When Microsoft announced their plans to bring four of their games to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch, it brought gamers and the industry into a tizzy. Now, it looks like Microsoft has learned their lessons from this little experiment.
Just to review, last February of this year, Microsoft released Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves to PlayStation 5, and Pentiment and Grounded to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. This announcement drove fans mad, particularly PlayStation and Xbox gamers, but what’s even more important is what happened to these projects after they did it.
Most dramatically, ZeniMax decided to close Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango Gameworks. After overwhelming negative reception, Microsoft suddenly made a deal to revive Tango and sell the studio and the game to Korean publisher Krafton.
On the flip side, Microsoft cited Sea of Thieves and Grounded as successful releases, expanding the communities for both games and reviving interest in them. Curiously, Pentiment did not seem to sell well, and that did not seem to change anything for its developer, Obsidian.
Today, as reported by GameRant, extas1s has an interesting new rumor about Microsoft’s multiplatform strategy. They were responding to a rumor from Middle Aged Gamer Guy that Microsoft was already preparing PlayStation 5 and PS5 Pro versions of their games, including Fable, Gears of War: E-Day, Perfect Dark, Avowed, Marvel’s Blade, and the next Halo (which may have not really started development yet).
In response, extas1s claims that Microsoft has changed their strategy completely. This is because they saw the negative reception surrounding the sudden announcement that Indiana Jones and The Great Circle would be coming to PlayStation 5. As it turned out, Microsoft hasn’t quite locked in on this multiplatform strategy 100 %.
So, according to extas1s, Microsoft drew red lines on Halo and Gears of War. This doesn’t quite mean these games are guaranteed to never come to PlayStation. But PlayStation gamers are going to be disappointed if they think they’ll get them on the PlayStation 5 or PS5 Pro. On the other hand, other potential ports are either being slowed down, or completely on pause.
To sum, extas1s is reevaluating their multiplatform strategy. While they have committed to bringing certain games, like Diablo and Call of Duty, to multiple platforms, we are no longer guaranteed to get ports of all their games on their competitor’s platforms.
You can choose not to trust extas1s as a source. He has been right before, but we do know he recently made a huge mistake on a Call of Duty rumor. But of course, we have to consider that Middle Aged Gamer Guy and every other journalist and content creator sharing rumors about Microsoft’s multiplatform strategy aren’t 100 % credible either.
How many rumors do you remember claiming that Starfield would be coming to PlayStation 5? It’s now been over a year since it released, and not only has this not come to pass, we have not heard even a whiff of a hint that Microsoft could have seriously considered it.
If Starfield comes to PlayStation 6 in 2030, most of those rumors would still be incorrect, because they predicted it would have come much sooner, and that it would be on the PlayStation 5.
But maybe this has happened because Xbox gamers spoke their mind. That may not have been the only reason for this, but from what we have seen, Microsoft is definitely acting on what their fans say. Whether this new turnaround is best for Microsoft, or the industry as a whole, may be up to debate. But this looks like something Xbox gamers could take credit for as a win.
