Have you ever said something and then realized it will come back to haunt you again and again? Xbox boss Phil Spencer may be spending his time with his head in his hands after his latest announcement about what’s to come Doom: The Dark Ages.
When we take this new statement in the context of other things Spencer has said and other business decisions Microsoft has made, it calls into question the future direction of the entire Xbox platform.
“Doom is definitely one of those franchises that has a history on so many platforms,” Spencer said IGN after the Xbox Showcase. “It’s a franchise that I think everyone deserves to play.”
A franchise that “everyone deserves to play”. What does he mean by that?
If you’re not familiar with what’s going on in video games, Microsoft has started publishing some of its smaller games, like Hi-Fi Rush and Grounded, on non-Microsoft platforms – the Nintendo Switch and Sony PlayStation 5.
The common wisdom among gaming industry executives and dedicated gamers alike is that exclusives are good. They are a necessity to prove to your install base why they should buy your game.
If Microsoft sells PlayStation and Switch games, then what’s the point of owning an Xbox in the first place? This is the question asked by so many people responding to this Microsoft solution.
The first batch of games to make the jump were relatively small games and ones that had achieved critical success or benefited from multi-platform gameplay. However, Doom: The Dark Ages will be one of Microsoft’s biggest games of 2025 – and the company has announced, along with a blood-spattered trailer, that the game will also be heading to the PlayStation 5.
“It’s a franchise that I think everyone deserves to play.”
Microsoft has a lot of franchises under its belt these days, thanks to a number of high-profile acquisitions in recent years. Doom, Wolfenstein, Halo, Forza, Gears of War, Call of Duty, Fallout and the Elder Scrolls series are massive hits that Microsoft now controls. And we don’t think it’s hard to see the next logical step suggested by Spencer’s words.
Which franchises are the ones that not everyone deserves to play? If The Elder Scrolls VI isn’t coming to the PlayStation 5 (or PlayStation 6?), for example, because it’s a franchise that not everyone deserves to play?
Spencer’s words were meant to make Microsoft look like the generous good guy while avoiding — hopefully — upsetting Xbox supporters. what is really is, however, a value judgment. Even worse, it’s something gamers can apply to every game published by Microsoft for at least as long as Spencer has been in charge of the Xbox brand (if not much longer).
Or maybe it’s not a value judgment. Maybe it’s a telegraphed swing. Xbox doesn’t want to put any of its franchises above the rest—at least not in such a clear way as to suggest that some of them aren’t worth playing.
Spencer’s mantra with Xbox gaming over the past few years has been that “when everyone plays, we all win.” They even have an entire web page committed to the concept.
So if Microsoft doesn’t want to abandon its franchises and likes the idea of all playing its games, what does this mean for the xbox brand? While we don’t know what Microsoft’s plans are for the future, it certainly suggests that the Xbox brand will eventually go multi-platform for all of its core titles.
For Xbox fans, Spencer has been a positive figure since taking over and has worked hard for years to regain the trust Microsoft lost with the ill-conceived Xbox One and its TV-centric features. He usually offers realistic but unbiased thoughts on the industry that suggest he’s most interested in seeing as many people play as many games as one can imagine.
This is one of the few moments where you feel like Spencer has stepped in a puddle. Gamers don’t forget – not if they can use your own words against you later. And now that Microsoft is trying to make a potentially transformative change in how it views the Xbox platform, we’re left waiting to hear which games are the ones everyone deserves to play… and which aren’t.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
