Microsoft Talks About Extending Its Gaming Content To 'New Platforms'

The Kinect XBOX 360 games.

Killer Instinct 2013 and Battletoads 2020 would be choices that'd get minimal flak from Xbox fans if they were ported. They reworked/added Cross-Play to KI in one of the more recent updates so I'd assume it's going to happen, if not for Switch than PS5 and Switch 2, and I'd argue Battletoads would be a better fit on Switch than Xbox since it's Local Co-Op only.

Psychonauts 1 and 2 would be wildly popular on Switch.

I finally got around to beating It Takes Two a few days ago, and while that game is really fantastic, I think Psychonauts 2 should have one GOTY in 2021. That was also the year Metroid Dread and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart were nominated. Usually the nominees are Mature games I don't care about, but that was a good year.

@Anti-Matter I'd say a Twisted Pixel Collection of what were mostly XBLA-exclusives would be cool, but jokes are banned in 2024 and I can't imagine games with that sense of humor being allowed to exist now.

You said you'll bring COD to Switch and yet you haven't. At least bring the old CODs (like MW Remastered, or BO 1 and 2) to Switch.

At this point just go third party, it's the best choice for everyone. In terms of games how bout port some older classics to Switch too, I'm talking Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Sudeki, Kameo: The Element of Power, Killer Instinct 3, Viva Pinata, and Infinite Undiscovery.

Makes me wonder what would happen if Microsoft's ActivisionBlizzard department ends up releasing an offline edition of World of Warcraft(Most likely pre-Cataclysm) on Nintendo Switch(I would buy it if that happened)

@shoeses I never understood why almost no one who owns Switch can't afford to pay 100$ for Xbox One, but instead wait 10-15 years for ports that never may arrive on Nintendo

I never understood this mentality. If i buy "this" console, hopefully it get some Xbox and Zelda Wii U ports within 15-20 years.
Meanwhile there are still PS4 owners waiting for Bayonetta 2 a port from Wii U...

I bought Killer Instinct and Rare Replay physicals 10 years ago as i don't like to miss out, or wait 15-20 years for a port that will never happen.

If they ever feel like completely giving up on exclusives and handing over the Master Chief Collection, I'll be there in a heartbeat. The 360 was my only non-Nintendo console, and Halo was the only reason I bought it. I don't have much hope for the series's future, but the Bungie entries are still some of the greatest games ever made.

Where is CoD on Switch, hmm? (Modern Warfare 2 would be mint Microsoft.) I guess they meant Switch 2. But then, when would that "10 year commitment" start? Has it already started? Does it start at launch...hmm...maybe it's a launch title?

Nice Microsoft. I welcome cool games.

Microsoft's MO seems to be 'buy everything eventually.' Whilst they court being third party and cherry pick what they consider multiplatform, it's hard not to feel them being duplicitous in nature. Are they doing this purely to recoup their investment in a timely manner or have they genuinely outgrown their platform. Conventionally you are either first party or third party and I would dare say that the strategies for being successful in either direction conflict with each other. When Halo comes to other platforms (and I mean Halo, not some GaaS version of the game - we all know GaaS NEEDS to be on as many platforms as possible.) then I reckon that will alieviate the uncertainty and confusion. Until then, I feel like no one knows what they are doing (the fans especially.) To me at least, I still feel a certain sense of Microsoft wanting to go one way whilst XBox still has one foot in the other.

Microsoft does seem to be on its way to drop out of the console market. I just hope we get a new competitor who can keep Sony’s scummy practices in check, whoever that ends up being.

With the great job already done on Skyrim on Switch, how about an Elder Scrolls collection with the previous games (Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion). Or some Fallout titles? I’m pretty sure they’re technically possible on Switch.

Maybe a Warcraft/Starcraft retrospective, incl. the Nintendo 64 version of Starcraft?

I think we will get Gamepass on switch 2, to play call of duty.
The size of these games are huge.

I would rather have games on the switch like:

Killer instinct
Battletoads
Perfect dark
Banjo (new)
Qonquer.

These are games that would sell well on a Nintendo platform because of its history.

Listen. Microsoft. I don't like you and you don't like me. But if you put Viva Piñata on Switch I will buy it. I will buy all of them even though they're all the same damn game. I will pay any amount of money. I will make a complete consumerist fool of myself to acquire these games on Nintendo Switch. Do it. Do it and my money is finally yours again.

