It’s been nearly two and a half years since Microsoft’s Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X consoles first went on sale in November 2020. Since then, Microsoft has acquired a number of game development studios, including all of ZeniMax Studios, to make first-party games for these consoles.
The number of teams under the Xbox Game Studios umbrella (not counting the third-party studios that publish their games by Microsoft) has now reached 23. But now things seem to have changed.
Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studio, confirmed in a chat with Axios that Microsoft’s first-party game teams no longer make any games that will run natively on the Xbox One console. “We’ve moved to Gen 9,” said Booty, emphasizing Microsoft’s definition for the current generation of game consoles on the market.
If you have an Xbox One console, the good news is that with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, you’ll be able to continue playing all of Microsoft’s future first-party Xbox Series S/X titles. This is because they will all be playable via Xbox Cloud Streaming. “This is how we will continue to support,” Booty said in the interview.
In the meantime, let us remind you that the decision only covers first-party games. In other words, third-party game companies will be able to continue to support Xbox One consoles as they wish.
Currently, Microsoft requires that all Xbox Series X games also run on the less powerful and cheaper Xbox Series S console. Booty says developers are learning how to get more performance out of the Xbox Series S, so it’s unlikely that we’ll get Xbox Series X-exclusive games for a while.
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