by Phoenix, HSM team writer

Several months ago, when Microsoft’s Stephen Elop was up for the job of the new CEO, he stated he would consider selling otherwise healthy business units that weren’t central to the strategy he would implement at Microsoft, should he be given the CEO position. He made headlines in the tech world with that admission. His choice of these healthy but expendable companies included Xbox and Bing. Needless to say, Elop didn’t get that position. But Microsoft did give him the position of head of the company’s games devices and studio division.

So it came as a shock when he announced last Friday that he is in talks with Sony and a few indie game developers, with plans to introduce the first true cross-platform play between competing consoles. This stunning project would follow in the footsteps of CCP’s Dust and Eden cross-platform play.

Elop said no further details could be given at the time, due to talks being in their infancy with the various companies involved. But it only made sense for Microsoft to give its players what they have been clamoring for. IGN, Extremetech.com, indie developers everywhere and most notably Sony have been flooded with gamer inquiries about this bombshell announcement.

Though Elop made no apologies for his earlier statements and readiness to sell off the entire games division of Xbox before attaining his new position, it seems he has changed his mind and intends to change the games division from the inside. How will this change the face of gaming? How many loyal Microsoft fans and PlayStation fans would be willing to go head-to-head on a game? How many games on both sides will be sold if Microsoft truly commits to cross-platform play with Sony? The numbers will most definitely break records. Elop had no ready titles to give for this proposed event, but the mind boggles at the possibility of titles like COD, FFX13-14, and the recently released War Thunder. It stands to reason that they would start with titles already known to gamers.

When asked why they be willing to allow Xbox One cross-play with computers and with Sony PlayStation devices, Elop simply said it would only be a first step towards Microsoft’s goals for the future to start with computer gaming. And that Xbox One and Sony consoles were now a bit closer in terms of design than the previous generation, which saw Sony’s hubris take a flight of fancy with the Cell OS while the Microsoft XBox 360 realized a failure rate of approximately 54%, thus skewing their console sales numbers.

It is also worth noting that Microsoft is plainly losing ground in the new console generation war, and thus a more conciliatory approach is perhaps a smart idea; in a gaming landscape where the larger issue is consoles versus mobile, a lack of in-fighting between console manufacturers could be productive. This may just do it. I look forward to following the development of this idea from Elop and Microsoft as it develops.

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One Response to “Microsoft’s Bombshell”

1. MsLiZa says:

   April 1, 2014 at 6:00 pm

   So you’re saying that we should look forward to Home coming soon to the XBox One? MS are really beating Sony to the punch here. Fascinating turn of events.

   Reply