Microsoft is embarking on an interesting multiplatform strategy these days, with its previously exclusive first-party titles like Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment available on PS5 and Nintendo Switch. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has said that the industry shouldn’t rule out any title on other platforms, but he’s also interested in extending that philosophy to other storefronts.
Speaking to Polygon during GDC 2024, Spencer believes there’s a future where the Epic Games Store and Itch.io could be available on Xbox. “[Consider] our history as the Windows company. Nobody would blink twice if I said, ‘Hey when you’re using a PC, you get to decide the type of experience you have [by picking where to buy games]. There’s real value in that.” That freedom could be beneficial to console manufacturers, Microsoft included.
Talking about the current generation, Spencer noted, “Moore’s Law has slowed down. The price of the components of a console aren’t coming down as fast as they have in previous generations.” The console market also seemingly hasn’t seen radical growth compared to PC and handheld.
“[Subsidizing hardware] becomes more challenging in today’s world. And I will say, and this may seem too altruistic, I don’t know that it’s growing the industry. So I think, what are the barriers? What are the things that create friction in today’s world for creators and players? And how can we be part of opening up that model?”
Less exclusivity for Xbox titles is one step, but it also extends to the storefronts where titles are sold. “If I want to play on a gaming PC, then I feel like I’m more a continuous part of a gaming ecosystem as a whole. As opposed to [on console], my gaming is kind of sharded — to use a gaming term — based on these different closed ecosystems that I have to play across.”
Of course, whether other storefronts want to be available on Xbox, PlayStation, or even Nintendo platforms remains to be seen. With Steam crossing 36 million concurrent players and showing no signs of slowing down, it may be content to maintain its stranglehold on PC gaming.
Microsoft will bring Grounded to PS4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch on April 16th and Sea of Thieves to PS5 on April 30th. It remains to be seen if other titles will follow suit, though reports claim that the “majority” of them will be on PlayStation 5 at some point. Stay tuned for updates in the meantime.