In the lead-up to the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase on Sunday, the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, and the Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, have come together to speak about the future of Xbox and how Microsoft is “all in” on gaming. Following the conversation, Xbox also released a blog post full of information on what’s to come for the brand and its services. We highly recommend watching the video to listen to what Satya Nadella had to say, but as for the rest of the news, here is what you need to know.
To start off, we got some new stats about Xbox Game Pass and how beneficial it is for both players and developers. According to Xbox, Game Pass members play 30% more genres and play 40% more games. And thanks to an ever-growing library of games, more players are given the freedom to explore different titles with no risk. This has helped games like Outriders and MLB: The Show 21 reach millions of more players.
Phil Spencer had previously mentioned this in interviews before the Xbox Series X|S launch, but now we have more information on Microsoft’s plan to bring Xbox and Xbox Game Pass to more screens. Xbox is working in collaboration with TV manufacturers to find a way to “embed the Xbox experience” into smart TVs. In other words, TVs that can connect directly to the internet can be used to play Xbox games via the cloud so all you need is a controller to start gaming.
This extends to Xbox developing its own streaming devices as well. Imagine an Xbox brand stream stick (like Amazon’s Fire TV Stick) that you can plug into a TV and play games via the cloud from the Xbox Game Pass library. Cloud gaming is a key aspect of Microsoft’s mission to get Xbox on as many screens as possible and as Satya Nadella says, Microsoft’s lead in the cloud computing field is a huge boost to Xbox. In just a few weeks, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members will be able to play Game Pass titles via Edge, Chrome, and Safari browsers. Moving forward cloud gaming will get even better as Microsoft datacenters are updated to run optimized Xbox Series X|S titles with faster load times and increased framerates.
That’s all good and well, but what about games? Well, we did get a small update on Xbox first-party games and the 23 studios worldwide that are working on them. Microsoft aims to release one first-party game every quarter. And that means every quarter there will be a new first-party title on Xbox Game Pass. There is also the ID@Xbox program to consider, which brings hundreds of new indie games to Xbox platforms. Now there’s ID@Azure, which takes the same concept but applies it to cloud-based experiences.
There is a lot of promise in Xbox’s future and on Sunday it’ll be exciting to see what Xbox & Bethesda have in store for their hour and a half showcase. We will, of course, have full coverage of all the major E3 events here and we will be live on Twitch to co-stream most of them and share our thoughts. What are you most excited about for the showcase this weekend? Let us know in the comments.
