As promised earlier this week, Microsoft and Xbox executives Phil Spencer (head of Xbox), Sarah Bond (president, Xbox) and Matt Booty (Head of Xbox Game Studios) got together today to share some important “updates on the Xbox business.” You can check out the full update below, but the headline is that four future formerly Xbox and PC exclusive games are coming to other consoles, but Spencer was not ready to reveal what those games are. They are older games that are more than a year old that have been on Xbox and PC for awhile. A couple of the games, Spencer says, are community-driven and service-based games that have reached their full potential on Xbox and PC. They are franchises that Xbox wants to continue to invest in. Two are smaller games that were not built to be platform exclusives. Though he wasn’t ready to share the game titles, he did confirm that Starfield and Indiana Jones are not in that group.
According to sources reported by The Verge, it seems the four titles may be Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded.
Spencer cushioned everything he said, presumably in expectation of pushback from Xbox fans by saying, “We make every decision with the long term health of Xbox in mind.” He also made sure to remind everyone that Xbox already has games on other platforms, calling out Minecraft in particular. Spencer also briefly touched on the company’s decision to lay off over 1900 employees, though offered little in terms of reasonable rationalization.
Bond also mentioned that Xbox is looking forward to and making plans surrounding future hardware and vaguely promised a substantial leap in technical prowess, but offered little in terms of concrete details.
The podcast also confirmed Activision/Blizzard games are coming to Game Pass starting with Diablo IV on March 28 and that we can expect a new Xbox showcase in June.
