It’s hard to think aboutXboxleaving the console business behind as anything other than the end of the world. Ever since the brand was brought into existence over two decades ago, it has traded on the same business philosophy asSonyandNintendo. Here is a console. It has games that you cannot play anywhere else. Please can you buy it? But for a long time, this strategy hasn’t worked for Xbox, and I’m tempted to suggest it never will again.
For a while it did, with theXbox 360generation especially being home to legends likeHalo,Gearsof War,Viva Pinata,Forza,Blue Dragon,Lost Odyssey, and superior ports of every third-party title - courtesy of the console being much easier to develop for than the competition,a far cry from today. It emboldened Xbox to try new things and expand its exclusive portfolio, but this also developed into a hubris which would see it crash and burn in the generations to come.
Xbox Could Follow In The Footsteps Of The Sega Dreamcast
Xbox Onewould see the introduction ofGame PassandPlay Anywhere, two services that brought exclusive games to PC for the first time and ensured a future where each platform was treated as equal.
But having all of your blockbusters available on a service that costs a fraction of the price was inevitably going to bleed into sales and profits, something we are now seeing the consequences of in high-profile ports and a console strategy that simply isn’t working. I wouldn’t be surprised if we did see another piece of Xbox hardware,perhaps even a handheldthat better considers its place in the current landscape. But after that? Who knows.
When theSega Dreamcastfirst launched, it felt like the future. Arriving ahead of the PS2 was a console with realistic graphics, online capabilities, and some fantastic games you could not find anywhere else.Soul CaliburandSonic Adventurewere serious business, and there were more exclusive gems on the way for early adopters.
But after being burned by Saturn, which was leagues behind the PlayStation in terms of 3D capabilities and exclusive titles, the large majority of people instead waited for Sony’s console. As did developers, who instead of third party ports of major titles forwent the Dreamcast and opted for what would soon become the big three - PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo.
In just three years, the console was taken off the market and Sega was forced into becoming a third-party developer and publisher like Capcom, Square Enix, and many others.
It felt like a death knell at the time, but fast-forward two decades or so and I would argue Sega is more successful now than it was back then.Sonicgames are selling millions andlaunched a billion dollar movie franchise,Like A Dragon/Yakuzahas gone from a cult classic to a global phenomenon, even getting its own Amazon Prime series, while there is more reverence for its classic library than ever.
Sega has good things to look forward to regardless of the platform its games release on, and the more I look at the modern state of Xbox, the more I’m convinced it will follow in its footsteps. I think the transition has already begun, and once you open a box like this, there ain’t no closing it.
The Transition Away From Console Hardware Has Already Begun
Over the past year, we have seenSea of Thieves,Pentiment,Grounded, andHi-Fi Rushcome toPS5andNintendo Switch, withIndiana Jones and The Great Circleset to arrive later this year. All three games are published and developed by Xbox Game Studios, while upcoming titles likeDoom: The Dark Agesand The Outer Worlds 2 are also confirmed to be multiplatform.
Combine this with a fresh helping ofrumours claiming that Halo will eventually make its way to fellow consolesit becomes clear that at some point over the past 18 months a major shift in strategy has gone down in the Xbox camp. No longer is the focus on acquiring studios or developing exclusive games, but ensuring these experiences are reaching the widest audiences and stand to gain the biggest profits possible. If that means putting aside an imaginary console war, so be it.
Once you have committed to multiplatform releases for games of this size, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. Xbox will then be a brand associated with all major consoles. Once the deed is done with Halo, it would be wise to throw flagship hardware aside for good as it focuses on subscription services, dedicated handhelds, and an interest in making games in which there is no permanent residence.
This week’s Developer Direct was the perfect means of showing what that future might look like, since there wasn’t a big deal made of how games are taking advantage of Xbox hardware or where exactly you may play them.
Those were just footnotes as the presentation let developers and games speak for themselves, and I would rather Xbox be in that business than continually shooting itself in the foot. It worked out for Sega, and the more I see from Xbox in the current climate, the more I think it could work for it, too.
