Gadgetory

imagine a future where there's no longer such a thing as console exclusives well that's something that a recent rumor might suggest we're finally taking the first step in so normally I don't like talking about rumors on this channel when there's not really any kind of heavy factual basis for them but this is something I've talked about a lot on the channel and it's really exciting if this is real what's up everyone so today we have some news to break over the last few days there has been some teasing which imply Microsoft and Nintendo are working together on some exciting things this rumor comes from a channel called direct Heat games and they have a history of getting some rumor and speculation and future leaked stuff correct and what they're talking about is the concept of future relationships between Xbox and Nintendo and there's two main parts to this rumor the first part is the concept that games that are published by Microsoft and that are traditionally Xbox and PC exclusive are going to start making their way to the switch and the first main example it is given is Ori now this rumor by itself honestly isn't that shocking to me this is something that you know I think there's this kind of weird tradition thing in gaming where people like well no this is a Microsoft game that can't be on this or oh no Mario is always a Nintendo it can't be on anything else except phones now and so people don't always necessarily think of this as a possibility but there's a lot of history and precedents for software made by one company to make its way to other companies hardware and platform because at the end of the day it's still money that's going to them and there already is a precedent for Microsoft and Nintendo working together in this kind of way after all minecraft while it didn't start off as a Microsoft exclusive is owned by them now and still got released all the Switch and even gave people access to Xbox Live with recent functions opening up like allowing people playing on switch to get Xbox Live achievements so yeah games like Ori and maybe even some other personal favorites like cuphead coming to switch are an awesome concept but it's the other part of this rumor that's really intriguing one of the things that Microsoft has been pushing very heavily about Xbox is game paths and if this rumor is true it might be making its way to swish now what exactly does this mean well the rumor doesn't really specify just that game path is making its way to the switch and the assumption that a lot of people are making is that this has to do with the future of X cloud the idea of making Xbox games available via other services to unlock console quality gaming on any device this is an example that Microsoft has given in the past of playing for instance for its on a phone well if X cloud works you could stream all the games on xbox game pass straight to your switch now this is definitely the ideal future where you break down this concept just being able to play whatever games you want streaming through the switch but for something like X code to work it's gonna take a lot of groundwork and honestly I'm a little skeptical at the concept of something like that coming to the switch as soon as this year if we're looking at something much more short term where game paths in some form makes its way to the switch what I think is more likely for now is that any games that are available on both switch and Xbox and are on game paths you'll be able to access on the switch for free with your game pass membership think of it this way you own an Xbox you ready for membership a game pass and some game you really like some game pass you'd really rather play handheld on the go well since you're a member you can just download it on your switch find and play it's so kind of like Netflix you're a subscriber you have access to all this content but you're only able to play it on the platforms that it can actually run on the reason this rumor interests me so much is because it plays exactly into what I've been saying for the last year about Microsoft in a lot of ways video games are kind of falling behind a little bit compared to other forms of media so many of them have focused on a pure digital front and also going post ownership music people basically just use streaming services movies and television streaming services and the occasional individual digital purpose gaming however we're still focused a lot on this concept of well these games are on this platform this is we have to play on this is what this is on and I think they're really pushing towards getting past that stage I think right now Xbox is working hard behind closed doors trying drag gaming into this more digital post ownership future where you know instead of focusing on Hardware which I think they'll still do they want to focus more on the content of Xbox as a service they'll still release some kind of new system Xbox - whatever you want to call it but that's not the focus the focus is Xbox as a platform buying into Xbox game past being a member and being able to play those games on whatever platform you want whether that's on your xbox on your switch or even on your phone in order to do that we believe we need to build a game streaming service I think we're building towards this future where the console wars and even console versus PC is just completely meaningless and instead you just play whatever games you want on whatever control you want on whatever platform you want that makes the most sense for you or then again all this is based on absolutely nothing and I just have to live with the fact that I'll never play cuphead on the switch and this really isn't that insane of a thing to think about I mean again with gaming I think there's this weird sense of traditionalism where oh these things are all divided into their consoles and that's how it has to be but we don't really have that kind of same sense of dedication when it comes to other divides of software and hardware I mean Microsoft makes Windows OS and it works on more things not just products that they physically make Apple has Apple music in to work on Android phones it's not just an iPhone only service and look let's be honest the last generation has not been super kind to Xbox I think they've come a long way in terms of improving the hardware and the software the Xbox one but game sales haven't always been the strongest and as a result I think they're really Stern look for more ways to really capitalize on the concept of what exactly Xbox needs to be to remain profitable in the future and making all the cool stuff they make available on other platforms like the switch is a genius way to do it or then again this is all based on absolutely nothing and it's book