The biggest Xbox news of the year has undoubtedly been the ongoing speculation that the gaming giant is moving away from exclusives, planning to share more of its games with PlayStation and Nintendo. So far, this has already given us a multiplatform release of Pentiment, but we're also getting Grounded, Sea of Thieves, and Hi-Fi Rush on rival platforms.

While some have argued that this change is too dramatic, it's apparently not the first time Xbox considered sharing some of its exclusives with Sony. According to former Microsoft VP Peter Moore, there were previously "conversations" about porting a Halo game to PlayStation in the '00s, even while the company was enjoying the success of the Xbox 360.

This comes from an interview with IGN, in which Moore sheds some light on his time at Xbox.

"I think they're dipping the toes in the water to see how all of this works," says Moore, referring to the news of the four Xbox game ports. "I do remember conversations about Halo on PlayStation. [...] you're constantly thinking about every scenario, as ridiculous or disruptive or radical as it sounds. You have to, absolutely have to."

Obviously, this never saw the light of day, but it's interesting to see that Xbox was thinking about sharing its biggest series when it was at the top of its game. Now, as rumours previously spread that Starfield was going to be ported to PlayStation, many diehard Xbox fans saw it as a sign of weakness, perhaps even an admission that it was losing the so-called "console war".

You're constantly thinking about every scenario, as ridiculous or disruptive or radical as it sounds. You have to, absolutely have to.

This isn't all Moore shared about his time at Microsoft. He also revealed that the company considered the possibility of console generations coming to an end after the Xbox 360, as it thought of a future where players didn't buy expensive consoles, and played games on other devices.

"We were saying then, in 2007, is this the last console generation?" says Moore. "Do televisions start to come with chips that can play games and you just need a controller?"

Slowly, we're seeing that happen now, as game streaming takes off. Xbox was an early adopter of this new way of playing games, getting Game Pass on certain smart TV models. As internet speeds improve, we may see this future that Xbox envisioned all those years ago, where all you need is a controller.

Posted: Mar 13, 2024 11:23 am
Related Forum: PlayStation Forum

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/halo-on-playstation-xbox-plans-peter-moore/