First-party Xbox battle royale games could be the key to increasing demand for the system. The recently released God of War acted as a reminder that highly polished exclusives can be system sellers, offering an experience that is only available on that one console. Combine this with the ridiculously popular battle royale genre, and it seems like the perfect recipe for success. However, the consistently communicative Xbox boss, Phil Spencer, doesn’t want to simply jump on the bandwagon. He’s happy enough offering support to Fortnite and PUBG, and also the other “new BR variants being built by some very quality devs.”
Spencer responded to a fan question on Twitter, saying that Xbox battle royale games from first-party studios would only happen if the teams found “something special.”
Millions are playing BR games right now. I don’t want to just build one because others have built them. FNBR is massive, PUBG is huge, new BR variants being built by some very quality devs, I’d rather support unless we find something special in 1P that’s a different take.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) April 29, 2018
With 2018 looking to be the year of battle-royale-all-the-things, it’s refreshing to read that Spencer and Xbox’s first-party developers aren’t rushing to join the crowd. Honestly, I was expecting to hear about a Halo battle royale experience, but it seems like that won’t be the case. (I honestly don’t mind the idea of more AAA game developers trying their hands at these more hardcore modes!)
However, Spencer didn’t entirely rule out Xbox battle royale games. If “something special” is found, and a unique enough spin on the genre can be crafted into a great game, then we may see a first-party team pushing an Xbox-only battle royale experience. If this does happen, and something is already in the works, I’d expect to hear something about it during E3 2018.
