Microsoft: We won’t be bringing exclusives to other consoles in the future

Microsoft has no plans to port more Xbox exclusive games to other consoles in the future. The company says it will continue to honor existing contracts and continue to work on crossplay and xCloud.

The company said so in a statement to GamesIndustry.biz. Microsoft is responding to questions about whether there will be more games such as Ori And The Blind Forest in the future. It was initially an Xbox One and PC exclusive. However, Microsoft teamed up with Nintendo to port the game to the Switch. In addition, the two console builders also occasionally collaborate on other projects, such as adding Banjo-Kazooie to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Microsoft has been focusing more and more on exclusive games lately. The company has previously acquired Obsidian Entertainment and inXile, among others. Those studios have previously made games for other consoles and platforms such as the Switch. However, Microsoft doesn’t plan to do that more often. “Over the past year, we’ve nearly doubled the in-house creative team behind Xbox Game Studios,” the company said in a statement. “Even now that those studios are slowly integrating, we understand that they have existing obligations towards other platforms, and we will maintain them. But in the future, the focus of those studios will be on games for our own platforms.” The company clarified “it has no intention of bringing our exclusive first party content to other consoles.”

Microsoft does say it plans to continue supporting other consoles by working on cross-play, as well as its own platforms such as xCloud. The company is also working on a number of PC games, and released a PC version of Game Pass earlier this year.