Well, I won't pay for Game Pass. But other than that.

I don’t see why Halo would be “red lines” if they would release the older games like The Master Chief Collection. That collection is 10 years old. It is not going to sell more Xbox consoles. Releasing it on Switch could create new fans and those people might be interested in newer games of the Halo series. Or people buy the collection again to play it handheld.

But I will just wait. In the mean time I can play them on my Xbox One S or PC. But I think it is just a matter of time before they release the (older) Halo games on a Nintendo platform.

@The-Chosen-one No Game Pass. Microsoft would like that. But there are no benefits for Nintendo.

@Toastmaster Speaking for myself only, here are several reasons I can think of:

• I already have more games that I can play with just the Switch alone.
• I owned the first Xbox and it turned out to be (mostly) a disappointing purchase.
• It's certainly not because I can afford something that I should or want to buy it.
• As strange as that will sound, I enjoy things that I have, but I also enjoy things that I don't have.
• I decide what I want to support and Microsoft/Xbox is (to an extent) not a company that I want to support.

To sum up, most of the games I want to play are on Switch or will eventually come to Switch. That's enough for me. I guess I'm too reasonable a person XD

@JohnnyMind
Sea of Thieves water physics were too demanding for Switch, but you can bet it will be ported to "Switch 2". It could even be a launch title.

Someone here told me Sea of Thieves were a flop, and not earning money.
I said it were their #1 success and didn't believe me.

Today Microsoft revealed that they earned over 1 billion from it so far...
No other Rare game ever earned this much money.

No point in buying an Xbox then. You can get all their games on PC and other consoles.

@Clyde_Radcliffe
Nintendo is the only console with exclusives left.
Sony ported almost all PS5 games to PC already.

@Yosti
Yeah treating it as “redline” is letting it rot at this point when it’s not driving console sales and has been trending downward for years now. I doubt there’s anything a new exclusive game can do that can swift the downturn it’s been suffering with the Xbox audience, there pitch right now of “omg look at these graphics” is the same thing they did with Infinite if I recall and we know how that ultimately ended in a dull thud despite the initial decent amount of launch hype it had.

not realy fond of xbox games, though halo aniversary, halo 2 and gears 1 and 2 are welcome, espcialy halo 2

not expecting any cod game, activision can hardly produce any good game, let alone make one so complex for nintendo switch, that is for elite companies

Rare Replay please. I keep waiting.

jade empire would be welcom too

@JohnnyMind
Sea of Thieves is the most successful Rare game ever.
In news today they said it earned over 1 billion.

I'm sure it will be on "Switch 2" too.

The only problem could be the storage size on the console as the only Nintendo console ever to support external SSD and HDD were Wii U..

@Reg It isn't technically possible, because 15 of the games requires a console running a Windows based OS.

It cost to much money to port them all to Xbox One, and is why they figured out a hack to make them run natively instead.
That hack can't be ported to any console without Windows, because it's a hack...

If you google it, you will understand why it's impossible to run it on "Swich, Switch 2 and PS5".

Rare Replay were a 30th year anniversary collection making it a irrelevant port 10 years later anyway.
It wouldn't make sense to celebrate 30th Anniversary 10 years too late.

You should have bought a Xbox like other Rare fans did when it released 10 years ago.

@Toastmaster I can't even get around to play my backlog on Switch, why would I buy another system? And I game a good 10h a week, I'd say

@GrailUK If you're wondering what Microsoft is doing, this video offers an interesting perspective.

It's astounding to me that people still haven't pieced together that Microsoft is now a third-party publisher. Xbox is their side hustle.

@GrailUK in my opinion, Microsoft is now a third-party publisher. The Xbox consoles are an option for those who want them, but their Xbox-related focus is Game Pass Ultimate (for cloud streaming) and PC. I think they will continue to release consoles for the time being, but I think that won't last forever. They've lost the console wars, effectively, and are the modern day Sega, just 100x bigger.

@shoeses reminder that Genital Jousting exists, and it's just as one note as it sounds. Also, Thank Goodness You're there is hilarious and released this year. I'm playing The Outer Worlds and cracking up.
What a silly thing to suggest.

