Rumor: Another 'big' Xbox game is heading to PS5, to be announced next week

fatpunkslim said:

We talk about exclusives but currently Xbox has more console exclusive games than PlayStation. Xbox releases more first party games than PlayStation and which are exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem. It's been a year since we've been talking about rumors, Starfield, Gears, Indiana Jones, Halo, etc... but the reality is that there are many more false rumors than truths. Lots of discussions and assumptions about the future of consoles and the future of Xbox when there have only been 4 games ported from other consoles, 2 small games and 2 service games respectively 5 and 8 years old.

At the same time, lots of games were released exclusively on Xbox like ravenlock, valheim, age of empires 4, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, Lightyear Frontier, planet of lana, starfield, hellblade 2, Dungeons of Hinterberg (very good game), forza motorsport, etc... not to mention the games planned for 2024 -2025 like indiana jones, stalker 2, towerborne, 33 immortals, avowed, flight simulator, ark 2, fable, fragpunk, south of midnight, and further contraband, clockwork revolution , gears, blade, OD, perfect dark, routine, state of decay 3, etc...

I'm making this big list just so we realize that the line up of exclusive Xbox games is huge. The PlayStation line up is very weak compared to this.

I don't understand how some people can say that they are going to abandon the Xbox for the PS5 to be able to play everything, but it's a big mistake, it's the opposite!

Why don't we talk more about the loss of PlayStation exclusives like Stray, Kena, Final Fantasy XVI, and probably other Square Enix games like Forspoken, Foamstars, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, etc...

Square Enix has announced that it wants to move away from PlayStation exclusives that underperform on a single platform.

Xbox sends a few exclusive games because they can, they have tons of licenses, 3x more studios than playstation, but when it ports 1 game to another platform, they bring back 5 games exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem. Playstation, meanwhile, is porting all these games to PC, and for some day ones, and making very few first party games, 1 game every 1 or 2 years, while Xbox releases 5-6 per year of their studios.

Another thing, we focus on the exclusives, but the biggest benefit for the player in the end is the day one games in the gamepass, that's the biggest benefit.

But currently, Xbox players have the advantage of the number of exclusive games and day one.

Regarding these rumors, as already said, the reality is that there was tons of fake news for only 4 ported games in the end, which is nothing compared to everything that has been released since.

For me, I'll see hellblade2, it's a very good AA game which is a license historically already on playstation and which hasn't sold very well (because day one in the gamepass and fairly short game), it would be quite logical that they want to recoup their costs. Halo master chief collection, I don't think so, we're still talking about a strong symbol, I don't think Xbox is taking the risk of touching this symbol and the consequences in terms of image.

On the strategy, I think on the contrary that releasing a few Xbox games on PlayStation can on the contrary bring players to Xbox, as long as it is well balanced. Imagine releasing Forza Horizon 5, 5 years later on PlayStation, and at almost the same time you release Forza Horizon 6 on Xbox. PlayStation players who liked FH5 will not want to wait 5 years to play Forza Horizon 6, they will take either the gamepass or an Xbox. I think Xbox has a good shot to play if it's done intelligently.

Agreed on all counts.

Also, the focus on console sales ignores that we're near the end of the console generation, that most new releases are still cross-gen, and that many current gen exclusives play fine via cloud. All of which reduce the value of springing for an SX.

The other thing the console warriors forget is the Xbox Is not primarily competing with Sony, that is incidental, but with gaming PCs. And that unless MS badly miscalculates, the next generation will likely be a multiboot device, like the SX and SS. But with a Windows mode in addition to the XBOX and Developer mode option. It might even have a SteamOS mode. (I would expect to pay a modest one time fee for the PC modes, comparable to the developer mode.) And no, there will still be an optimized XBOX mode, for backwards compatibility *and* predictability. Not everybody enjoys fiddling with settings to get the best experience on PC. There is value in predictable plug and play. And with PLAYS ANYWHERE MS will have that edge on other PC game stores.

So anybody ditching XBOX in the next generation will be cutting themselves off from multiple game libraries instead of getting access to more games.

@fjtorres5591 Agreed !

Xbox's main growth drivers are PC, cloud and mobile, which are the only growing markets. As Jez Corden said, the console market is saturated, the decline in console sales is global, at Xbox AND at Playstation. Xbox has no interest in wanting to develop excessively on other consoles, it will remain piecemeal and in particular cases like service games at the end of their life, historically multi-platform games, etc... nothing massive .

