Analyzing the Official Xbox Podcast - Xbox Going 3rd Party Developer?

In this video, we react to and analyze Microsoft's February 2024 Podcast where they confirm plans to take some Xbox titles 3rd Party.

Oh my goodness they're finally doing it! Microsoft is going third-party! Well not really. In early 2024 it was leaked that Microsoft was going to be bringing their games to other platforms, and people were wondering if this meant Xbox games such as Gears of War, Halo, and others were going to come to PlayStation and the Nintendo Switch. During the Updates on the Xbox Business | Official Xbox Podcast, we got more information regarding what the plans were, so let's take a deeper look.

What Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond and Matt Booty Discussed:
It is somewhat true that Xbox IS going partially 3rd party, but it's not an exclusive 3rd Party, Microsoft isn't ending the hardware production of Xbox consoles. What they are doing is releasing a very limited number of games, 4 to be exact, on 3rd party hardware. What they look to be doing is bringing older, non-tentpole titles to other platforms. These appear, or at least sound like (because they weren't revealed) to be games that were not AAA titles. I would say I expect them to be similar to, say, Minecraft, Roblox, and Rocket League.

One of the things that they mentioned, and I think is a true strength of Xbox, has been the philosophy that you can access your content regardless of where and when you bought it. That means that you can purchase your content once, and access it across multiple consoles. So if you bought something on the Xbox 360, if it's compatible, you get to access it on newer systems such as the Xbox One, One S, One X, or Series S and Series X.

What isn't happening:
Game Pass isn't coming to other systems, that's something that Microsoft confirmed directly. That is something they are planning on keeping platform-specific to Xbox consoles and Xbox on PC. As such, this is something that again they are simply providing additional options to the players to be able to enjoy cross-play functionality.

Speaking of cross-play, that is one thing that they focused on as well. The goal is to allow people to play where they want when they want, and how they want. They plan on making sure that you can start on one platform and continue from your previous save states and statuses. Theoretically, this means you can start a game on the Xbox, continue it on your PC, and finish on either your Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 5. Overall, the concept sounds like it could be fairly seamless, and really user-friendly.

When is it coming:
We don't know yet. Microsoft and the Xbox team didn't elaborate on when we could expect this to see the light of day, however, I would expect it to arrive before the summer of 2024 is a wrap.

What will we get?
So this is just my hunch, but I am betting we will see Rare Replay, a Forza game, a Halo Game, and Hi-Fi Rush.

What we won't be getting:
Supposedly we're not getting Starfield or Indiana Jones on cross-platform play. That's a bit of a bummer, but understandable.

What do you think? Are you excited for this? What do you hope we'll see? Let me know in the comments.

#Xbox #Gamepass #XboxHardware #Microsoft

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