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This week sees us at a philosophical crossroads for Microsoft’s Xbox division and its gaming ambitions more generally.
On one hand, the hotly anticipated Starfield – arguably the first truly notable fruit of the acquisition of ZeniMax two years ago, and Bethesda’s first major new IP in nearly three decades – is almost upon us, with hype for the game peaking as pre-loading becomes available ahead of the launch. It’s the most important software launch for the Xbox Series X/S consoles to date – there’s more on the line here than even with the launch of Halo Infinite, I’d argue – and Microsoft is hopeful that this will mark a turning point for a platform’s well-documented struggles with its first-party software pipeline.