Microsoft May Bring First-Party Franchises to PlayStation in the Future

Halo, goodbye?

Microsoft already publishes multiformat games with Minecraft, but as the organisation increasingly looks to expand the reach of its services and subscriptions, there could come a time when it releases franchises like Halo and Gears of War on PlayStation platforms. That’s according to boss Phil Spencer, who’s revealed in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that he’s been given the freedom to reach gamers on any device.

The sticking point, perhaps, is that the Windows maker’s focus right now is on increasing its Xbox Live membership base, and we know that’s been a point of concern for Sony in the past. Microsoft, for example, wants PlayStation 4 owners to sign in to Xbox Live as part of its cross-platform push in Minecraft, something that the Japanese giant seemingly wants nothing to do with.

It’s interesting, though: we all sign in to EA, Activision, and Ubisoft accounts to play big blockbusters, so what’s the difference here? To be honest, we can’t imagine any Xbox first-party titles will be coming to the PS4 any time soon, but as Microsoft becomes increasingly obsessed with memberships and monthly active users, there’s every chance it could start looking to Sony’s global install base in order to grow those metrics.

Maybe.

[via wsj.com]

http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2017/11/microsoft_may_bring_first-party_franchises_to_playstation_in_the_future

WallStreetJurnal & PushSquare must have miss heard something..... I dont see that happending unless they plan on leaveing the console market.

Without reading the article, i'll have to assume the quote is accurate.
"(...) he’s been given the freedom to reach gamers on any device"

That to me is the start of MS going 3rd party, as you don't go for all the markets and, at the same time, try to sell exclusivity.

Whether true or not, it seems insanely weird to even hint at something like this when you are launching a new console right now.

I just want to play cuphead on my switch

Fake news.

It's possible, i think. For microsoft are sales and profit important, exclusives-games are not important according to their statements. That's why it's not unrealistic.

microsoft-games on pc/ps4 in future (end of 2018 / 2019). Would be a win-win situation for players and phil spencer in my opinion. The profits and sales would be incredible/much better for microsoft. The "Minecraft" versions are already available on ps4. Remedy and Bungie are also developing for PS4, the current xbox-situation without exclusives is no fun. Let's see..

This is fake spencer cleared this up on twitter

Yes, more on Steam and stuff like iPhone if they allow games which will need Xbox Live.

Not on Playstation as long as MS stays in the console business. That's just spinning his words in something he never meant.

I expect MS to try to become a Steam competitor in that case. Them already releasing all 1st party games on PC seems to be baby steps towards that. Distributing software without having to worry about selling any hardware is sort of the holy-grail profit-wise, which is how Steam struck gold. It's also what MS has been doing with Window's and office for basically ages. So I could see it happening eventually, though how successful they'll be is hard to say.