With the acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard, Microsoft can now be a “good publisher” across all platforms, including rival consoles, the boss of the company has said.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said: “We love gaming. In fact, Flight Simulator was created before even Windows. But, we were number three, number four. And now with Activision, I think we have a chance of being a good publisher — quite frankly — on Sony and Nintendo and PCs and Xbox. We’re excited about that acquisition closing and I’m glad we’ve got it through.”
Nadella’s comments echo those he made last month, when he similarly said Microsoft plans to release games across all platforms: “We think that now we have the ability to do what we always set out to do, which is build great games and deliver them to folks across all platforms, which is Xbox and consoles, the PCs, and now even including mobile gaming and cloud gaming,” he said at the time.
This comes amid reports Microsoft plans to release some of its exclusives on the Switch and PlayStation 5. Both Tango Gameworks’ Hi-Fi Rush and Rare’s Sea of Thieves are said to be considered for launch on Nintendo and Sony consoles after a period of exclusivity across Xbox consoles and PC. Microsoft has yet to comment on the reports.
Last year, Xbox chief financial officer Tim Stuart set the cat among the pigeons by suggesting Microsoft planned to launch its Game Pass subscription service on rival consoles, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer denied that was the case.
Stuart did, however, strongly indicate Microsoft’s cross-platform publishing plans: “It’s a bit of a change of strategy,” he said. “Not announcing anything broadly here, but our mission is to bring our first-party experiences [and] our subscription services to every screen that can play games. That means smart TVs, that means mobile devices, that means what we would have thought of as competitors in the past like PlayStation and Nintendo.”
It’s worth noting Microsoft has committed to releasing Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles as part of a decade-long deal, as well as promised to bring the shooter to Nintendo consoles. Question marks remain over other Activision Blizzard games, however.
This week, IGN sought to answer the question of whether Microsoft was leaving Xbox exclusives behind in the report, How Xbox is changing the nature of exclusivity.
Meanwhile, Microsoft will host Xbox Developer_Direct January 2024 today, January 18. Expect a first look at MachineGames’ Indiana Jones game as well as Obsidian’s Avowed, among other reveals. The recently announced Marvel’s Blade is in development at the Microsoft and Bethesda-owned Arkane Lyon, but platforms are yet to be confirmed.
Image credit: Bloomberg Live
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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