Xbox’s content acquisition strategy has been a topic of discussion again recently.
Honestly, Xbox fans are eating pretty well overall right now. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 just hit Xbox Game Pass, alongside Valorant, with all characters unlocked for subscribers. We also had big titles like Kunitsu-gami: Path of the Goddess and Dungeons of Hinterburg hit the service recently. June’s Xbox Games Showcase 2024 offered the most exciting and comprehensive look at Microsoft’s roadmap yet. Microsoft is also officially working on the next iteration of Xbox console hardware.
I frame the article this way because I want to acknowledge the hard work Microsoft has done to satisfy Xbox fans lately, but it hasn’t all been rosy. The brand has been under a bit of stress lately, though, with some of Microsoft’s strategic decisions raising questions about Xbox’s long-term future. Microsoft is bringing its Xbox games to third-party console platforms like PlayStation, which, at first glance, could reduce interest in Xbox hardware and undermine desire for the brand.
It’s with things like that in mind that Xbox fans are often skeptical of some of Microsoft’s strategies. Xbox’s flagship IP, Halo, has been arguably mishandled in recent years, for example. And Capcom and others have had a number of games exclusively skipping Xbox, including Monster Hunter Stories, as well as ports of games like Marvel vs. Capcom.
It’s crazy, as many of these games were already available on Xbox platforms and the community has been rightly angered by Microsoft’s apparent lack of urgency regarding some of these issues. And perhaps they are all symptomatic of the same problem we’ll be discussing in this short article. However, I rarely see the core Xbox community discuss what is arguably the biggest mistake in recent Xbox history, perhaps since the notorious launch of the Xbox One in 2013, and that is the near-total omission of the complete gatcha game gender.
Microsoft had the chance to bring Genshin Impact to Xbox, but passed it up: it’s a spectacular mistake
People often don’t care about skipping games on Xbox unless it’s a game they I want. I’m very aware of the idea that I’m one of the few gamers who want Monster Hunter Stories on Xbox, probably. Microsoft is probably very aware of that fact as well.
At EVO 2024, Capcom announced SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos for modern platforms. That means PC, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. Again, no Xbox in sight. EVO is the world’s largest fighting game tournament and represents one of the most passionate and dedicated communities in all of gaming, and to have another game like this announced exclusively Not being part of Xbox on such a big stage sends a big message. The fighting game community isn’t always better served on Xbox.
For the sake of argument, though, we’ll give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt on this one. One could argue that fighting games aren’t as big as they once were, and they probably don’t attract new users to games like they would have in decades past. As big as games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter are, they’re a far cry from driving engagement like Call of Duty and Fortnite. So, well, maybe it’s not a big deal about Capcom’s older fighting games, right? Maybe today, but you never know what the future will bring when it comes to content. I’d say you should make sure you’re getting a lot more content. each The genre is well-served on its platform, even if the audience is comparatively small. You never know when something will blow up. Few games encapsulate that reality like Genshin Impact.
Even if we give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt about traditional fighting games on Xbox, we can’t do the same for “gatcha”-style games, which have become increasingly popular over the past few years. And it’s something I rarely see the core Xbox community discuss. I can’t help but feel that undervaluing this genre above all others is hurting Xbox’s growth right now and represents one of the brand’s biggest mistakes.
For those who don’t know, Genshin Impact is a very popular free-to-play action RPG that is another essentially exclusive game No on Xbox. It’s huge, with tens of millions of players, contributing to Shanghai-based MiHoYo’s massive multi-billion-dollar annual revenue. In fact, MiHoYo had better profit margins than EA and Activision in 2022, thanks to Genshin Impact’s massive popularity and in-app purchase model. And there’s little sign of them slowing down.
Games like Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, and the recently released Zenless Zone Zero are generating hundreds of millions of downloads across mobile, PC, and PlayStation (even on the Epic Store), but they’re nowhere to be found on Xbox. They have billions of dollars in revenue, spectacularly passionate fans, and crucially, they’re very popular with younger groups of gamers who might be considering their first gaming console.
The worst thing is that Microsoft had first choice for Genshin Impact and all the MiHoYo games that would come after it. And, surprisingly, they apparently let it go.
Gatcha games have become absolutely popular, literally everywhere except Xbox.
