Updates on the Xbox Business | Official Xbox Podcast

Summary

このエピソードでは、Xboxのフィル・スペンサー、サラ・ボンド、マット・ブーティが、Xboxの最新アップデートについて話し合います。ゲームの独占性、Activision Blizzardの買収がGame Passに与える影響、そしてハードウェア戦略に焦点を当てています。特に、Xboxが他のコンソール向けに4つのゲームをリリースするという決定と、これが長期的なXboxの戦略にどのように適合するかについて詳しく述べています。さらに、ゲーム業界の将来についての見解、プレイヤーとクリエイターにとってのXboxの意義、そしてゲーム保存に対するスタンスも語られています。

Takeaways

• 🎮 Xboxはゲームの独占性について、基本的な戦略を変更せずに特定の理由で他のコンソールに4つのゲームを提供することを決定しました。
• 🌐 Phil Spencerは、将来的にハードウェアに固有のゲームが業界の小さな部分になるという信念を表明しました。
• 🤝 Xboxは、より多くのプレイヤーに到達し、フランチャイズを成長させるために他のプラットフォームを活用することに開かれています。
• 🎉 Activision Blizzardのゲーム、特にDiablo IVがXbox Game Passに登場します。
• 📈 Xboxはプレイヤーの行動のトレンドを認識しており、複数のデバイスでのゲームプレイをサポートしています。
• 👾 XboxはPlayStationやNintendo Switchなど、他のプラットフォームで最大のゲームパブリッシャーの一つです。
• 🛠 Xboxのハードウェアは最高のゲーム体験を提供し、開発者が多くのプレイヤーに到達するのを容易にします。
• 📚 Xboxはゲームの保存と後方互換性を重要視し、プレイヤーの投資を尊重します。
• 🌟 Xboxは大手ゲームスタジオからのリリースでGame Passを強化し、プレイヤーにとって魅力的なプラットフォームであることを目指します。
• 🚀 2024年はXboxにとって重要なリリースが予定されており、Hellblade 2やDiabloの拡張など、10以上の大型リリースがあります。

Q & A

Xboxがゲームの独占性についてどのような決定をしたのか？

Xboxは、特定の理由のために他のコンソールに4つのゲームを提供する決定をしましたが、これはXboxの基本的な独占戦略の変更ではありません。

どのような基準でこれらの4つのゲームが選ばれたのか？

選ばれた4つのゲームは、XboxとPCで1年以上提供されているゲーム、コミュニティ主導の新しいフランチャイズ、小規模でプラットフォーム専用として開発されなかったゲームです。

StarfieldやIndiana Jonesは、他のコンソールに提供される4つのゲームに含まれているか？

いいえ、StarfieldやIndiana Jonesは含まれていません。

Xboxの将来的な独占ゲームに関する考え方はどのように変わるのか？

Xboxのリーダーシップチームは、独占ゲームがゲーム業界の小さな部分になっていくと考えており、将来的にはより多くのプラットフォームでゲームが提供されることが予想されます。

Game PassにActivision Blizzardのゲームが追加されることによる影響は？

Activision BlizzardがXboxポートフォリオの一部になったことで、Diablo IVを始めとするActivision BlizzardのゲームがGame Passに追加されます。

Xboxが他のプラットフォームにゲームを提供する理由は何か？

Xboxは、フランチャイズを成長させ、より多くのプレイヤーに到達するため、およびXboxビジネスの長期的な健全性を考慮して、特定のゲームを他のプラットフォームに提供する決定をしています。

Xboxの戦略の核心は何か？

Xboxの戦略の核心は、「プレイしたいゲームを、望む人と、好きな場所でプレイする」ことを可能にすることです。

Xboxの将来のハードウェアに関する計画は？

Xboxは、今後のホリデーシーズンに新しいハードウェアを発表し、次世代ハードウェアのロードマップにおいて、過去最大の技術的進歩を目指しています。

ゲーム保存に関するXboxの立場は何か？

Xboxはゲームの互換性と保存を重視しており、プレイヤーが過去に投資したゲームを将来にわたってプレイし続けることができるように努めています。

2024年にXboxで予定されている主なリリースは何か？

2024年には、Hellblade 2、Diabloの拡張、Avowed、Ara、Indiana Jonesのゲームなど、10以上の主要なリリースが予定されています。

