Microsoft has added another exclusivity to its own gaming stable. Ark II, the sequel to the coolest bug simulator of the 2010s and starring Vin Diesel, will appear apparently exclusively for the Xbox, although it is probably limited in time, as opposed to permanently blocked from the platform.
The interesting thing about Microsoft choosing to throw Ark II is that the company has explicitly moved away from this strategy with Xbox One. This is true even if you extend the definition exclusively to mean “Released on anything but the PS4, including the PC”, as opposed to “Released only for Xbox”. The former is more likely to match exclusive versions of Microsoft in the future, as the company makes services like Xbox Game Pass and xCloud essential to its future, and both services are designed to make the games you want to play on your device easier. which you have at hand. If you haven’t seen the Ark II trailer or are just enjoying watching Vin Diesel jumping a dinosaur, check it out:
The trailer features Vin Diesel and his family beating some new humanoids (in relation to Ark: Survival Evolved), who confront a Yutyrannus and then interact with a much more modern technology, with which his character is clearly familiar. There is not much story or plot explained in the video.
If you’re wondering how Vin Diesel fits into this title, specifically, Microsoft writes:
Ark II will also feature Vin Diesel as the hero character, Santiago, who will also be a crossover character in the upcoming “Ark: Animated Series.” While Vin Diesel will lend his acting talents to Ark II, he is also a big fan of the franchise, now serving as executive producer to continue the game and after recording over 1,000 hours in Ark: Survival Evolved.
Microsoft rebuilds exclusive (or “exclusive”) game strategy
Microsoft has recently been in a studio shopping game, capturing Bethesda (winning software ID, Arkane Studios and MachineGames) in 2020 and companies like PlayGround Games, Obsidian, Undead Labs, Ninja Theory and Compulsion Games in the last couple for years. As for Bethesda, Microsoft said the whole point is to create an ecosystem. In theory, at least that means that some of the titles developed by these studios in the future will also come on PlayStation 5, although there may be timed exclusives for the Xbox / PC side of things.
Sony, of course, continues to invest in building a more conventional PlayStation 5 title ecosystem from the first part, which doesn’t focus on sharing games on devices in the same way, probably because Sony doesn’t have Microsoft’s ties to something like an equivalent Windows ecosystem. . The next generation of console devices has just launched, but games like Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Astro’s Playroom have led both discussions in ways that Xbox Series X has struggled to match.
Both companies face this problem, with Sony suggesting that true next-generation games are probably a year or two away, but this gap also means that Microsoft has time to pollute its strategy to attract players from the Xbox universe or PC to sign up for Xbox Game Pass. Sony will benefit at the same time from its own exclusive versions, even if they do not aim at the same goal.
Console launches are usually seen as an opportunity to reset the competitive position between manufacturers, but given the oddity of the moment, it’s hard to understand how the market reacts to systems. Early data suggests that demand for the PS5 is running almost 2: 1 ahead of the Xbox, according to StockX. Disk-based versions of each system are sold before digital-only editions in both cases.
Now Read: