Xbox Boss Foresees “Less and Less” One-Platform Exclusives, Assured on Acti-Blizz Progress

Xbox boss Phil Spencer seems like he’s largely over the thought of exclusives, at the very least of a sure form. When requested by Bloomberg about the way forward for device-specific exclusives, Spencer replied he foresees “less and less” of them sooner or later, which he framed as a constructive factor for gamers.

“Maybe you happen in your household to buy an Xbox and I buy a PlayStation and our kids want to play together and they can’t because we bought the wrong piece of plastic to plug into our television. We really love to be able to bring more players in reducing friction, making people feel safe, secure when they’re playing, allowing them to find their friends, play with their friends, regardless of what device  — I think in the long run that is good for this industry. And maybe in the short run, there’s some people in some companies that don’t love it. But I think as we get over the hump and see where this industry can continue to grow, it proves out to be true.”

Of course, there are various kinds of exclusives in 2022. While Microsoft gave up device-specific-exclusivity fairly a while in the past, releasing their video games on PC and typically even different consoles, not all platforms are bodily. Spencer is clearly betting massive on his Xbox Game Pass service and has spent numerous billions of {dollars} buying studios to make subscription-and-streaming-exclusive video games for them. Spencer isn’t interested by tying us to a selected “piece of plastic” anymore, however he’d certain prefer it if all of us (and our bank card data) had been tied to Xbox Game Pass.

Speaking of exclusives and Microsoft’s starvation for brand new studios, Spencer feels good about how their proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard is progressing because the deal is scrutinized by regulators all over the world…

“I feel good about the progress that we’ve been making, but I go into the process supportive of people who maybe aren’t as close to the gaming industry asking good, hard questions about ‘What is our intent? What does this mean? If you play it out over five years, is this constricting a market? Is it growing a market?’ I’ve never done a 70 billion-dollar deal, so I don’t know what my confidence means,” Spencer mentioned. “I will say the discussions we’ve been having seem positive.”

What do you suppose? Is the single-console unique on its final legs? And is it an excellent factor whether it is?