Xbox has already announced the next generations of consoles (unlike PlayStation which has not announced anything), and they know very well that exclusives remain an important element in selling consoles. As Satya Nadella said, he doesn't like exclusives but he also said that this is the industry in which we operate today, and therefore they are adapting with many exclusive first party games but also games third-party exclusives like stalker 2 for example.

Xbox will drop the exclusives when PlayStation does the same. I think we are slowly moving towards more and more multi-platform, but it will never be total. Each manufacturer will keep exclusive games, at least for a while that are sufficiently attractive to players.

But as already said, Xbox has plenty under its belt and continue to create plenty of games. The same cannot be said of Playstation, their exclusives are shrinking, with third-party publishers moving more and more towards multi-platform. And it's not their rare first party games that compensate.

Beyond the number of studios and Xbox licenses, the diversity of the types of Xbox games is also a great strength, unlike PlayStation which was historically focused on narrative single-player games, but their current strategy towards an area that they do not master ( GAAS) does not bode well for them and fans of the brand.

Xbox offers more varied games and has caught up and continues to catch up on narrative single players. For instance, Hellblade 2 was a great success on the narrative aspect, particularly despite the usual bias of certain media.

Besides, speaking of that, I have the impression that even people like Jez Corden are influenced by these media and certain comments (which we can see right here for example). This is probably why he is used to seeing the glass half empty and not the glass half full.

In any case, Xbox players can only be delighted with all the games present in their ecosystem (pc, console) and the games to come, whether exclusive, day one in the gamepass, third-party games, etc. not to mention advantages like backward compatibility, variety of games, cross platform, cloud, cutting-edge technologies like quick resume, auto HDR, the future Automatic Super Resolution, a native handled console, etc...

fatpunkslim said:

@fjtorres5591 Agreed !

Xbox's main growth drivers are PC, cloud and mobile, which are the only growing markets. As Jez Corden said, the console market is saturated, the decline in console sales is global, at Xbox AND at Playstation. Xbox has no interest in wanting to develop excessively on other consoles, it will remain piecemeal and in particular cases like service games at the end of their life, historically multi-platform games, etc... nothing massive .

Xbox has already announced the next generations of consoles (unlike PlayStation which has not announced anything), and they know very well that exclusives remain an important element in selling consoles. As Satya Nadella said, he doesn't like exclusives but he also said that this is the industry in which we operate today, and therefore they are adapting with many exclusive first party games but also games third-party exclusives like stalker 2 for example.

Xbox will drop the exclusives when PlayStation does the same. I think we are slowly moving towards more and more multi-platform, but it will never be total. Each manufacturer will keep exclusive games, at least for a while that are sufficiently attractive to players.

But as already said, Xbox has plenty under its belt and continue to create plenty of games. The same cannot be said of Playstation, their exclusives are shrinking, with third-party publishers moving more and more towards multi-platform. And it's not their rare first party games that compensate.

Beyond the number of studios and Xbox licenses, the diversity of the types of Xbox games is also a great strength, unlike PlayStation which was historically focused on narrative single-player games, but their current strategy towards an area that they do not master ( GAAS) does not bode well for them and fans of the brand.

Xbox offers more varied games and has caught up and continues to catch up on narrative single players. For instance, Hellblade 2 was a great success on the narrative aspect, particularly despite the usual bias of certain media.

Besides, speaking of that, I have the impression that even people like Jez Corden are influenced by these media and certain comments (which we can see right here for example). This is probably why he is used to seeing the glass half empty and not the glass half full.

In any case, Xbox players can only be delighted with all the games present in their ecosystem (pc, console) and the games to come, whether exclusive, day one in the gamepass, third-party games, etc. not to mention advantages like backward compatibility, variety of games, cross platform, cloud, cutting-edge technologies like quick resume, auto HDR, the future Automatic Super Resolution, a native handled console, etc...

A lot of anti-MS and Anti-XBOX posturing is AI-phobia. AKA, plain Luddism.

The tech world is changing and with it the rules of adjacent businesses which is scaring the pants off pundits who see their livelihood in danger.

Another cause is the need to show independence, griping about minor things in order to "prove" they're not XBOX cheerleaders.

