After weeks of speculation, we finally have an answer as to which Xbox exclusives will be coming to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch soon.
The title of the problem is less important than the strategic axis itself.
Xbox confirmed last week that Obsidian’s Pentiment would begin its multiplatform expansion the next day, followed by Tango Gameworks’ 2023 surprise hit Hi-Fi Rush in March. Another of his Obsidian games, “Grounded” and the popular live service title “Sea of Thieves” are also scheduled for release in his March and his April respectively.
Each title received fair reception from critics, but none match the AAA coverage of other Xbox exclusives, such as Starfield and the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. This indicates that Xbox would rather test the sales potential of going multiplatform before committing to much bigger games with the same plan.
This may seem like a timid way to go multi-platform, but most consumers don’t have the console business in mind.
An exclusive VIP+ survey conducted in January with CivicScience found that only 29% of U.S. respondents want PlayStation and Xbox to become closer partners. Despite the fallout from his October acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Xbox’s parent company Microsoft, fewer respondents opposed this prospect, and far more seemed unconcerned.
The truth is, many of the world’s estimated 3.4 billion gamers play on platforms that are more accessible. As we covered in our State of the Video Game Industry special report, half of his $184 billion market comes from mobile games, with the console sector accounting for just over $50 billion.
PS5 and Xbox Series systems cost hundreds of dollars and were difficult to obtain from 2020 until early 2023 due to semiconductor chip limitations. So it’s easy to see why smartphones are a more accessible way to play games. Mobile games are also typically free to play and rely on in-game purchases for revenue, although most new AAA games are often sold for $70 to recoup development costs.
Even in 2023, when big indie games like “Baldur’s Gate 3” were seeing huge sales in that price range, most gamers would rather prioritize their pocketbooks.
Almost half of respondents to the VIP+ survey are not interested in paying for indie games because game subscriptions are available. Swen Vincke, head of Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios, bemoaned the existence of subscription games and vowed to keep his games off services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus.
Game Pass has long been the more valuable service for console gamers given the amount of new exclusive games available on the service upon initial release, while PS Plus will retain first-party and second-party sales. I’ve avoided this move because of this.
The development cycle for AAA games has widened the calendar gap significantly, with Sony Group telling investors in February that there would be no “new major existing franchise titles” during the fiscal year 2025, which ends next March. I even warned him.
Smaller games like “Pentiment” and “Hi-Fi Rush” can certainly help fill this gap for hungry players, but larger games are generally needed to support lower-cost development. Cutting back on development would go against the wishes of many console gamers. , according to a VIP+ survey. Sony may want to save more on development costs, but it’s much safer to use a competitor’s library.
Each release of a new generation of gaming systems brings significant technological improvements in terms of hardware, which is a key selling point, but expectations for AAA gaming have increased to unsustainable levels. . Exclusivity is important for console brands, but if there aren’t enough games across the board, it’s simply going to be difficult to sell a console. Despite holding a significant lead in the Xbox series, Sony Group expects PS5 sales to be lower than expected at the end of this financial year.and this is rear Chip shortage!
Game Pass has been a major selling point for the Xbox ecosystem for some time now. But after years of rapid growth, Xbox didn’t release subscriber numbers for its service for two full years, which stood at just 34 million as of February 2024.
After overhauling its own PS Plus service in 2022 to better align with Game Pass, Sony has stopped fully reporting subscriber numbers in supplemental profits. Don’t be shocked if the subscription landscape is the next big strategic shift in the console space.
Until then, this early platform migration for Xbox games is a small step aimed at gauging how far too-big-to-fail titles will follow suit.
Now let’s take a closer look at the data-powered VIP+ subscriber report…