Outlines

00:00

🎮 Xboxの最新アップデートと戦略

このパートでは、Xboxチームがゲームの独占性、Activision Blizzardの買収がXbox Game Passに与える影響、およびハードウェア戦略について議論しています。独占性に関しては、Xboxが他のコンソール向けに4つのゲームをリリースする予定であることが明らかにされましたが、これはXboxの基本的な独占戦略の変更ではありません。これらの決定はXboxの長期的な健全性と成長を念頭に置いて行われ、将来的にはハードウェアに限定されないゲームのエコシステムへと移行していくことが示唆されています。

05:01

🌍 Xboxのゲームをより多くのプラットフォームに

このセクションでは、Xboxが特定のゲームを他のプラットフォームにも提供することにより、より広いオーディエンスにリーチし、Xboxブランドの価値を高める戦略について説明しています。生き残り続けるライブサービスゲームや、これまでXboxとPCに限定されていたコミュニティ主導のゲームが、他のコンソールにも登場することで、これらのコミュニティを拡大し、Xboxエコシステム内でのさらなる投資を可能にします。また、Game Passやクロスプレイ、クロスセーブなど、プレイヤーにとって重要な機能がXboxの中心戦略として継続されることも強調されています。

10:02

🚀 Xboxのビジョンとプレイヤーの未来

Xboxのリーダーシップチームは、Xboxが単なるハードウェアではなく、多様なデバイスで利用できるゲームのプラットフォームであるというビジョンを強調しています。MinecraftやCall of Dutyなどの大規模フランチャイズへの投資は、この戦略の一環であり、ゲーム産業の成長と健全なクリエイターコミュニティの維持がXboxの主な目標です。また、プレイヤーが異なるデバイス間でゲームを楽しむ現代のトレンドに対応し、XboxがPlayStationやNintendo Switch、モバイルプラットフォーム上での大手パブリッシャーであることが認識されています。

15:03

🌟 Xboxとゲームコミュニティの相互作用

Call of DutyやMinecraftのような大人気フランチャイズは、強力なプレイヤーコミュニティに支えられており、Xboxはこれらのコミュニティの成長と繁栄を支援するためのプラットフォームを提供しています。友達と一緒にプレイしたり、多年にわたるゲームライブラリにアクセスしたりすることの重要性が強調されており、Xboxは開発者がより大きな観客にリーチするのを支援する独特の立場にあります。また、Xboxは多様なゲームランチオプションを提供することでクリエイターをサポートし、プラットフォーム全体としてのパフォーマンスを高めています。

20:05

📚 Xboxとゲームの保存

Xboxは、プレイヤーが過去に投資したゲームやセーブデータを尊重し、将来のハードウェア世代にわたってこれらをサポートすることを重要な原則としています。これは、クラウドセーブシステムや後方互換性のような機能を通じて実現されています。Xboxは、Windowsのように、長年にわたってソフトウェアの互換性を維持するMicrosoftのアプローチを模倣しており、これにより、プレイヤーは彼らが所有するゲームをさまざまなデバイスで楽しむことができます。また、XboxとWindowsでゲームを購入すると、複数のデバイスでプレイできる権利が付与され、ゲームの互換性がさらに強化されます。

Keywords

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Highlights

Phil, Sarah, and Matt join Tina Amini on the Official Xbox Podcast to discuss updates at Xbox, including game exclusivity, the inclusion of Activision Blizzard in their portfolio, and the impact on Game Pass and Xbox hardware strategy.

Xbox's decision to release four games on other consoles, highlighting no change in their fundamental exclusive strategy, and focusing on the long-term health and growth of Xbox.

Phil discusses the importance of reaching more players and supporting creators, utilizing other platforms to grow Xbox franchises.

