The Console Wars have ended with Xbox moving away from exclusives and moving toward releasing games for the PlayStation as well.
While Xbox seems to have conceded defeat, one clear winner in this decision is the consumers.
Xbox is Getting Out of It’s Box
In a recent interview with Xbox Era, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer talks about the company’s new strategy to stay away from traditional exclusives and start selling to the PlayStation market. Spencer explains:
“… There are people – whether it’s their libraries are on PlayStation or Nintendo, whether it’s that they like the controller better, they just like the games that are there – and I don’t want to then look at that and say ‘well, there’s no way that we should be able to build a business there, find fans of our franchises there.”
It is worth noting that moving over to selling games on PlayStation’s platform does mean that Sony will get a 30% cut of the games sold, but it does seem like Xbox is willing to take that blow if it means that they can get to more players. Spencer continues:
“I’m not trying to move them all over to Xbox anymore. We’re all so invested in where our games are, let’s just allow more people to play. And yes, the 70% that we make on games on other platforms is helpful to us being able to build great portfolios, like we showed at Developer Direct, and I hope this will continue to show through the rest of the year.”
Why This is a Win for Consumers
During the Console Wars between Xbox and PlayStation, exclusives were designed so that each console had an enticing enough library for players to purchase it. Xbox had titles like Halo and Gears of War, while PlayStation had The Last of Us and God of War (among others).
While it seemed that both companies were neck-and-neck around the PS2-PS3 era, Microsoft has taken a beating the last two generations, with the PlayStation 4|5 outselling the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. While Sony is still releasing some dynamite exclusives, it seems that Xbox has officially conceded and is just trying to make the most money out of its games, which means selling them on other platforms.
With the economy as it is, consumers may not have the luxury of buying multiple consoles anymore, and the decision of which console to prioritize becomes less important when rent and bills are due.
By becoming non-exclusive, Xbox is allowing more players to enjoy its brand of games without having to make the heavy decision of buying a new console, which could pay off in the long run.
Who knows? Maybe Xbox can use this time to build up new franchises on other platforms. By the time the PlayStation 6 era comes along, they’ll have some solid IP that they can use to push exclusives again. They do still have the upper hand on backward compatibility, and early reviews for the Series X|S did say that it was technically superior to the PS5. PlayStation just really won because they had some great exclusive IP.
For now, fans are waiting to see how Xbox’s decision will affect the overall industry. But for now, it’s a win for consumers that they can play some Xbox games outside of the Microsoft bubble.