Xbox’s content acquisition strategy has again been a topic of discussion recently.
To be honest, Xbox fans in general are eating pretty well right now. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has just arrived on Xbox Game Pass, along with Valorant, with all characters unlocked for subscribers. We’ve also had great titles like Kunitsu-gami: Path of the Goddess and Dungeons of Hinterburg also recently hit the service. June’s Xbox Games Showcase 2024 gave the most exciting and comprehensive look at Microsoft’s roadmap yet. Microsoft is also officially working on the next iteration of the Xbox console hardware.
I’m framing the article this way because I want to acknowledge the hard work Microsoft has done to provide Xbox fans lately, but it hasn’t all been flowers and sunshine. However, the brand has been under a bit of stress of late, with some of Microsoft’s strategic decisions casting doubt on Xbox’s long-term future. Microsoft is porting its Xbox games to third-party console platforms such as the PlayStation, which at first glance could reduce interest in Xbox hardware and reduce desire for the brand.
With things like this in mind, Xbox fans are often skeptical about some of Microsoft’s strategies. Xbox’s flagship IP Halo could be mismanaged in recent years, for example. And Capcom and others have had outstanding games skipping Xbox, including Monster Hunter Stories, as well as ports of games like Marvel vs. Capcom.
This is wild, as many of these games were previously available on Xbox platforms, and the community was rightly angered by Microsoft’s seeming lack of urgency on some of these issues. And perhaps they are all symptomatic of the same problem, which we will discuss in this short article. However, I rarely see the mainstream Xbox community discuss what is arguably the biggest omission in recent Xbox history, perhaps since the infamous launch of the Xbox One in 2013 – and that is the almost complete omission of whole gatcha game genre.
Microsoft had the opportunity to bring Genshin Impact to Xbox, but they missed it – it’s a spectacular miss
People often don’t care about games that miss the Xbox unless it’s a game them want. I’m quite aware of the idea that I’m probably one of the few gamers who want Monster Hunter Stories on Xbox. Microsoft is probably aware of this fact as well.
At EVO 2024, Capcom announced SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos for modern platforms. That is PC, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. Once again – no Xbox in sight. EVO is the largest fighting game tournament in the world and represents one of the most passionate and dedicated communities in all of gaming and to have another such game announced exclusively not for Xbox on such a grand stage sends a big message. The fighting game community isn’t always best served on Xbox.
Just for the sake of argument, though, let’s give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt on this one. Arguably, fighting games aren’t as big as they used to be, and probably aren’t getting new users to play like they would have in past decades. As big as games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter are, they’re far from the likes of Call of Duty and Fortnite in terms of engagement. So hey, maybe not a big deal with older Capcom fighting games, right? Maybe today, but you never know what the future will bring when it comes to content. I would say you should have a gun to be safe everyone the genre is well served on your platform, even if the audience is relatively small. You never know if something is going to blow up. Few games encapsulate this reality like Genshin Impact.
Even if we give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt about legacy Xbox fighting games, we can’t do the same for the “gatcha” games that have become increasingly popular in recent years. And it’s something I rarely see the core Xbox community discuss. I can’t help but feel like under-serving this genre above all others is hurting Xbox’s growth right now and represents one of the brand’s biggest missteps.
For those who don’t know, Genshin Impact is a hugely popular free-to-play action role-playing game that is another game, essentially an extremely no on Xbox. It is extremely huge, with tens of millions of players contributing to Shanghai-based MiHoYo’s massive multibillion-dollar annual revenue. In fact, MiHoYo had better profit margins than EA and Activision in 2022, on the back of Genshin Impact’s massive popularity and in-app purchase model. And there’s little sign they’re slowing down.
Games like Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail and the recently released Zenless Zone Zero are pushing hundreds of millions of downloads on mobile, PC and PlayStation – even on the Epic Store – but they’re nowhere to be found on Xbox. They have billions of dollars in revenue, incredibly passionate fans, and most importantly, they are a lot popular with younger cohorts of gamers who may be considering their first gaming console.
The worst part is that Microsoft first optioned Genshin Impact and all the MiHoYo games that would follow. And sensationally, they reportedly passed it on.
