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Where are the games? This is the question that has tormented Microsoft’s video game business for six months.
Xbox’s pitch to transform the console gaming industry has been fascinating to watch. Game Pass, multiple hardware options, launching PC games, xCloud, accessibility, inclusiveness, buying Ninja Theory, buying Obsidian, buying Bethesda … it’s all part of the same strategy: reaching billions of players in the world. Ambitious, interesting and disruptive, that’s all a business journalist likes to write.
But that’s just headlines and strategy until the real games come along. I was expecting things to kick off with the launch of the Xbox Series X and S. Surely that was when all the planning, buying, and strategies were going to come to fruition. But it was not. Despite all the media chatter about a rejuvenated Xbox, nothing really changed once the new machines arrived.
In Game Pass, Xbox had the service, and in its newer consoles, it had the hardware, but games were notoriously absent. Meanwhile, at competitor PlayStation, the company may have suffered a few negative stories, but the games more than made up for that, and you could see it in the demand for the PS5.
“Xbox’s E3 showcase was up there with its strongest presentations ever.”
There were some promising games on the release list, but many of them – games like Fable and Perfect Dark – are still in the early stages of development. These games were teased last year almost as a way to attract new hires, rather than selling Game Pass memberships. Critics would note that some of the biggest games Microsoft (or rather Bethesda) would release in 2021 were PS5 exclusives. So where are the games?
Well, yesterday during E3 Xbox showed us that. In what is arguably one of its best performances at E3, Xbox dropped a release list that spans 18 months and is chock-full of things to get people excited about and subscribe to. Many games aren’t exclusive to the Xbox Series S and X, but that’s not the subject of this show. It wasn’t about pushing people to buy new machines, but showing them why Game Pass is something they should be looking into.
In Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 – Microsoft’s two biggest franchises outside of Minecraft – it has two major selling points to get people to try Game Pass this Christmas. It’s not just a console either; in the same window we get Age of Empires 4, which is a major game specifically for the PC audience. These are three big launches that take place relatively close to each other.
It’s not just about the big names. Game Pass needs depth to make sure it’s sticky and not something players are bouncing straight away from. This is where Flight Simulator, Psychonauts, Back 4 Blood, Hades, Among Us, Yakuza: Like A Dragon and a plethora of Bethesda games come in. You come for Halo, but these are the games that keep you hanging around. And it’s all this year, with something big happening every month.
The Xbox Game Pass slate promises to be formidable for 2021 and 2022
It’s only 2021. In Bethesda’s Starfield and Redfall, Xbox has identified two games that will play a big role next year alongside plenty of indie games and third-party exclusives such as Stalker. So, the fact that some games teased last year are a little more distant does not seem so bad.
Not only did we see a really good list of big games, but there was also variety. Big shooters, racing games, and RPGs were all present and correct. It’s still an Xbox event, after all. But there was a wonderful trailer for Microsoft Flight Simulator, we finally have a release date for the comedic platformer Psychonauts 2, Sea of Thieves gets a Pirates of the Caribbean crossover (which looks wonderful), and that’s before we tackle things like the family multiplayer game Party Animals or Shredders snowboard sim.
There was a lot of variety at the Xbox E3 event
For Game Pass to really work, Xbox needs to go beyond the genres that made it successful and do so in a way that doesn’t upset its existing fan base. And in just under 90 minutes at E3 last night, the Xbox team struck that right balance.
Of course, a large list of game releases alone isn’t enough to speed up Xbox Game Pass activity on its own. These games, at least the biggest ones, must offer a quality to match the potential. The last generation was a bit inconsistent with Xbox in terms of quality, and I know from interviewing studio boss Matt Booty that he’s determined to put that in the past.
And Game Pass is also interesting. It is often compared to Netflix, but television and games are very different mediums. Television has traditionally featured subscription-based business models, the content is shorter and more digestible, and the technology is more accessible. In games, consumers are used to buying titles directly, the content takes longer and can take months to discover, and the technology is expensive or requires a very solid Internet infrastructure. Early data is promising, but it’s unclear what the full potential of Game Pass is. And what impact that can have on the future of the gaming industry.
Xbox still has a lot to prove. As Xbox boss Phil Spencer said in his pre-E3 briefing, what he’s trying to do isn’t going to be easy. Yet during the Xbox and Bethesda showcase yesterday, critics of its release schedule were flatly silenced.
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