The next generation of video game consoles is going to be very different to what we were expecting, that is very clear now. Sony’s casual announcements of a new console, Microsoft’s weird naming convention, what happens next is anyone’s guess.
One of the recent announcements that surprised many people came from Microsoft who stated that that their new console, the Xbox Series X, will not have any first party exclusives for at least a year.
Phil Spencer, Xbox’s executive vice president of gaming, has been speaking to Gamertag Radio and explained why Microsoft have gone down this path. He began by talking about PC hardware and how some high end PCs can run truly impressive games, but developers must also cater for PCs that are older and have less power.
“Obviously we built our strategy with Series X, we started with that in mind – we wanted to go build a gaming console that was going to be the absolute best that we could deliver on a television, and deliver unique capability to creators that they could use to go create the best games,” said Phil. “But you don’t want to do that to the exclusion of everybody else and you also want to do that hand-in-hand with developers because developers want to find the widest audience possible. And yes, there are always trade offs.”
The Series X should be able to do a lot more than just have prettier looking games than the current Xbox consoles, AI should be better, more enemies on screen that sort of thing. If developers are aiming for a last gen base and just making Series X version look nicer then some people might not bother to upgrade, plenty of people are still using base PS4s and Xbox Ones rather than Pros and XB1X.
However, with their game streaming service, new consoles, software, and the PC market, Microsoft are in a strong position no matter what happens next generation. That said, their inclusive plan may annoy the fanboys and they are the ones who will be buying a console on day one – but perhaps that doesn’t matter as much to Microsoft anymore.
Interesting times indeed.
Source:Gamertag Radio via VG247
Tony Cawley
You might want to reword that headline it makes no sense!
Dominic Leighton
I’m really torn about this. Why bother picking one up on day one – particularly if you’ve got an Xbox One X?
Unless it makes huge gameplay differences, rather than just having to choose between resolution and graphics settings, I’m a lot less inclined to rush into it. And I’d have likely bought one on Day One if it had exclusives.
Makes the PS5 more attractive this Christmas, then pick up the Series X later on.
camdaz
I agree the lack of exclusives would put me off a day one buy if I was interested in the green side. Although there aren’t any real exclusive games on Xbox as all their first party games are available on PC.
camdaz
Could the lack of exclusives be down to the fact that MS has had to move the release date of the Series X forward by around a year to stop Sony getting the jump on them. I’m sure MS would have originally planned to have first party games available at launch as it’s exclusives that sell consoles, if this gen is anything to go by.
coruscant
Sounds like a recipe for PS5 victory to me!