Microsoft just made its best-ever pitch for the Xbox ecosystem

Microsoft just wrapped up its Xbox Games Showcase for 2024, and it was truly one for the ages. Studios like Undead Labs, The Initiative, and Compulsion fully stepped out of the shadows, with some shedding their indie roots to take everything to the next level.

Reactions across social media have been incredibly positive. Xbox's product slate is stronger than ever, with Perfect Dark, State of Decay 3, Gears of War: E-Day, Indiana Jones, and various others painting the Xbox platform in a rosy light. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is also heading straight into Xbox Game Pass, and it also looks like a fantastic step up in quality for the shooter franchise.

However, it's hard to overlook the fact Microsoft is still taking an increasingly "agnostic" stance on platform exclusivity. The slate Microsoft offered at this year's Not-E3 season was the culmination of almost everything Xbox fans have been asking for, for years. Masses of acquisitions, pitched projects, CGI teasers, and strategy shifts have led us to this moment, and I can't help but wonder how the show might've been received if Xbox hadn't blinked.

At the start of this year, Xbox announced that it will begin bringing some of its franchises and games to competitor PlayStation. Sea of Thieves, in particular, has been a huge success story on PlayStation, and conversations in LA this week hinted that the player base has grown on Xbox too as a result of people being able to play with their friends across platforms.

I feel like this is the slate that Xbox needed to compete with PlayStation head-on, and I've seen that sentiment shared in some places. But it seems Xbox is convinced the hardware platform won't grow even if it has the best upcoming Xbox games slate imaginable. Maybe they're right, but we may never know for sure. What is for sure is that the industry is changing, and Microsoft seems to be at the fore.

A fantastic Xbox slate

The Xbox Showcase was incredibly fast paced. Our team could barely keep up with the rapid fire barrage of spectacular content Microsoft was firing out.

The show kicked off with an impressive look at Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Four years in development, the game looks like it's better for it, raising the bar for the franchise. We got a look at the spectacular DOOM: The Dark Ages, set in the Nights Sentinel era. A chainsaw shield? Sign me up. State of Decay 3 also looked fantastic, with glimpses at in-engine gameplay across a more heart-felt approach to zombie apocalypse community building. Perfect Dark also had a strong showing, blurring the espionage action of the original with Mirror's Edge-like parkour.

Microsoft also had a great slate of content from its third-party partners. Expedition 33 looked like the next-gen turn-based JRPG of my dreams, and Flintlock looks like Xbox may almost has its own answer to a Bloodborne-style souls-like, at least in terms of combat gameplay. Service games had a strong showing too, with Diablo 4's utterly insane Vessel of Hatred CGI cinematic, and Fallout 76 revealing that soon, you'll be able to play as a ghoul for the first time.

Across Fable, Perfect Dark, State of Decay 3, Indiana Jones, and DOOM: The Dark Ages, Microsoft's acquisition spree of yesteryear is finally, definitively, bearing fruit. I would argue that Xbox has its biggest, best, and boldest slate of upcoming Xbox games in its entire history, and all of them are coming day one into Xbox Game Pass. But what of the overarching strategy?

A tale of two industries

This is the product slate Xbox needed if it was going to try and continue competing with PlayStation head on. Alas, it seems we no longer live in that world. Microsoft is taking a more agnostic approach to platform exclusivity now, with some of its back catalogue migrating across to PlayStation already.

There are rumors that Microsoft has been "considering" games like Starfield, and even Halo for the multiplatform treatment too. And while I can at least confirm at my end no final decisions have been made and no work has begun on porting some of these rumored games, that doesn't mean it'll never happen. I suspect at least some of the games we saw revealed as Xbox and PC exclusive at today's showcase will eventually find their way onto PlayStation in the future, but I'm not sure Microsoft itself even knows which, if any, right now. One thing is certain, it's not because Xbox is giving up in hardware, as evident from their confirmation that the gen-10 Xbox console hardware is in development. It's more a reaction to the squeeze on hours spent in games that aren't Fortnite-shaped.

Microsoft is reacting to the universe we now find ourselves in, that a vast majority of gamers, more than ever, simply pick a few service games and stick with them over everything else. Newzoo and other analytics firms have confirmed that 60% of all game time hours over the last year were vacuumed up by just a few games, including culprits like Fortnite and Call of Duty. For the "flat" market of gamers who actually play a variety of titles regularly, moving titles to different platforms has become an increasing part of the conversation. Square Enix, for example, announced that it will start going multiplatform in the future, after its exclusivity deals with Sony seemingly failed to offer a good return on investment.

I was hoping Microsoft would offer some firm clarity to customers on exactly how they're approaching exclusivity, but so far I haven't been able to get anything beyond "case by case basis," as they've always said. Xbox lead Phil Spencer and other execs are taking interviews with bigger outlets this week, so I wouldn't be surprised if we do get some more information on exactly what their approach looks like. If we do, I'll update this section.

What remains true, though, is that so-called "black hole" games that just go on forever with endless content updates, like Fortnite, and so on, have made it difficult for some publishers to find new players. Xbox Game Pass has been a great vehicle for cutting through that, since it reduces the barrier to entry by orders of magnitude. The question has always been whether or not the multiplatform strategy would harm the Xbox platform itself, though.

If there are fewer reasons to buy an Xbox, then, there'll be fewer players, fewer third-party developers, and then we get a self-perpetuating death spiral. The good news is that Xbox just made its best pitch for Xbox hardware ever, and putting Call of Duty Black Ops 6 day and date into Xbox Game Pass is perhaps the best "exclusive" Xbox could offer today's gamer.

What impact, if any, it has on hardware sales, remains to be seen. It certainly can't hurt, right? I just wish Microsoft had waited a little bit longer before pulling the trigger, but maybe it wouldn't have mattered either way. I'm interested to find out where it all goes.

The industry is changing, and competition is extreme

I've read that the game industry is "maturing" and hitting its saturation point, in some aspects. The pandemic saw play time hours explode while everyone was stuck in lockdown, but we've seen a contraction since, which has led to project cancellations, studio closures, and mass layoffs.

Finding a healthy flow of new gamers is the biggest challenge facing platform holders right now, which is why you've seen Sony expand its games to PC more aggressively than previously. Xbox already crossed that bridge, but now it's crossing another bridge to PlayStation on top. I would argue that Microsoft's games studios and teams are delivering some of their best ever work, with zero doubts in my mind that Xbox gamers are in for a massive slate of high-quality titles the level of which they've waited for, and deserved.

With great games seemingly on lock, a question falls to the Xbox's platform future. What will next-gen consoles look like? What's the strategy for improving the OS and platform itself? What can Xbox do about flagging sales in Europe? Does Xbox need a bigger marketing presence? Will the multiplatform strategy harm (or maybe even help) the Xbox footprint? And so on. I'm looking forward to finding out the answers.

What are your biggest questions for Xbox? What did you think of the Xbox Games Showcase? Hit the comments, let us know.