Moore’s Law Is Dead YouTube channel commented Microsoft’s head of gaming Phil Spencer speaks about Xbox’s prospects. He says that users may have to worry about their own Xbox game library, but not now, that Xbox exclusives will drift to «other platforms» and that there will be at least one more generation of Xbox consoles.
According to the video blogger, Microsoft needed to dispel rumors about the possibility of deleting users’ digital libraries due to some changes, which Phil Spencer emphasized in the conversation.
«I personally think it’s crazy to think that Xbox, even though it’s in a bad place right now, would remove digital libraries. I just don’t feel like it’s even close to happening».
However, he did recall that Microsoft did «kill» Windows Live games when the business failed. The author of the blog personally lost «dozens of games» at that time, and no alternative in the form of Steam versions or any other was offered. That’s probably why Microsoft felt the need to mention this in the 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 it on Steam and knew for sure that it would still be there in 20 years».
It seems that Microsoft’s management has made an important decision regarding the Xbox brand and has authorized Phil Spencer to try to gently inform fans that things may change.
*It reminds me of the cliché when a couple gets divorced and they tell their child: «Yes, this month mom will spend more time away from home, but it’s just a break. It’s a break that will last one, maybe two, maybe three months, but it’s just a break. No final decision has been made yet, but eventually mom and dad may get a 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 are clearly saying that things are changing, but don’t worry about it now because it won’t happen tomorrow».
According to Microsoft, Game Pass now has 34 million subscribers — taking into account the fact that Microsoft now considers Xbox Gold to be part of Game Pass. Two years ago, the number of Game Pass users was also 34 million. At one time, due to the acquisition of Activision Blizzard Phil Spencer explicitly said that by 2024 the number should be much higher than that. At the time, Moore’s Law Is Dead predicted that this number would be around 40 million. Not only did Microsoft not reach this value, they actually had no user growth for two years.
Microsoft announced that four former Xbox exclusives are coming to PlayStation 5: Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded, with Phil Spencer accompanying it with the words «we will learn». 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 these games make more money on other platforms than on Xbox or Game Pass. But the channel reassures us with the thought that another generation of Xbox will still be released.