The four selected games for cross-platform release include community-driven games and smaller titles, aiming to extend their business value and investment potential.

Phil emphasizes that Starfield and Indiana Jones are not among the four titles to be released on other platforms.

The belief that exclusive games will become a smaller part of the industry, with a focus on reaching more platforms and players.

No fundamental change in Xbox's approach to exclusivity, with a continued focus on Xbox, PC, and cloud platforms.

The role of cross-play and cross-save in enhancing player experience and the Xbox strategy of playing anywhere with anyone.

Announcement of Activision and Blizzard games coming to Game Pass, starting with Diablo IV.

Xbox's commitment to making their games and experiences as widely available as possible.

Discussion on the growth of the gaming industry and Xbox's strategy focused on attracting new players rather than solely monetizing existing ones.

Xbox's large presence as a game publisher on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and mobile platforms, and the intention to continue expanding.

The critical role of Xbox hardware in delivering the best gaming experiences and supporting game developers.

Plans for future Xbox hardware, including a significant technical leap in the next hardware generation.

Xbox's focus on game preservation and respect for player investments, ensuring compatibility and access across generations.

Xbox's core principles: access to the biggest games, day-one Game Pass releases, and a player-first approach with features like cross-play and game library portability.

Upcoming major Xbox game releases in 2024, including Hellblade 2, Diablo expansion, Avowed, Ara, and the Indiana Jones game.

Transcripts

[XBOX SOUND]

Hello, and welcome to The Official Xbox Podcast.

I'm your host, Tina Amini, and we have a very special episode

today, as you can probably tell by the fact

that, I'm joined by Phil, Sarah, and Matt.

Welcome.

And we're going to talk about some updates at Xbox.

We want to talk about game exclusivity.

We want to talk about Activision Blizzard

now that they're a part of our portfolio, how that might

be an impact on Game Pass.

And we want to talk about hardware too

and how all of this fits into the strategy at Xbox.

So where should we start, Phil?

Well, when we originally had planned for this show starting

back in December, I think we probably

would have started with Activision Blizzard,

maybe talked a little bit about the exclusivity

with some of the news coming up, and then hardware.

But we've had some unforeseen news that has come out.

So let's just go and tackle the exclusivity question,

because I know it's on the minds a lot of people.

We hear from the community, and that's

an important input for us.

So we made the decision that we're

going to take four games to the other consoles--

just four games, not a change to our kind

of fundamental exclusive strategy.

We're making these decisions for some specific reasons.

We make every decision, really, with the long-term health

of Xbox in mind.

And long-term health of Xbox means a growing platform,

our games performing, building the best platform for creators,

reaching as many players as we can.

We're always looking to learn as a leadership team and to grow.

And we think this is an interesting point in time

for us to use what some of the other platforms

have right now to help grow our franchises.

So we're going to do that.

TINA AMINI: So these four titles--

what are they?

Can you say?

I'm not going to name those games.

The teams that are building those games

have announced plans that are not too far away.

As we know, game teams put a lot of energy

into their announcements with the partners.

So I don't want to take anything away from those teams.

So I won't be talking about the titles specifically.

But I think when they come out, it'll make sense.

TINA AMINI: Can we say if either of those titles

are Starfield or Indiana Jones?

They are not Starfield or Indiana Jones.

TINA AMINI: Well, what was the criteria

in how the team was thinking about selecting those four

titles?

Let me start a little bit outside of that,

and then I'll get to the four specific games that

we're talking about right, now because the fundamental

decision driver for any decision that we make,

anything we're going to talk about today is the long-term

health of Xbox--

that we're running a growing platform that

is reaching more players, that our games are having

as much success as possible.

And I do have a fundamental belief

that over the next 5 or 10 years,

exclusive games, games that are exclusive to one

piece of hardware, are going to be a smaller and smaller part

of the game industry.

And that's not some great insight

because if you look at the last 10 years

and what the biggest games are today, it's a natural place--

whether it's one console in PC, multiple consoles,

mobile, console, and PC--

you see big games landing on multiple platforms.

