It seems publishers are having a lot less reason to feel confident in the Xbox brand at the moment. On the GamesIndustry.biz podcast, Christopher Dring claimed that he’s hearing growing unease from third-party studios about the viability of the Xbox brand. Dring says that a very prominent third-party company told him at Game Developers Conference that Xbox’s sales in Europe have “flatlined.” That same company, which released a major game last year, also said that they “don’t know why we bothered supporting” the Xbox Series X|S. Another “not so prominent” company echoed that sentiment.ย
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Dring went on to say that Xbox’s requirement that publishers support both the Xbox Series S and Series X continues to be a source of frustration for companies. Essentially, they’re putting in extra effort to make sure that games are playable on two different sets of Xbox hardware while the majority of interest is in PC and PlayStation 5. Coupled with Xbox’s recent plans to start bringing more games to PS5 and Nintendo Switch, Dring says he believes that “Xbox is in real trouble as a hardware manufacturer.”ย
The Future of Xbox
Readers should keep in mind that it’s just two sources that are saying this, and a lot can change. However, Xbox fans do have significant reason to be worried about the brand’s current direction. Consoles thrive when they have exclusives that make people want to buy them, but Xbox hasn’t had many true exclusives during this generation. There are big name games on the way like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Marvel’s Blade, and O.D., but there’s no way of knowing if those games will actually stay exclusive to the platform. That’s going to make people hesitant to invest in an Xbox, if there’s a chance those games will eventually get ported elsewhere.ย
Of course, Xbox can hardly be blamed for bringing its games to other platforms. The reality is, game development costs are ballooning, and ports are a way to bring in revenue for older games. While Xbox is helping to offset those costs by offering these games to a wider audience, it’s also killing the platform’s biggest selling point.ย
Xbox as a Third-Party
Dring’s comments are bound to add more fuel to the fire of Xbox shifting to a third-party strategy. Microsoft might not have any current plans to abandon its hardware, but all of this sounds a lot like what happened with Sega more than two decades ago. After the failure of the Dreamcast, the company made the decision to exclusively develop games for other platforms, and that move inevitably worked out for the best. With Bethesda and Activision Blizzard now part of Xbox Game Studios, Microsoft could become one of the industry’s biggest third-party publishers, should it choose to go that route. It remains to be seen whether Xbox will ever exit the hardware market, but it’s easy to see why some companies might have less faith in the brand than they used to.ย
Do you think the Xbox console era is coming to an end? Are you worried about the company’s future? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter atย @Marcdachampย or on Instagram atย @Dachampgaming!
[H/T: Video Games Chronicle]