And a third cause is consternation over layoffs and studio closures by companies still making a profit. Or not. Notice all the media carping over how the BUNGIE CEO spent his own personal money while laying off personnel. As if he was supposed to keep them and pay them out of his pocket. Little mention of how their signature game was bleeding (boring?) its gamer base. In both senses of the word.

A similar misguided attitude underlies the still ongoing gripes over the closure of XBOX studios, while continuing to ignore the red flags that put the studios on the cutting block. (Yes, HI HI RUSH was critically acclaimed. But how did gamers see it? Did they buy it? Did they even play it for free? And because the decision was a business call, what is TANGO's burn rate? How much does it cost to keep the studio open vs the income they generate? Note that unlike the TOYS FOR BOB spinoff, XBOX didn't keep the HIFI RUSH IP. Just the older games, which did sell well.) A big red flag hardly anybody mentions is that at the time of closure, TANGO management was *preparing* to pitch a sequel. A year+ after release and they didn't know what came next? Contrast that with Obsidian, or Playground, or BETHESDA, or inXile, all of which have a project pipeline of games and revenue sources ongoing. Not just the announced games, but other efforts running in parallel. Game development is expensive, long, and the outcomes unpredictable. And like it or not studio management quality matters as much the developers skill. Each studio is judged as a unit based on its costs, production, and inhouse drama. Not all factors are publicly revealed but they are privately judged. What might seem a miscarriage of justice from the outside might be simply unavoidable by internal metrics.

And in the end, nobody is guaranteed a job. Not us and not them.
We all have to "sing for our supper". Even execs making millions a year. And even developers making games that don't set the gaming world on fire.

Life is tough.
Then we die.

@fjtorres5591:
it is fashionable to hit on a GAFAM, many play on this primary hatred of GAFAM, without thinking for a single second that Xbox does much more for the video game industry by offering a wide diversity of games, new ips, push the dynamism of independent studios.

Conversely, PlayStation offers many remakes or sequels, very little freshness, and Multiple publishers complain about the struggles of indie games to get noticed on its platforms, restrictions on sales, paid dev kits (xbox dev kits are free). Playstation takes advantage of their monopoly to charge dearly for the entry ticket for developers.

I'm not even talking about anti-xbox measures, which go beyond exclusivity contracts, anti-competitive measures. This is what is hurting the video game industry, and PlayStation is partly responsible for the current situation in the industry.

On the layoffs, I have the impression that once again the media have talked a lot more about the closure of the 3 Xbox studios, a large part of whose employees have been transferred to other Xbox studios. Studios that were doing poorly before the takeover and to whom Xbox gave the chance to turn things around. They did not seize the opportunity and Xbox had to make profitability choices.

Playstation has had grotesque management by Bungie who has never stopped debauching. Playstation cut 8% of their payroll (900 employees), closed studios like London Studio, layoffs at nauthty dogs, insomniac, etc.. it is ultimately much more in volume and percentage than Xbox which at the same time opened new studios (eg: Playground Games opens up 3rd studio to help with Fable) and Xbox continued to hire.

Again, someone who doesn't follow the news well will have the impression that Xbox has cut a lot of jobs even though it's relatively few compared to the industry as a whole and compared to others. studios like embracer, epic games, EA, playstation, etc...

But strangely, the console war makes it much more interesting to talk bad about XBOX than other studios or PlayStation. The community of anti-xbox trolls is very present, and more active than the anti-playstation trolls (there are also some but much less). I'm always surprised to see Xbox sites or Xbox YouTube channels being invaded by anti-xbox trolls. On the other hand, on PlayStation sites, this is much less the case, the opposite is rarer.

That doesn't mean that it remains a very small minority compared to all the players and it's not them who will change the course of things.

Personally I proefer the mentality of the Xbox management which seems to have a healthier vision of the industry which is in the interest of the players (without forgetting of course being profitable) than the strategic vision of playstation which always seeks more to try to milking players with a pricing and monetization policy that is not healthy.

A lot of content that PlayStation offers for a fee is actually free on Xbox.

It's not being anti-PlayStation to say that, it's just facts, you just need to see their aggressive policy on the subject: and see the paid updates, the price of remakes, the price of their PS+ services which are very expensive compared to what the gamepass offer, agressive microtransactions, paid games which are in fact pay to win, etc. offer.