Gatcha games have exploded in popularity – literally everywhere – except Xbox
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Yes, you read that right. Microsoft has passed on MiHoYo’s proposal for Genshin Impact on Xbox in 2020, according to a Reuters report. The absence of Genshin Impact essentially surrendered an entire genre of games to the PlayStation, at least as far as the console space was concerned. And sure, I know that most of the engagement in these types of games is mobile — but if we’re not trying to at least compete with the mainstream cutting-edge titles, why are we even still in the game?
It would be nice to have things like Monster Hunter Stories and classic Marvel vs. Capcom for Xbox, but I admit they aren’t necessarily critical in and of themselves. However, games like Genshin Impact and similar titles like Wuthering Waves are absent from Xbox and are extremely popular, especially among younger gamers from the Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha cohorts. These generations are heading to college and university for the first time and may be considering consoles for a better experience playing these types of games. They might even consider playing them through devices like the $40 Amazon Fire Stick 4K with Xbox Cloud Gaming for savings. Did they succeed, that is? The fact is they are not.
A younger relative of mine recently cited Genshin Impact specifically as a guideline for their decision to request a PS5 rather than an Xbox Series X|S console, and I wonder how many other youngsters follow that line of thinking.
It’s hard to know for sure why Microsoft was going to port Genshin Impact. Perhaps there were concerns about the genre’s heavy insistence on loot box-style mechanics in 2020 when governments were looking into the business model. Maybe Microsoft just doesn’t like anime in general. Either way, there’s no doubt that Microsoft deeply regrets its decision to surrender the MiHoYo line, which is now effectively PlayStation’s exclusive domain in the console market. I know Microsoft is also looking into bringing Genshin Impact to Xbox someday, at least pending.
But I think any opportunity to capitalize on the wave of popularity of Genshin Impact and its gatcha siblings is probably long gone. This is just another example of Xbox playing catch-up, as a result of a lack of cultural foresight or urgency.
Is it too late to fix the Xbox gatcha situation?
Microsoft has had some free-to-play wins recently with games like The First Descent, and there’s Bandai Namco’s Genshin-esque Blue Protocol that could launch on Xbox later this year – but that’s probably no consolation at this stage. As we head into the back-to-school season and the wider holiday season in 2024, the Xbox Series S would be an absolutely perfect console choice for millions of youngsters looking for a compact console for college or their bedrooms – if only there were games that want.
Microsoft often talks in interviews about finding those elusive “new to Xbox” users looking everywhere under the sun to try and find them. It has done some impressive things to win over these users, such as major partnerships with service games like Valorant and League of Legends on PC, partnerships with Epic Games in the cloud, etc. Microsoft has also boosted its Japanese credentials with support from Atlus for franchises like Persona (although I wouldn’t say no to the Ys or Trails series, just saying). Microsoft finally released the Final Fantasy 14 MMO as well, and it seems to be doing well on Xbox. EA’s College Football 2025 also seems to have been an impressive driver of Xbox console sales recently and Microsoft I did take Palworld as a console launch exclusive that absolutely blew up at the start of the year.
Landing Genshin and its gatcha siblings should be a DEFCON 1 situation for the Xbox.
I want to call out the wins here because I really appreciate the hard work put in by every corner of the Xbox team – but there’s always something missing. Whether it’s “smaller” titles like those classic Capcom games, cult classics like Final Fantasy VII Remake, or those huge misses like Genshin Impact. Xbox fans seem to be the ones who usually miss out, and that’s not good in a universe where Microsoft has started releasing its own games on competing platforms as well. I feel that some of the backlash to this strategy is justified given that there are still content issues at home. These content issues have unnecessarily cost Microsoft tens of billions in premium dollars after the fact, just to keep Xbox in the race and fix past mistakes.
Xbox Game Pass is great, I love it. No problems there. I love cloud efforts as well as first-party efforts. But I long for a future where I get press releases from studios about new games that say “and it’s coming to all platforms!” only for the Xbox to miss out. But hey, maybe I’m asking for too much, but I can’t help but feel like landing Genshin and his gatcha siblings should be a DEFCON 1 situation for the Xbox.
