In an alternate timeline, console makers have abandoned exclusives and joined forces to bring their biggest games to every platform.
In this gaming utopia, you can play massive hits like Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Starfield on your phone, Xbox, PlayStation or Nintendo.
By the sounds of it, that’s the type of future Microsoft wants, but getting there won’t be easy.
Xbox Game Pass on PS5?
According to Xbox chief financial officer Tim Stuart, the company’s goal is to make Game Pass and first-party titles available on "every screen that can play games", including the PS5, Nintendo Switch, mobile phones, and smart TVs.
Game Pass is the name for Microsoft’s game subscription service, which allows customers to play a stacked library of games in exchange for a monthly fee. The service is already accessible outside of Microsoft’s confines through web browsers on phones, Macs and handhelds like the Steam Deck, and via an app on select smart TVs.
Stuart’s comments, made at the Wells Fargo TMT Summit earlier this week, suggest that Microsoft is still invested in the multi-platform strategy, despite floundering on it in the past.
He said: "It's a bit of a change of strategy. Not announcing anything broadly here, but our mission is to bring our first-party experiences [and] our subscription services to every screen that can play games.
"That means smart TVs, that means mobile devices, that means what we would have thought of as competitors in the past like PlayStation and Nintendo."
The tech giant will undoubtedly be emboldened after its successful acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard in October.
Following the mega-deal, Microsoft brought Activision’s latest Call of Duty games to rival Nvidia’s GeForce Now game streaming service, where players can already access Game Pass.
But, will Microsoft’s main rivals embrace its pitch? Both Sony and Nintendo have bigger user bases than Xbox, fostered through blockbuster exclusives. It’s easy to see why Microsoft wants a slice of those pies, but the benefit for its competitors is decidedly less clear.
Seeing as Sony opposed Microsoft’s Activision deal, and already offers a game subscription of its own in PlayStation Plus, it’s unlikely to let a rival into its walled garden. Nintendo, home to the likes of Mario and Zelda, is just as protective of its platform.
An Xbox store on iPhone and Android
In the near future, Microsoft may have a better chance of creating a new home on iPhone and Android.
The company previously announced that it wants to put an Xbox store on mobiles, theoretically allowing players to purchase games like Activision’s Call of Duty Mobile and Candy Crush directly from it.
Reports have previously revealed that the store could arrive as soon as next year. Now, it appears that Microsoft is making progress on its plans, with Xbox Chief Phil Spencer recently telling Bloomberg that it’s talking to partners about the launch.
That’s not to say that Apple and Google will make it easy for Microsoft. The marketplace for mobile games and apps is just as fraught as console gaming. Google and Apple have both faced lawsuits from Fortnite maker Epic Games over their respective app store policies. Both take a hefty 30 percent cut of sales, while Apple doesn’t allow competing app stores on its platform.
Still, there’s a glimmer of hope for Microsoft in the EU’s recently enforced Digital Markets Act. The regulation could force Apple to allow iPhone and iPad users to access third-party app stores, although Apple is challenging the order.
The UK's competition regulator also just won an appeal from the High Court, allowing it to probe Apple and Google's mobile browsers and cloud gaming policies.
