
Microsoft has confirmed that it will "share updates on the Xbox business" this Thursday, the 15th February, at 12PM PT / 3PM ET / 8PM GMT / 9PM CET. In other words, this is when the beans will finally be spilled on Xbox's all-but-official multiplatform plans. The news will be delivered through the Official Xbox Podcast — which immediately raises questions about the potential scope of these "updates".
In any case, this could be big for us PlayStation fans, and we'll be covering the news from a PlayStation perspective once it breaks. While we're sure Phil Spencer and the gang will tiptoe around the specifics, it'll be interesting to see how all of this goes down.
What are your expectations for this announcement? Feel free to speculate like crazy in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 84
There is actually no indication MS is going multiplatform from that message. It's still all just rumors..
Please just let me replay Hi Fi Rush on PlayStation before Rebirth drops.
Some rumors there's a Nintendo Direct this day too, wonder if they will announce a HiFi rush port there.
I suspect we will get some updates, but I don't think it's going to be as big as people are expecting. Maybe some change around Game Pass
Ahh… no rush then, all you Xbox alumni just relax and enjoy the no-news!
Whatever happens, I've just enjoyed the ride this last week. The memes have been wonderful, and all the business discussion/speculation has been really interesting.
Just gimme Hi-Fi Rush physical copy either on PS5/Switch and I can be happy
A podcast!? This is gonna be an extremely carefully crafted message that confirms they're giving up and putting everything currently available/announced on Switch/PS5 but also a classic Phil Spencer spin zone where they also confirm they'll make more consoles with exclusives on a "case by base" basis. I predict an absolute disaster
What a mess. Even addressing the situation directly won't be very helpful because Microsoft has repeatedly demonstrated you can't trust most of the stuff they say.
@colonelkilgore Nah, career moment incoming.
Xbox doesn’t respect they’re customers at all.
I been waiting for a date.cool Thursday it is.i hope lies of p aka phil spencer spill the beans about the plan for PlayStation.word up son
Part of me wonders the feasibility of Microsoft bringing games to PlayStation.
A) Would Sony even agree to do that
B) MS would have access to business critical info like having the PS5 pro/PS6 dev kits which can inform business decisions (Since they are planning another gen of consoles).
Letting MS have brand new industry secret hardware early (for future games development/porting) is no light decision to take at all.
Sony have to be careful. Nintendo getting some ports due to the partnerships seems much more likely.
Forza Motorsport on the ps5 would be a very cool addition
It’s not too difficult to foresee. They’ll say “a number of games on a case by case basis” will come to “other platforms”, but only at full price while, if you invest in an Xbox or, later, Gamepass on your TV etc, they will all be included day 1. That way they get to make loads more money while increasing the Gamepass userbase. If you are expecting promises on all games I think you’ll be disappointed, outside of maybe one or two announcements you won’t get any definites.
If I was Sony I would refuse their games anyway, if they're bringing games to playstation then it's obvious they aren't getting enough profit from gamepass for their big games. Let them dig themselves out of their grave, if they can.
@JSnow2 100%, people will be coming away from the podcast still confused by Phil's riddles as usual. Even after the podcast, Xbox's future will still be uncertain.
haha.... matt booty. nice.
i think this will be a letdown for the people hoping for a full multiplat release of xbox first party titles. that being said: still crossing my fingers for third-party acquisitions going multiplat again (i really just want elder scrolls 6 on PS5... or PS7 by the time it actually comes to fruition)
Probably going to have quite the spike in listeners for that episode I bet!
My prediction is that they will announce Hi-Fi Rush ports since that is currently the one that has the most evidence supporting its existence. As for any future plans they talk about, it will be very vague and hard to really get anything concrete from this. Still should be fun to listen to it.
@JSnow2 Pretty much. This is going to be 90 minutes of corporate BS and classic Phil Spencer double speak. I think, the bombshell though, won't be Xbox games going to Switch and PS5, but rather MS ending the practice of putting new games on Game Pass day 1. Oh, can you imagine the vitriol of the Xbox fanboys for that announcement?
They need to be straight to the point and name exactly which games are and are not coming to other platforms , no point in beating around the bush at this point
@Shushibda They won't.
I have no dog in this fight, and I know Xbox is dealing with leaks they weren’t expecting. But waiting this long to say anything definitive seems like really bad strategy to me. Why let rumors run wild and everyone else control the narrative for almost another full week?