Even on hardware, the absence of backward compatibility of PSVR2 for example, the very limited backward compatibility of their consoles (and still PlayStation players can say thank you to Xbox that PlayStation have taken a small step in this direction). Their dominant position has caused great damage to the industry.

They are taking too much advantage of their dominant position in the console market at the expense of developers, players and overall at the expense of the game industry.

fatpunkslim said:

@fjtorres5591:
it is fashionable to hit on a GAFAM, many play on this primary hatred of GAFAM, without thinking for a single second that Xbox does much more for the video game industry by offering a wide diversity of games, new ips, push the dynamism of independent studios.

Conversely, PlayStation offers many remakes or sequels, very little freshness, and Multiple publishers complain about the struggles of indie games to get noticed on its platforms, restrictions on sales, paid dev kits (xbox dev kits are free). Playstation takes advantage of their monopoly to charge dearly for the entry ticket for developers.

I'm not even talking about anti-xbox measures, which go beyond exclusivity contracts, anti-competitive measures. This is what is hurting the video game industry, and PlayStation is partly responsible for the current situation in the industry.

On the layoffs, I have the impression that once again the media have talked a lot more about the closure of the 3 Xbox studios, a large part of whose employees have been transferred to other Xbox studios. Studios that were doing poorly before the takeover and to whom Xbox gave the chance to turn things around. They did not seize the opportunity and Xbox had to make profitability choices.

Playstation has had grotesque management by Bungie who has never stopped debauching. Playstation cut 8% of their payroll (900 employees), closed studios like London Studio, layoffs at nauthty dogs, insomniac, etc.. it is ultimately much more in volume and percentage than Xbox which at the same time opened new studios (eg: Playground Games opens up 3rd studio to help with Fable) and Xbox continued to hire.

Again, someone who doesn't follow the news well will have the impression that Xbox has cut a lot of jobs even though it's relatively few compared to the industry as a whole and compared to others. studios like embracer, epic games, EA, playstation, etc...

But strangely, the console war makes it much more interesting to talk bad about XBOX than other studios or PlayStation. The community of anti-xbox trolls is very present, and more active than the anti-playstation trolls (there are also some but much less). I'm always surprised to see Xbox sites or Xbox YouTube channels being invaded by anti-xbox trolls. On the other hand, on PlayStation sites, this is much less the case, the opposite is rarer.

That doesn't mean that it remains a very small minority compared to all the players and it's not them who will change the course of things.

Personally I proefer the mentality of the Xbox management which seems to have a healthier vision of the industry which is in the interest of the players (without forgetting of course being profitable) than the strategic vision of playstation which always seeks more to try to milking players with a pricing and monetization policy that is not healthy.

A lot of content that PlayStation offers for a fee is actually free on Xbox.

It's not being anti-PlayStation to say that, it's just facts, you just need to see their aggressive policy on the subject: and see the paid updates, the price of remakes, the price of their PS+ services which are very expensive compared to what the gamepass offer, agressive microtransactions, paid games which are in fact pay to win, etc. offer.

Even on hardware, the absence of backward compatibility of PSVR2 for example, the very limited backward compatibility of their consoles (and still PlayStation players can say thank you to Xbox that PlayStation have taken a small step in this direction). Their dominant position has caused great damage to the industry.

They are taking too much advantage of their dominant position in the console market at the expense of developers, players and overall at the expense of the game industry.

Sony does what they can get away with.
Blame their fans for letting them get away with their money grabs.

And their enablers in the media and government.
(Remember the regulators caught fretting over what MS buying ABK would to to "our Playstation"?)

Even during the PS3 era when the goldplated Kutaragi mess sold for double the 360 price, nary a 'plaint was heard.
It's a cult.
And increasingly irrelevant to the rest of the gaming worlds. Their business model is not sustainable. Even the cult is going to balk at $700 consoes and $100 games.

When Spencer says he doesn't see Sony as a competitor, believe him: the Sony faithful are a distraction and a drag on XBOX but in the long haul they won't be impacting the XBOX ecosystem.

As MS makes xbox DirectX more and more aligned with PC, the XBOX console will take its place as the entry level for PC gaming, slotting in where a SteamBox would otherwise fit in, in between cloud and mobile and high end gaming PCs, all covered by DirectX games.

