(New York) Xbox will allow rival consoles to offer four of its previously exclusive games, the head of that Microsoft subsidiary, Phil Spencer, announced on Thursday, marking a major change in strategy for the company.
Published at 3:33 p.m. Updated at 4:04 p.m.
The manager did not want to reveal the names of these games, which, according to the information site The Verge, would be Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves and Grounded.
“We believe it is time for us to take advantage of what other platforms have to offer to grow our franchises,” that is, video games initially developed exclusively for Xbox, Mr. Spencer said during a presentation broadcast online.
“I deeply believe that within five to 10 years, support-exclusive games will become a smaller and smaller part of the industry,” the executive said.
He pointed out that none of the titles coming soon to consoles other than Xbox are a slam dunk.
“We are not promising anything beyond these four games,” Mr Spencer warned. “So if you're on another platform and you see them coming, don't take that as a signal that everyone else will follow. »
The most well-known titles that are only available on Xbox include Halo and Starfield.
The announcement comes as Xbox suffers from competition from Sony's PlayStation 5 (PS5) console. According to the company Ampere, sales of Microsoft's console fell by 15% last year, while those of the PS5 increased by 65%, while Sony sold three times as much as its competitor.
Beyond consoles, Microsoft is relying on buying games and updates online to boost its business. The company from Redmond (Washington State) announced on Thursday that it now had 34 million subscribers to its online gaming platform Game Pass.
This represents a 36% increase compared to what Microsoft announced two years ago.
Microsoft also wants to take advantage of the takeover of game manufacturer Activision Blizzard, which was completed in October and has several big hits such as Call of Duty and Candy Crush in its portfolio.