@Cikajovazmaj dude it’s all but confirmed why do you think it’s having this business update event and didn’t shut down any of the rumors
@NinjaNicky that isn’t what the rumors say and it’s because MS needs to make the money back on that 90 billion they spent and since their game pass subs have stalled and their console sales have cratered this is what they think will help that
The day I stop seeing more Xbox articles on a Playstation website will be the day I know great peace... I jest of course but also can MS just go away and concentrate on making some games...for once.
@Darylb88 why wouldn’t Sony allow it and there is already a report that MS ordered a bunch more ps5 dev kits and there’s obviously a reason for that
@BeerIsAwesome wow Xbox fanboys are really in their feelings lol. Don’t blame Sony blame MS and their horrible marketing and not being a desirable product
Gamepass coming to PS
@BeerIsAwesome "creepy uncle Sony" or senile, dyspraxic Microsoft. Decisions, decisions...
@dark_knightmare2 I'm well aware, I was really just playing dumb.. didn't really work.. I'll let myself out.
I wonder what xbox fans would rather have.
or
@Darylb88 they own Activision so they probably already have devs kits or will have them since Sony wants to keep cod even on their next console.
@JSnow2 lmaooooo same
@dark_knightmare2 ,
@Americansamurai1
Microsoft is a direct competitor in the console space and can use early information from the PS5 pro/ PS6 dev kits to make adjustments to its own hardware. I hardly think Sony want that.
Having the PS5 dev kit post launch is not an issue but they will need access to Sony's latest hardware to port and develop new Xbox games.
@Jay767 Probably, but it is not like Sony respects their customers either. They are all out to make as much money as possible.
Seems like an odd choice.
Are MS going down the SEGA route?
Hopefully they will announce their demise so we Sony fans don't have to see Phil's smug face ever again.
@NinjaNicky yes you could get a PC for the same price as an xbox or ps5 but they won't play the same games at least not to the same quality as the consoles. I do wish people would stop spreading this false idea that its possible because it just isn't. Once again I throw down the gauntlet for somebody to build a gaming rig for £550 and post the video showing all the components used and it running a game that's on the ps5 or series x at the exact same presets and performance.
A podcast, Will I get a better health pitch from Phil before he makes the vaguely worded announcement on the future of Xbox?
I doubt they announce what the future hardware devices are but it would be great if they at least allude to the handheld rumor being true.
There probably won't be the laundry list of multiplat games that people are expecting. It will most likely be the Hi Fi Rush confirmation and an idea of what kind of game qualifies as multiplat. Since they are adding Hi Fi Rush to a lengthy list of already multiplat titles (Ori, cuphead, minecraft legends/dungeons, quake 1&2 remaster) it will probably continue that pattern of the smaller titles.
I hear they're porting across the Red Ring of Death...
For the sake of prediction, I predict immense vagueness.
“It’s currently being considered on a one by one case to bring a selection of our games to other platforms as we aim to bring more players into the Xbox family” kind of deal.
I honestly expected Spencer to post something like this on Twitter to end the insanity of hardcore fans.
Also, do you remember when Phil told something like “we consider PlayStation users part of the Xbox family”? You guys covered that story. I thought it was just incoherent rambling but maybe 🤔 Was this the time he said something true?
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2023/11/playstation-users-to-be-considered-part-of-the-xbox-community-says-xbox-boss
Well verge just had an article where Xbox is calling this Xbox everywhere with hi fi,sot and pentiment being the first to release with others on case by case basis. Gamepass has absolutely stalled and sounds dire. So this sounds like MS easing into going multiplat with some great but “smaller” titles to get the hardcore Xbox fans to acclimate then start porting the rest
his last name is booty
Bring the Ori games to playstation, thanks in advance.
@Cikajovazmaj at this point its not the fact that are any games coming to ps , its which games.
I'm not saying I'm jumping to conclusions, but I've already pre-ordered Forza PS5.
@NinjaNicky do you have a part list for that pc? By "outperform" do you mean something like Celeste ran at higher fps because the pc version has no fps cap?
@NinjaNicky yeah I'm not seeing it mate. Not for £560.
I think the initial lineup will be announced in a Nintendo Direct and then the more general multiplatform strategy is revealed in the podcast.
