It’s probably fair to say that while some have welcomed Xbox’s new multi-platform approach, a significant chunk of gamers, mainly those who bought an Xbox console for its exclusives, aren’t happy about its games finding their way onto PS5. The developers themselves, however, couldn’t be happier.
That’s according to Jason Schreier. The insider was a guest on 404 Media last week, where he revealed that developers working at Xbox studios are over the moon about putting their games on PlayStation. “A lot of game studios are now actually thrilled that they get to release their games on PlayStation… As opposed to the past, where they were really just published games on their own platform, the Xbox and the PC.” Schreier said.
Xbox Devs Are Very Happy About Leaving Exclusivity Behind
Xbox tested the multi-platform waters in 2024 when it ported Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, Pentiment, and Grounded to PS5. Clearly, some or all of those games performed well on Xbox’s rival platform, as, after a gradual tease that anything exclusive to Xbox might be eligible for the PlayStation port treatment, now anything and everything Xbox publishes will also be available on PS5. Seemingly on the same day as those games are available on Xbox in most cases.
Certain dominoes needed to fall to confirm that Xbox exclusives are a thing of the past, and now that Halo is coming to PS5, pretty much all of those dominoes are down. Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of the original game, will be released on both Xbox Series X|S and PS5 on the same day. Halo Studios has already confirmed that future Halo projects will be released on PlayStation beyond Campaign Evolved.
Xbox President Says Exclusive Games Are “Antiquated” Because Everyone Is Playing Fortnite
Xbox seems to think people have evolved “way past” the idea of exclusives.
Why Are Xbox Studios So Happy About Porting Their Games To PS5?
As for why developers at Xbox studios are happy about their games being available on PS5, there are probably a few reasons. The most obvious reasons are that more people will play their games, and in turn, that means those games will make more money. Despite already being available on Xbox for years, Forza Horizon 5 shot straight to the top of the PS5 charts when its port launched on PlayStation earlier this year, and it stayed there for a long time.
There’s also the 30 percent Microsoft profit margin of it all to consider, too. Microsoft expects Xbox, and therefore everything attached to Xbox, including its studios and the games they are making, to generate 30 percent profit. That’s a significant uptick compared to what has been expected of Xbox in the past. The ability to release games on PS5, and therefore sell to a wider audience and make more money without having to spend too much more to make that happen, will have helped relieve some of the pressure on Xbox devs with that lofty new target hanging over them.
Simply put, beyond timed exclusives like Forza Horizon 6, Xbox exclusives are a thing of the past, and it sounds like everyone at Xbox is very happy with how that’s been going so far. 2026 will be one of the biggest years in Xbix history for tentpole first-party releases, and all of them will either be on PS5 right away or shortly after they’re released on Xbox.
- Brand
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Microsoft
- Original Release Date
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November 10, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
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$499
- Operating System
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Proprietary (Windows-based)
- Processor
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Custom AMD 8-core Zen 2 3.8 GHz
- Resolution
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720p – 4K UHD
