Microsoft won’t release first-party exclusive Xbox Series X games for up to two years

Microsoft says that first-party Xbox Series X games won’t be exclusive to the console for at least the first year or two.

Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty elaborated on Microsoft’s PC-like vision for the future of the Xbox line during a recent interview with MCVUK.

“As our content comes out over the next year, two years, all of our games, sort of like PC, will play up and down that family of devices,” said Booty in the interview with MCVUK. “We want to make sure that if someone invests in Xbox between now and [Series X] that they feel that they made a good investment and that we’re committed to them with content.”

In the past, Microsoft revealed that Halo: Infinite, an Xbox Series X launch title, will also be released on the Xbox One. Now, it looks like every early first-party Microsoft-developed title will adopt the same strategy.

While this is good news for current-generation Xbox One owners that aren’t planning to get a Series X right at launch, it could hold some titles back because they’ll need to run on the Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox One X and soon, the Xbox Series X. Developers will be forced to downgrade games to a certain extent so they’ll be capable of running on the aging Xbox One.

This is also very different from how video game consoles typically launch. For example, when the Xbox One was released back in 2013, Forza Motorsport 5 and Ryse: Son of Rome weren’t released on the Xbox 360.

Source: MCVUK