Tom Warren says Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment are safe. Multiple bigger titles being considered. Make of that what you will.
Meh. This is a corporate Microsoft decision that is being whittled down to a high level (low detail) Xbox podcast to “address” the matter without really addressing anything. I wouldn’t expect anything substantial from this. The fact that they had to have an internal Xbox town hall last Tuesday is more noteworthy than this.
@NinjaNicky @Northern_munkey. What graphics card did you use and how much did that one component cost?
After all the rumours the past week I hope we hear about something interesting and its not just a couple of smaller titles. It would be such an anti climax
@Stevemalkpus exactly! This one component alone is a heck of a chunk of change even with the vat discounted.
Keeping my expectations low for this, would be nice to have games like Hi-Fi Rush or even State of Decay on PlayStation though!
Also... Matt Booty. hehe
The verge reporting hi-fi rush and pentimemt will be coming now with sea of thieves and others coming.
This is because gamepass hasn't been a success, Microsoft expected 73% increase and only got 23% increase from may 2022
Due to the failure of gamepass xbox is now looking to add games to other platforms to recover investment into gamepass
Gamepass needs to hit 100 million users by 2030 and it looks like they will miss that target, releasing other games to platforms will help with investment into gamepass
Xbox games going to other systems. Maybe day 1 maybe like Sony after some initial delay. My bet is no fixed delay but not always instantaneous.
Xbox console “the best way to play” said at least once. Console investment continues.
Xbox continuing to find ways to get GamePass streaming on other platforms.
@lacerz apparently this business update was a planned event but for next month. It's possible they just moved the whole thing up to address the discourse. I agree it's probably a non committal take on future projects.
If it is just the planned event intended for next month instead of solely a response to the out of control rumors then exclusivity tactics could be just a small part of whatever they have.
I might be tempted to watch this but if it’s audio only my brain won’t register it.🤷🏻♂️
@Cikajovazmaj Yeah rumours by some of the most respected and reliable insiders and leakers in the industry…
@sanguinekhajiit i doubt they'll go full but you'll see a lot of games come over , but they'll never be day and date release , pc/xbox will always get exclusives timed maybe 8-12 months after release would be fair imo. some of these games are a very long ways off , like blade could be a 2028 game for all we know , and elder scrolls could be a 2028 or 2029 game.
@Grumblevolcano Nintendo? Their are only a few games that the Switch can handle really, expect HIFi Rush, but the Switch 2 or whatever it’s called, now that’s something else and I imagine it may get Starfield etc.
@TheLotteryMan1 You know what, I thought Ryan was talking out of his ass when he questioned the Game Pass model, and why he would not follow it, then I found out Microsoft are paying up to 300 million for some of the big AAA games on it, and I saw those subscriber numbers plateau and I saw where Ryan was coming from after all.
@S1ayeR74 I think the initial batch will be only games that can run on both PS5 and Switch. Then after Switch's successor is revealed, we start to see more power intensive games be announced for PS5/Switch 2.
It’s sort of fun reading all of the childish comments, but come on.. even if y’all put a piece of plastic on a plinth worshipping it til the end.. why all the hate on getting another stream of games? Play games, have fun! Currently there’s a fun one exclusive to PS5 & PC.. dive into freedom!
Again I think this is extremely overblown. Now that the rumor mill has slowed down. More concrete sources are saying that only pentiment, hifi rush, and sea of thieves are decided upon to go multiplatform.
In all reality exclusivity has hurt gaming in general and due to that exclusivity and platforms being allowed to gobble up studios we have confusion, not enough return on investment and pressure on the Xbox side, and extreme complacency and greed mongering on the PlayStation side.
It's really all bad and honestly I welcome some more competition on the SOFTWARE side to hopefully smack the remasterakes cash grab, iterative sequel factory and live service scheming hypnosis out of playstation.
Let's not pretend there was any real competition on the hardware side, nor should there be anyone choosing sides before just a love of gaming.
However I feel many overlook aspects of this with all the doomsday rhetoric about Xbox. They now own a ton of new studios and every copy of a game sold contributes to revenue. So it makes sense to put those titles in the most hands/platforms possible.