And we want to be a great platform

for creators that are trying to realize that potential.

But now, back to the specifics of the question on these four

specific titles.

We looked at games that are over a year old.

So they've been on Xbox and PC for a while.

A couple of the games are community-driven games,

new games, kind of first iterations of a franchise that

have reached their full potential, let's say,

on Xbox and PC--

there's always growth, franchises that we obviously

want to continue to invest in.

Part of having the ability to continue to invest

is that the businesses behind those franchises continue.

We think it's important that these service-based games that

have communities behind them, that they can have confidence

that they're going to exist in the future.

So two of them kind of community-driven games

that will end up on other platforms

and give us the ability to continue to invest in them.

We think that's great for the business

and great for the communities-- more players to play with.

Two of the other games are smaller games that were never

really meant to be built as kind of platform exclusives

and all the fanfare that goes around that,

but games that our teams really wanted to go

build that we love supporting creative endeavors

across our studios regardless of size.

And as they've realized their full potential on Xbox and PC,

we see an opportunity to utilize the other platforms

as a place to just drive more business value out

of those games, allowing us to invest

in maybe future iterations of those,

so sequals to those, or just other games

like that in our portfolio.

And when we don't damage Xbox and we can grow our business

using what other platforms have to help us with that,

we're going to do that.

And that's really the story behind these four games.

And last thing I'll say looking forward,

I think there is an interesting story for us of introducing

Xbox franchises to players on other platforms

to get them more interested in Xbox.

We think there's a good brand value for Xbox there.

So four games, no promise beyond that.

So if you're on those other platforms

and you see these four games coming, please

don't take it as some signal that everything's coming.

It's not.

And we're going to learn.

TINA AMINI: So when you are thinking

about the future and this concept of live service games,

games that can benefit from bigger audiences,

new audiences, how does that apply to future titles

and how you're applying that criteria there?

Yeah.

There's really no fundamental change

to how we think about exclusivity.

We just came out of Developer Direct,

which was an awesome show where we showed great games that

are coming to Xbox, and PC, and cloud,

which really makes them accessible to hundreds

of millions of people.

So we're really focused on a couple platforms and what's

going to show up there.

But our key of play the games you

want, with the people you want, anywhere you want,

when everybody plays, we all win--

these have been part of our strategy for years

and will continue to be.

Our focus is on, how do we continue

to grow the games industry by reaching more players in more

places?

And how do we grow Xbox as part of that--

Xbox as a hardware platform, Xbox

as a publisher of great games, and Xbox

as a platform for the world's best creators.

And then knowing that, how do we

think about our first party games and Game Pass?

MATT BOOTY: Yeah.

Well, to build on what Phil just said, one thing I would add--

you were talking about growth--

is just that we've seen this inversion over the last five

years where it used to be that the platform was the biggest

thing, and the games would tuck in within the platform.

Today, big games like a Roblox or a Fortnite

could actually be bigger than any one platform.

And that really has changed the way that we think about things.

So in the midst of all that, I think we at First Party

can come back to some core principles--

first, that all of our games will be on the Xbox platform.

Second, all of our games will go into Game Pass on day one.

And third, we know that Game Pass will only

be available on Xbox.

So there's starting points for us.

As Phil mentioned, there are games today

that you can play that only can be found on Xbox.

And at the same time, we want to bring more of our games

to more players.

So we're going to continue to look at that.

Kind of moving aside, though, from some of those

and thinking more about, what does it really

mean for the player?

To me, the two key things are cross-play and cross-save.

Those things allow us to deliver on the promise of Xbox, which

is play with your friends where they are,

play on the devices you want, play the games you want.

So that is really only possible at a practical level

when you know that your saves and your player

are going to be able to move across all those parts.

So not all of our games today are necessarily

built to take advantage of that.

There still will be some games that don't.

As we bring more teams into the Xbox family,

there's some catchup to do as we get there.

But that cross-play, cross-save is

so fundamental to what we're doing.

