After recent confirmation that Indiana Jones and The Great Circle would be Xbox console exclusive, Xbox Head Phil Spencer explains why it’s now coming to PS5 after Xbox.

On Tuesday, Xbox confirmed that Indiana Jones and The Great Circle would no longer be an Xbox console exclusive, and it would be coming out on the PlayStation 5 platform. This is after the Xbox Head, Phil Spencer himself, said on an Xbox podcast episode back on February 15 that the title would be an Xbox exclusive. On that same podcast, Spencer revealed other Xbox-developed titles would come to the PlayStation platform, leaving Indy as an Xbox exclusive. Today, on a stream at Gamescom 2024, Phil Spencer backtracked Xbox exclusivity when asked to comment on the PS5 release announcement.

Phil Spencer said, “Going to the PlayStation announcement, obviously, last spring we launched four games – two of them on the Switch, four of them on PlayStation – and we said we were going to learn,” continuing with, “I think at the showcase I might have said that from our learning, we’re going to do more” regarding the PS5 Indiana Jones announcement. That announcement can be seen below, courtesy of Bethesda.

Phil Spencer explains that the gaming industry’s pressure, including the obscene amount of layoffs that have happened since the beginning of 2024, has forced gaming companies to run more like “a business.” Spencer then says, “I think for us as fans and players of games, we just have to anticipate there’s going to be more change in how some of the more traditional ways that games were built and distributed – that’s going to change for all of us” concluding with “But the end result needs to be better games that more people can play. If we’re not focused on that, we’re focused on the wrong things.”

Overall, Xbox appears to be rethinking its strategy when it comes to console-exclusive releases, even when it comes to titles they’ve previously announced as Xbox console-exclusive, in favour of an approach to make games more accessible by launching them on as many platforms as possible which echoes the “every screen is an Xbox” statement made by Sarah Bond also ironically on February 15, the same day Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was announced as Xbox exclusive.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is supposed to be the big console and Game Pass exclusive for Xbox this fall, but it won’t be long until it comes to PlayStation 5 too, according to new reports. The port has been rumored for months and is the latest Xbox game to lose exclusivity amid Microsoft’s new multiplatform…

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Well folks, Gamescom Opening Night Live has now come and gone. We had some predictions about how the night could’ve gone including an appeal to finally get a single crumb of a Sonic The Hedgehog 3 trailer for the upcoming movie and a Hideo Kojima sighting, as has become the norm around events put on by Geoff Keighley.…

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Xbox just had one of its best showcases in years and hot off the heels of that big event, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer sat down with IGN to chat more about some of the games the company revealed, as well as the current health of Xbox, Game Pass, and the closure of studios like Tango Gameworks.

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A Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 campaign that looks like Mission: Impossible by way of an Adam Curtis documentary, a Gearsof War prequel that shows fans E-Day and the birth of the series’ iconic “Lancer” chainsaw gun, and a trailer that showed Perfect Dark isn’t just still alive, it’s potentially thriving. Microsoft’s…

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Starfield, Bethesda’s latest open-world busywork simulator in space, has been out for about nine months. Bethesda has been putting out updates to make the game better, but fans have been waiting for the first big expansion called Shattered Space. Well, they won’t have to wait much longer, as the company put out a new…

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the first in the best-selling military shooter since Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, looks like a cross between a ‘90s political documentary and a Mission Impossible movie in its new trailer. The game will launch on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on October 25, 2024.

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It’s the middle of May 2024 and that means we’re nearly halfway through the year. What has this year been like in video game news? Tons of layoffs (sad), lots of new games (glad), and some weird outliers, as usual. This week, we saw set photos and official shots from The Last of Us season two, dove back into the…

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The next Call of Duty, believed to be a Black Ops sequel set during the Gulf War, will be the first new entry in the popular online shooter to be on Xbox Game Pass. That’s according to a report by The Wall Street Journal today, which said the announcement will be made at Microsoft’s big annual Xbox Showcase in June.

