Since the beginning of the existence of video games, there have been exclusives. These exclusives are usually what get those people who are on the fence about which console to purchase to make a definitive decision, and hopefully live happily with that decision. Other than the first half of the Xbox 360 lifecycle, PlayStation and Nintendo have led the charge in high-quality exclusives for the past 5 console generations.
Xbox was late to the party, but they really made strides at the beginning of the 360 era. If it wasn’t for some corporate decisions regarding the later generation of the Xbox One, they very well could have kept the momentum going well into the next generation and really given PlayStation a run for their money. I suppose we should let bygones be bygones and focus on the modern era.
There have been quite a few rumors circulating regarding Xbox’s strategy moving forward. The biggest one is getting Game Pass on PlayStation. This rumor has, for the most part, been squashed by the fact that Sony has no intention of allowing that to happen. That was until the Activision/Blizzard deal went through. That deal has all but taken away Call of Duty from PlayStation. It hasn’t been completely confirmed that it will no longer be on PlayStation, but it’s only logical to believe Microsoft will use the leverage to get over on Sony, one way or another.
The latest rumors running around the mill have to do with Sea of Thieves coming to PlayStation. Jeff Grub heard about such rumors, but has yet to confirm them. It may even be coming to Switch as well. This would make sense considering, Sea of Thieves is a live service game. Live service games live and die by their player count. Having cross-platform multiplayer (most likely hosted by Microsoft servers to sweeten the deal) would keep the player counts high on that game without having to get more people to purchase consoles.
It’s very likely that with the modern push for cloud-based gaming in the way of streaming that Stadia was on to something, but was just a little too ahead of its time. I think Microsoft wants to do away with selling a lot of hardware, and focus completely on selling cloud-based subscription services on any and every platform available. This would only increase profits, since the hardware was never the most profitable part of video games. The most profitable part of video games has always been the software. Getting more people more access to Microsoft owned software is the most logical step going forward. The best way to do that is to get Microsoft owned software on PlayStation and Nintendo hardware, one way or another.
If Microsoft can leverage the popularity of Call of Duty, one of the top 3 most played games on PlayStation around the world of last year, then we could see more Xbox games coming to PlayStation. I think a Game Pass subscription on PlayStation is really the proverbial Trojan horse to make it all happen.
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Related: My 2024 Video Game Wish List Part I
I was born and raised in a town so small there were more cows than people. I joined the USAF as soon as I could, and I currently reside in San Antonio. I am a singer/songwriter on the side, but I've been a gamer since birth. I grew up with PlayStation and Nintendo, though, I don't discriminate between consoles and PC. I have a PC with a 3080, Steam Deck, and a PS5.
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