See in the
Yes, you read that right. According to a report from Reuters, Microsoft has rejected MiHoYo’s proposal to release Genshin Impact on Xbox in 2020. The lack of Genshin Impact has left an entire genre of games in the hands of PlayStation, at least as far as the console space is concerned. And sure, I know the vast majority of engagement for these types of games happens on mobile devices, but if we’re not trying to compete on at least the most popular core titles, why are we even in the game?
It would be nice to have things like Monster Hunter Stories and the classic Marvel vs. Capcom on Xbox, but I admit that they’re not necessarily foundational in and of themselves. However, games like Genshin Impact and similar titles like Wuthering Waves aren’t on Xbox, and they’re wildly popular, particularly among younger gamers in the Gen Z and Gen Alpha cohorts. These generations are headed off to college for the first time, and may be considering consoles for a better gaming experience of these types of games. Maybe they’d even consider playing them via devices like the $40 Amazon Fire Stick 4K with Xbox Cloud Gaming to save. If they could, that is. The fact is, they’re not.
A younger relative of mine recently cited Genshin Impact specifically as a guide in their decision to order a PS5 over an Xbox Series X|S console, and I wonder how many other young people are following that line of thinking.
It’s hard to know for sure. because Microsoft has reportedly overlooked Genshin Impact. Maybe there were concerns about the genre’s heavy insistence on loot box-style mechanics in 2020, when governments were investigating the business model. Maybe Microsoft just doesn’t like anime that much. Either way, there’s no doubt that Microsoft deeply regrets its decision to overlook MiHoYo’s line, which is now effectively PlayStation’s exclusive domain in the console market. I know that Microsoft is also exploring its options to bring Genshin Impact to Xbox one day, at least aspirational.
But I think any chance to ride the wave of popularity of Genshin Impact and its gatcha brethren has probably long since passed. It’s just another example of Xbox playing catch-up, a result of a lack of cultural foresight or urgency.
Is it too late to fix the gatcha situation on Xbox?
Microsoft has scored some wins in the free-to-play realm of late with games like The First Descent, and it has Bandai Namco’s Genshin-style game Blue Protocol set to release on Xbox later this year, but that’s probably cold comfort right now. As we head into back-to-school season and the 2024 holiday season more broadly, the Xbox Series S would have been an absolutely ideal console choice for millions of young people looking for a compact console for college or their dorm rooms—if only it had the games they want.
Microsoft often talks in interviews about finding those elusive “new to Xbox” users, going all out to try and find them. It has done some impressive things to acquire those users, such as big partnerships with service games like Valorant and League of Legends on PC, cloud partnerships with Epic Games, and so on. Microsoft has also boosted its Japanese credentials with support from Atlus on franchises like Persona (Although I wouldn’t say no to the Ys or Trails series, I’m just saying). Microsoft also finally got its hands on the MMO Final Fantasy 14, and it seems to be doing well on Xbox. EA’s College Football 2025 also seems to have been a spectacular driver of Xbox console sales recently, and Microsoft did Get Palworld as a console launch exclusive, which completely blew up earlier this year.
The landing of Genshin and its gatcha brothers should be a DEFCON 1 situation for Xbox.
I want to highlight the achievements here, because I really appreciate the hard work being put in from every corner of the Xbox team, but there’s always something missing. Whether it’s “smaller” titles like those classic Capcom games, cult classics like Final Fantasy VII Remake, or these huge flops like Genshin Impact. Xbox fans seem to be the ones usually left behind, and that’s not okay in a universe where Microsoft has started putting its own games on competing platforms as well. I feel like some of the backlash to that strategy is justified, given that there are still content issues back home. Those content issues have needlessly cost Microsoft tens of billions of dollars in paying out premiums after the fact, just to keep Xbox in the race and rectify past mistakes.
Xbox Game Pass is great, I love it. There are no issues there. I love cloud efforts, and I love first-party developer efforts as well. But I do long for a future where I get press releases from studios about new games that say “and it’s coming to all platforms!”, only for Xbox to be left off the list. But hey, maybe I’m asking too much, but I can’t help but feel like the launch of Genshin and its gatcha brethren should be a DEFCON 1 situation for Xbox.