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New reporting claims that Microsoft’s CEO is pushing all of its divisions to make more money and has put pressure on Xbox to publish even more of its games from some of its biggest franchises on PlayStation and Switch, leading to internal debates and “unease.”

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People had strong feelings, to put it mildly, after Xbox shuttered Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and other studios, and we share some of our own. Also,PlayStation finally relented on a requirement that PC players maintain a PSN account, but not before colossal fan uproar, and as the dust started to settle, we had…

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This past week started with a shock, as Microsoft announced it was closing a number of studios including Tango Gameworks, responsible for the very well-liked Hi-Fi Rush, leading many to wonder just what a studio has to achieve in this day and age to be deemed successful enough to exist. Also, one of the most…

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It has been a very bad week for Xbox Game Studios. On Tuesday, May 7, Microsoft announced it would shut down three studios: Redfall developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush creators Tango Gameworks, and Mighty Doom studio Alpha Dog Games. On top of this, Roadhouse Games is being absorbed into Elder Scrolls Online developer…

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Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer is taking a lot of heat online for recent decisions to close beloved studios like Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks. Last night the long-time gaming exec was apparently exploring the wasteland in Fallout 76 when another player nuked his entire campsite.

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Earlier this week, Xbox announced that it would be shuttering several studios it had attained as part of its $7.5 billion purchase of Bethesda, including Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Studios, the last of which is being absorbed into another team. Collectively, the studios’ produced…

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Players were excited at the prospect that Redfall might combine the fun co-op loot mechanics of a Borderlands with the bespoke environmental storytelling of a Dishonored. Ultimately, though, the day-one Game Pass blockbuster didn’t quite accomplish either of these things, and it was burdened at launch by bugs,…

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Společnost Microsoft v těchto dnech rozjíždí zajímavou multiplatformní strategii a její dříve exkluzivní first-party tituly jako Hi-Fi Rush a Pentiment jsou k dispozici na PS5 a Nintendo Switch.

Výkonný ředitel herního oddělení Microsoftu Phil Spencer prohlásil, že by herní průmysl neměl vylučovat žádný titul na jiných platformách, ale má zájem tuto filozofii rozšířit i na další obchody.

V rozhovoru pro server Polygon během konference GDC 2024 Spencer vyjádřil přesvědčení, že v budoucnu by na Xboxu mohly být k dispozici obchody Epic Games Store a Itch.io. „Vezměte si naši historii jako společnosti se systémem Windows. Nikdo by ani nemrkl, kdybych řekl: ‚Hele, když používáš PC, můžeš rozhodovat o typu zážitku tím, že si vybereš, kde si koupíš hry. V tom je skutečná hodnota.“ Tato svoboda by mohla být výhodná pro výrobce konzolí, včetně Microsoftu.

Když mluvil o současné generaci, Spencer poznamenal: „Moorův zákon se zpomalil. Ceny komponent konzolí neklesají tak rychle jako v předchozích generacích.“ Trh s konzolemi také zřejmě nezaznamenal radikální růst ve srovnání s PC a handheldy.

„Dotování hardwaru je v dnešním světě stále náročnější. A řeknu, a možná to bude vypadat příliš altruisticky, že nevím, jestli to přispívá k růstu odvětví. Takže si myslím, jaké jsou překážky? Co jsou věci, které v dnešním světě vytvářejí třecí plochy pro tvůrce a hráče? A jak se můžeme podílet na otevření tohoto modelu?“

Méně exkluzivity pro tituly pro Xbox je jedním z kroků, ale rozšiřuje se také na prodejny, kde se tituly prodávají. „Pokud chci hrát na herním počítači, pak se cítím být více kontinuální součástí herního ekosystému jako celku. Na rozdíl od hraní na konzolích je mé hraní tak trochu roztříštěné – abych použil herní termín – na základě těchto různých uzavřených ekosystémů, napříč kterými musím hrát.“

Samozřejmě se teprve uvidí, zda budou chtít být na platformách Xbox, PlayStation nebo dokonce Nintendo k dispozici i další obchody. Vzhledem k tomu, že Steam překročil hranici 36 milionů souběžně hrajících hráčů a nevykazuje žádné známky zpomalení, může být spokojen s tím, že si udrží své dominantní postavení v oblasti PC her.

