“Games are a source of joy, inspiration, and social connection,” says Phil Spencer. “They have the power to bring us together, create empathy, and strengthen our social fabric. As we prepare for the next generation, our efforts to make gaming more inclusive, more immersive, more connected, and more social are as relevant and important as ever.”
And as the Xbox One winds down, the future of Xbox is ready to shuttle into a new era that listens to everyone – the players, developers, content creators, and streamers. Thanks to feedback from the community, Xbox is building towards a place where you and your friends can play the deepest, most immersive and interactive games ever created across your Xbox console, PC, and mobile devices.
Phil Spencer wants you to know that you are the hero, and he wants to commit to you.
Through inclusion, players from all walks of life, situated around the world, the Xbox ecosystem is built for you. Microsoft plans on making the Xbox community a safe and accessible place for everyone, free of racism, free of discrimination, and free of hate – things that have no place on Xbox. Through new technologies, you can report players who violate any moral codes, creating a better place to play for all.
Continuing on, Xbox is working with a diverse set of creators to develop new stories, delivering authentic and respectful representations in games, and championing accessibility so all can play. Phil says that more than 300,000 Xbox Ambassadors volunteer to make Xbox the best place to play.
Xbox Series X offers the best looking games as it is designed to deliver a new level of fidelity, feel, performance, and precision never seen before. “All games will look and play best on Xbox Series X – whether they come from our 15 Xbox Game Studios, like Halo Infinite, or from our world-class publisher and developer partners.”
The goal is to spend less time waiting and more time playing your favourite games, and thanks to the newly divulged information on Xbox Velocity Architecture, we now know how Xbox plans on delivering those promises to consumers later this year.
Speaking about games, all new games from Xbox are available day one on Xbox Game Pass, and if you want to purchase them, they are available from day one. So, when Halo Infinite launches, you and your friends can decide whether to purchase the game or play it with Xbox Game Pass.
If you aren’t ready to jump into the next generation just yet – don’t fret! Xbox is supporting the Xbox One for the next few years with games like Halo Infinite launching on both Xbox One and Xbox Series X.
Your games will not be left behind, thanks to backward compatibility. On Xbox Series X, you’ll be able to play four generations of games on day one. Backward compatibility engineers have spent years working on this program and have devised innovative ways for modern consoles to play older games. That’s right, at no extra cost to developers and no extra work, your library comes with you wherever you go.
If you are worried about your peripherals, they are coming with you to the next generation! The Xbox Elite Controller and the Xbox Adaptive Controller work on Xbox Series X.
Smart Delivery, which I’m slowly beginning to understand, means you buy games once. With Smart Delivery technology, you don’t need to buy the same game twice – once for the current console generation and once for the next generation. You always have the best available version of supported games on whatever Xbox console you are playing on. We know that Destiny 2, Gears 5 and Halo Infinite support it, same with Dirt 5, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Watch Dogs: Legion Cyberpunk 2077, Marvel’s Avengers and more.
With Xbox All Access, you can get Xbox Series X, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for a low monthly price with no up-front costs, no finance charges and no hidden fees. You are also in control if you are a parent or guardian of a child. Thanks to the Xbox Family Settings app for iOS and Android, you can customize famil settings and ensure your kids have the right access to gaming.
Lastly, the coolest announcement today, is that in September, Xbox Game Pass and Project xCloud are coming together at no extra cost. You’ll need to be in a supported country but that essentially means you get to play over 100 Xbox Game Pass titles on your phone or tablet. And Xbox Live connects all devices so you can play on your phone, while your friends play on their console. Cloud gaming in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate means your games are no longer locked to the living room.
The future of gaming has never been more exciting and limitless. It’s a future you’ll explore on your terms, not constrained by restrictive policies. Thanks to Xbox’s initiative, your gaming legacy will not be left behind on older consoles.
Xbox’s Games Showcase is set for next Thursday, July 23, and we’ll see our first glimpse of Halo Infinite’s campaign as well as a ton more new games.
