Summary
Following yesterday’s announcement thatIndiana Jones and the Great Circlewould be coming to PlayStation 5, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer is elaborating on the decision, stating that it was business-oriented. Many Xbox fans expressed disappointment over this move, believing that the spring 2025 launch ofIndiana Jones and the Great Circleon PS5 would likely impact the game’s success on Xbox consoles.
Earlier this year, Xbox revealed plans to port four games from its first-party back catalog to rival platforms Nintendo and PlayStation, namelyHi-Fi Rush,Sea of Thieves,Pentiment, andGrounded. At the time, Spencer cautioned players against expecting every Xbox game to go multiplatform, noting that there weren’t any immediate plans forStarfieldandIndiana Jonesto show up on PlayStation. After the June Xbox Games Showcase, however, it was revealed thatDoom: The Dark Ageswould release day and date on PS5alongside Xbox and PC in 2025, and Spencer later confirmed more multiplatform ports in the future as well.
After another brief but heated bout of rumors, Xbox announced at the recent Gamescom 2024 Opening Night Live event thatIndiana Jones and the Great Circlewould make its way to PS5a few months after its December 2024 release on Xbox Series X/S and PC. This came as a shock to some Xbox fans, as the game has been marketed as an Xbox console exclusive. When asked aboutIndiana Jones and the Great Circlecoming to PS5 in an interview during the Gamescom livestream, Spencer said that Xbox’s franchises and player counts “are as strong as they’ve ever been,” but ultimately, he has to “run a business” since the bar for Xbox is “high” at Microsoft in terms of return on investment.
Multiplatform Releases Help the Xbox Business Grow, Says Spencer
Spencer further stated that he is looking at ways to make Xbox games “as strong as possible” and for the platform to consistently “grow on console, PC and cloud.” The multiplatform strategy apparently “works” for the company to help achieve these goals, according to Spencer. He capped off his statement by asserting that game distribution has begun to change amid pressure from shareholders for constant business growth, but the impetus still lies on building “great games,” and doing otherwise means focusing “on the wrong things.” Spencer’s comments clearly show that Xbox’s multiplatform pivot is paying off, which was evident whenSea of Thievestopped PlayStation sales chartssome time ago.
It can also be surmised from Spencer’s remarks that the decision to bringIndiana Jones and the Great Circleto PS5 was likely made by Microsoft rather than license holder Disney, as some theorized. Even after this interview, though, the extent of Xbox’s multiplatform plans remains unclear, along with whether they could affect console hardware in the long run. For now,Microsoft is working on a next-generation Xbox console, but beyond that, the future is difficult to predict.
