There's been a lot of pitting against Xbox and PlayStation in light of their respective exclusives. A little game to which, let's say it, the subsidiary of Microsoft lost feathers during the previous generation of consoles. But, according to Phil Spencer, the situation could well change in the years to come.
The man at the head of the 23 entities that make up the Xbox Game Studios team spoke to the British daily The Guardian. The opportunity for him to specify certain axes of development of the Xbox brand, in particular with regard to single-player games with very large budgets.
Record investments in favor of “risky” games
It would be in bad faith to say that Microsoft has no strong license to its credit. Age of Empires, Halo, Forza, Gears of War, Sea of Thieves are all counter-examples that prove that Xbox games have a certain weight in the current video game landscape. But, unlike the titles that immediately come to mind when you think "PlayStation", none is fundamentally solo-oriented.
An image that sticks to the skin of Xbox, but that its big boss Phil Spencer will try to erase in the coming years. At the Guardian, the CEO echoes the massive investments undertaken by Microsoft to develop strong licenses, which he describes as “risky”. Why this term? Quite simply because a single-player game, unlike all the titles listed above, cannot rely on a multiplayer particle (or Game as a Service) to continue generating money after its release period has expired.
"I think we're probably building more [solo licenses] than at any time in Xbox history," writes a lucid Phil Spencer on the positive fallout from such a gamble. “Platform owners, whether subscription services, console builders or digital store owners, are actively investing in new, riskier things. Because, if it works, we create value by integrating players into our ecosystem. »
New territories, new studios, new stories
Joined in his exchange with The Guardian by Matt Booty, president of Xbox Game Studios, the two men leave no doubt about their desire to strengthen the presence of Xbox in parts of the world where video games are not yet a evidence. We think in particular of India, South America or Africa. So many new territories that Microsoft wants to seduce… but not just anyhow.
The English daily reporter reports that both Spencer and Booty agree on one thing: if they're going to bring the Xbox brand to these parts of the world, they're going to have to tell new stories. And to do this, new studios will have to be set up.
Asked about the probable takeover of studios in these parts of the world, Phil Spencer answers unequivocally: “I would be really surprised if we didn't. Just to know that there is all this talent that is available and that the development tools are more and more accessible... I would be surprised if, in the next three to five years, you do not see a certain number of studios in places that aren't traditionally strongholds of video game development. »
Matt Booty abounds in this direction and adds to evacuate any possible doubt that these new studios would have great responsibilities and that their role would certainly not be reduced to subcontracting for large American structures, as is still too often the case today. The idea is to create "teams that can build the best version of a triple-A game for their own market."
Water in GaaS
We therefore understand that the future of Xbox will not be determined solely by the influence of its Game Pass (23 million subscribers according to the last count in April) nor by the popularity of game-services like Sea of Thieves, but well by the creation of original licenses that the brand hopes to be as easily identifiable as The Last of Us, God of War, Ratchet & Clank and others in the opposing camp.
In the publisher's boxes, we can already keep a close eye on Psychonauts 2 (it will arrive later on PS4 and PS5), Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2 or even Perfect Dark and Fable. Not to mention Starfield or the future The Elder Scrolls VI, which must now be considered Xbox exclusives.
This attitude contrasts, to say the least, with that of Sony, which a Bloomberg article dated last April depicts as a cautious company reluctant to take risks in terms of new products.
Will Microsoft be able to impose itself so resoundingly on solo experiences as its direct competitor? Hope is allowed. Especially since it is now accepted that Xbox exclusives are available as soon as they are released on the Game Pass and that it is accessible as well on console on the Cloud.
