Microsoft now seems less keen about getting Game Pass onto Switch and other formats, because they won’t provide the ‘full Xbox experience’.
A year or so ago it seemed as if Microsoft was dead set on Xbox Game Pass appearing on as many devices as possible. PlayStation was always a longshot but their deepening relationship with Nintendo seemed to make the Switch a genuine possibility.
Initially, Microsoft did nothing to dissuade those rumours but now Phil Spencer has seemed to rule them out, because while the games could run via streaming service xCloud you wouldn’t have the full suite of other features like Achievements and Xbox Live.
‘The thing about other gaming console platforms is we’re not able to bring a full Xbox experience on those platforms,’ said Spencer in an interview with German website Game Star, via TweakTown.
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‘In places where we have brought Xbox, like mobile phones like we’re doing now with Project xCloud with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, what we’ve done with PC with bringing our full Xbox experience there. We know when somebody is playing one of our Xbox games there is an expectation that they’ve got their Xbox Live community, they have their Achievements, Game Pass is an option for me, my first party library is completely there.’
The recent announcement combining Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and xCloud underlines the fact that the two are increasingly inseparable from Microsoft’s perspective, but so too are the ancillary features and services – not least because of how profitable they are compared to just the games.
‘The other competitive platforms really aren’t interested in having a full Xbox experience on their hardware’, said Spencer. ‘But for us, we want to be where gamers want to be and that’s the path that we’re on.’
Whether Spencer is implying that this was a sticking point in talks with other companies is unclear, but it certainly sounds like the sort of thing Nintendo wouldn’t want to encourage.
Although, as with anything, the best chance of changing their mind is if the Xbox Series X and the new Xbox ecosystem becomes a major hit, in which case other companies may suddenly become more amenable.
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