Microsoft přinese Grounded na PS4, PS5 a Nintendo Switch 16. dubna a Sea of Thieves na PS5 30. dubna. Zda budou následovat i další tituly, se teprve uvidí, i když zprávy tvrdí, že „většina“ z nich se v určitém okamžiku na PlayStation 5 objeví. Do té doby zůstaňte naladěni na aktualizace.

Článek Generální ředitel společnosti Microsoft Gaming diskutuje o potenciálním obchodu Epic Games Store a dalších obchodech na Xboxu se nejdříve objevil na GAME PRESS.

Uprostřed rozsáhlých úniků informací o tom, že se Microsoft chystá přijmout multiplatformní publikační přístup, šéf Xboxu opakovaně poskytl zaměstnancům interní ujištění, že společnost nepřestane vyrábět základní herní hardware.

Mezi široce rozšířenými zprávami, že Microsoft se chystá přizpůsobit nový přístup k multiplatformnímu vydání, díky kterému přinese first party tituly Xboxu, jako jsou  Gears of War, Sea of ​​Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle a Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 na konkurenční platformy. Mezi fanoušky Xboxu se objevily obavy, že tato nová strategie by mohla znamenat konec plánů Microsoftu pokračovat ve výrobě herních konzolí jako celku. Podle všeho však generální ředitel Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer zaměstnance ujistil, že tomu tak není.

Podle novinářky Shannon Liao na Twitteru (prostřednictvím VGC) se údajně minulý týden v úterý konala rada společnosti Xbox, kde Spencer zaměstnancům sdělil, že Microsoft v současné době neplánuje ukončit výrobu konzolí Xbox. Podle Spencera bude Xbox i nadále součástí plánů Microsoftu a bude zahrnovat “více druhů zařízení”.

Úplný rozsah budoucích plánů Microsoftu pro Xbox bude oficiálně odhalen v obchodní aktualizaci tento týden, ačkoli konkrétní datum události ještě nebylo oznámeno.

Mezi mnoha tituly první strany Xbox, o kterých se mluvilo pro konkurenční platformy,  byl Starfield, který měl údajně směřovat na PS5. Nicméně prominentní zasvěcenec NateTheHate, který tyto fámy původně podporoval, je od té doby označil za nepřesné.

good evening! here's your weekly games journalism industry newsletter, as promised. link? why, you'll have to do some digging to find that (it's my full name dot s*bst*ck dot com) pic.twitter.com/cDwbjV1oIu

— Shannon Liao (@Shannon_Liao) February 9, 2024

Článek Microsoft bude nadále pokračovat ve výrobě konzolí Xbox, jak ujišťuje Phil Spencer se nejdříve objevil na GAME PRESS.

Within the last few years, video game industry layoffs have unfortunately become more commonplace. In 2023, we saw near-weekly layoffs across the entire industry. When the dust had settled, at least 6,000 jobs across publishers, developers, and other video game-related companies had been terminated. Sadly, it appears…

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As anyone paying attention to the video game industry will already know, the last couple of weeks have seen a great deal of rumor and speculation as to the state of Xbox-istan. What started as unsubstantiated rumors suggesting that Xbox was about to make some of its Microsoft-exclusive titles crossplatform to other consoles morphed into more outlandish theories that Microsoft was going to stop making Xbox consoles altogether. Xbox chief Phil Spencer addressed the latter of those rumors in an internal memo, alongside a promise to host a “Business Update Event.”

