On February 15th, West Coast Time, Microsoft released a management dialogue in its official Xbox podcast, which included executives including Microsoft's gaming CEO Phil Spencer, Microsoft Xbox President Sarah Bond, and Microsoft Xbox Game Studio President Matt Booty sharing topics such as Microsoft's game exclusivity and Xbox's overall strategy (software and hardware).
Among them, the progress of integration between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard after their acquisition has attracted much attention from the outside world. Sarah Bond stated that Diablo IV will log in to Microsoft XGP (Xbox Game Pass membership service) on March 28th.
It will become the first Activision Blizzard game to enter the XGP, and Microsoft will provide users with more games under the Activision Blizzard brand in the future, including the most popular Call of Duty series.
In fact, after acquiring Activision Blizzard and Bethesda Studios, Microsoft has become one of the largest game content suppliers on Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and mobile platforms (Apple and Google Store).
In the interview, Phil Spencer announced that based on Microsoft's specific strategy, four Xbox side games will soon be available on other console platforms (such as PlayStation and Switch). Whether this will become a signal for Microsoft to open its doors to competitors such as Sony and Nintendo remains to be observed in the future.
At present, Microsoft has not announced which games it will choose (only confirming that they will not be Indiana Jones and Starry Sky), nor has it announced which external platforms they will enter. It only revealed that these games have been open to Xbox users for at least a year.
However, Phil Spencer stated that this decision will not change Microsoft's exclusive gaming strategy, and XGP users can still enjoy Microsoft's exclusive gaming content.
According to the latest data he revealed, Microsoft XGP has over 34 million subscribers, marking the first time in two years that Microsoft has officially updated its game membership data.
For Microsoft's gaming business, winning more users and launching more game content will become its core strategy, and Microsoft's game content will strive to cover consoles, PCs, and mobile devices.
Sarah Bond stated that Microsoft's emphasis on exclusivity of game content will remain unchanged and will continue to make significant investments in its studios, hardware, and software teams.
She also specifically mentioned the phenomenal game Palworld, which became popular at the beginning of this year and entered Microsoft XGP, becoming the largest third-party game release in XGP's history.
Producer Pocketpair once stated that within less than two weeks of release, this game had over 7 million Xbox users.
For the future of XGP, Matt Booty emphasizes that this membership service will only appear on the Xbox platform, and Microsoft's games will be guaranteed to enter XGP on the first day.
In order to ensure players' confidence in the Xbox ecosystem, he promises that Xbox will ensure upward compatibility in the future, while strengthening cross play and cross save features across platforms.
These features will rely more on Microsoft's cloud services, which is undoubtedly good news for users who purchase early Xbox models. Users will not have to worry about their purchased hardware being prematurely phased out.