Xbox ended 2024 with a bang. Or, more accurately, a wh♚ip crack.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Indiana Jones and the Great Circle launched in December, the liminal space of each year's release calendar. Too late to be considered for Ga🧔me of the Year awards, too early to be the unexpected January banger that takes everyone by surprise. Though its reception was more muted than a differeไnt release date might have allowed, it has found an audience.

On a recent earnings call, that the game had been played by more than four million players. Those are good numbers (even if it is a little tricky to suss out how big of a financial success they actually make the game thanks to its availability on 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Game Pass), and they give Xbox a strong footing as☂ 🐻it heads into 2025. It will need it.

2025 Could Be Xbox's Big Transition Year

Aside from Indiana Jones' success, Xbox was in a deeply weird place in 2024. The year began with fans melting down about whether Microsoft would even stay in the console game at all, as it 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:sh🍰ifted its focus away from exclusives. Not long after, the company brought games like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Hi-Fi Rush and Grounded, which were previously Xbox exclusive, to Switch and PS5 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:before dropping the Hi-Fi t🍷eꦇam altogether.

As Xbox's apparent strategy became clearer, it felt like we were waiting for the other shoe to drop. Were there any limitations around which games could make the leap? Surely big꧙ deal franchise🍷s like Halo and Gears of War would remain exclusive, right?

When we say that an♏ Xbox gam♎e is ‘exclusive’, that necessarily includes PC, since all Xbox games hit both platforms.

Wrong. Or, at least, Phil Spencer wouldn't rule it out. The Xbox head 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:said that there were "no red lines" around which games were or were not eligible for a port, including those flagship franchises. He later said that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Starfield wasn't off limits either. With Indiana Jones and 168澳洲幸运5开奖♍网:Forza Horizon 5 both comin𝔉g to PS5 this spring, and The Outer Wo𒆙rlds 2 set for a multi🥃platform launch later this year, it's increasingly difficult to💎 sཧee Xbox returning to its former position as a console manufacturer that could rival Sony and Nintendo.

Now Is The Time To Get Out Of The Console Game

As Xbox heads into a packed 2025, it's in a good position to change its business. It no longer matters much as a console manufacturer, but it has a stellar line-up of games set for release. In the first five months of the year, Xbox has several big games that, if it plays its cards right, can serve as pivot points, moving the company away from its role as a har𓂃dware manufacturer that a▨lso offers services to being a service provider, first and foremost. That will mean fully pivoting away from exclusives, and making its games (and, crucially, Game Pass) available everywhere that people play games.

The recent highlighted that you a✅lready can play Xbox 🎉games on more devices than you might expect.

Avowed is an early opportunity to do just that. Obsidian's fantasy RPG has previewed incredibly positively, and if it reviews just as well, it gives Xbox a win at the beginning of the year. And, if Xbox keeps to the same schedule it set with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Avowed could reasonably get a PS5 port out by the end of the year. Then, Xbox keeps the heavy hitters coming throughout the year. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:South of Midnight looks like it has the potential to be a breakout double-A hit, but Fable is t꧅he big exclusive that will have everyone rushing to their nearest Xbox-capable device.

Those games are Xbox exclusives (or, at least, are expected to be in Fable's case), but a few of Microsoft's big games are multiplatform. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Doom: The Dark Ages and The Outer Worlds 2 will both launch on Xbox, PC, and PS5, as will the next 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Call of Duty — which is in a league all its own. This seems to be Xbox's approach for its heaviest hitters, so why not make itꦍ the approach for everything?

One potential answer? Xbox m🌄ay not want to requi💮re smaller teams simultaneously develop for multiple platforms.

The cornerstones are the games Xbox is actually publishing, but the games that are merely available on Game Pass are important, too. Last month's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, March's Atomfall, and April's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 will all likely be talked about throughout the year, and each conversa📖tion functions as a billboard for Game Pass.

The result is tha😼t more than half of the games I'm excited to play this year will be on Game Pass on Day One. For the first time in years, Xbox is delivering the games, no🌃t just promising that they'll have them at some point down the road.

Xbox doesn't seem committed to doing the things it takes to be competitive as a console m🦂anufacturer anymore, but it does have a great line–up of games. Why not seize the opportunity to exit the console game from a position of strength, with the momentum that comes from having a bunch of great games? 2025 seems like as good a time as any to go all-in on Game Pass.