And so that event happened. Was there information in it? Yes! Did it clear everything up? Kind of! Was it yet another example of vague or confusing communication coming out of Xbox’s leadership? How could it possibly be otherwise?

We’ll start with the rumored crossplatform titles. Much of the rumor mill correctly suggested that there would be 4 games that would be going crossplatform soon. And that turns out to have been true! They’re just not the ones people wanted. And you don’t get to know officially which games we’re talking about, either.

After weeks of rumors around its strategy regarding Xbox console exclusives, Microsoft announced today that it is “going to take four games to the other consoles.” The company stopped short of announcing what those now non-exclusive games would be, but it did point out that neither Starfield nor Bethesda’s upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle would be appearing on other consoles.

All four of the soon-to-be multi-platform titles are “over a year old,” Xbox chief Phil Spencer said in an “Updates on the Xbox Business” podcast video. The list includes a couple of “community-driven” games that are “first iterations of a franchise” that could show growth on non-Xbox consoles, as well as two others that Spencer said were “smaller games that were never really meant to be built as kind of platform exclusives… I think there is an interesting story for us of introducing Xbox franchises to players on other platforms to get them more interested in Xbox.”

Now, on the one hand, more information getting to the public is generally good. And I’m sure there is some sort of business reason why the announcement of what these four games are can’t be officially made, yet. But I also can’t for the life of me understand why this announcement would be made without being able to name the games. This still would typically allow for a lot of rumors to float around, so what was the point?

Fortunately, in this case, journalists did the work and appear to have answered that question for us, such that the speculation will probably be held at bay.

The Verge cites “sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans” in reporting that Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded are the four multi-platform titles Microsoft is referencing today.

“The teams that are building those [multi-platform] games have announced plans that are not too far away,” Spencer said, “but I think when they come out, it’ll make sense.”

But then there was this.

Spencer stressed during the podcast that this limited multi-platform move does not represent “a change to our fundamental exclusive strategy.” He added that “we’re making these decisions for some specific reasons,” citing “the long-term health of Xbox and a desire to “use what some of the other platforms have right now to help grow our franchises.”

To which my immediate reply is: what the hell is your exclusive strategy? Seriously, the messaging on this very important piece of the equation has been all over the damned place. And because of that, someone in Spencer’s position does not get to simply trot this line out there as if everyone in the gaming public is already on the same page as he is. In 2020, Spencer made comments suggesting that crossplatforming titles was not needed for Xbox to succeed with specific game franchises. Then another Xbox executive suggested that games would have timed Microsoft exclusives later that same year. Then, in 2021, Spencer announced that the next Elder Scrolls game would be a Microsoft exclusive. Fast forward roughly one year later and you have Spencer himself stating that exclusive titles were not the future for Xbox, just as Starfield was announced as a, you guessed it, Microsoft exclusive.

It’s in that bowl of tangled informational linguine that Spencer has the gall to state publicly that these latest plans don’t change Xbox’s “fundamental exclusive strategy.” And if you don’t understand why that is so infuriating, you’re lost.

And so this is just more Microsoft. Even attempts at being more open and communicative result in confusion and frustration.

It was another week of game news and therefore, game opinions—from the value of yellow paint in the Final Fantasy 7 demo to reactions to the Official Xbox Podcast airing. But this week wasn’t just about reacting to game news—we also got our hands on the upcoming RPG Unicorn Overlord and spent some time dropping onto…

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This week, after days of swirling rumors and fan speculation, Phil Spencer and other Xbox bigwigs finally pulled back the curtain (a little bit, at least) on what the future holds for the console and the Xbox brand. Sony also hinted at what 2025 will bring for the PlayStation 5 (or at least what it won’t) while Helldiv…

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It’s been a whirlwind week or so for Xbox. The weekend of February 3, rumors began swirling that major console exclusives like Starfield and the upcoming Indiana Jones game would head to other platforms, and Xbox fans’ reactions were intense, to say the least. The backlash prompted head honcho Phil Spencer to announce…

