Microsoft Halts Production of Xbox One Games, Shifts Focus to Next-Gen Consoles
In a significant move, Microsoft has officially confirmed that it is no longer creating first-party games for the Xbox One, indicating a complete shift towards the next generation of consoles, the Xbox Series S and X. The announcement was made by Xbox Game Studios chief Matt Booty in an interview with Axios, stating that the company has “moved on to Gen 9,” referring to the Xbox Series S/X generation.
Despite this, Microsoft reassures that it will continue to support Xbox One hardware and games like Minecraft that run on the older console. Nevertheless, no new games are being developed by the company’s internal studios for the Xbox One. Microsoft has been gradually moving towards this decision, leveraging its Xbox Cloud Gaming platform to provide games like Microsoft Flight Simulator to existing Xbox One users. Booty highlighted that the company plans to keep offering the latest games to Xbox One users via its Xbox Cloud Gaming infrastructure, stating, “That’s how we’re going to maintain support”.
The shift has seen Microsoft’s game developers primarily focus on the Xbox Series S/X consoles. Despite some industry chatter about the company potentially dropping mandatory Xbox Series S compatibility for new games, the development remains steadfast. The more affordable Xbox Series S, priced at $299, launched as a console capable of delivering 1440p gaming at up to 120fps. However, many games have only been able to achieve 1080p without the higher frame rates seen in the more powerful Xbox Series X. The Xbox Series X, larger and more potent, offers superior GPU power and a larger 16GB of RAM compared to the Series S’s 10GB. Although these memory constraints have posed challenges for some developers, Microsoft has been working to improve the overall graphics performance of the Xbox Series S and free up additional memory for developers to use.
Microsoft is looking to bounce back after acknowledging that it “lost the worst generation to lose in the Xbox One generation, where everybody built their digital library of games,” as stated recently by Xbox chief Phil Spencer. After a relatively quiet year for Xbox releases in 2022, the company is now aiming to rebound with the Xbox Series X/S. This intention was made clear in the recent Xbox Games Showcase, which unveiled a solid lineup of first-party games coming to Xbox in 2023 and 2024.
