Despite publishing both Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps, it appears that Xbox will not be doing the same for Moon Studios' next title. That game, while in very early stages, will not be a sequel to Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and is billed as a "grand vision" of an RPG that will push the boundaries of what the genre has offered the industry and gamers so far.
CEO of Moon Studios Thomas Mahler recently opened up about the decision to not partner with Xbox Game Studios this go-around. Mahler explained that he and the team have decided to partner with Private Division (publisher of games such as Hades and The Outer Worlds), mostly due to exclusivity reasons. He goes on to say that during Moon Studios' partnership with Microsoft, he and the team were inundated with fan requests to port the Ori titles over to PlayStation or Nintendo Switch so that the gamers who didn't own an Xbox console had the opportunity to experience them. While both Ori titles were eventually ported over to the Switch, Mahler says that this didn't come without a cost and was only able to happen because "the title was small enough to not cause any fuss."
Mahler elaborated even further on the exclusivity subject saying that he thought that Xbox didn't do enough to push their "no artificial walls, no boundaries" mantra. He has no ill will, but says that he hopes in the future that Xbox has the "guts" to push their vision further and further and really get their games into as many hands as possible no matter the platform. Mahler hopes that Microsoft and the Xbox team set their sights on becoming industry leaders in this particular field.
While it is sad that Xbox is losing a high-profile indie studio, it's fantastic that Moon Studios is looking to expand their portfolio and their reach to gamers. Even though Ori and the Will of the Wisps only released early last year it has been reported that Moon Studios next title has been in development since last July, will be a 3D action-RPG and, as mentioned previously, is aiming to innovate in the RPG genre. Judging from the reception of both Ori games, Mahler and the team will not doubt put their heart and soul in this next title.
Manwhile, the team over at Xbox is hard at work getting their biggest games into as many hands as possible with their Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming initiatives. This lets gamers stream the biggest games such as Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 either on mobile or PC without the need for a console. Currently, Xbox Cloud Streaming is in its beta stage for both mobile and PC.
Source: ResetEra