A very interesting bit of information revealed by Matt Booty — head of Microsoft Studios — is suggesting that some first-party titles could no longer be exclusive to Xbox consoles; eventually releasing on Nintendo and Sony platforms, too.
Booty revealed this during an interview with GameInformer, where he toyed with the idea of first-party titles releasing for Nintendo and Sony consoles depending on whether it makes sense for a franchise to go multiplatform.
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I think that the question is less binary about, 'should it be on Switch, should it be on PlayStation?' and more, 'does it make sense for the franchise?'. In other words, is it a kind of game where it would benefit from the network effect of being on a bunch of different platforms, or is it a game where we can best support it by putting resources and making sure that our platforms, things like xCloud and Game Pass and Xbox Live, are really leaning in to support the game?"
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With something like Minecraft, I think it was a no-brainer that we were never going to try and take anything from players that existed on those platforms, and certainly we’ve added platforms since that acquisition," added Booty by making a very valid point in regards to one of their titles going the multiplatform route and doing away with exclusivity.
Booty does reassure, however, that Microsoft will still have their household franchises and they'll keep supporting them; mainly because they were designed to run on specific Xbox consoles that could handle said demanding titles.
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But then obviously we’re going to have our big franchises like Forza, Halo and Sea of Thieves, where those games are designed from the outset to really exist on Xbox, I think that will continue."
Minecraft is, for instance, one of those franchises that began as a Microsoft-exclusive first-party title, but eventually released for other platforms, which is something that has made the game
one of the best-selling video games of all time with over 176 million units sold worldwide across multiple platforms.
With
Minecraft's massive success after going multiplatform, it is easy to see why Microsoft would consider releasing some of their first-party titles on other platforms. That way, developers can keep supporting the games even longer while they generate revenue from multiple sources.
First-party titles releasing on consoles like the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 is, without a doubt, a smart move by Microsoft; one that will likely benefit players and the developers, as well.