Earlier this year, Microsoft released four of its previously exclusive Xbox and PC games to other platforms, including Sony"s PlayStation 5 console. However, those games (Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Hi-Fi Rush, and Pentiment) were all older games that had been released at least over a year before they made it to other platforms.
This week, as part of Gamescom 2024, Microsoft released that MachineGames"s upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle first-person action game, debuting December 9 for Xbox and PC, would be launching for the PS5 sometime in the spring of 2025.
Today, as part of the first of three days of live streaming for Microsoft"s Gamescom coverage, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer and Xbox President Sarah Bond sat down to have a chat. When asked about the reveal of Indiana Jones coming to the PS5 and "how this connects back to Xbox and when this approach happens to other titles," Spencer first referenced the four games that previously got multiplatform re-launches and that the Xbox team would learn from that initial decision.
He then added:
What I see when I look is: our franchises are getting stronger. Our Xbox console players are as high this year as they"ve ever been. I look at it, and I say, okay: our player numbers are going up for the console platform. Our franchises are as strong as they"ve ever been. And we run a business. It"s definitely true inside of Microsoft, the bar is high for us in terms of the delivery we have to give back to the company, "cause we get a level of support from the company that"s just amazing, what we"re able to go do.
The idea of offering some Xbox-PC games for other platforms is "just going to be a strategy that works for us." He continued that gamers should "anticipate there"s going be more change" in terms of both the development and releases of games in the future. He then added:
But the end result has to be better games that more people can play. If we"re not focused on that, I think we"re focused on the wrong things. So for us at Xbox - health of Xbox, health of our platform, and our growing games are the most important things.
It will be interesting to see if this new strategy will indeed expand the Xbox player base and what it means for its ecosystem, including future Xbox hardware console releases.