Examples of Damage Control in Gaming – Xbox Series X-spansion

The dam containing Microsoft’s plans for the Xbox brand in the immediate future has been slowly leaking for a short while now, but big cracks formed on the surface this week. Rumors have said that Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves are being ported to competing platforms, specifically PlayStation 5 and Switch, for several weeks now. Datamined t-shirts have suggested that the former could very well hit both systems soon, perhaps by the end of late March. These two games potentially being ported seemed like a way for Microsoft to test the waters, to determine if porting more third-party games to other platforms might be worth it. This wouldn’t be entirely unprecedented for ports outside PC, as the Ori games were ported to Switch a good while ago. This was simply Microsoft expanding their bases.

But this might have been a massive underestimation. The newest rumors from similar sources suggest that Microsoft has far more grandiose plans for porting games, well beyond those two. If you thought about a popular Xbox gaming IP or a recently-previewed title, the game just happened to be on a list of games that Xbox Game Studios is considering porting.

Starfield? That’s reportedly being considered, perhaps after the first expansion releases. This would be a particularly hilarious turn of events following rumors that Sony was trying to get the game released as a timed console-exclusive title for PlayStation 5, following Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo from Bethesda before… well, you know what happened. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle? Yes, and a few months after the Xbox and PC release at that. Gears of War? Sure, another funny one for anyone else who remembers the totally-legitimate rumors about the earliest Gears games coming to PlayStation 3 — a more innocent time, some would say.

These leaks were ridiculous, to the point that Microsoft had to come out and say something about them during the week. Address the rumors they did, though the response was far briefer than perhaps anticipated. Microsoft Gaming Studios head Phil Spencer posted a statement on Twitter:

“We’re listening and we hear you. We’ve been planning a business update event for next week, where we look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox. Stay tuned.”

This could not be vaguer, but it’s notable that he’s not denying anything. I’d be shocked if he and Xbox Studios President Sarah Bond didn’t confirm the rumors about the titles planned for release in mere days from now.

All this news makes it sound like Xbox Game Studios is making plans to get out of the console hardware market, which wouldn’t be surprising. Microsoft has the least to lose from getting out of the game console industry, thanks to being part of several businesses. They’re a massive company compared to their competitors. Gaming is nowhere near as important to Microsoft as it is to Sony and especially Nintendo. The Xbox One came up short compared to the PlayStation 4 in every territory, even those where Xbox did best like the United States and the United Kingdom. Now that Xbox Series is doing the same compared to PlayStation 5, if not worse, they could see this as a losing battle, and feel the need to change their strategy.

Still, their diminished presence in gaming will be a pity. All these hardware companies are stronger and fairer when they have ample competition, in terms of the software they provide and the occasional discounts. If Microsoft leaves the gaming industry as they currently are, Sony might have less incentive to invest in first-party development as extensively as they are. Sony divesting from PlayStation-exclusive software offerings even the slightest bit would be a shame, with publishers having one fewer choice when it comes to releasing games on closed hardware.

Let’s hold up here, though. I’m getting too far ahead. Let’s see Microsoft announce this initiative first. Note the slightly-heavy use of the word “considered” and its synonyms in this post.

If Microsoft indeed confirms plans to port a bunch of games, I have several requests for them. The current popular games will be at the top of the list in terms of titles to port to competing systems. the company should dip further into their backlog to port underappreciated games, like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. The games sold reasonably well on Xbox 360, but not as good as they should have. This was partly due to a big Japanese RPG audience existing on other platforms. The games have aged reasonably well, provided anyone who plays them doesn’t mind random encounters. It would be great if Microsoft expanded the audience for them.

If Microsoft doesn’t want to port them to other platforms, I’ll settle for a PC version. At least free them from 360 backwards compatibility.

I have plenty more thoughts to provide about what could be an extraordinary move for Microsoft, but let’s save those for the moment it happens… if it happens. Microsoft hasn’t run the tightest ship in their Xbox Gaming Studios department for several years, so I’d bet on all this being true. But in that case, I might as well save further thoughts for the announcement next week. No need to blow everything here.