And I think it's something that we as First Party

get such a good benefit from being so close to the platform.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's one of the things, like you said, all of our games

are always in Game Pass.

And so I'm excited to announce, with the coming

together that we had with Activision Blizzard King,

that Activision and Blizzard games

are coming to Game Pass starting with Diablo IV

on March 28, which I'm super, super excited to share today.

And it's all part of our commitment

to make Xbox, the Xbox experience, and the games

that we build as widely available as possible.

So now the 34 million Game Pass members

can all enjoy the fantastic experience of Diablo IV.

TINA AMINI: Amazing.

Can we come back to the point--

Phil, you mentioned at the top of this,

this isn't really a change in strategy for us.

Can you recap for me how it isn't?

Yeah.

And I thought both Matt and Sarah

did a really nice job of talking about what we're doing

on Xbox, where we're going.

If you take a platform feature like Xbox Play Anywhere, which

has been a promise that we've made on our first party games,

that you can buy our game once, you're

going to get to play across Xbox and Windows--

I think we're the only platform that does this--

that makes it possible for you not only to play

with your friends wherever they are,

but to know that you actually have multiple entitlements

to the games.

I think that's a technology I'd love to see

applied to more platforms.

But it is this view that people are

going to play Xbox in multiple places,

whether it's play the games you want with the people you want

anywhere you want, whether it's content,

community, and cloud, whether it's when everybody plays,

we all win--

we've had different taglines different strategy

kind of words that we've used, but always

with this view that Xbox is a platform for creators

who want to reach the most players.

Our investments in xCloud, our investments

in franchises like Minecraft, and now Call of Duty,

and other large franchises so that we

learn how to build those.

This has been a strategy that we've been on for, I'd say,

a decade.

It's not about one device.

It's not about games in service of a device,

but, rather, the devices that people want to play on

should be in service of making the games as big and popular

as they possibly could be.

Because, really, a healthy creator community

on Xbox, a healthy creator community in gaming

all up is the thing that all of us as Game Players

should be voting for, because that's

the thing that will lead to the best long-term success

and growth in this industry.

TINA AMINI: And my understanding just

from listening, and learning from you

three over the past few weeks, just

understanding what's happening with Xbox

is that we see trends with player behavior

where people are playing on multiple devices.

That is the reality.

And we have put some games out on multiple platforms before.

So my understanding is that that's been good for players.

How does that come back to the business

with all of that in mind?

Yeah.

As you said, we have shipped games on other platforms.

In fact, realistically, if you look

with the addition of Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax,

we're one of the largest game publishers on PlayStation.

We're one of the largest publishers on the Nintendo

Switch, especially when you put Minecraft into the equation

as well.

And now, we're one of the largest publishers

on mobile platforms as well.

And that's not something that we want to back away from.

We want to continue to be building great games

that millions and millions of people can love

and that they can play those games where

they want to go play.

But we do understand the business success

that Xbox has to have.

Us as leaders in this business, the system

today, the system that all companies

that we play video games from is a world of you've

got to be growing your business--

growth in our Xbox business is critical to

the long-term health of Xbox.

Many people know I've been on Xbox for over 20 years,

and I want to make sure Xbox is in the best

position for the next 20 years.

That means healthy player community, healthy creator

community, and healthy business.

So when we look at opportunities to allow more people to play,

more people to engage, more people to buy,

more people to subscribe, it's all about

putting Xbox in the best position.

And our hardware is a critical component of that.

The absolute best experience somebody has on Xbox

is hardware that our team builds and that people play on.

But that's not going to be everybody.

We fully accepted that we're going

to have Xbox players across all kinds of devices.

So I think a lot of people think

about 2023 is this incredible year for gaming.

And in a lot of ways, it was.

There was some really amazing releases

that I think we all enjoyed.

But what were the signals behind the scenes that maybe indicated

how we wanted to look at the future of Xbox

and how we keep up with the industry?

Yeah, such a good question.

And I think as people who care about the industry, which

I assume is people who are watching this,

it was an amazing year-- some great launches.

