Xbox showcase doubles Game Pass, but doesn’t talk about exclusive titles

Last week, I claimed that the Xbox presentation on June 9 would be the most important in the history of Microsoft’s gaming division. If that were not the case, it might be because this slick, pre-recorded show would not be able to match in its historical impact, for example, the garbage fire that destroyed the Xbox One Reveal Event 2013or the botched E3 show that followed. It was poised and smooth in its orchestration, impressive in a way that was almost reassuring after the embarrassing anticlimax of Summer Game Fest two days earlier. But it was still immensely significant: because it indicated Microsoft’s enormous publishing power, because it answered questions about the future of Xbox, and because it didn’t answer questions.

In fact, the two most revealing pieces of news came to light outside of the show itself. The first was the confirmation more than a week before the show that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be released on Game Pass on day one. The second thing that Microsoft didn’t mention during its showcase but leaked in a press release alongside it is that Doom: The Dark Ages (one of the biggest first-party reveals of the event) is also coming to PlayStation 5.

Taken together, those two facts make Microsoft’s strategy quite clear: Game Pass is everything, Xbox consoles are not. Microsoft is doubling down on its subscription service and bringing its new, almost terrifying power as a game publisher to the Game Pass catalog. But the company had little to say about Xbox hardware, and its stance on console exclusivity for Microsoft’s own games remains ambivalent at best.

Following the surprise release of four former Xbox exclusives for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch earlier this year, many Xbox fans expected Sunday’s presentation to be an explicit confirmation that Microsoft will continue to invest in Xbox consoles by getting its vast army of first-party studios to develop exclusive games for them. That confirmation never came. In fact, Xbox console exclusivity was not mentioned once. The words “coming to Xbox Series X and PC” appeared just as frequently at the end of trailers for games in famous Xbox franchises like Fable and Gears of War as they did for third-party multiplatform releases like Dragon Age: The Veilguard And Assassin’s Creed ShadowNo attempt was made to differentiate in this regard.

Reports show that Microsoft has “no red lines” internally when it comes to which of its games it will consider for release on other platforms, and the wording (or lack thereof) on Sunday shows that the company wants to keep its options open. It’s notable that Microsoft chose to open the presentation with two heavyweights that will be available on PlayStation: BlackOps 6which was already planned for PS5 (according to Microsoft’s Call of Duty deal with Sony), and Doom: The Dark Ageswhich was not the case.

The dark times“The release of the PS5 is an indication of how Microsoft plans to handle exclusivity in the short term, at least when it comes to games from Bethesda, Activision and Blizzard.” In conversation with IGN After the showcase aired, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said: “Doom is definitely one of those franchises that has a history on so many platforms. It’s a franchise that I think everyone should play. When I was in a meeting with Marty [Stratton, id Software studio director] a few years ago I asked Marty what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to sell it on all platforms. It’s that simple.”

Spencer’s statement and Microsoft’s handling of Minecraft — suggests that Microsoft has no intention of making previously cross-platform game series exclusive. It is a strong indication that Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls 6for one thing, will get a PlayStation version. For everything else, it is an open question. It may seem unthinkable that Gears of War: E-Day or fable will be released on PS5, but nothing said (or unsaid) on Sunday suggests that’s off the table.

When it comes to Game Pass, however, Microsoft couldn’t have been more emphatic. “Play it on day one with Game Pass,” blared the sting at the end of one trailer after another. Of the 30 games, expansions and updates unveiled at Sunday’s show, 20 will be included directly in Game Pass. Of those 20 Game Pass titles, 13 are from Microsoft-owned studios; nine are due out in 2024, eight in 2025, and three don’t yet have a release window.

Call of Duty, Doom, Gears of War, State of Decay, Perfect darkness, fableIndiana Jones, STALKER, Flight Simulator, Confessors…all come to Game Pass as soon as they are released. There are blockbuster shooters and RPGs, strategy and simulation games, wistful indie games and, thanks to partnerships with companies like Kepler Interactive and Rebellion, a good portion of AA Eurojank (perhaps the ideal type of Game Pass game).

In a way, it is more descriptive to look at what comes out of the showcase habit are coming to Game Pass. These 10 titles include major third-party franchises like Metal Gear Solid and Assassin’s Creed; a handful of smaller third-party games; and expansions for Starfield, Diablo4, The Elder Scrolls OnlineAnd World of Warcraft. Sale of DLC for titles included in Game Pass such as Starfield, Diablo4And TESOnline is a big part of the Game Pass business model, so you might still consider those titles under the Game Pass umbrella. (World of Warcraft is the outlier here, as it’s the only Microsoft game featured that isn’t included in Game Pass at all – and in fact, the only one that isn’t available on Xbox consoles.)

If Microsoft has doubts about the long-term commercial viability of console-exclusive releases, it certainly doesn’t seem to have those doubts about Game Pass. With subscriber numbers seemingly reaching a plateau (according to Microsoft’s rarely published figures) and with the likely significant loss of sales through the introduction of a guaranteed seller such as BlackOps 6 into a subscription service, many wondered whether Microsoft’s “Netflix for games” approach made business sense. It’s possible that this debate continued at Microsoft until recently: BlackOps 6 Developer Treyarch said Stephen Totilo from Game File “It wasn’t that long ago” that the studio was informed that the game would be coming to Game Pass. But overall, the presentation was an overwhelming vote of confidence in the service and an indication that it will provide great value to subscribers through 2025 and beyond.

After acquiring Activision Blizzard, Microsoft is now the third-largest gaming company in the world by revenue – and arguably the largest in terms of intellectual property and publishing power. Sunday’s presentation laid out quite convincingly how the company plans to fill those huge boots: dozens of solid-looking games in famous, fan-favorite franchises that stretch far into the future. Quality And The surprising inclusion of some long-gestating titles that were supposedly stuck in development hell, such as Perfect darkness And State of Decay 3seemed to send a clear message that, despite Microsoft’s spotty track record in managing its studios, the company could be trusted to keep all of these projects on track.

However, the Xbox hardware was only mentioned in passing, in the form of three new console configurations and the promise that “we are working hard on the next generation.” The rumored handheld announcement never materialized. And the question of exclusivity remains open.

As for Microsoft’s position in the broader gaming industry, we seem to have found an answer: Microsoft is now a publisher first, a subscription platform second, and a console hardware platform by a wide margin third.