Exclusive Games
Let’s address the big elephant in the room right now. No, The Elder Scrolls VI isn’t going to now be exclusive to the Xbox Series X/S. It could be, but no one knows.
Right now there’s no definitive stance on that issue. Microsoft is saying that it will be a case by case basis for whether they will release games on other platforms such as the PS5 and Switch.
One could argue that releasing arguably your biggest potentially exclusive titles onto a competitors platforms might be counterintuitive, but consider the following. Think about the amount of copies The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has sold to date. Over 30 million in 2016. That’s a lot of money, and a lot of copies sold across a variety of platforms.
Locking PlayStation players off could possibly lead to lower sales and if that’s the case, it could mean less money for Microsoft. It is far more complicated than that since there are plenty of other factors to consider, but the point is that there’s no clear and obvious answer right now which is probably why Microsoft is keeping things kind of vague for the time being.
Another possibility to consider is timed-exclusives as opposed to outright exclusivity. What if Starfield, for example, had six-months timed exclusivity to Xbox? Do you want to be playing it six months after people have likely played and beaten the game and talked about it online? If you have a choice of course you don’t, and $309.98 will solve that problem. Not to mention Xbox All Access making that even more affordable as monthly payments.
That’s not to say Xbox won’t snag some outright exclusives in this process. New IP from the various developers under the Zenimax Media umbrella could become Xbox exclusives, not to mention the general preferential treatment that these developers’ games will now offer Xbox players in terms of additional content and freebies.
What Microsoft is probably more pumped about than exclusivity is being able to boost the attractiveness of Xbox Game pass. Playing first on Game Pass is a huge draw. Combined with the relatively cheap up-front cost of the Xbox Series S and you’ve got a pretty enticing entry price point to an ever-improving library of games to play on your shiny, next-gen system.
Are you planning on pre-ordering one of the Xbox Series consoles? Let us know down in the comments below.
