Xbox’s ‘Business Update Event’ Attempts To Address Rumors…Vaguely

As anyone paying attention to the video game industry will already know, the last couple of weeks have seen a great deal of rumor and speculation as to the state of Xbox-istan. What started as unsubstantiated rumors suggesting that Xbox was about to make some of its Microsoft-exclusive titles crossplatform to other consoles morphed into more outlandish theories that Microsoft was going to stop making Xbox consoles altogether. Xbox chief Phil Spencer addressed the latter of those rumors in an internal memo, alongside a promise to host a “Business Update Event.”

And so that event happened. Was there information in it? Yes! Did it clear everything up? Kind of! Was it yet another example of vague or confusing communication coming out of Xbox’s leadership? How could it possibly be otherwise?

We’ll start with the rumored crossplatform titles. Much of the rumor mill correctly suggested that there would be 4 games that would be going crossplatform soon. And that turns out to have been true! They’re just not the ones people wanted. And you don’t get to know officially which games we’re talking about, either.

After weeks of rumors around its strategy regarding Xbox console exclusives, Microsoft announced today that it is “going to take four games to the other consoles.” The company stopped short of announcing what those now non-exclusive games would be, but it did point out that neither Starfield nor Bethesda’s upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle would be appearing on other consoles.

All four of the soon-to-be multi-platform titles are “over a year old,” Xbox chief Phil Spencer said in an “Updates on the Xbox Business” podcast video. The list includes a couple of “community-driven” games that are “first iterations of a franchise” that could show growth on non-Xbox consoles, as well as two others that Spencer said were “smaller games that were never really meant to be built as kind of platform exclusives… I think there is an interesting story for us of introducing Xbox franchises to players on other platforms to get them more interested in Xbox.”

Now, on the one hand, more information getting to the public is generally good. And I’m sure there is some sort of business reason why the announcement of what these four games are can’t be officially made, yet. But I also can’t for the life of me understand why this announcement would be made without being able to name the games. This still would typically allow for a lot of rumors to float around, so what was the point?

Fortunately, in this case, journalists did the work and appear to have answered that question for us, such that the speculation will probably be held at bay.

The Verge cites “sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans” in reporting that Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded are the four multi-platform titles Microsoft is referencing today.

“The teams that are building those [multi-platform] games have announced plans that are not too far away,” Spencer said, “but I think when they come out, it’ll make sense.”

But then there was this.

Spencer stressed during the podcast that this limited multi-platform move does not represent “a change to our fundamental exclusive strategy.” He added that “we’re making these decisions for some specific reasons,” citing “the long-term health of Xbox and a desire to “use what some of the other platforms have right now to help grow our franchises.”

To which my immediate reply is: what the hell is your exclusive strategy? Seriously, the messaging on this very important piece of the equation has been all over the damned place. And because of that, someone in Spencer’s position does not get to simply trot this line out there as if everyone in the gaming public is already on the same page as he is. In 2020, Spencer made comments suggesting that crossplatforming titles was not needed for Xbox to succeed with specific game franchises. Then another Xbox executive suggested that games would have timed Microsoft exclusives later that same year. Then, in 2021, Spencer announced that the next Elder Scrolls game would be a Microsoft exclusive. Fast forward roughly one year later and you have Spencer himself stating that exclusive titles were not the future for Xbox, just as Starfield was announced as a, you guessed it, Microsoft exclusive.

It’s in that bowl of tangled informational linguine that Spencer has the gall to state publicly that these latest plans don’t change Xbox’s “fundamental exclusive strategy.” And if you don’t understand why that is so infuriating, you’re lost.

And so this is just more Microsoft. Even attempts at being more open and communicative result in confusion and frustration.