Microsoft has confirmed that its Xbox Series X console is all set to launch in the holiday 2020 window it's sharing with the PS5, and the company is feeling confident about the impending release of its new hardware thanks to the array of titles it has lined up that will be playable straight off the bat.
Sony may have Microsoft beat when it comes to platform exclusives, with a slew of great games on the PS4, and getting off to a running start on the PS5 with the likes of Horizon Forbiddden West and Gran Turismo 7, but it may have a reason to start worrying with news of what Microsoft has planned.
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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella dropped the bombshell during the company's Q4 earnings call this week, saying:
"In content we are delivering differentiated first and third-party content to attract and retain gamers. Xbox Series X will launch this fall with the largest launch line-up for any console ever."
That's a bold statement to make, but before Xbox fans get too excited, this may not be referring to purely Xbox Series X titles. Microsoft has made a big deal about the Xbox Series X's backwards compatibility (which doesn't apply to Kinect games) so it's not unlikely that Nadella is referring to the extensive library of Xbox One and Xbox 360 games that will be playable at launch.
This seems to be backed up by Phil Spencer's recent Xbox Wire (opens in new tab) post in which he states:
"You will be able to play four generations of games on Xbox Series X on day one. That makes it the largest launch lineup for any new console ever, with thousands of games to play."
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While this feels a bit sneaky, with the company being in the business long enough to know that brand new titles are what gamers are interested in when referring to a console's launch lineup, it's true that the Xbox Series X is going to be able to play older games optimised for the next-gen.
So technically, the Xbox Series X is going to have "the largest launch lineup for any new console ever," but most of these will be games you've played before. For those of you who haven't had the time to delve too far into the library over the last two generations, the good news is you'll be able to play the best version of the games you may have missed out on the Xbox Series X when it hits shops this autumn.
Source: VGC (opens in new tab)