@SalvorHardin I agree. I don't see them receiving Xbox sales, unless maybe they release like four killer apps in a year. I hate to admit it, but exclusives really are how I choose consoles. Wii U for Mario Kart 8, initially, then Breathe of the Wild. Heck, the Wii U was worth owning for Zelda alone, aside from the fact that it's on Switch too, and it's also one of my favorite consoles ever. PS4 is worth owning for Ghost of Tsushima. I didn't buy a PS4 until 8 years after release because I didn't feel the need to own one. Same for PS5. I'm not going to buy one until Ghost of Tsushima 2. Same for Switch. I didn't even buy a Switch. My friend gave me his old one for Tears of the Kingdom, which was unfortunately massively disappointing for me, but I've since picked up quite a few indie games that I play in bed because I did decide to buy a Lite.

@shoeses On consoles, maybe not so many. On PC, thousands. I don't know what you're relationship is to PC games, but people who are in the console bubble have no clue just how many games and diversity among them exist on PC. Between Steam and Itcho.io, I couldn't count how many weird and different and experimental and revolutionary games exist that will never come to console. There's a blue ocean of games beyond first-party Nintendo titles for those who want to play PC games by whatever means they can.

@Serpenterror I agree, all of those games would do excellent numbers on Nintendo consoles.

The red line for MS is always going to be system utilization. Contrary to popular belief, the PS5 and Xbox S/X are fundamentally different from each other in meaningful ways. Even more contrary, the Xbox X when utilized fully is a more capable machine. But if you're making a cross platform game, you generally just code it in an environment independent API and call it a day. Going back and changing the way it uses VRAM on Xbox to get a 2% increase in power is a non-starter.

But if you're making a console exclusive, you don't do that. You use a extremely environment dependent API that utilizes what each system does differently to the fullest. This doesn't effect PC ports because PC is scalable, but if you take a game like Halo, which milks every FLOP the Xbox has on offer and port it to PS5 ... it's going to run like garbage unless you scale back the output(1). You would need to remove all the "Xbox go fast stuff" and replace it with all the "PS5 go fast stuff" to make them comparable, and that's time consuming and expensive. It's so time consuming that both the Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush ports on PS5 are ports of the Series S game, scaled up to PS5 hardware ... not a direct port of the much more demanding Series X games that utilize "Xbox go fast stuff".

Because of this, I think Nintendo will get more games then PlayStation, seeing the Switch is comparable to the Series S and ports are really easy.

Remember, no decision made by any company on earth is made for any reason other then money. They will port every game that's profitable to port. That is absolutely not all games. In fact, when speaking to 1st party, it's likely not even that many.

1 - Well, I mean ... it wouldn't actually run. It would address RAM, VRAM, and storage incorrectly. But like, if you just converted all that to standard addressing, it would run poorly.

@SalvorHardin I agree with you in the sense that I am not very optimistic about future Halo games. Their pitch of “omg look at these graphics” doesn't seem interesting to me. But in theory there can still be a great new Halo game.
But my point was that despite how great or bad the new Halo games are it would still make sense to release The Master Chief Collection on more platforms. Everyone that wanted to play the original Halo games already bought them on Xbox One/Series in the last 10 years. Original Halo games on Switch would create new fans or people will buy the game again. It's extra money for Microsoft and no danger to their console sales because old games don't drive hardware.

I have an Xbox one… but the only game I really want on switch is Rare Replay. I want it handheld and it just seems like it should be on a Nintendo system. Make it Rare Replay Deluxe and include the Nintendo owned ones.

At least put the regular on Steam!

@Anti-Matter Not gonna lie, at least Sonic Free Riders would be more functional. mAybe even Steel Battalion might be playable without needing to completely change your furniture setup

As long as I get Killer Instinct '13 on a Nintendo system, physically released with crossplay, I'm satisfied, because HOLY HELL is this game hype!!!

@Toastmaster "To me it looks like you care 0% about any Xbox game. If you cared, you would have owned them already. Easy math." Well considering I've owned Xboxes since the 360 you're pretty bad at easy math. Maybe try to understand the simple mentality of wanting more people to be able to play more games before you get on your soapbox.

