(New York) Xbox will let rival consoles offer four of its previously exclusive games, announced Thursday the boss of this Microsoft subsidiary, Phil Spencer, which constitutes a major change in strategy for the group.
The manager did not wish to reveal the names of these games, which would be, according to the information site The Verge, Hi-Fi Rush, Penment, Sea of Thieves And Grounded.
“We believe that the time has come for us to use what other platforms offer to grow our franchises”, that is to say video games developed, initially, exclusively for Xbox, explained Mr. Spencer during a presentation broadcast online.
“I have the deep conviction that within 5 to 10 years, games exclusive to a support will represent an increasingly small part of the industry,” said the manager.
He suggested that none of the titles coming soon to consoles other than Xbox were heavy hitters.
“We are not promising anything beyond these four games,” warned Mr. Spencer. “So if you’re on another platform and you see them coming, don’t take it as a signal that everyone else will follow. »
Some of the most well-known titles to be available only on Xbox include Halo And Starfield.
The announcement comes as Xbox suffers from competition with Sony’s PlayStation 5 (PS5) console. According to the Ampere firm, sales of Microsoft’s console fell by 15% last year, when those of PS5 jumped by 65%, Sony selling triple the volumes of its competitor.
Beyond consoles, Microsoft is counting on the purchase of games and updates online to boost its business. The Redmond (Washington State) group indicated on Thursday that it now had 34 million subscribers to its Game Pass online gaming platform.
This represents an increase of 36% compared to the figure announced by Microsoft two years ago.
Microsoft also wants to exploit the acquisition, finalized in October, of the game publisher Activision Blizzard, which has several big successes in its portfolio, such as Call of Duty And candy Crush.