Summary
Xboxhas been in a bit of a sorry state in recent years, though its first-party lineup of titles scheduled to release this yearis arguably one of its most impressive for the past decade. Despite that,questions have been raised over exclusivity, with high profile titles likeDoom: The Dark AgesandThe Outer Worlds 2releasing onPlayStation, and the future of the console is still pretty uncertain.
When you have rumors thatyour console’s mascot is heading to rival platforms, you know something has gone horribly wrong.
In fact, it sounds as thoughMicrosoftitself wasn’t quite sure what to do with Xbox back in 2021.According to a new report by The Information(which is paywalled), Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had to make a choice between acquiring major game studios in an attempt to bolsterXbox Game Passand its cloud gaming services, or to wind down Xbox entirely.
Since Xbox is still alive and kicking (barely), and Microsoft has since acquired the likes ofBethesdaandActivision Blizzard, we know that Nadella went for the former. However, it’s worth noting that Xbox was just a single year into the release of the Xbox Series X back in 2021, and having to make that kind of decision so early is slightly concerning.
Microsoft Reportedly Wanted 100 Million Xbox Game Pass Subscribers Before 2030
That’s also according to The Information, which claims Microsoft set this target before the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. It seems as though Microsoft planned for the deal to have a much greater impact than it had, and The Information reports that the company also hoped that the deal would coax other developers into renting Azure cloud servers. Safe to say that didn’t really happen either.
