The Xbox Series X probably won’t sell as many units as the PS5, but that isn’t Microsoft’s core objective anymore.
Even though it appears like I’m one of the few people who actually enjoyed Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase, I can’t help but shake my head when I see the same statement popping up from disgruntled gamers time and time again. You might have seen it yourself, but it usually goes like this: “There aren’t any exclusives on Xbox Series X, so I’ll just get Halo Infinite on PC or on Xbox One instead.” At first glance, that might seem like a damning insult – and I’m sure, in an ideal world, Microsoft would love to see people proclaiming they’ll buy an Xbox Series X at launch. But if you look a little closer, it shows that the strategy Microsoft has slowly transitioned towards should pay dividends. You see, Microsoft isn’t interested in shipping millions of consoles. Would it like to? Sure. Does it need to? Absolutely not. Microsoft’s approach is patently clear: it wants to reach as many gamers as possible, no matter which platform they choose to play on – and Xbox Game Pass is the string that ties everything together. The experiment to move away from the traditional console upgrade cycle of forcing gamers to buy new hardware for specific games (each and every generation) started with Microsoft’s Xbox Play Anywhere program, which gifted you the PC version of any Xbox One game you bought digitally, and vice versa. When Xbox Play Anywhere was first announced, people questioned its impact. “Why would you play the Xbox version when you can play it on PC?” they mused, which is hardly a strange thing to ask. Well, the point is, you don’t have to play the Xbox version – you get a copy of the game for both platforms, and have the flexibility to play on either device. The key thing is, you’re still purchasing an Xbox game regardless of where you choose to play it. After Xbox Play Anywhere came Xbox Game Pass, a subscription service that has essentially become the Netflix of games. It wasn’t until Microsoft announced that all first-party games from Xbox Games Studio would be included as part of the subscription that it really took off, though.
