Publishers are now finally starting to release games only on the current generation of hardware, as evidenced by the Dead Space remake, Star Wars Jedi: Suvivor, and Forspoken, just to name a few. And now Xbox Games Studios has joined those ranks.
Xbox Game Studios will focus on Xbox Series X|S now
Head of Microsoft Studios Matt Booty spoke to Axios about the transition. He plainly said that Xbox studios have “moved on to Gen 9” and that no internal teams are making games for the older hardware, aside from patching ongoing titles like Minecraft.
However, Xbox One players will still be able to technically play Xbox Series X|S on their aging systems through cloud streaming.
“That’s how we’re going to maintain support,” said Booty.
This is a move that was going to happen eventually, but the question was when. Head of Xbox Phil Spencer said in July 2020 that Xbox One players wouldn’t be “forced into the next generation.”
“We want every Xbox player to play all the new games from Xbox Game Studios,” said Spencer. “That’s why Xbox Game Studios titles we release in the next couple of years — like Halo Infinite — will be available and play great on Xbox Series X and Xbox One. We won’t force you to upgrade to Xbox Series X at launch to play Xbox exclusives.”
However, he caught flak for that shortly after as the Xbox games announced around then like Avowed and Everwild were not cross-generation titles. Aaron Greenberg, VP of Xbox games marketing at Microsoft, said single-player games were being developed for Xbox Series X|S first and that each studio would decide what was best for the game later on, a peculiar statement that left some wiggle room.
It has since been “the next couple of years,” meaning that Spencer is not going back on his word and the games from the 2020 showcase didn’t come out before the cutoff Booty just spoke of. The recently released Redfall and Hi-Fi Rush also did not come to Xbox One, and none of the first-party games at the Xbox Games Showcase, from Fable to Clockwork Revolution, were announced for that 2013 system, either.
Sony has not made as bold of a claim publicly, but its upcoming slate of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Marvel’s Wolverine, Fairgames, Helldivers 2, and Marathon are not coming to PS4.
