On Sunday the company had  90 minute presentation with one of their biggest(and acquired) studios Bethesda and the message on this presentation was clear: not only is Microsoft offering a ton of games to play in the next 12 months, but you don’t even have to buy them to play them, let alone have an Xbox. Game streaming may be a little removed from the average everyday Zimbabwean, but almost every big game it’s launching has a PC version attached to it as well, meaning Xbox exclusivity almost isn’t a thing anymore. But on top of that, three of the biggest franchises Microsoft owns have some version of a free to play mode attached to them. Halo: Infinite, the 6^th mainline Halo game surprised people by making it’s multiplayer mode completely free last year, and since Microsoft now owns Call of Duty, it also owns Call of Duty: Warzone , meaning two of it’s biggest shooters can be played on Xbox, PC or it’s gamestreaming service completely for free right now. But to take this even further, Overwatch 2, one of the most anticipated games for the past three years just unveiled that like Halo, it’s multiplayer will be free as well.

Overwatch was one of the last big online-only shooters left that still required a purchase , and it seems that it’s Microsoft’s acquisition of it’s parent company that changed this as well. This is almost in complete contrast to Sony which still releases it’s biggest games for a retail price of $70 and relies on that along with console sales to stay on top. Microsoft seemingly doesn’t care as much about that anymore, it pretty much wants it’s biggest games available everywhere, accessible on almost any device, and sometimes even free so that Microsoft can make you pay for additional content like skins and specific modes instead. The company doesn’t even seem to only want you playing on it’s latest consoles, with literally almost every major game it announced not only available on the Xbox Series X and S, but also the Xbox One consoles. Simply put, while PS4 owners feel the increasing pressure to buy barely-available PS5s , someone with the original Xbox One can actually play the latest Halo and Forza games.

It’s the type of crazy approach that makes you realize how Microsoft wants a piece of every gamer possible. The company now owns game studios that make everything from Candy Crush to every big shooter on the planet that isn’t Destiny or Battlefield. They want you to play games on your console , PC , phone or even TV without an Xbox, and now they’ll give you some of their biggest games with seemingly no purchase cost at all. It’s all incredibly exciting, and even a little scary.

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