Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has gone on record saying that he does not like video game exclusives, and in an ideal world would like to see them go.
His remarks on video game exclusivity deals came during Wednesday’s hearings pertaining to the FTC’s latest injunction against Microsoft and Activision to block them from proceeding with their merger ahead of the lawsuit set to begin August 2.
In his testimony Nadella said (of console exclusivity deals between third-party game publishers and the console makers),
If it was up to me, I would love to get rid of the entire exclusives on consoles, but that’s not for me to define, especially as a low-share player in the console market. The dominant player there has defined market competition using exclusives, so that’s the world we live in. I have no love for that world.”
In recent years the Xbox brand has made a push to “bring more games to more platforms” with Xbox Cloud Gaming. Xbox’s cloud gaming service is available exclusively with the Game Pass Ultimate tier, and features a growing catalog of 100+ games that can be streamed not only on Xbox consoles but on PC, Android and iOS mobile devices, Steam Deck, newer Samsung smart TVs and more.
Nadella also committed “100%” to keeping Call of Duty on PlayStation should his company’s acquisition of Activision finalize. During his testimony Nadella added,
I grew up in a company that always believed that software should run in as many platforms as possible, and that’s just the Microsoft I grew up in, I believe in that.”
Via Thurrott.
