The Xbox One is done, long live the Xbox One.
Microsoft has officially left the Xbox One behind. Speaking to Axios, Xbox Games Studios chief Matt Booty plainly stated the company and its various first-party studios have "moved on to Gen 9," aka the Xbox Series X|S.
"No internal teams are now working on games for the older gen consoles outside of support for ongoing games like Minecraft," he said.
As Axios notes, its official retirement is fairly late in this current console lifecycle. One reason for that would be the various editions Microsoft made of the console. In 2016, a smaller Xbox One S model was released, followed by a high-end Xbox One X the following year.
At launch, both the Xbox Series X|S and Sony's PlayStation 5 were initially difficult to get a hold of. And both systems had a pricier model, with the Series X and the disc-based version of the PlayStation 5 priced at $499.
Things were further complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit players and developers hard. Last-gen versions of games were more of a necessity than an option: studios couldn't prioritize current consoles when it was likely most people didn't even have one until fairly recently.
While no games are being made for the Xbox One, Booty noted it was possible for Xbox Cloud subscribers would be able to use the console to play more recent Xbox Series X|S titles, such as Microsoft Flight Simulator.
The original Xbox One turns 10 years old later this year, and production for the system came to a (quiet) end in 2020. While Microsoft was mostly vague on the system's sales, it indicated that it sold at least 58.5 million units in its lifetime, less than half of the PlayStation 4's 117.2 million.
Continuing the Sony comparison, PlayStation 4s continued to be produced up until last year due to PlayStation 5 shortages. Notably, Sony also created last-gen versions of recent first-party games: 2022 blockbusters Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok were had same-day releases on PS4 and PlayStation 5.
That said, those two PlayStation games appear to be the last first-party titles to get that treatment. October's Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and the Burning Shores expansion for Horizon Forbidden West are both locked to the PS5.
Meanwhile, the final first-party Xbox One game was 343 Industries' Halo Infinite, which released on December 8, 2021.
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