Xbox boss Phil Spencer said its brand identity is “evolving” now keeping first-party games exclusive to its own platform is no longer “a path for [Xbox]”.

When asked by independent games journalist Dustin Legarie if, like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Starfield would continue to have an “exclusivity window” on Xbox systems, Spencer replied with a strikingly simple: “No.”

“There’s no reason for me to put a ring fence around any game and say this game will not go to a place where it would find players, where it would have business success for us,” Spencer explained.

"Our strategy is to allow our games to be available.

“Game Pass is an important component of playing the games on our platform, but to keep games off other platforms?” Spencer added.“We don’t think is the path… that’s not a path for us. It doesn’t work for us.”

"What we’re doing now we think really enables us to build the best platform for the world’s best games. 'Cos the world’s biggest games are available in multiple places, and more and more creators are asking us, how do we stay connected when our game might be playable in all these different places, and we want Xbox to be absolutely the platform that enables that.

"We think that makes us unique. Most of the other platforms out there are single platform on single device, whether that’s PC, whether that’s mobile, whether it’s a console.

And we want Xbox to be a platform that enables creators across any screen that people want to play on."

When pressed on whether Xbox’s change in strategy means it may lose its identity, Spencer was firm about that, too.

"I hear them. I’m pretty active in our playerbase, and I’m active in the community. I listen. I think our identity will continue to evolve, which, frankly, it always has. But when I hear concerns, I hear concerns about is: my library of games safe. Am I still going to be able to play the games. And I think over the years, I’m proud of the commitment we’ve shown to respecting purchases on our platform through back compat, through cross entitlement, Xbox Play Anywhere, through crossplay. Things that we’ve done to enable people to continue to play, so I hear that.

"I see the investments we’re making in platform and how we want Xbox to show up in multiple places, and your library to be available there. When I think about buy-to-stream - so when if I buy a game, I’ll be able to stream it to devices - this is all about making sure that your library of games that you own on Xbox are playable in multiple places, so I’d say it’s in evolution of our identity. But I believe it’s an identity that this industry needs.

“When you think about where this industry is now and you see the challenges, the business challenges that are out there for many companies, I think us making games more accessible to more people has just gotta be front and centre for us as an industry so we continue to see great games that we’ve seen over the years.”

The comments echo Spencer’s position at the end of last year, when he said there were “no red lines” over any Xbox game coming to Nintendo Switch or PS5.