@Anachronism Unless they remaster the collection of remasters, you don't want it in its current and presumable final state. Filled with cheaters on PC and practically dead if you're searching for all but the most vanilla Game Modes.

I don't really have an interest in any Microsoft titles, but I do wonder if they are beginning to consider going "Full Sega" and becoming a developer/publisher rather than a console.

@LikelySatan @Gryffin While these are very good points, none of those games are overseen by any major game Devs or Publishers, and therefore are immune to any kind of social media nonsense. And I have to imagine Comic Jumper alone from Twisted Pixel's lineup would make them collectively screech to the heavens.

Having the rare replay on something other than my Xbox would make me so happy

@shoeses The Outer Worlds is MS now. Private Division ie Take 2 before. I didn't even know what Dustborn was until the social media nonsense freaked out about it, so I'm not sure smaller projects are immune anyway.
Humor is really difficult in any medium. There's only so many ways to say "it's just not funny" but you always know you are right.

@VivianOblivion just what I was thinking

@shoeses I honestly doubt that Xbox fans would care about both. Nintendo fans, however.... 👀

There doesn't seem to be any point in keeping a game a console exclusive unless it's big enough to drive sales of that console.

@Purgatorium

I mean the effects are cumulative. In fact, 10 small but well received games that are all exclusive are more likely to drive sale then a single exclusive smash hit. Heck, for Sony to turn around their disastrous start to the PS3 generation, it took 12 exclusives in one year.

@Samalik Exactly. KI 2013 as a Fighting Game would super benefit for the boost in player count being on more systems, resurging the count on PC and Xbox too. And something like Battletoads 2020 just works better on a console that both comes with 2 controllers and is portable.

What's truly mind blowing though is Microsoft didn't port more games like this first, instead jumping from the first batch to what people were saying was gonna be THE Xbox-exclusive of 2024 in Indy. Then making the surprised Pikachu face when Xbox owners were mad the big exclusive of the year for them was only for 3 months before coming to PS5.

@HeadPirate It's crazy companies now don't realize the value of smaller exclusives in that $10-40 range. Nintendo has dozens of IPs within dozens of IPs and only sometimes do smaller projects, and you'd think Microsoft would be foaming at the mouth for Studios like Tango Gameworks that could help fill out the massive gaps in Game Pass releases.

@LikelySatan The Outer Worlds was made before they were bought by Microsoft though and in production before anything spicier than tofu was fine. Dustborn is almost an inverse of what I'm talking about, being from a small group in the spotlight, but people were mocking it rather than demanding it be changed or taken down.

And yeah, humor is difficult and not every joke or type of humor is going to land with everyone. But a vocal minority that the big companies appeal to who don't know that are the ones saying what can or can't be funny. Which is just a branch of the issue of why everything in media feels so stifled in creativity and cookie cutter safe.

@shoeses

You're not wrong, but it's hard to buy an Indie studio. They're not public, so if the person running it doesn't want to sell, you have no recourse. It's simply not for sale. It's also really hard to keep the "indie" feel once one of the largest companies in the world owns you. Instead they focus on funding small projects from their 1st parties (Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush) and ID@Xbox.

I mean, they have their flaws, but there is no company that has been more friendly and valuable to indie game development in the last decade then MS. Publish your game though ID@Xbox and you get free tech support, access to tools to port it to Switch and PC, multiplayer cross platform support, and MS handles CC processing and refunds at no extra cost. All for as little as 8% of your gross. They are not pushing for you to make your game exclusive, but a lot of them end up on Game Pass. I would say there is a new high tier indie game on the service every week or so. They also used to get all Humble Games releases, not sure if that's still a thing (the deal OR the publisher)

It's like Steam, if Steam wasn't evil. Or was ... I guess, slightly less evil.

Publishing a game on the Switch eshop is a nightmare, but manageable. They want 15%, which honestly isn't that bad.

Before Sony will let your game on their platform you need to prove it doesn't support cross platform multiplayer, buy and then publicly destroy a Xbox and Switch, and let them flog you while you chat "I need you more then you need me, my Masters". You get zero support, and if it's not your first ever game, they might take 30%.

@shoeses Eh, I always preferred the campaign and private multiplayer anyway, though I'd probably have a hard time getting a group of friends together for it these days.