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During a special episode of the Official Xbox Podcast, Phil Spencer revealed the first wave of Xbox titles coming to rival platforms will include four games. “We are currently in the process of bringing four Xbox games to other platforms. These are titles which have been available to Xbox players for at least a year,”…

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As anyone paying attention to the video game industry will already know, the last couple of weeks have seen a great deal of rumor and speculation as to the state of Xbox-istan. What started as unsubstantiated rumors suggesting that Xbox was about to make some of its Microsoft-exclusive titles crossplatform to other consoles morphed into more outlandish theories that Microsoft was going to stop making Xbox consoles altogether. Xbox chief Phil Spencer addressed the latter of those rumors in an internal memo, alongside a promise to host a “Business Update Event.”

And so that event happened. Was there information in it? Yes! Did it clear everything up? Kind of! Was it yet another example of vague or confusing communication coming out of Xbox’s leadership? How could it possibly be otherwise?

We’ll start with the rumored crossplatform titles. Much of the rumor mill correctly suggested that there would be 4 games that would be going crossplatform soon. And that turns out to have been true! They’re just not the ones people wanted. And you don’t get to know officially which games we’re talking about, either.

After weeks of rumors around its strategy regarding Xbox console exclusives, Microsoft announced today that it is “going to take four games to the other consoles.” The company stopped short of announcing what those now non-exclusive games would be, but it did point out that neither Starfield nor Bethesda’s upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle would be appearing on other consoles.

All four of the soon-to-be multi-platform titles are “over a year old,” Xbox chief Phil Spencer said in an “Updates on the Xbox Business” podcast video. The list includes a couple of “community-driven” games that are “first iterations of a franchise” that could show growth on non-Xbox consoles, as well as two others that Spencer said were “smaller games that were never really meant to be built as kind of platform exclusives… I think there is an interesting story for us of introducing Xbox franchises to players on other platforms to get them more interested in Xbox.”

Now, on the one hand, more information getting to the public is generally good. And I’m sure there is some sort of business reason why the announcement of what these four games are can’t be officially made, yet. But I also can’t for the life of me understand why this announcement would be made without being able to name the games. This still would typically allow for a lot of rumors to float around, so what was the point?

Fortunately, in this case, journalists did the work and appear to have answered that question for us, such that the speculation will probably be held at bay.

The Verge cites “sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans” in reporting that Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded are the four multi-platform titles Microsoft is referencing today.

“The teams that are building those [multi-platform] games have announced plans that are not too far away,” Spencer said, “but I think when they come out, it’ll make sense.”

But then there was this.

Spencer stressed during the podcast that this limited multi-platform move does not represent “a change to our fundamental exclusive strategy.” He added that “we’re making these decisions for some specific reasons,” citing “the long-term health of Xbox and a desire to “use what some of the other platforms have right now to help grow our franchises.”

To which my immediate reply is: what the hell is your exclusive strategy? Seriously, the messaging on this very important piece of the equation has been all over the damned place. And because of that, someone in Spencer’s position does not get to simply trot this line out there as if everyone in the gaming public is already on the same page as he is. In 2020, Spencer made comments suggesting that crossplatforming titles was not needed for Xbox to succeed with specific game franchises. Then another Xbox executive suggested that games would have timed Microsoft exclusives later that same year. Then, in 2021, Spencer announced that the next Elder Scrolls game would be a Microsoft exclusive. Fast forward roughly one year later and you have Spencer himself stating that exclusive titles were not the future for Xbox, just as Starfield was announced as a, you guessed it, Microsoft exclusive.

It’s in that bowl of tangled informational linguine that Spencer has the gall to state publicly that these latest plans don’t change Xbox’s “fundamental exclusive strategy.” And if you don’t understand why that is so infuriating, you’re lost.

And so this is just more Microsoft. Even attempts at being more open and communicative result in confusion and frustration.