A number of leaks happened over the weekend that seem to have big implications for Microsoftâs Xbox plans moving forward. Reports from The Verge and XboxEra claim that two major Bethesda releases, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Starfield, could both come to PlayStation 5, adding to the pile of Xbox multiplatform rumors that have been piling up over the past few months.
Update: Xbox head Phil Spencer has announced a âbusiness update event next week,â seemingly in response to these rumors. Original story continues below.
The Vergeâs report says a source close to Bethesda told the outlet that MachineGames, which is owned by Bethesda Softworksâ parent company, ZeniMax Media, is âconsideringâ releasing its new Indiana Jones game on PlayStation 5 sometime after it launches on PC and Xbox Series X/S in 2024. This would be a full-circle moment, considering the Indiana Jones midquel was originally meant to launch on PlayStation 5 prior to Xboxâs acquisition of Bethesda back in 2021. Fans got a first look at the first-person action game during Januaryâs Xbox Developer Direct
XboxEra, meanwhile, reported its sources had informed it of plans for a Starfield PS5 port sometime after its Shattered Space DLC launches later in 2024. The outletâs report also states that Microsoft has invested in more PlayStation 5 dev kits in order to facilitate these efforts.
All of this follows weeks of rumors and speculation that the rhythm action game Hi-Fi Rush, developed by Tango Gameworks under Bethesdaâs umbrella, and Rareâs multiplayer pirate game Sea of Thieves, could also be coming to PlayStation in the near future. The Vergeâs story says a Hi-Fi Rush announcement is set for âthe coming weeksâ and datamined assets also imply that PlayStation and Switch-exclusive shirts for its main character exist in the code
So what should we take away from this? For starters, Microsoft has said that the billions of dollars itâs spent on acquisitions did not mean every game from its newly first-party subsidiaries was going to become an Xbox and PC exclusive. Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has even said he doesnât believe exclusives are the future of the industry, and prior to all these rumors, several properties Microsoft acquired have remained on multiple platforms, such as Minecraft and Call of Duty (though a deal had to be made to make that happen for the Activision acquisition to go through).
Notably, several of these rumored PlayStation ports are coming from Bethesdaâs studios, and Spencer also said when the acquisition went through that not every game from those developers would be exclusive to Xbox and PC. Though the specifics of what was said were covered in corporate speak that gave the company an out, the underlying sentiment from Spencer was that Bethesdaâs games could still come to other platforms for one reason or another.
So obviously, I canât sit here and say every Bethesda game is exclusive because we know thatâs not true â there are contractual obligations that weâre going to see through as we always do in every one of these instances. We have games that exist on other platforms and weâre going to go support those games on the platforms that they are on. There are communities of players, we love those players, and weâre going to invest in them.
And even in the future there might be things that have either contractual things or legacy on different platforms that weâll go do, but if youâre an Xbox customer, the thing I want you to know is this is about delivering great exclusive games for you that ship on platforms where Game Pass exists. And thatâs our goal, thatâs why weâre doing this, thatâs the root of this partnership that weâre building, and the creative capability we will be able to bring to market for our Xbox customers is going to be the best itâs ever been for Xbox after weâre done here.
Despite that having been Xboxâs messaging for years at this point, it seems some Xbox fans still didnât want to think this day might come. Xbox has already been facing criticism from vocal, strictly monogamous console owners for bringing its games to PC, claiming it devalues the Xbox itself if it doesnât have exclusive games. That sentiment will only grow stronger if Halo or Gears of War starts showing up on rival consoles. But when youâre selling every Xbox system at a loss, you can start to make that money up by selling your games on other platforms and taking your cut. If you want the brand to continue in any form, maybe take a step back and remember capitalism is a numbers game. As games get more expensive to make, no amount of idealized console wars bullshit is worth the human cost of a game not making its money back. Xbox just cut nearly 2000 jobs across its company, and it can happen again.
Weâve reached out to Xbox for comment and will update this story if we hear back.
