After promising a “business update event” for this week in what seems like a direct response to ongoing rumours of a selection of Xbox exclusive games heading to the PlayStation and Switch, a date and time has now been locked in for a special edition of the Official Xbox Podcast.
The post announcing the podcast for Friday, February 16th at 7AM AEDT also further details that we’ll hear from CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer, Xbox president Sarah Bond and president of Game Content and Studios Matt Booty, with updates on the future of the Xbox business.
If you’re keen to watch/listen along as it happens, you can do so on the official Xbox YouTube channel or most podcast services, and the Aussie times for when it goes live are below:
Official Xbox Podcast Business Update Edition Australian Times – Friday, February 16th
- 7.00 AM AEDT (Melbourne/Sydney/Hobart/Canberra)
- 6.30 AM ACDT (Adelaide)
- 6.00 AM AEST (Brisbane)
- 5.30 AM ACST (Darwin)
- 4.00 AM AWST (Perth)
- 9.00 AM NZDT (Wellington)
Please join us for a special edition of the Official Xbox Podcast.
Hear from Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond and Matt Booty as they share updates on the Xbox business. pic.twitter.com/TxwWJVUbgx
— Xbox (@Xbox) February 12, 2024
We still really don’t know exactly what Microsoft is planning to say during this podcast, but given the format it’s easy to assume that whatever it is was planned for a reveal at a later date and has been brought forward thanks to the widespread “leaks” and rumours around its new multiplatform strategy and titles like Starfield, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, HiFi Rush and many more potentially breaking free of the Microsoft ecosystem at some stage in the future.
In the last week or so, those claims have grown as more “insiders” share which games they believe are headed to more platforms than just Xbox and PC. Those titles include the above as well as games like Hellblade 2, Pentiment, Grounded, the Gears of War Series and more, though we obviously don’t know how accurate any of these actually are until Xbox makes the announcement itself.
A recent story from The Verge claims to have been given early word that Tango Gameworks’ HiFi Rush and Obsidian’s Pentiment (both bangers) are the first two titles coming to other platforms, with Rare’s Sea of Thieves to follow later this year.
As far as its hardware plans go, journalist Shannon Liao has made the claim that Spencer held an internal townhall last week where he assured employees that there are no plans to exit the console business and that Xbox consoles would continue to be a part of its multi-device strategy, so it remains to be seen if this opportunity is taken to give any insight into hardware plans or if those remain under wraps for a bit longer.
