the greatest and notable console games have been made during the PS3/X360. But think, for how much bigger could be their expansion/spread among the gamers, if it could be available on PC. And I don't even mention, backlash and rejection, that was caused by the sole reasoning of accusing PC gamers of "pirating", that console makers used as an excuse to keep their games exclusivity. Thus many people lost their hope in playing those exclusive games, and went on.
And there's no way to sell the same games to the same console users, over and over again. Especially, when the console market doesn't expand, due to country restriction.Yeah... nope... the console diversity, not only between each other, but between concoles and PC, has gone since AMD Jaguar. And earlier they both X360 and PS3 were based on Cell processor. And that could somewhat justify the difficulty of porting games from consoles to PC (which BTW often still were developed/made on PC, but for consoles). But as soon, as both consoles and PC got AMD x86 µarch, there were no excuse.
One of examples, that, the Frostbite and Bad Company 1, was made for X360 and PS3, but on PC. It was already done within x86 environment, but ported to consoles. Still, years later, it didn't come to PC, ever. And again, there's no excuse.
Even now, there's only a dozen or so exclusive PS5 titles, and fewer then half of those could be considered good, and that number will continue to fall as stellar blade and spider man 2 get PC releases.Who pays full price? the glory of PC is that sales are frequently a thing, and without console exclusivity you'll be able to get their good games (if they exist) on sale on PC instead.
Spencer said as much. 'We want Xbox to be with you everywhere'.
Yeah, subjectively, there are action games with better controls. Everyone can come up with a list.
Let's not forget that consoles have always been loss leaders; used to get the hardware into homes and then combined with high-quality games to help sell the consoles. It also helped that they always worked out of the box; very minimal setup, and no need to jump through hoops to make games (and later, other media) work. And for awhile, they had a sort of closed ecosystem that was similar to Apple's; allowing them to control the quality of games and ensure it always worked on console, even if later versions on PC required some extra work. Until the costly PS5 Pro, it was often difficult to get a PC with similar performance to said console during each respective generation.
In Playstation's case, they also had additional value. The PS1 was also generally considered a good CD player thanks to its custom audio processor, relative to similarly priced CD players. The PS2 was a cheap DVD player; and hell, there was a period where PS2s were being bought more to play DVDs than to play games. The PS3 was a cheap BD player and had minor multimedia capabilities, what with being able to put photos, music, and videos onto its hard drive. The PS4 kept the focus on games, but also quietly improved the multimedia capabilities and added more streaming options. The PS5 offers relatively high-end visuals (even if capped at 30fps or 60fps) and smoother loading thanks to its dedicated hardware allowing for extremely fast asset streaming. The PS Vita was the first viable mobile gaming console that allowed for then-high-end mobile gaming on the go thanks to its 2G cellular network capability (and something no other dedicated gaming portable has yet to copy).
Outside of Playstation; Dreamcast offered actual internet browser capabilities and basic internet gaming and voice chat. X360 was a cheap HD DVD player. X1 initially sold with a surprisingly high-end spatial tracking camera and temporarily inspired a more active gamer lifestyle via dance games. Gameboy allowed for gaming on the go.