Hi-Fi Rush. Sea Of Thieves. Grounded. Pentiment. Four innocuous videogame titles – or they would be, if they didn’t represent what might be one of the biggest industry shifts we’ve seen… ever. These four games were formerly Xbox exclusives, and now they’re coming to PlayStation.
Make no mistake, the white obelisks next to our TVs aren’t only competitors to Xbox, they’re the competitor in a way Nintendo Switch and PC aren’t. While we’ve seen Xbox games on PlayStation before, they’ve always felt like technicalities. Xbox bought
Minecraft after the phenomenon was everywhere – so why take it away? Likewise, Double Fine platformer Psychonauts 2 had been announced as multi-platform before the developer was bought by Microsoft, and had taken funding money from consumers with that promise. Similarly, Call Of Duty is too well established as multi-platform for loyal fans ready to spend money on their series of choice.
But none of that’s the case for these four, which have been Xbox exclusives since they were released, with no hint that would ever change. Until now. Talking about this move as more of an experiment, head of Xbox Phil Spencer calls it “not a change to our […] fundamental exclusive strategy.” However, like all experiments, by its nature it will inform the future. Especially as right after saying this during the announcement, Spencer stated he has “a fundamental belief that over the next five or ten years, exclusive games – games that are exclusive to one piece of hardware – are going to be a smaller and smaller part of the games industry.”
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Denne historien er fra May 2024-utgaven av PLAY Magazine UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Batman: Arkham Asylum
15 years!? Holy depressing passing of time, Batman!
The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road
Keeping us engaged with the carat-and-stick approach
Alan Wake 2: Night Springs
Keepin' it weird
GRAND THEFT AUTO VI
The ruler of the crime sandbox returns
WARHAMMER 40,000: SPACE MARINE 2
Up to your pauldrons in science-fiction action
DELTA FORCE: HAWK OPS
Teaching an old hawk new tricks
Welcome to the Roughnecks
Blasting bugs and shooting the breeze with Starship Troopers game lead Peter Maurice and star Casper Van Dien
LEGO HORIZON ADVENTURES
Bricks and stones may break robo dino bones
ASSASSIN'S CREED SHADOWS
Presenting protagonist double trouble
Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance
A delightfully devilish refresh