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We're only three months into 2023, meaning there's plenty of time for Microsoft to make big moves for Xbox this year – aside from that potential major Activision Blizzard acquisition and all. So what should the folks at Microsoft do to make Xbox better in the next nine months? We're not holding back on dreaming of improvements and additions to Xbox's ecosystem.
Ryan
1. Sign Ex-Rocksteady Co-Founders
First, Phil Spencer should already be on the phone signing Rocksteady co-founders Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker to an exclusive development deal (if he hasn’t already) now that the two of them are free agents. Sure, they wouldn’t have another game for five years or more since they’d need to start over and build a new team from scratch, but Xbox isn’t going anywhere, and those two are worth betting on.
For the love of all things good, Microsoft should announce native Steam Deck support!
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2. Steam Deck Support
For the love of all things good, Microsoft should announce native Steam Deck support! If Xbox is serious about meeting gamers wherever they’re at, they should team up with their Seattle-area neighbors and turn the Steam Deck into a handheld Xbox through native support of Game Pass on the Deck’s Proton (Linux)-based OS. I realize that’s much easier said than done, but I can’t imagine it’s an insurmountable obstacle. Maybe not every game would be compatible, but I’ll bet most of them would. The long-rumored but never-made Xboy could finally be born!
3. 1vs100!
I want to see Microsoft do something really unique: bring back 1vs100! It’s one of the most unique video game experiences of my lifetime (in the best of ways), and a new generation of gamers should get to experience it. Or, if there’s a licensing issue with that show, Microsoft can get some other live-event game (Price is Right, perhaps?). Put it on Game Pass and you’d have plenty of tune-in during the live events. This would be a great way to engage the community on any platform Xbox exists on (console, PC, cloud) and resurrect a beloved thing. Two birds, one stone. Make it happen!
Miranda
This was difficult! It's tough to make big moves in a year. Here are three I'd want to see, both for personal reasons and because I think they'd just be great moves!
4. Summer of Arcade
Speaking from experience at IGN, there's a lot that goes into making an event work. But what if you look back at your past and say "dang, that was a good one" and do it again? Bring back Summer of Arcade, please! ID@Xbox is already such a great program that gets a sparse highlight at the big events, but they tend to be some of my favorite surprises at hands-on events. It seems like developers had some fondness for the summer event too. On My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin, Parkin and his episode 6 guest Phil Fish had a brief but insightful discussion about how Summer of Arcade brought about a certain excitement for developers as well as players.
What's features are coming to Xbox in the next few years. Does Microsoft have any specific release cadence goals?
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5) Better Communication (and Not Just About Games)
It'd be great to have a statement on general first-party release expectations and, generally, what's coming to Xbox in terms of features in the next few years. Does Microsoft have any specific release cadence goals? A few a year? It's obviously been a major challenge for studios to nail down release dates the past few years, but I think hearing Xbox Game Studio's ambitions for their many studios would be helpful, or generally some sort of statement on what they want to improve or develop in the coming years. Xbox as a whole has been seemingly great about messaging through Xbox Wire as their teams make improvements to Xbox Cloud Gaming and other features, but another intentions roundup would be great. Something in the vein of Jason Ronald's (Director of Program Management for Xbox Series X) "Everything You Need to Know about Xbox Series X and The Future of Xbox… So Far" post from June 2020.
6) HoYoverse
A major personal one for me would be to see Microsoft work with HoYoverse to bring Genshin Impact or at least ensure HoYoverse's next games – Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero – will be on Xbox. Reportedly Microsoft passed on having Genshin as a console exclusive. I actually wouldn't want Genshin to be a console exclusive as being able to log in and play it anywhere is a major feature for me (it's on PlayStation and coming to Switch someday). At the very least, I hope Microsoft continues to look at bringing these massive liveservice games to Xbox. It's got Black Desert Online, but that's no Final Fantasy XIV. At least we have Blue Protocol to look forward to on the MMO side of things!
Stella
7. More Updates
Knowing how busy the year gets, it was a bit hard to figure out what I would really want from Xbox this year. But I think the first one for me would be to rework their release calendar that originally went up last year. We first got to see the general plans for 2022 and 2023 during our Summer of Gaming special Unlocked episode.
I get that release dates change a lot – that’s fine. I’m not asking for hard release dates though, the original calendar Xbox posted didn’t even have that. But it specified what was coming the current and next year, which would be a great thing to have right now. We have no idea what’s coming in 2024.
8) eSports Support
My next move would be for Xbox to do a better job supporting its esports. Halo Infinite is not doing well in the esports scene or player base, and four big teams have already abandoned Infinite’s tournaments, even though they were partnered teams who had their team HCS skins in the game: OpTic Gaming, Fnatic, eUnited and Spacestation Gaming.
Spacestation Gaming remained in the HCS scene but it isn’t the same roster and it’s obvious a lot of pro players are losing their love for the game. There’s nothing new, or any real reason for pros to want to compete and spend their time playing Halo Infinite for hours when the scene doesn’t look as supported as it should.
I want Halo Infinite to do better for casual and competitive players, and currently it is failing at both.
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Viewer numbers for the 2022 finals of the Halo World Championship fell short of its previous Kickoff Major, which peaked at 267,279 viewers. The Grand Finals of the World Championship 2022 only reached 143,585 viewers.
The HCS also pulled crowdfunding from the prize pool just a week before the World Championship was about to start. Messing around the pros who do stick around to compete in Halo Infinite by impacting their potential earnings is a really bad look, especially since crowdfunding was available in previous tournaments leading up to the World Championship.
I just want Halo Infinite to do better for casual and competitive players, and currently it is failing at both.
9. Game Pass Deals
My last, more casual suggestion is for Xbox to add more subscription deals for Game Pass. Crunchyroll offered a free 75-day Crunchyroll Mega Fan offer through Game Pass but little else. Admittedly it may not be as fruitful as sticking to gaming deals but gaming is becoming more mainstream all the time.
Also, with so many subscription services on offer, consolidating a bunch of them through Game Pass would likely be attractive to a lot of people. Imagine a Netflix free-trial deal, or a Netflix-with-ads deal that, if you chose to upgrade, you got a discount? I’d go for that.
