When you think about all the big news that came out of 2018 in terms of gaming, a vast majority of it was without a doubt tied to Sony and Nintendo. Who not only announced big games, but released some of the biggest games of the year like Spider-Man, Pokemon Let’s Go, God of War, and Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Microsoft and Xbox One honestly didn’t have that kind of a year, and it showed. But, the team decided to look towards the positive as 2019 began.
So much so that they made a blog post highlighting of the things that the console did right over the year. Such as the success of the Xbox Game Pass:
In 2018, we added 116 additional high-quality titles to the Xbox Game Pass catalog across genres. We’re happy to share that we currently have more than 65 partners (up from 25 at our launch in June 2017). This includes 53 titles from developers in the ID@Xbox program. In addition, 17 titles launched the same day as their global release into Xbox Game Pass, including Sea of Thieves, Laser League, State of Decay 2, Warhammer 2: Vermintide, Graveyard Keeper, Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption and Forza Horizon 4.
They also highlighted the games they did release, as well as the cross-play initiative that they helped make even better. All the while, they praised what’s coming in 2019:
With Microsoft Studios games like Crackdown 3, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Gears 5, Gears Pop! and Minecraft: Dungeons all slated to launch this year, 2019 is shaping up nicely for Xbox, PC and mobile gamers alike. And with Xbox Game Pass, members can access new first-party Xbox titles the same day they launch. And that’s not to mention the major content update ‘The Arena’ coming to Sea of Thieves early 2019 (also available to Xbox Game Pass members), which will introduce an all-new competitive game mode, plus exciting new titles through the ID@Xbox program like The Artful Escape of Francis Vendetti, Tunic and ATLAS – just to name a few!
We’ll have to see how this plays out in 2019.
