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Xbox Latitude plan has ‘no red lines’ when it comes to Halo or Forza on PS5 says insider-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro
A noted Microsoft insider has implied most or all Xbox exclusives could come to PS5, as he accuses Microsoft of only thinking short term.
Is Halo coming to PS5 or isn’t it? (Xbox Game Studios)
A noted Microsoft insider has implied most or all Xbox exclusives could come to PS5, as he accuses Microsoft of only thinking short term.
As fans hope that the newly appointed heads of PlayStation will improve communication between the company and its customers the problem with Microsoft is almost, but not quite, the same.
Unlike Sony, Microsoft can never stop talking about their plans, and yet nothing ever seems to get set in stone, with continued confusion over their multiformat plan and which games will appear on PlayStation 5 and when.
It’s not clear that they’re going to announce any more games coming to PlayStation 5 or Switch, at next month’s Xbox Games Showcase, but one long-time Microsoft insider claims that there are ‘no red lines’ when it comes to Microsoft’s plans, which are now part of what is apparently called project Latitude.
Jez Corden of Windows Central has long been a self-professed Xbox fan but a lengthy new article goes into detail about how he feels Microsoft is doing ‘long-term damage’ to Xbox, Windows, and Surface, in its quest for short-term growth.
‘Satya Nadella’s Microsoft is burning long-term goals for short-term gains, moving from tech fad to tech fad like locusts, often showing up to the party too late and burning mountains of cash,’ writes Corden.
‘Microsoft had a real opportunity to become a different megacorp that invested in social responsibilities, employees, and customer satisfaction first. It could lead by example and show you can be nice and profitable. Perhaps it could even be profitable to be good. When I first started blogging almost 10 years ago, in my youthful naivete, I believed that Microsoft would.’
That’s a pretty strange thing to write about a multinational corporation but Corden has proven contacts within Microsoft and the most interesting part of the article is when he talks about project Latitude.
‘I know there’s debate and unease at Microsoft about whether or not this is a good idea,’ writes Corden. ‘More upcoming Microsoft-owned games slated for PlayStation are already being developed. At least for now, they’re potentially obvious games you’d most likely expect.’
Unless he’s referring to Activision Blizzard titles that are already multiformat it’s not clear what games he’s thinking of specifically, with still no commitment from Microsoft to release new Bethesda titles, in franchises that were previously multiformat, on PlayStation 5.
‘From what I’ve heard, Microsoft is pushing for no ‘red line’ for what games could come to PlayStation, and it all revolves around Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood’s mandate to increase every department’s margins,’ adds Corden.
‘Obviously, putting Halo Infinite on PlayStation will increase profit margins,’ says Corden. But he suggests that: ‘Like many of Microsoft’s other recent strategies, pursuing this strategy is a short-term margin booster with long-term consequences.
‘Yes, the industry is struggling, and Microsoft isn’t the only hardware manufacturer that has seen declines. But destroying the foundational reason to buy an Xbox isn’t the answer you give if you do care about the long-term.’
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Whether you agree or disagree with his points it does seem inconceivable that Microsoft won’t release more titles on PlayStation 5 (and Switch 2), especially given the success of Sea Of Thieves.
However, without any official word to go on it’s still impossible to guess which titles will make the leap and which won’t. And if it is to be everything then Microsoft has some difficult days ahead of it, in terms of placating its long-term fans.
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