Xbox Confirms Strategy Shift After 'Starfield' PS5 Rumors Prompt Internal Meeting

Xbox held an internal meeting after the “Starfield” rumors swirled around on PlayStation 5. During an internal town hall on Tuesday, Xbox chief Phil Spencer informed staff that the business had no intentions to quit developing consoles and that Xboxes would continue to be part of a multi-device strategy.

Xbox Reevaluates Exclusive Strategy, Eyes Broader Horizons with PlayStation Debut

Amid reports that Xbox exclusive “Starfield” would make its way to the PlayStation 5, Xbox boss Phil Spencer wrote on Monday, "We're listening and we hear you. We've scheduled a business update event for next week, and we're excited to share additional information with you about Xbox's future plans. Stay tuned."

Hi-Fi Rush, an Xbox exclusive, was rumored to be coming to other platforms in January. However, Microsoft has much more ambitious plans in mind. According to recent sources, “Starfield,” the most enormous Xbox exclusive in years, will be available on the PS5.

The business is considering whether to do the same with the upcoming “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle” game. The company's entire approach would drastically change if Starfield were to launch on other platforms, but considering Xbox's past, this is pretty shocking.

When Microsoft paid $7.5 billion to acquire Bethesda in 2021, the firm pledged that "some new titles" would be exclusive to the Xbox in the future. Naturally, the following projects were “Starfield” and the still-in-development “Elder Scrolls VI.” This was surprising at the time because Bethesda's games had traditionally been multiplatform hits that did incredibly well in sales. For instance, nearly 60 million copies of “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” have been sold worldwide.

There's proof that the "Starfield" game exclusivity also caused some internal uncertainty. Internal documents were released to the public in June 2023 during the FTC-Microsoft hearings on the Activision Blizzard acquisition. Todd Howard, Pete Hines, and other Bethesda execs sent an email in February 2022 that played a significant role.

“Is the below [a statement about Call of Duty staying multiplatform] not the opposite of what we were just asked (told) to do with our titles? What’s the difference?” Hines said, “Did anyone at Xbox think about giving us a heads-up on this? Todd’s going to DICE in a couple of weeks, you don’t think a journo might find him and press him on why the below is ok for COD or any Activision Blizzard games but not TES6 or Starfield? Or at any/every future interview he does?”

Furthermore, a 2020 Kotaku interview featuring Xbox CEO Phil Spencer offers some additional context. Regarding recovering the investment, Spencer said, “This deal was not done to take games away from another player base like that. Nowhere in the documentation that we put together was: ‘How do we keep other players from playing these games?’ We want more people to be able to play games, not fewer people to be able to go play games.”

Although it was obvious that cracks were beginning to appear, this is further supported by the fact that Xbox's recent approach has been centered around developing an "ecosystem" for its platform. Except for the Xbox Game Pass subscription service and the Xbox Gaming Cloud streaming platform, most of the company's critical endeavors have been centered around offering new ways to play. The company's slogan, "Gaming is for everyone," has also made a significant appearance.

Internal Emails Reveal Tension Over Xbox's Exclusivity Strategy for Bethesda Titles

All of this culminates in an interview that Spencer gives to Fortune in May 2023, saying, "We lost the worst generation to lose," ostensibly acknowledging that Xbox will never be able to catch up to PlayStation and Nintendo. Subsequently, in an interview with Famitsu in November 2023, Spencer stated that Xbox's future will be "platform-agnostic."

“Xbox is a community of players, so it's important to build a community of players across a variety of platforms, which gives the community and the brand even more strength.” Spencer says, “Just as we think of ROG Ally and Steam Deck as part of the Xbox community, we need to think of the many Nintendo Switch and PlayStation users as part of the Xbox community in the future."

That sounds like a lead-up to Xbox games making their way to other platforms, and it's becoming evident that Microsoft is rethinking its entire approach.

Xbox Revisits Strategy Amid Market Challenges and Prepares for Broader Game Releases

Microsoft lost ground in the gaming industry with the Xbox One's announcement. When it was revealed that the system would always be online and that used games would not be supported, the controversial 2013 unveiling was met with incredible negative feedback (a policy that Xbox has now taken back after a customer outrage).

Nearly all the goodwill the corporation had built up with the previous two consoles was destroyed by it. Since then, the Xbox Series X|S has struggled with an absence of popular exclusives because many of Xbox's significant titles still need to be in production.

There is a finite amount of evidence—literally years' worth—that the Microsoft business plan is ineffective. With Game Pass, Xbox has established a robust community and infrastructure, but it cannot keep up with the competition in consoles and technology.

In a market where three systems dominate, it doesn't make sense to restrict "Starfield" to the console ranked third. The game was developed by one of the most well-liked developers in the business. Microsoft has been carefully planning this turnaround as a back-pocket move, and it was only a matter of time until titles like Starfield made their way onto other systems.

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