The YouTube channel Moore’s Law Is Dead commented on the speech of the head of Microsoft’s gaming division, Phil Spencer, regarding the prospects of Xbox. He says that users can and should worry about their own library of Xbox games, but not now, that there will be a drift of Xbox exclusives to other platforms and that there will be at least one more generation of Xbox consoles.
According to the vlogger, Microsoft needed to dispel rumors about the possibility of deletion due to some changes to users’ digital libraries, which Phil Spencer emphasized in the conversation.
“I personally think it’s crazy to think that Xbox, even with the bad state of things right now, would remove digital libraries. I just don’t feel like it’s close to what could have happened.”
However, he mentioned that Microsoft once really “killed” games for Windows Live when that business failed. The author of the blog personally lost “dozens of games” at the time, and no alternative in the form of Steam versions or any other was offered. So Microsoft probably felt the need to say this in an Xbox policy update.
“I can’t say for sure that I would feel as comfortable buying a game on the Xbox Marketplace as I would if I bought a game on Steam and knew for sure that it would still be there in 20 years.”
Microsoft management seems to have made a big decision regarding the Xbox brand and the authority of Phil Spencer to try to gently inform fans that the state of affairs may change.
“It reminds me of the cliché where a couple divorces and they tell their child, ‘Yes, mom is going to spend more time away from home this month, but it’s just a break.’ It’s a break that will last one, maybe two, maybe three months, but it’s only a break. No final decision has been made yet, but eventually mom and dad may divorce, but if that happens, there will be two Christmases,” that’s the tone.”
“They didn’t want to say exactly how bad things could get, but they clearly said things are changing, but don’t worry about it now because it’s not going to happen tomorrow.”
Game Pass now has 34 million subscribers, according to Microsoft officials — given that Microsoft now considers Xbox Gold part of Game Pass. Two years ago, the number of Game Pass users was also 34 million. At one time, in connection with the purchase of Activision Blizzard, Phil Spencer directly said that by 2024 the number should be significantly higher than this value. At the time, Moore’s Law Is Dead predicted that this number would be around 40 million. Not only did Microsoft not reach that number, they actually had no user growth for two years.
Microsoft has announced that four former Xbox exclusives are coming to the PlayStation 5: Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves and Grounded, with Phil Spencer saying “we’ll keep learning”. What exactly can the company learn? It may conclude that this will now be the standard mode of operation: exclusives will become a thing of the past if those games make more money on other platforms than on Xbox or Game Pass. But the channel reassures with the thought that, after all, another generation of Xbox will still be released.
Microsoft has planned a new “iron Xbox” for the end of the year, followed by a super-powerful next-gen console and possibly a Steam Deck-style portable
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