Xbox Play Anywhere: Is Microsoft’s Big Promise Falling Flat?

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Yesterday, I penned an article highlighting the issues with Microsoft’s current gaming approach, which has transitioned from exclusive Xbox games to focusing on service and feature distinctions. It seems logical that with fewer exclusive games, there would be less interest in Xbox consoles—leading to fewer developers creating Xbox games, and consequently, less demand for Xbox consoles. Remarkably, Microsoft appears unconcerned (or indifferent) as it persists in releasing its former exclusives like Forza Horizon 5 on PlayStation.

In other words, Xbox’s chief, Phil Spencer, has stated that Xbox currently boasts more users than ever before on their console. Additionally, Xbox-specific features such as Xbox Cloud Gaming are expanding. Microsoft anticipates gaining more users in the future by offering unique features like Xbox Game Pass, backward compatibility, and Xbox Play Anywhere.

The “Play Anywhere” feature of Xbox is incredibly appealing, allowing users to transfer their game and save files to various devices. For myself, the prospect of moving my Xbox save files to my phone via cloud storage or a Lenovo Legion Go PC gaming handheld is what maintains my loyalty to this ecosystem. However, I’ve found that unfortunately, only a small number of high-quality games offer this functionality.

Following my previous post, a user recently contacted me to provide an analysis from Omdia and GameDeveloper.com that sheds light on the decreasing number of newly released games compatible with Xbox Play Anywhere each year.

Over the last five years, there’s been a noticeable stagnation in the number of games offering Play Anywhere support. Remarkably, this figure dropped nearly in half compared to the previous year in 2024. Since then, it has shown minimal growth or change.

The graph suggests that the feature’s performance thus far might not be meeting expectations, as developers appear to view it primarily as a promotional tool for partnerships with Xbox and Xbox Game Pass. Games like Kunitsu-Gami, Monster Hunter Rise, and Exoprimal have joined Xbox Play Anywhere due to their marketing agreements, while bigger titles such as Monster Hunter World or Resident Evil 8 are conspicuously absent from the platform.

Microsoft’s in-house games usually come with Xbox Play Anywhere integration, though not all of them do. For instance, I ended up purchasing the latest Diablo 4 expansion on both my PC and Xbox, even though it offers cross-save functionality.

If developers don’t find Xbox Play Anywhere valuable or aren’t naturally motivated to support it, I would contend that it may not be as significant an advantage as Microsoft believes. In fact, Microsoft launched a marketing campaign named “This is Xbox” towards the end of last year, emphasizing Play Anywhere, suggesting users might opt for laptops and smartphones instead of Xbox consoles. However, given Xbox’s year-over-year hardware declines, it appears they are paying attention to this feedback. Unfortunately, the number of high-quality games available on these “Xbox phones” and “laptops” is minuscule compared to a dedicated Xbox console, which Microsoft seems less inclined to sell nowadays.

Microsoft is developing new hardware for the next generation, which could theoretically merge Xbox and Windows PC more seamlessly than ever before. Could it be that the concept of Xbox Play Anywhere becomes redundant when the development environment is simply referred to as “Windows” for the next generation? The vision is inspiring and thrilling, but unfortunately, the rollout has been disappointingly lackluster so far.

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2025-02-07 23:09