That is the future of XBOX: DirectX13+GamePass+PC.
(Unless Spence and co screw up. So far there are no signs of that.)

fatpunkslim said:

We talk about exclusives but currently Xbox has more console exclusive games than PlayStation. Xbox releases more first party games than PlayStation and which are exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem. It's been a year since we've been talking about rumors, Starfield, Gears, Indiana Jones, Halo, etc... but the reality is that there are many more false rumors than truths. Lots of discussions and assumptions about the future of consoles and the future of Xbox when there have only been 4 games ported from other consoles, 2 small games and 2 service games respectively 5 and 8 years old.

At the same time, lots of games were released exclusively on Xbox like ravenlock, valheim, age of empires 4, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, Lightyear Frontier, planet of lana, starfield, hellblade 2, Dungeons of Hinterberg (very good game), forza motorsport, etc... not to mention the games planned for 2024 -2025 like indiana jones, stalker 2, towerborne, 33 immortals, avowed, flight simulator, ark 2, fable, fragpunk, south of midnight, and further contraband, clockwork revolution , gears, blade, OD, perfect dark, routine, state of decay 3, etc...

I'm making this big list just so we realize that the line up of exclusive Xbox games is huge. The PlayStation line up is very weak compared to this.

I don't understand how some people can say that they are going to abandon the Xbox for the PS5 to be able to play everything, but it's a big mistake, it's the opposite!

Why don't we talk more about the loss of PlayStation exclusives like Stray, Kena, Final Fantasy XVI, and probably other Square Enix games like Forspoken, Foamstars, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, etc...

Square Enix has announced that it wants to move away from PlayStation exclusives that underperform on a single platform.

Xbox sends a few exclusive games because they can, they have tons of licenses, 3x more studios than playstation, but when it ports 1 game to another platform, they bring back 5 games exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem. Playstation, meanwhile, is porting all these games to PC, and for some day ones, and making very few first party games, 1 game every 1 or 2 years, while Xbox releases 5-6 per year of their studios.

Another thing, we focus on the exclusives, but the biggest benefit for the player in the end is the day one games in the gamepass, that's the biggest benefit.

But currently, Xbox players have the advantage of the number of exclusive games and day one.

Regarding these rumors, as already said, the reality is that there was tons of fake news for only 4 ported games in the end, which is nothing compared to everything that has been released since.

For me, I'll see hellblade2, it's a very good AA game which is a license historically already on playstation and which hasn't sold very well (because day one in the gamepass and fairly short game), it would be quite logical that they want to recoup their costs. Halo master chief collection, I don't think so, we're still talking about a strong symbol, I don't think Xbox is taking the risk of touching this symbol and the consequences in terms of image.

On the strategy, I think on the contrary that releasing a few Xbox games on PlayStation can on the contrary bring players to Xbox, as long as it is well balanced. Imagine releasing Forza Horizon 5, 5 years later on PlayStation, and at almost the same time you release Forza Horizon 6 on Xbox. PlayStation players who liked FH5 will not want to wait 5 years to play Forza Horizon 6, they will take either the gamepass or an Xbox. I think Xbox has a good shot to play if it's done intelligently.

Well said. The rumour mill is going crazy saying FH5, The next Halo game, GoW E-Day, Starfield, Indiana Jones, Avowed will be announced for PlayStation. I dont simply think its true. Phil himself said porting games over will not change their fundamental exclusive strategy and will be selective on what games get a port. Xbox already gave us an idea of what they will port over. Games not selling/performing well on Gamepass (exactly what is happening to Hellblade 2), smaller AA games (also Hellblade 2), older as a service games around 5 years old, and established ip with previous multiplatform releases (also Hellblade 2). This might mean Halo Infinite would come to PlayStation further down the line but like what you said it'll be a strategic move and announce it the same year Halo 7 would come out. Which obviously would not be coming to PlayStation anytime soon. This strategy could infact be a win win. Xbox makes more money all the while potentially winning over PlayStation users which likely never would've thought to buy an Xbox or Gamepass subscription. Smart way to attempt to grow your stagnant console sales and Gamepass subscriptions. Because as for now Gamepass as a storefront is struggling on PC because of Steam and the Xbox app mostly having bad console ports as PC games like Ark Survival Ascended still doesn't support DLSS on the Windows version for ex, and is the main reason why PC gamepass is so much cheaper than even regular Gamepass Core. They are still trying to win PC users over.