Lately, I penned down an essay focusing on the unique aspects of the Xbox ecosystem rather than just its exclusive games that keep me on Xbox Series X|S.
During the holiday break, I spent a lot of time playing the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Collection. This game series embodies what it means to be an “Xbox” experience more effectively than many other games currently available. Interestingly, Microsoft‘s all-encompassing ecosystem advertising campaign seems to have faded away recently, almost vanishing entirely in the last few weeks. It might not be surprising if you weren’t aware of this campaign, considering how quickly it appeared and then disappeared again. In my opinion, this rapid disappearance suggests that Microsoft may not be fully committed to some of their promises regarding their ecosystem.
In fact, I stated that the “This is an Xbox” campaign was launched too soon. The marketing strategy aimed to emphasize that Xbox games and services can be accessed on various devices, but I contended that implying a full “Xbox experience” could be had on a smartphone borderlines on being offensive. A minuscule fraction of the games available in the Xbox store for PC and Xbox One, Series X|S have buy-once, play-anywhere features with cross-save, and even fewer support cloud gaming.
As an observer, it seems like Xbox is shifting its attention away from hardware more than ever before, leading some critics to question if its gaming division might follow a similar path to Sega from past years. Is it possible that Xbox is becoming a video game publisher without its own store ecosystem and relying on other companies for distribution? While the situation isn’t quite as grim at this moment, unless Microsoft takes swift action to boost the unique features of its ecosystem, I struggle to see how the third-place player will continue to make significant contributions to the gaming industry in the medium to long term.
What do Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Civilization 7 have in common?
What do they all have in common? A complete lack of support for Xbox Play Anywhere.
It appears Microsoft is shifting its focus from solely relying on the sales of the Xbox Series X|S, as it aims to broaden its revenue sources by venturing into PlayStation 5 and potentially the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 market. Last week, Microsoft announced that Forza Horizon 5 will be available on PlayStation 5, accompanied by Age of Empires. Rumors suggest that Halo and Gears of War may also join the lineup, signaling a move away from exclusive games as a means to promote Xbox Series X|S sales.
For quite some time now, yearly sales of Xbox console hardware have consistently dropped compared to previous years, causing growing unease among Xbox enthusiasts about the potential future of the platform. As the number of users decreases, it seems logical that there will be less motivation for game developers to cater to this platform, which could in turn lead to a vicious cycle of departing developers and diminishing player base.
Xbox’s competitive edge lies in several captivating features within its current setup, as I previously mentioned. Over the festive season, I managed to transfer my Xbox saves for the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Collection from my Xbox Series X TV console, to my Lenovo Legion Go PC handheld when Wi-Fi wasn’t available, and finally to my phone via Xbox cloud with touch controls when I had a stable internet connection. This flexibility embodies the vision of an expansive Xbox future, where users can access their content anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Today’s youth, who are accustomed to playing games like Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox, anticipate that their games will be linked to their accounts rather than a particular hardware, allowing them to seamlessly transition between compatible devices.
The problem is, Xbox’s vision for this functionality is pretty much exactly that: a vision.
Among the multitude of games available on Xbox consoles, only a select few truly embrace the Xbox Play Anywhere feature. Regrettably, most of these titles may not be considered as standout or extraordinary experiences by many gamers.
Microsoft’s filter for “Xbox Play Anywhere” on the PC app sometimes lacks uniformity in showcasing its features. Interestingly, a fan-made spreadsheet serves as a helpful resource to identify Xbox Play Anywhile games. Some games offer both cross-buy and cross-save, while others only have cross-save without cross-buy. The majority, unfortunately, don’t provide either feature.
It appears that the top games of the year tend to bypass Xbox Play Anywhere for unspecified reasons, and it seems that Microsoft has to strike a deal directly with publishers or include it in Xbox Game Pass for a game to receive Xbox Play Anywhere support. Interestingly, Capcom supported this feature on smaller games like Kunitsu-Gami, Monster Hunter Rise, and ExoPrimal but not on their larger titles such as Resident Evil 8 and Monster Hunter Wilds. It seems that Capcom hasn’t returned to Xbox Play Anywhere for these bigger games yet. In fact, it appears that there are no “AAA” games that have organically supported Xbox Play Anywhere, with the majority having some form of marketing arrangement with Microsoft. Even most high-quality indie games do not seem to find value in Xbox Play Anywhere.
