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Spencer says no reason for first-party Xbox games to be platform exclusive

Spencer says no reason for first-party Xbox games to be platform exclusive

The head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, has provided more detail about the company's plans when it comes to multiplatform releases. 

Speaking to Dustin Legarieas reported by Eurogamer – the exec said that he didn't want to keep games only in its own ecosystem if there is a solid business case of it being popular elsewhere. 

This follows many of Xbox's first-party titles leaving the Microsoft ecosystem for other hardware, such as Sea of Thieves coming to PlayStation 5. Spencer also said that first-party titles, such as Starfield, would not have an "exclusivity window" moving forward. 

"Our strategy is to allow our games to be available," Spencer said.

"Game Pass is an important component of playing the games on our platform, but to keep games off other platforms? That's not a path for us. It doesn't work for us."

He continued: "What we're doing now we think really enables us to build the best platform for the world's best games. Because the world's biggest games are available in multiple places, and more and more creators are asking us, how do we stay connected when our game might be playable in all these different places, and we want Xbox to be absolutely the platform that enables that.

"We think that makes us unique. Most of the other platforms out there are single platform on single device, whether that's PC, whether that's mobile, whether it's a console.

"And we want Xbox to be a platform that enables creators across any screen that people want to play on."


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.