Microsoft has been adamant that titles from its first-party Xbox Game Studios will be playable on both Xbox Series X and Xbox One, and that it wouldn’t force players to upgrade to its new console at launch.
It turns out that might not be entirely true, however, as a number of first-party reveals during the Xbox Games Showcase event showed no mention of being compatible with Xbox One.
As spotted by The Verge, games such as Forza Motorsport 8, Fable and Everwild only included Xbox Series X and Windows 10 PC as the listed platforms on their title cards. Furthermore, the websites for these games, like Everwild's, also don't mention Xbox One under platforms.
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The simple answer to this question is that these games are more than a few years away, which would fall in line with Microsoft’s statement that “Xbox Game Studios titles that release in the next couple of years will be available on Xbox Series X and Xbox One”. If these games fall outside of that window, then, Microsoft technically hasn’t broken its promise.
Generational gap
But what about games that aren’t developed by Microsoft’s first-party studios? Well, it seems that there might be some confusion there. In a statement to The Verge, Microsoft said: “Which consoles each Studio/game can support will be based on what’s best for their game and their community at launch.” That means it’s up to developers, then, which could mean we see some third-party studios ignore the Xbox One entirely.
Future 1P titles are developed for Xbox Series X first. Not saying those games won’t ship on Xbox One, only that we are leading with Series X & each studio will decide what's best for their game/community when they launch.July 23, 2020
Microsoft is taking a different approach to Sony, which strongly believes in console generations and has said not to expect PS5 games to come to PS4. The company has said that PS5 games should take advantage of all the features and benefits of new hardware which a previous generation does not include.
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