Xbox is not exploding. Dev kits is not really an issue, people in the know can assume stuff — decisions can be kept secret, but tech is kind of a buffet at that level.. thing is.. M$, out of the three, seem to be aiming to disrupt. End “the war”. Nin is doing their thing as always. And SIE? Not really sure, mostly gimmicky meh-features atm :/
Podcast means they'll have a lot to explain, it ain't just a simple multiplat announcement that could have been made with a simple tweet/showcase.
Either this whole thing blew up bigger than they thought or they eff'd up big this time, and given the reaction from insiders I'd bet on the latter.
@UltimateOtaku91 I don’t think many would care dude.
I enjoy games, not plastic box wars, so I don’t care at all lol.
But for 16 years we were fine without day n date games in a subscription. I don’t think nearly anyone outside of the internet hubs would even give a crap.
50 million PS5 sold, and only what? 200-300 at most bother to discuss it on here? We’re a tiny little wee minority. No honest to god grown ass adult is going to give a hoot.
@Frmknst because the majority of gamers won't give two hoots ,and then you have the minority, ps gamers are gloating and xbox gamers are crying , it's all rather sad, you reap what you sow I suppose.
I'm guessing that Game Pass will be on PS5 and the next Nintendo console.
@KnightRider1982 why would Sony or Nintendo want that, use your brains.
@Darylb88 I doubt the dev kits are a deal breaker. If Sony wants to continue getting timely COD releases that run well on potential new hardware (PS5 Pro in the short term, PS6 in the longer), then they have no choice but to send dev kits to ABK early. And even if they didn't, it's safe to assume both MS and Sony have ways to get their hands on each other's dev kits anyway.
Regardless, by the time dev kits are getting sent out, you have to assume final specs are basically set in stone and it would be hard (and very costly) to make meaningful changes to the planning of supply chain and manufacturing at that point. So I don't see how MS can use early dev kit info to give themselves an advantage, without delaying their own hardware and thus giving themselves a disadvantage in the process.
Are we getting a video podcast? I want to SEE Matt's Booty.
@NinjaNicky because gamepass and except for a small handful it has all the same games as the ps5 along with millions of people invested in the eco system and that's where they're friends play.
Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision and a 4k disc player that works alot better than the ps5 is also a bonus 🤷
Just because you don't like a console dosnt mean it's the same for anyone else
@TheLotteryMan1 I mean gamepass hasn't failed in any way
@Ainu20 Well that could all very well be true but we are both assuming without any hard evidence. People in the industry have raised it as a concern though even in the ABK court case (kits would have to be supplied directly to MS too). My assumption is that MS have the kind of resource Sony does not and can scale something up pretty quick. I guess we will see at the start of the next gen if any real advantage has been taken. I wouldn't be surprised if MS games (ABK included) stick to the PS5 version into the PS6 gen which is a less attractive proposition, although maybe that suits MS too.
@Darylb88 Sure, it's a concern. Given the choice, I'm sure Sony would rather not hand out early dev kits to MS, I just don't think it's the end of the world.
And yes MS obviously has more resources than Sony, but does that give them an advantage in supply chain and manufacturing? I wouldn't be so sure about that; they're still a software company first, while Sony has a long and rich history as a hardware technology company.
There's not much more we can do than speculate.
@Ainu20 True, On Thursday we will know if any goes beyond the agreed ABK ones are actually coming to PS or if the rumours were just made up. I'm sure both have strong futures which is good for players.
@NinjaNicky Not everyone wants to game on a pc.. I'll stay with my Xbox. Thanks
@NinjaNicky Funny how your second argument completely nullifies the first one.
The latest rumor points to the next-gen Xbox being designed by the Surface team, which makes total sense. Microsoft's next console will probably run PC SKUs, a path they've been tracing for years now. It will be more Steam Deck than PlayStation. Another rumor even points to a mobile version, which would substitute the Series S.
I don't like this future as I've always loved the good old days of the exotic gaming-oriented hardware. But honestly, those days are far gone and consolized PCs might actually be the only feasible way forward from and investment perspective. It would dramatically reduce R&D costs, time to market and also development expenses since studios would need to target a single SKU.
Of course they won't come out swinging, as that would disrupt the ecosystem to a breaking point. But they will plant the seed, and attentive listeners will be able to read the tea leaves.
It will be a classic Phill Spencer moment: tell'em what they don't wanna hear, but do it in a way they want to hear. Then let them go through the five stages of trauma until they reach acceptance (mostly) so we can finally spill the beans.
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