Microsoft is releasing four video games on competing consoles as stated by the company on Thursday. Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft’s gaming division, said in a company video that the decision of releasing four video games, is “not a change to our kind of fundamental exclusive strategy.”
Microsoft’s Xbox will be releasing four video game titles on external platforms, gaming CEO Phil Spencer said on a podcast on Thursday. This is as it looks to tap into a wider base of gamers following its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft strategic shift
Nevertheless, Microsoft strategy shift signals a willingness to generate more revenue from content that previously could only be played on Microsoft’s own gaming hardware.
Microsoft completed the acquisition of prominent video game publisher Activision Blizzard for over $75 billion in October. In the fiscal second quarter, 11% of revenue flowing into Microsoft, the world’s most valuable public company, was tied to gaming. But the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, which became available in 2020, have not proven as popular as the Sony PlayStation 5 or the Nintendo Switch.
“We think this is an interesting point in time for us to use what some of the other platforms have right now to help grow our franchises, so we’re going to do that,” Spencer said in the video.
Microsoft releasing video games
Although Spencer did not give more details on the titles the company intends to release, he said they have been available to Xbox players for at least a year.
Microsoft declined to identify the titles in question, but Spencer said they won’t be Starfield, a long-awaited game that came out in September, or the forthcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
Spencer did say two of the four are “community-driven games,” while the other two are smaller titles that weren’t meant to be exclusive to Microsoft’s own systems.
Spencer said games exclusive to one piece of hardware were going to become a smaller part of the industry over the next five to 10 years.
Activision acquisition
The Activision acquisition was a step towards boosting Microsoft’s heft in the videogame market to better compete with industry leader Sony, which recently cut its forecast for its PlayStation 5 sales for the year ending March.
Microsoft announced last month that it would lay off 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox, a cut that represents about 8% of the overall Microsoft Gaming division.
Game exclusivity
Spencer’s comments on game exclusivity come a day after Sony’s chief financial officer said on a post-earnings call that the company can improve operating profit by bringing first-party games to other platforms.
“Diablo IV”, the first Activision Blizzard game post-acquisition, will be available to subscribers of Xbox’s Game Pass from March 28, according to an Xbox blog.
The growth environment for multi-game subscription services, which include Sony’s PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass, is expected to slow this year, according to research firm NewZoo.
