Xbox wants to become the 'top cross-platform games company'

Microsoft plans to break Xbox game exclusivity in an effort to become the top cross-platform games company.

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Gaming is changing. The industry is being hit with massive layoffs due to rising costs, and companies are still trying to deal with the aftershocks of COVID (record revenues led to ballooned investments, over-hiring) and sales misses from the glut of games released in 2023.

Subscription models may not be paying off, and Microsoft may have changed the way it sees the game sales vs services model. Platform-holders like Sony and Microsoft are now talking about the importance of multi-platform gaming. Rumors that Microsoft will break exclusivity for games like Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush to boost game sales and monetization have caused a stir; after all, exclusives sell consoles, right? So if Xbox breaks exclusivity, will gamers even buy Xbox consoles any more?

Microsoft will talk about its plans today at 3PM EST, but Inverse's Shannon Liao has heard more from a separate internal meeting. At the town hall event, Xbox president Sarah Bond reportedly said that "every screen is an Xbox," and that Microsoft aims to become the number one cross-platform games company.

Following the Activision buyout, Microsoft now owns a plethora of top-earning multi-platform games. The $33 billion+ Call of Duty franchise instantly comes to mind, along with billion-dollar IPs like Diablo and Overwatch. And we can't forget about Minecraft, which has sold over 300 million copies in its lifetime and remains Microsoft's historically best-earning video games property. That feat wouldn't be possible if Minecraft wasn't on practically every system.

Microsoft's rationale is, and has been, pretty clear: Games, anywhere, on any device. It's just that up until now those devices haven't really included PlayStation and Nintendo for select games.