Xbox leadership have officially confirmed that they’re still working towards a highly advanced next-gen console, and that a small selection of previously exclusive games will be rolling out across Switch and PlayStation.
In a highly anticipated episode of the Xbox Podcast featuring Xbox Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, president Sarah Bond, and studio head Matt Booty, Bond dispelled the rumours that Xbox would be withdrawing from the console race, touching lightly on the roadmap moving forward.
“What we’re focused on there is delivering the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation, which makes it better for players, and better for creators and the visions they’re building,” said Bond.
It comes off the back of rumours that Xbox would be slowly withdrawing from the console race, with an increased focus on cross-platform play and reduced exclusivity.
While the discussion around exclusivity is ongoing – Spencer confirmed that Microsoft will be bringing four as-yet unnamed titles to other consoles, saying “exclusive games are going to be a smaller and smaller part of the games industry” over the next five to ten years – the result is far from the dark future that fans were anticipating.
Notably, Spencer confirmed the titles will not include Indiana Jones and the Great Circle or Starfield.
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In an accompanying blog post on Xbox Wire, Jeff Rubenstein touched lightly on the chosen titles, and elaborated further on the first Activision Blizzard game set to come to Game Pass.
“These are titles which have been available to Xbox players for at least a year, including hidden gems that deserve to be experienced more widely, and live service games whose communities will benefit from welcoming even more players,” said Rubenstein.
“We’re happy to share that Diablo IV will be available to play by the 34 million Game Pass subscribers on both PC and Xbox consoles beginning March 28! This is only the start of Xbox players being able to enjoy Activision and Blizzard games on Game Pass – we look forward to sharing more soon.”