Some of the games that I think will stand

the test of time and people will be talking

about a decade from now.

But it's an industry that didn't really grow.

And what happens when an industry doesn't grow?

You end up with some job eliminations, which we had.

We had even our own hard decisions

to make about building a sustainable

business for ourselves, but in no way were we alone in that.

When you think about a healthy industry,

I want players who believe that they

will find the best games on the platforms that they love.

I want people who invest their careers in working here

to feel like this is a place that they can be successful.

And that really is down to being part

of an industry that is growing.

If you listen to Lisa Su, the AMD CEO,

she'll say that AMD-powered consoles

are likely to decline in 2024.

I think there's an amazing set of games coming in 2024,

but if we don't get to growing as an industry,

the industry will struggle.

And today, there's really two choices

on how do you grow the industry.

Do you say, I have a fixed number of players,

the players that we have today, and do I find new ways

to monetize those players to get more money from the players

that I have?

Or do you think about, how do I expand

the business I have by finding new players

and adding those to the base of players that already play?

Our focus on Xbox for the last decade

has really been on that latter point

of, how do we make sure Xbox is growing?

Growing for our players, growing for our creators

so those people are finding success

on our platform, which will grow the Xbox business

and put Xbox in a position to be very strong for years

and decades to come.

TINA AMINI: Matt, earlier, you were

talking about these growing gaming communities, how they're

incredibly large and comparable on such a different level

when we think about console audiences-- like you mentioned

Roblox, you mentioned Fortnite.

So we're obviously thinking about our responsibility,

our hardware responsibility in supporting the growth of gaming

communities.

How has that actually shown up for the players?

Are there other games we can speak to from our portfolio?

Well, as Phil mentioned, two of the biggest ones for us,

Call of Duty and Minecraft-- they are driven just from

the bottom-up by the communities of people that play those

games, which is so great.

Think about it, for the player community,

it comes down to, where are the friends?

Where are the people you play with?

And then equally important is, where have you built up

your library of games, right?

Where have you invested?

Where is that library?

I think those two things probably

are some of the biggest influences on where

people choose to play and what devices they choose to play.

Absolutely.

When we think about on the other side, the developer side,

just any game developer wants their game

to find the biggest audience possible.

That's just the nature of building a game.

You want people to enjoy and participate

in what you've made.

And I think we're in a unique position to deliver on that

just because we are the platform-- we build hardware.

We've got a first party games group.

And then we've got a system that ties that together that

brings together your friends, your progression,

your achievements, all of that.

And I think that's really what has

contributed to the momentum behind some

of these communities.

SARAH BOND: Yeah, absolutely.

When you just step back and you look

at the history of the industry, we've

moved from a place where it used to be that someone built

and launched a game to accelerate hardware,

to actually the things we do with our hardware

and with our platform are all in service

of making those games bigger.

And we think about that across all of the investments

we make-- the consoles we build, the investments

we do with things like cross-play,

cross-progression, the things that we're doing with cloud.

How do we actually give more options to game creators

so they can have the greatest success?

I think one of the fun recent examples about this

is actually Palworld.

Palworld was able to launch.

They were a game preview.

They launched in Game Pass.

They also simultaneously launched in Steam.

And so the combination of those things, Pocket Pair

was able to have this outsized success.

And it was the largest third party Game Pass launch ever.

And that's all because we give creators

options on how they can launch their games.

We've got subscription.

We've got retail.

We've got free to play.

We've got game preview.

We have the consoles.

We have our experience on PC.

And they can access all of those things.

And when we step back and we just

look at the performance of our platform all up,

we know it's working.

We're at the highest level of users on console,

the highest level of users on PC,

the highest level of users on cloud ever.

We have double-digit growth rate on PC and cloud,

places where we're enabling creators

to actually reach new players beyond the console ecosystem.

And that's why we're leaning into it

and doing more, because we see all those signals.

So we're talking about the role

that hardware plays for creators, for the games,

and those communities.

What about the role that hardware

plays for us as a business, for Xbox?