@anoyonmus in all likelihood they were speaking about the next Nintendo console. Or cloud versions for Switch.

@Elbow or just port MW remastered to Switch. It was rumored that it can come to Switch. I just want old CODs on Switch than new ones. Don’t need new ones.

@anoyonmus @Elbow

Microsoft has incredible scaling tools, having invested literally 100s of billions into how the windows platform scales to low end systems. At one point, the WUP let you write software for high end PCs and it would scale to run on a Window's phone automatically. You didn't even have to "port" it.

For the most part, it shouldn't be difficult to get anything that runs on the Series S (4TF) at around half the resolution on Switch (1.5TF ... kinda, it's complicated). With theoretically perfect scaling, half resolution takes 1/4th the processing power.

Oh wait ... every game needs to run on the S. So, again theoretically, Microsoft can likely make a passable port of any of their 1st party games for the current Switch.

As for COD ... no rumors or theory required! Starting with the first installment released after Nintendo's NEXT console, they need to bring the current COD title to Switch, fully featured, within 90 days of launch. That's in writing.

The bad news? Cloud counts.

@VivianOblivion @JRiegler @Reg

Publishing rights and IP rights are not the same thing. Rare didn't, and therefor Microsoft doesn't, have the publishing rights to over half the games in that collection. They also don't have publishing rights for a lot of the extra content, as it was created and licensee exclusively for the Xbox release.

There is segment in the collection where they talk about how it took years to track down all the rights holders (over 100 different entities) and get a license to re-release. If Microsoft wanted to release it on Switch, they would need to do all that work over again. Not impossible, but not likely.

The collection was a special thing for the 30th anniversary, it wasn't really a "product". Microsoft stated at the time that it's sales drastically exceeded expectations to the point where they had stock issues. They also said it wasn't profitable. So that's the mindset it was released under. They planned on losing a TON of money to make it. It sold like hotcakes, so they only lost A LOT of money. Yay!

The good news is all the games that MS does have the publishing rights to are likely to see re-releases individually. So unless you REALLY want the ZX-spectrum games, you'll at least have the opportunity to play them. For like 20 times the price. But hey, life's imperfect.

I think the writing is on the wall for Xbox and they are planning for a 3rd party future post Xbox Series S/X

@TimGibson @r23q51yn

MS announced there next console back in March. Several developers already have it (or a prototype at least).

@shoeses take 2 is still a huge publisher. Anyway, at a certain point we are talking about the mainstream anyway, so who cares? It's like complaining about the radio being full of the same bs since you can remember. Reshuffling the track ad infinitum. I just think that's silly when you can find anything you want, in seconds. Giant corporations found out games make lots of money. Almost everything they put out will be as milquetoast as a top 40 radio station, to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.
I just like what I like and if people have a problem with it, that's just it. Their problem. It would be nice if publishers learned to ignore naysayers. Some people are impossible to please.
While I think wishing for giant games to appeal to...whoever... you're wishing they'd appeal to (?) is basically a fool's errand, you can go find anything you want, easier than ever. Just because it's not propped up in a store front doesn't mean it's not out there.

@HeadPirate I wondered for the longest time why Rare Replay never even so much as got a consideration of a port to PC. I guess this explains why, which is pretty heartbreaking but makes complete sense. If it'd been released a couple years later during the Play Anywhere push, maybe! (though I realize that would have ruined the 30-year anniversary aspect.)

Sure port COD coming to New NINTENDO System - i belive the new NINTENDO System Will be better with internal Spec
( must handheld )

Can't support Xbox anymore, at least from a hardware standpoint, just no point, all their games are either already available elsewhere or are going to be available elsewhere.

I don't see any benefit to owning Xbox hardware. It's a shame they took this route.

Btw this is what no exclusives looks like. It's not pretty.

Multiple, by which he meant two. Way to oversell on your investors, dude. If they're ignorant and haven't been watching or keeping up with the industry then, yeah, they bought it hook line and sinker. I think PlayStation has shipped more games on the Switch than Microsoft has, let's see..... Annual MLB The Show games and upcoming Lego Horizon? Yeah, PlayStation has a bigger presence on Nintendo than Xbox.

Multiple. You see, in the business world they b.s. their own and their shareholders buy it