XBox Announces New Cross-Platform Plan; ‘Diablo VI’ Comes To Game Pass In March
by Erik Amaya
After much speculation and doomsaying, the leaders of Microsoft’s XBox division took to their socials, YouTube channel, and podcast platforms to clarify their upcoming plans — they are not leaving the hardware space, but they are looking to expand what XBox can mean in the future. “Xbox is a platform for creators who want to reach the most players,” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said. “It’s not about one device, but rather the devices that people want to play on should be in the service of [the games].”
The company has been involved in similar initiatives previously, but this new cross-platform plan will begin with four titles that were previously available on XBox for over a year — which removes the possibility of Starfield, as some suggested late last week. According to the platform’s Twitter account, “[These include] hidden gems that deserve to be experienced more widely, and live service games whose communities will benefit from welcoming even more players! We’ll share more details on these titles soon.” Other titles may join the plan should the first four prove successful.
In addition to the cross-platform plan, the team also announced the acquisition of Activision Blizzard King will soon become apparent on Game Pass with Blizzard’s Diablo IV joining the service on March 28th. For the moment, Game Pass — Microsoft’s subscription service — will continue to be exclusive to XBox with all first party games debut on the service day-and-date with their individual release. It is one of the key reasons the service became so popular in the last few years and, likely, one of the saving graces for XBox overall. Indeed, out editor-in-chief only upgraded to an XBox Series X after trying Game Pass.
Of course, it remains to be seen if Game Pass will eventually join the cross-platform initiative. As it happens, the PC version of Game Pass offers some common titles with XBox. That may indicate a future for cloud, mobile devices, and other devices outside of the console itself.
And, as it happens, a next generation XBox is in the work, but that’s more of a further horizon for Microsoft.
