But since closing the Activision deal last fall, Xbox has made a series of moves that have left fans and analysts baffled about its overall strategy. It has laid off thousands of staff, shuttered studios and been unable to articulate a consistent message about how it plans to release games. Xbox fans assumed those big acquisitions would lead to more exclusive games that helped justify their console purchase, but the opposite has happened.
Early this year, Microsoft began putting some of its former exclusives on PlayStation, starting with smaller, older titles such as Hi-Fi Rush. This week, the company announced that another big, new title will follow the same route. Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, coming in December to Xbox and PC, will arrive on PlayStation in the spring of 2025.
Ditching console exclusives is good news for players who can only afford to stick to one piece of hardware. And Microsoft was able to squeeze the Activision deal past regulatory scrutiny in part because it promised to continue releasing Call of Duty on PlayStation. But Xbox’s release strategy has been so confusing, it requires a massive spreadsheet and a full-time job to keep track of it all.
I am more inclined to think they are just selling to other platforms because they have to after dropping so much money on Activision, Bethesda, and trying to keep games pass a decent value proposition.
Granted, I think selling multi platform is a good move and I hope they stick with it, but I think the PS5 is trouncing the Xbox enough worldwide that even without a whole lot of first party games, PlayStation has no real obligation to throw Xbox any bones in kind. PC ports seem to be enough.
They’re fucking Microsoft. Why would they “have to?” Only Nintendo has a bigger war-chest, and Nintendo’s been sitting on it for a hundred years.
Serious question: does that matter?
… are PC ports not also ‘throwing Microsoft a bone?’
Does Microsoft get a cut of all pc games sold? Do all pc games play on Xbox consoles?
I don’t think any of it matters, I’m just stating things as I see it. Microsoft wants profits, the examples I listed before have not been as profitable as probably predicted, so they are trying to make it up by selling older exclusives to eager PS customers. Sony sending exclusives to Xbox probably isn’t seen as profitable to Sony, so maybe they won’t do it.