OPINION : The Xbox community has gone into meltdown observe reports fromThe VergeandXbox ERAthat Indiana Jones and Starfield may be coming to the PS5 . Rumours designate theHi - Fi Rushand Blade could become multi - weapons platform too .
Microsoft has n’t verify these reports just yet , butPhil Spencer has confirmedthat Microsoft will be hand over a business sector update event next week . Many are speculating that Xbox will use this event to announce its plan to go multi - platform .
Many feel that this is a disastrous decision by Xbox , with exclusives historically having a massive influence on console table sale . TheFinancial Timesreports that thePS5is currently outsell theXbox Series Xby nearly three - to - one security deposit . With trivial separating the two consoles in price of hardware , the most obvious account for this lead is Sony ’s greater card of first - company games .
Microsoft has hit back with several acquisitions , most notably Bethesda and Activision Blizzard , with the former resulting in the exclusivity ofStarfieldand Redfall . However , these launches have apparently not had the desire effect on Xbox console sales . The Financial Timesreports that Xbox hardware cut-rate sale fell about 15 % from 2022 to 2023 , while PS5 sale grew by a whopping 65 % .
So how can Xbox exit the gap ? The most obvious answer is to simply improve the quality of its first - party games , but that ’s easy say than done .
Forbes reportsthat the budget ofMarvel ’s Spider - Man 2totalled up to a jaw - dropping $ 300 million . If Xbox intends to seriously vie with Sony , then you ’d argue it will need to couple these sky - gamey budgets . But then again , is that really sustainable ?
In a bid to withhold all of the money spend on production , Sony now charges £ 70 for first - company games . Meanwhile , Microsoft has committed itself to launching every first - party game on itsGame Passsubscription service of process from Clarence Shepard Day Jr. one , which only costs users £ 8.99 per month for admission to hundreds of game .
This is a bargain for gamers , but consequently mean investing a caboodle of money on a single first - party game is a huge risk for Microsoft . And even taking Game Pass out of the par , the smaller substance abuser base of the Xbox Series X andSeries Scompared to the PS5 also makes it a lot more difficult to render a high act of sale for an undivided game . Sony has sold over 50 million social unit of the PS5 , whereas theXbox Series X / S apparently sold just over 21 million as of September 2023 .
So now Xbox has been forced into a really hard position . Does it keep trying to build its portfolio of exclusives and risk a fiscal smash due to the humble user alkali of the Xbox , or does it launch all of its first - party game on rival platform such as the PS5 and Nintendo Switch heir ?
The biggest issue with the latter option is that there would no longer be an motivator for multitude to buy an Xbox console alternatively of a PlayStation . But I ’d argue that the horse has already decamp when it comes to the cabinet state of war , as PlayStation has become an uncatchable juggernaut . Instead , I ’d argue that Microsoft should trade its attention to Game Pass .
Even if the likes of Starfield , Call of Duty , andHalowere all available on the PS5 , plenty of hoi polloi would belike still favour to take on them on Game Pass due to its incredible value for money .
significantly though , pretend such game available on PS5 would increase both the sales and revenue of Xbox ’s first - company games . This would earmark Microsoft to warrant bigger budgets for its first - party games , while still being surefooted that it will still make a net . It could then reinvest the money made into further improving its first - company catalog as well as the infrastructure of Game Pass .
Most gamers will feel that such a move is farfetched . You ’d never have a bun in the oven to see Mario or Kratos on a rival console , so why would Xbox do the same with the likes of Master Chief ? But I ’d reason that Game Pass has change the landscape . scoop only make sense when you ’re attempting to sell more cabinet than your rivals , but that same logic does n’t apply to Game Pass .
true , defecate Xbox games multi - platform would plausibly see a further decline to Xbox console sales , but does that really matter ? The years of console is lento coming to an end , and it ’s finally time for Xbox to focus all of its attending on Game Pass .
observe : This opinion spell was in the first place write on 1st January 2024 , but has since been update to chew over the emerging written report that Microsoft is indeed plan to make its first - company game library multiplatform .
