Xbox in 2024

The main thing the Xbox community has been asking for the past two console generations is simple. “Where are the games?”. Going into 2024, we’re finally at a post-acquisition era where we have a pretty solid roadmap for the Xbox brand for at least the next 2 years. Sadly, as one problem fades, more seem to pop up, and with recent online discourse and rumors about Xbox going third-party, even more questions and speculation are being asked and warranted. Some may be asking, “What about leadership and the faces of the company?”. Phil Spencer, who’s been leading the charge, has now been with Microsoft since 1988, and leading the charge of Team Xbox since 2014 may be comfortable enough looking around retirement. With leadership roles being moved around and promotions given to Sarah Bond and Matt Booty, who’s next to take the lead and attempt to carry on Spencer’s legacy when the time comes? There’s more to talk about now than ever for Xbox, so let’s dive into what could be in store for the green brand in the coming year.

EVERY SHIP NEEDS A CAPTAIN

Let’s start with management. Personally, I feel that Phil Spencer has a few years left in him, at least to push out the next-generation Xbox console. The moves they’ve been making with leadership feel more like general restructuring to help out the teams at Bethesda, Activision, and Blizzard. The number of employees and projects they have to overlook has doubled, if not tripled, with these new studios on board, so spreading out a wider net to help Phil cover everything was bound to happen. This doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t looking toward the future. Sarah Bond, in particular, has been put in the public eye more and more, building a correlation between her and Xbox. She’s leading press events, one of the main faces at game showcases, and doing media interviews more often. Sarah was one of the more vocal individuals on trial during the FTC case last year and was praised by experts left and right for her calm demeanor and descriptive replies, leaving little to be misconstrued. All of this makes it almost as if she was being groomed for the next leadership position once Phil decides it’s time to step away. Again, this is a discussion talking about 2024, and while I don’t see any of this happening this year, the seeds are definitely being planted, which is something to keep an eye on.

INTERNET RUMORS!

Onto controversy! All of this is very early in the rumor stages, with nothing officially announced or even acknowledged as of this writing, so take it all with a grain of salt. Insiders on Twitter only claim to know so much, and nobody is batting 100%. Xbox is going third-party. Plain and simple, you can expect Xbox to disappear and become a 3rd party publisher with a console of their own as a supplementary thing. This is what online discourse has made you believe over the past two weeks. What started as a neogaf post was later hinted at and partially confirmed by the likes of JezCorden of WindowsCentral and notable insiders like Shpeshal Nick and Shinobi 602. Initially, it was just a smaller title that some Xbox gamers would be surprised to see announced, and many believed it was Hi-Fi Rush. This eventually snowballed into titles like Sea of Thieves, Starfield, and even Halo going multi-platform and playable on PlayStation and Nintendo in the coming year.

Personally, I’m calling crap about most of this. I don’t see a world where Xbox completely dips out of consoles and every reason to invest in their hardware. Years ago, before acquisitions, maybe, but we’ve yet to even give the new studios time to produce content that could turn hardware sales around. I feel a large majority of this rumor started from the Activision Blizzard side of things; if they keep all those teams working on Call of Duty, of course it’s staying multiplatform. When the time comes for Diablo 5, Overwatch 3, or heck, maybe even the return to Starcraft, of course those are going to be multiplatform. Phil has said on numerous occasions that each game is on a case-by-case basis depending on what platform it goes to. We’ve seen this with partnered games before, like Cuphead and Ori, eventually crossing over to other platforms. If the day ever came where Sony or Nintendo would open their doors to a competing subscription service like GamePass on their platforms, then absolutely Xbox’s catalog would be everywhere you looked. But this fundamentally goes against what PlayStation specifically is building with their own PlayStation Plus services.

You want to know the one thing Xbox can do to stop these rumors and speculation from getting out and spreading? Be more vocal and open. Recently, at the Game Awards, Arkane unveiled their upcoming project, Blade. Instead of fans being hyped that the Dishonored team is making a Blade game and Xbox is finally getting a licensed Marvel IP, people were in an uproar over the lack of Xbox branding in the trailer. Instead of being hyped, it was a worry that this wasn’t going to be an exclusive game. This is a problem you’d expect Xbox to learn from, especially when they went through this whole process with Starfield last year, which lasted months without a solid release plan. Things overlooked like this eventually grow into doubt, and people need constant reassurance without everything falling apart.

THE ROADMAP

Coming into the new year, I believe this is the most we know about what’s coming. With the 2024 Developer_Direct recently passing, we know for sure that Hellblade 2, Avowed, ARA History Untold, Indiana Jones, and The Great Circle will all be in this calendar year. These joining already announced games like Flight Simulator 2024 and Towerborne, making a pretty stacked lineup from the first party side. Then you look a little wider and wonder and realize this is without Activision and Blizzards contributions to the portfolio. We know we’re getting another Call of Duty title this year. Blizzard is releasing what seems to be the first domino towards some sort of end for World of Warcraft with “The War Within,” and continued support for Overwatch 2 is sprinkled in there for good measure. And who knows, with the rate at which teams are working, I could easily see someone like Double Fine or Compulsion sneaking their next title somewhere in there as well.

When you look back at the Xbox One generation and even moments throughout the Series line of consoles, there’s a stark night and day difference between studio output. There’s a popular picture floating around that compares Xbox 1st Party studios in 2016 compared to now, and you’d almost think it was made up. Yes, this is related to the acquisitions that happened, which is a discussion for another day on the impact within the industry, but from a business standpoint, it’s simply impressive. This shows an aggressive side to how Xbox is handling the gaming business and where they see it growing in the future. I truly feel this year will be the start of steady software output across Xbox, Game Pass, and PC.

As mentioned before, with so many major chapters in Xbox’s history closing, so many new doors that lead to endless paths of questions have opened. In a year where we know more about the games coming than ever before, we don’t really know where those games are going. Will the loyal Xbox fans who have stuck around through the slow years when things were at their darkest before uproot and push to buy a PlayStation because it’s better to play Xbox games over there? Let us know what you think down below! This could be an interesting conversation with so many different outlooks. Until next time, this will be our look at Xbox in 2024!