In a recent interview, Xbox chief executive Phil Spencer has all but confirmed that it won’t be making its first-party titles exclusive to its console, suggesting that it might be high time for console warriors to bury their hatchets for the sake of unity.
Spencer said this in a Jan. 25 interview with Destin Legarie, who asked him to state definitively if Starfield will “stay put” as an Xbox exclusive, indicating that Indiana Jones is also planned for a PS5 release. “There’s no reason for me to put a ring fence around any game and say this game will not go to a place that it would find players,” Spencer said, adding that a game being available on more platforms simply constitutes “better business” for Xbox. “Our strategy is to allow games to be available,” he suggested, concluding that the concept of Xbox-only exclusives “doesn’t work” for the gaming conglomerate.
Naturally, this has rubbed some console warriors the wrong way, who, in their strong conviction, think that there is one console to rule them all, whether a PlayStation or an Xbox. “At some point the community’s gotta reach the acceptance stage,” one user wrote in a Jan. 25 thread discussing Spencer’s comments. Another commented how “it’s kinda funny” that Xbox went out of its way to acquire a large number of first-party studios, instilling fear into everyone that the platform is about to become one massive exclusive trove, only for it to go in the opposite direction.
Xbox has allowed its games to launch on other platforms, mainly emphasizing its Game Pass offering, which is currently available only on PC and Xbox (the former primarily operated by Microsoft via the Windows OS). While that is certainly some form of exclusivity, it appears that Xbox, or at least its chief executive, is looking towards making games as broadly available as possible, seeking to put an ultimate end to the era of console wars.