If game developers don’t find Xbox Play Anywhere beneficial, I’m unsure how Microsoft can expect Xbox to thrive strategically in the long run. Valve’s Steam platform inherently includes “play anywhere” through its licensing agreements, and with console and handheld devices based on Steam emerging as potential rivals to Xbox, it could pose a significant challenge for Xbox. At this point, Xbox has already yielded to PlayStation, and the frequency of games appearing on Xbox Play Anywhere doesn’t instill much faith in its ability to compete with Steam on PC. If Xbox doesn’t step up its game, it might end up excelling at many things but not mastering any particular area.
Without exclusive games, exclusive “features” need to be as strong as possible
As a researcher examining the gaming industry, I find myself reflecting on Phil Spencer’s recent statements regarding the evolving strategy for Xbox hardware. He expressed a desire to focus on unique features that set Xbox apart from its competitors like PlayStation in the future. However, these changes are likely years down the line, leaving some users questioning the relevance of Xbox in the present moment. They seek a clearer understanding of how Xbox plans to differentiate itself and provide value in the here and now.
Xbox Game Pass is fantastic, and it’s impressive that all Xbox first-party games come with Xbox Play Anywhere as a standard feature. Microsoft has been leading in developing backwards compatibility into its consoles, while also offering value at an incredibly reasonable price with its underappreciated and charmingly affordable Xbox Series S. However, the company has faced years of setbacks due to poor game releases, inconsistent strategies, and conflicting messages that have left core fans questioning Microsoft’s commitment to the long-term success of its own ecosystem.
Microsoft owns popular game franchises such as Call of Duty, Candy Crush, World of Warcraft, and Minecraft. These games aren’t disappearing anytime soon, given the vast number of Xbox console users who continue to spend money and the increasing options for accessing these games. Microsoft’s in-house studios are also thriving, with exciting titles like Avowed upcoming, and from my interactions with players in the review program, it seems this game will be exceptional indeed. It appears that 2023 could be Xbox’s best year yet for new games. However, as these games are likely to appear on PlayStation and PC platforms as well, they may not significantly boost Xbox’s local ecosystem, which is currently facing challenges.
To tell you the truth, I don’t know the specific steps to incorporate Xbox Play Anywhere functionality into my game, I’m afraid. At this point, it’s not something I’m working on immediately (regrettably, there are only so many hours in a day), but rest assured, I plan to investigate the matter!
Microsoft needs to enhance its efforts to attract developers to fully leverage the distinctive traits that make Xbox stand out. To achieve this, Microsoft needs to put in more effort and accelerate improvements in areas like Xbox Cloud Gaming, cross-platform saves, and particularly increasing the exposure of these features. There’s a lack of social media announcements for new Xbox Play Anywhere games compared to Xbox Game Pass, which is problematic. The rollout of Xbox Cloud Gaming’s “bring your own game” feature has been sluggish when compared to NVIDIA GeForce Now.
Even though the Microsoft Store on PC offers game developers a more advantageous sales split than Steam and even Xbox itself, independent developers aren’t incentivized to port their games without a PC Game Pass deal. This is a significant issue for the store’s health, in my opinion. Microsoft should strive to make it as effortless as possible for developers of all types to release games on both PC and Xbox, if it wants to match the diversity Steam enjoys. It should also focus on incorporating community tools on PC for developers to interact with their customers more effectively.
The fact that Towerborne, a game published by Xbox, chose to run early access on Steam instead of Xbox is a clear indication of how underdeveloped Xbox’s platform is for developers today.
The insufficient organic backing for Xbox’s unique features might be due to Microsoft not adequately promoting them to developers and consumers, or it could be that these features aren’t particularly enticing to a wider audience outside of a specific niche within a niche.
Although it’s only been a short while since Microsoft changed its approach in this area, I can’t help but feel a bit restless. It appears questionable to pin the entire future of Xbox on these particular unique selling points, as it might not be enough to prevent Microsoft from transitioning into just another “publisher” at the current pace.
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2025-02-07 02:39