Even though a period of cross-gen releases is to be expected whenever the industry switches from one console generation to the next, the current generational transition has seen a longer than anticipated period of cross-gen support for the PS4 and Xbox One, which has continued up until this point. But now, at least on the Microsoft side of things, we are finally reaching a stage where studios are starting to switch to only producing for current-gen hardware.
That’s according to Matt Booty, the head of Xbox Game Studios, who recently told Axios that Microsoft’s first-party studios had “moved on to Gen 9” completely. In other words, development is being concentrated only on Xbox Series X/S, with the exception of studios that are continuing to support ongoing games that are also accessible on Xbox One, such as Sea of Thieves, Halo Infinite, Fallout 76, and Grounded.
Booty claims that Microsoft will “maintain support” the Xbox One and its user base by enabling cloud streaming for games that are not natively offered on the system.
Of fact, the first half of 2023 has already provided proof of that. Although Hi-Fi Rush and Redfall were first-party Xbox One games, and Starfield and Forza Motorsport will be current-gen exclusives in 2023, only Minecraft Legends was a cross-gen game. Beyond that, Microsoft’s last-gen system won’t receive any new games until 2024, including Avowed, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, and others.