When we look at our hardware, it really is,

and Phil said this earlier, it's where

you get the most flagship, seminal experience of Xbox.

And it also represents a developer target.

Our developers can build the specs of our hardware,

and we invest to make sure when they do that the games are

going to run great on our hardware,

but they're also going to be able to be accessed

across any screen because of all the other investments we make.

So we're giving them an easy way to access

as many players as possible.

And we actually have more creators right now building

for Xbox than ever before, thousands of them,

by nature of those investments.

And we got more to come.

There's some exciting stuff coming out in hardware

that we're going to share this holiday.

And we're also invested in the next generation roadmap.

And what we're really focused on there is delivering the largest

technical leap you will have ever seen

in a hardware generation, which makes it better for players

and better for creators and the visions that they're building.

TINA AMINI: And then when we're talking about hardware, too,

there's these other considerations

that are really important to our community,

probably to each one of ourselves as well.

When you talk about library, because I

want to dig in on that a little bit more--

as we talk about cloud and the wider entertainment industry,

there's conversations about streaming.

How is that impacting how I own my content

that I've invested in?

So what can we say about our stance

around game preservation?

Yeah.

One of the highlights for me of being in this position

was getting to stand on stage when we announced back

compat coming to Xbox One.

It was fantastic.

People were reading the teleprompter

before I could read, I'm a slow reader,

and just feeling the energy in the auditorium

as we were saying that, and online.

One of the cues, I think, us as being part of Microsoft

take is looking at Windows, and how Windows, over decades,

has maintained software compatibility with things

that are built on it.

Like, I can still go back and play some of the games

that I love playing on Windows from decades ago

and it will still run.

And we try to bring that same view to consoles.

It's harder in console because the line

between what the hardware is and what the game is in consoles

is traditionally tighter, which you end up

doing these generational compatibilities

that we've built. But I will say compatibility, the ability

to not only play the games, but my saves are still there

with our cloud save systems, to try to keep the services up

as long as we can so that people can play

is a tenet of what we are as Xbox.

It's at our foundation.

And when we look at future hardware generations

and what we're going to support, making sure

that we respect, which is the word I use "respect"

the investments that people have made in Xbox going forward

is fundamental.

And the fact that you get entitlements

when you buy a game from us on both Windows and Xbox

also means you have the ability to play

that game across a multitude of devices, which I think

furthers the compatibility of the games that you own.

Can we go back to what Xbox stands for today?

I think we've pretty much covered all of the elements.

But if you could break it down for me.

When you play on Xbox, what we're saying is

you're playing on a platform where

you know the biggest games in the world

are always going to be.

You're playing on a platform where

you get to access Game Pass.

And all of the games from our incredible range of studios

will always launch in Game Pass day one.

And you're playing on a platform that's dedicated to you--

player-first features-- cross-play, cross-save,

cross-progression, backwards compatibility,

being able to play your games in your library anywhere

you want because of the investments

that we make in cloud gaming.

And so you're playing somewhere where you're investing

and you know you get to take the games forward

with you and across all of the screens where you are.

And I think most importantly, Xbox is a place where you know

when you're investing in Xbox, you're

investing somewhere that is dedicated to making games more

successful and creators more successful,

so that they can invest more to bring even better experiences

to you all of the time.

Yeah.

That investment in the studios is so--

and we feel that as part of first party with the platform

proximity-- it's kind of amazing now

to look out across all the studios that we've got

and just be reminded that we're now

one of the biggest development organizations in the industry.

What does that mean for players?

It means that the biggest games are going

to continue to come to Xbox.

And this 2024, the year coming up,

we've got more than 10 major releases coming up--

great stuff.

Hellblade 2, they've got Diablo expansion,

they've got Avowed, Ara, the Indiana Jones game,

and there's more in development, which

I think we're going to be able to share more about at our June

showcase coming up pretty soon.

Well, I guess I should get ready to work on that show.

[LAUGHTER]

Well, thank you all for showing up on the podcast today.

And we'll see the rest of you, this June.

Yeah.

Thanks, Tina.

Thank you.

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