Details of Xbox’s ‘Everywhere’ Vision Revealed in Internal Memo by Phil Spencer

If you missed it, Xbox’s executives hosted a podcast yesterday, officially revealing the company’s long-speculated plan to release some first-party games on competing consoles. Following all the buzz surrounding the topic, it was somewhat expected, yet it remains a significant change in the platform holder’s approach to its own games moving forward. Although the messaging was a little ambiguous, a company memo that Phil Spencer sent to the staff before the podcast’s launch provides more context. You can now access the full content online.

The Verge has obtained a copy of the memo, which states:

Today at noon Pacific, we’ll be posting a special episode of the Official Xbox Podcast.

In this episode, Sarah Bond, Matt Booty and I will share with the community our plans for the future of Xbox. We’ll also discuss how our vision will benefit our players, creators, and the industry as a whole.

When we look at the state of our medium, we see players increasingly gaming on multiple devices, but their experience is defined by the fragmentation created by platform silos. Multi-device players have to navigate multiple identities, entitlement libraries, communities, wallets, and reward programs. Similarly, the industry’s biggest franchises increasingly ship across multiple devices, requiring creators to build and manage multiple instances of their games, leading to higher costs and fragmented communities. All of this friction creates a tremendous opportunity for us to meet the needs of multi-device players and creators.

We have a different vision for the future of gaming. A future where players have a unified experience across devices. A future where players can easily discover a vast array of games with a diverse spectrum of business models. A future where more creators are empowered to realize their creative vision, reach a global audience, unite their communities, and succeed commercially. A future where every screen is an Xbox.

This is a future where Xbox is everywhere—consistent with our promise to empower players to “play the games you want, with the people you want, anywhere you want.”

Allegedly, this marks the initial communication to Xbox employees regarding the company’s future direction. The language used is more straightforward compared to the podcast, discussing a potential future where Xbox is omnipresent and every screen functions as an Xbox. It appears to revolve around a vision where gaming is more cohesive rather than being divided by platform restrictions.

Well, it turns out that four undisclosed Xbox games will be making their way to the PlayStation. These titles are considered to be Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Pentiment, and Hi-Fi Rush. Larger titles like Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle are not currently scheduled for ports, but they have not been completely ruled out either.