We are already in the final stretch of the year where the developments and important news in the video game industry begin to decline slightly. Even the ceremony The Game Awards 2024 which takes place next December 12, usually works as a closing of the year and also as a starting point for what we can expect in the following year. However, there was an important event that began a few weeks ago and it is the beginning of a new era for Xbox.
The company belonging to Microsoft had a difficult year full of layoffs and studio closures. At the beginning of the year, Xbox laid off around 1,900 workers and closed several studios, including Tango Gameworkswhich had just released the acclaimed title Hi-Fi Rush. This was not all, since in September the dismissal of 650 more workers was added, showing that the company was not in a good moment.
It is important to note that the dismissals were not exclusively a matter of Xbox but a problem that runs through the entire industry in general. So much so that 2024 turns out to be the year with the most layoffs in the industry, surpassing what happened in 2023. In any case, it is very difficult not to focus on Xbox since it comes from a process of studio acquisitions and the launch of important titles.
The purchase for more than 68 million dollars of Activision Blizzard King on the part of Xbox It was a move that changed the overall direction of the video game industry and, even today, it’s hard to know how this will all turn out. The company’s big bet is not so much on selling hardware but more about selling services like Xbox Game Pass.
The launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Last October 25 marked, from my point of view, the beginning of a new era for Xbox where we will finally begin to see if the decisions they made recently were correct or not. This is due, first of all, to the fact that it is the first release of Call of Duty being a property of Xbox full. Let us remember that this franchise is one of the most important sagas in the industry and the main incentive it had Xbox to acquire Activision.
In addition to this, September was the month that inaugurated a change in the service structure Xbox Game Pass with not only a price increase, but also a change in its functionalities. Now, to get the most important releases from day one it is necessary to have the most expensive subscription, but at the same time they added a lower cost one with their entire catalog except the new releases.
This measure was taken prior to the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 which makes this game important both for being a launch of the franchise, and also for starting this new stage of Xbox. Although we do not yet have specific information, since Microsoft they pointed out that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was a resounding success upon its launch, breaking sales records and boosting sales numbers. Game Pass. We will have to wait a little longer to have certain information about this.
In the last week, Xbox launched a rebranding of its brand with different actions, among which a quiz that shows different images and asks you: “Is this an Xbox?”. As expected, this move sparked many controversies and even became meme material. I don’t want to go into that section but I do want to highlight the message that Xbox He wanted to give, although perhaps not in the right way.
The main goal was to show Xbox no longer as a console but as a service capable of reaching all devices. A cell phone, a tablet, a television, a computer, basically any screen can become a Xbox thanks to cloud gaming. This marks their idea of wanting to reach new players who are not familiar or do not have the tradition of buying a console.
Even though they are going to continue launching hardware and they are even considering launching a portable console in the long term, this will no longer be the main section of the company, but rather the search to grow its service with a catalog of important games. Everything indicates that Xbox It moves away from the fight for exclusivity to become a game publisher, something that makes sense due to the large number of studios and companies at its disposal, something that would be impossible to make profitable with an exclusivity modality.
Another point to point out is that Phil Spencerin charge of Microsoft Gaming y Xboxconducted an interview in the last week after not appearing for quite some time and highlighted that the company is healthier than ever and that there are no limits regarding the titles owned by Xbox that can reach other consoles. In this way, it is increasingly likely that we will see new releases from the company reach PlayStation y Nintendo.
Increasingly, the main video game companies are moving away from direct competition since both PlayStation as Xbox y Nintendo They have totally different forms of business and bets from each other. Under all this panorama, Xbox A new era begins that will seek to rethink the meaning of video games, consoles and the hardware in general and it is still impossible to imagine whether the decisions were correct or not.
