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Microsoft has added another exclusive to its own game stable. Ark II, the sequel to the most popular bug simulator of the 2010s and starring Vin Diesel, will seemingly debut as an Xbox exclusive, though it’s likely for a limited time rather than being permanently locked off the platform.
The interesting thing that Microsoft chose to snag Ark II is that the company explicitly walked away from this strategy with Xbox One. This is true even if it expands the definition of exclusive to mean “Published on everything but PS4, including PC” instead from “Released for Xbox only.” The former is much more likely to coincide with Microsoft’s exclusive releases in the future, because the company is making services like Xbox Game Pass and xCloud critical to its future, and both services are intended to make it easier to play the games that you want to play on the device you have handy. If you haven’t seen the trailer for Ark II, or just enjoy watching Vin Diesel throw a dinosaur, check it out:
The trailer shows Vin Diesel and his family beating up some new humanoids (in relation to Ark: Survival Evolved), taking on a Yutyrannus, and then interacting with much more modern technology that his character is clearly familiar with. There isn’t much explicitly provided backstory or plot 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 a hero character, Santiago, who will also be a crossover character in the upcoming “Ark: The Animated Series.” While Vin Diesel will lend his acting talents to Ark II, he’s also a huge fan of the franchise, now serving as an executive producer on the game’s sequel, and has logged over 1,000 hours on Ark: Survival Evolved.
Microsoft is rebuilding an exclusive (or ‘exclusive’) gaming strategy
Microsoft has been buying studios lately, acquiring Bethesda (getting id Software, Arkane Studios, and MachineGames) in 2020, and companies like PlayGround Games, Obsidian, Undead Labs, Ninja Theory, and Compulsion Games in the latter pair. of years. As far as Bethesda is concerned, Microsoft has said the goal is to create an ecosystem. In theory, at least, that means that some of the titles developed by these studios in the future will make their way to PlayStation 5 as well, though there could still be exclusives timed to the Xbox / PC side.
Sony, of course, continues to invest in building a more conventional ecosystem of PlayStation 5-owned titles that don’t focus on sharing games between devices in the same way, probably because Sony lacks Microsoft’s ties to something of an ecosystem. Windows equivalent. . The next generation of console gadgets has barely been released, but games like Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Astro’s Playroom have driven the talk in ways that the Xbox Series X has had a hard time matching.
Both companies are grappling with this issue, with Sony suggesting that true next-gen games are likely a year or two away, but that gap also means Microsoft has time to polish its strategy to attract gamers from the universe. Xbox or PC to register. Xbox Game Pass. Sony will benefit during the same period from its own exclusive releases, even if they do not have the same objective.
Console launches are generally seen as an opportunity to reestablish competitive position among manufacturers, but given the strangeness of the current moment, it’s hard to get a sense of how the market is reacting to the systems. Early data suggests that demand for the PS5 is running nearly 2: 1 ahead of Xbox according to StockX. The disk versions of each system are sold earlier than the digital-only editions in both cases.
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