With Microsoft openly supporting PC gaming more than ever and unveiling plans to port exclusive Xbox titles to other platforms, diehard Xbots were concerned the console would be abandoned in the near future. That is not the case, however, with Microsoft reaffirming its dedication to its console hardware.
Reports of Xbox-exclusive games making the jump to other platforms like PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch set the console conversation ablaze to start 2024.
It got so spicy that Microsoft felt the need to directly address the issue before it got even further out of hand—laying out some adjusted plans for its gaming business and how it will impact the Xbox brand and ecosystem moving forward.
Will Microsoft keep making Xbox consoles? Future Xbox plans, explained
Despite hardcore Xbox gamers’ immense overreaction, Microsoft has no plans to ditch any aspect of Xbox hardware, including consoles and peripherals.
In a special business edition of the Xbox Podcast on Feb. 15, multiple Xbox executives—including Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer and president of Xbox Sarah Bond—addressed the reports of Xbox-exclusive titles being ported to PS5 and Switch. According to those executives, four unnamed Xbox games will indeed be coming to other platforms as a trial run for what the Xbox ecosystem could look like.
According to the head of Xbox Game Studios, Matt Booty, Xbox is still operating with its consoles and Game Pass as key factors in all future plans too though. As of now, first-party plans for Xbox mean every game developed by an Xbox Studio will be on Xbox consoles and Game Pass on day one. The team also reiterated that Game Pass will only be offered on Xbox consoles, along with its existing PC version that runs on Microsoft Windows. But that isn’t going to stop Xbox from looking to grow its business.
“Do you say, I have a fixed number of players, the players that we have today, and do I find new ways to monetize those players to get more money from the players that I have? Or do you think about, how do I expand the business I have by finding new players and adding those to the base of players that already play?” Booty said. “Our focus on Xbox for the last decade has really been on that latter point of, how do we make sure Xbox is growing?”
Bond and Spencer both called hardware the “flagship” of the Xbox experience and reaffirmed there are no plans to move beyond that despite a shift in strategy. The plan is to keep the teams creating for Xbox while ensuring those games can be “accessed across any screen” to capitalize on investments like cloud gaming, PC Game Pass, or even a port to rival platforms.
According to Bond, Xbox fans have a lot to look forward to in 2024, teasing new hardware reveals for the holidays. Additionally, she stated Microsoft is already “invested in the next generation roadmap” and a focus on “delivering the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation” with what is to come down the line.
The bottom line is, if you have invested in an Xbox console or are interested in the ecosystem as a whole, Microsoft isn’t abandoning you and will keep supporting its hardware for a long time yet. Just don’t be surprised if some Microsoft games do end up appearing on PlayStation and Nintendo consoles after a year or so on Xbox.
