The thing you are reading on is an Xbox, that’s right! Your phone with a mobile controller, (if Xbox cloud gaming is not blocked on school computers) your PC/Laptop for entertainment and your PC/Laptop for work is an Xbox, your Oculus or Meta (whatever you like to call it) has a game pass streaming app meaning it’s an Xbox. Your portable PC console running windows is an Xbox. Do you have a fire stick? That’s an Xbox as it comes with a Xbox Controller and you could cloud stream your games. This new ad campaign had all these devices we mentioned and technically while Microsoft did not list it as an Xbox, your PlayStation and Nintendo playing Some Xbox games is in fact an Xbox. But how? Why can you play Halo or Forza on a device that is not called an Xbox? Well first you need to sign into the reason why Xbox is introducing this Marketing campaign. It’s a pass with a lot of games and it’s called Gamepass and it’s the reason why the Xbox as a console is pretty much dead.
What happened to the Xbox Console Ecosystem?
While us at the Patriot Press won’t go over the history of the Xbox ecosystem, there were times when Xbox wanted to not make their games exclusive to consoles. Gaming for Windows live was a nightmare for Windows Vista but was the first iteration of Xbox games coming to the PC. Even Halo came to the rival Computer OS and Microsoft’s main computer rival; Apple’s Mac. But outside of PC, Xbox would not have their main Console games go to other devices, their were rare moments with Mobile ports of Kinect games but by and large they (both Microsoft and the Fans) would not even think of having Halo on a PS3 or Forza Motorsport with Motion controls on the Wii. However, many events happened in both 2013 and 2014. First was the release of the Xbox One or the Xbone which flopped when it was announced and a flop with compared to the PS4 in 2013 (this is important because they needed a way to bring back Xbox brand, but we will talk that later). However in 2014 Xbox would buy Mojang for 2.5 billion dollars (creators of one of the most successful games of all times, Minecraft) so Xbox would make Minecraft exclusive to the Xbox brand refunding all console versions and cancelling all future console releases outside of the Xbox version… or would they? Instead Microsoft would keep the game on every device and console which was a good idea as Minecraft would not be the powerhouse it is today without the wide variety of places to play. Now how Microsoft would run Minecraft is subjective but after 2 console redesigns, in 2016; Xbox would Introduce Xbox Play anywhere which was a new attempt at bringing Xbox games to Windows store and the cloud. However, in 2017, Xbox would finally find out how to fix the Xbox Brand because Microsoft would introduce Xbox Game Pass.
Xbox Game Pass
Xbox Game Pass was a subscription service created and had involvement with personal gamer and Xbox CEO Phill Spencer. The game pass was meant to have people download a library of old and new games such as launch games including Halo 5, Gears of War 1-3, 2K, Borderlands and more. Think of the services as Netflix for a game console and because of the Xbox play anywhere program Gamepass would also come to PC and even the cloud with Xbox Cloud gaming streaming games which was different from Playstation an Xbox remote play. You didn’t have to own the console in order to play! As of 2024 game pass has 34 million Subscribers and even companies like Nintendo and Sony would develop Nintendo Switch Online with Nintendo’s wide variety of retro games and PS Plus which was the closest rival to Gamepass and would even bundle in paid online. While many found that the Nintendo’s retro game’s were lacking, and the PS Plus, while more popular, is far more criticized mainly because of it’s questionable and more expensive service, there were 2 reasons Microsoft had the more well known service. One, you did not need to buy an Xbox in order to enjoy Gamepass. And two, day one releases. Day one releases included some of the biggest games of the generation.
Buying Bethesda and Activision – Where Xbox are Today
In 2021 Microsoft would be bought by the studio who made such hits as the recent Fallout, The Elders Scrolls, Doom and more by the studio Bethesda who was making many games in production like Starfield and Redfall, so of course Microsoft would make their games exclusive to their platforms right? Well kind of.. See Xbox wanted to keep many games to their ecosystem including the Starfield, the highly acclaimed Hi-fi Rush and negatively reviewed RedFall yet Xbox would do something Hi-Fi Rush that we will be talking about later. All the games were day one on Gamepass and would stay on game pass. But then another purchase happened, one that would show the overuse of Xbox game pass as a service with the 68 billion dollar purchase of Activision-Blizzard-King. You see Activision is a very big company, one of the biggest in the world with their yearly Call of Duty Games. Blizzard made Overwatch and World of Warcraft games, King who might look like a simple mobile game studio made the 3 billion downloaded Candy Crush and Microsoft would now own Sony’s two original mascots. Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. Naturally you would think they would make all those games exclusive to Microsoft’s Devices, Actually no. If you are starting to notice a pattern it’s because Microsoft did not really care about the console business. Xbox series consoles were incredibly different power wise, this led to confusion of what to really get and people just wanted a normal Xbox console which Sony just had 2 normal PS5’s one was digital while the other had disc and were the same exact console power-wise. While I don’t want to get into console wars the PS5 had games that ran better according to digital foundry (especially compared to the Series S), had more compelling exclusive games and looked like a real next gen project. Microsoft focused on spreading The Xbox brand. Similar to Sony and Nintendo Microsoft would dive into movies with the Halo & Fallout series and the Minecraft Movie. Rare & Activision cameos in games like Super Smash Bros and Astro Bot, it’s own app on Windows that was far more optimized than Games for Windows Live and had a far better transition from Xbox console to PC and spreading and advertising Gamepass far more. Microsoft even experimented with multi console releases with Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves, although both would come a year to 6 years in the case of Sea of Thieves both did incredibly well on PS5, even Blacks Ops 6 which could have possibly made the series consoles fly off the shelves for the holiday season, was still on Playstation. Remember when said the overuse of gamepass that is because Microsoft did not buy Activision for their games, they bought for the day one releases on Gamepass, the same thing happened with Bethesda. If you want to play the “Game of the Generation” Starfield day one, you would need a game pass instead of spending 70 dollars on it. Each of their showcases or directs has come to Gamepass day one, This article may sound like an advertisement for Game Pass but this might actually be damaging to the Xbox brand. Console Players have lost all interest and are probably either moving to PS5, PC or even the Switch because according to Phill Spencer there are no limits for Xbox games to other consoles and we are seeing that with both Doom: The Dark Age and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle both coming to PS5. Some have also theorized that the closure of the 4 Bethesda Studios was because of the failure of their games due to lack of revenue from the main Xbox store. But to end on a bittersweet note, Xbox has been making somewhat weird decisions, but if you really think about it Xbox actually might be successful in the long run, not the console but more so Gamepass and there PC store, Even I who plays mostly on Steam and PS5 have been asking for Xbox Gift Cards for Christmas. So in a way if you think about it, not only that but the games they are releasing on other consoles have been really successful, with more sales going PS5 then Xbox. As a console Xbox might be dead but as both a service like gamepass and as a third party publisher they might actually be successful.
