There will be No More Xbox One Exclusives

In the past, there were two types of games: console exclusives and PC exclusives. It's an extremely broad generalization that ignores things like mobile gaming and physical board games but for the purposes of this article, we’ll stick with this half-truth. And while these two types of games sometimes intersected with multi-platform releases, usually, it was one or the other. Not both. Well, if you recall, back in E3 this year, Microsoft announced Cross-Buy, which means that any purchase you make for your Windows 10 gaming PC will also show up on your Xbox One, so you share a library between devices. A neat, convenient feature that just got a bit more of both, because apparently, the launch of cross-buy will also mean the end of Xbox One exclusive titles--now, if a game is going to be made for the Xbox One, it HAS to be Windows 10 compatible.

Every new title published from Microsoft Studios will support Xbox Play Anywhere and will be easily accessible in the Windows Store.

That means the only console-exclusive games will be made by Sony and by Nintendo. It also means, presumably, there’s no reason to buy an Xbox One anymore--after all, this seems to be a one-way thing. If all Xbox One games have to be playable on the PC, and not all PC games have to be playable on the Xbox One, well… why bother with an Xbox one? You can hook your PC up to a TV monitor and play that way. Microsoft just took the one thing that makes consoles unique and desirable, their exclusivity, and got rid of it. That’s… not really something that strikes me as a good idea.

So, they made their own console obsolete. And, they might have severely impacted developers abilities to make Xbox One games, since now they have to make it PC compatible too. Porting ain’t easy (ask Warner Brothers), so that’s a huge blockade for developers, especially new ones, who want to develop for Microsoft’s console.

It sure seems nice before you really think about it, though. I hope Microsoft is willing to offer support for developers, and… something for the people who apparently made the mistake of getting an Xbox One. Unless Sunset Overdrive was a preemptive apology, in which case… we’re gonna need another apology.