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.”
Thank You, PS Plus, For Making My Backlog Even Bigger
Earlier this year, reports surfaced that Xbox was planning to bring some of its previously Xbox-exclusive games to other consoles. This led to the Xbox fan community melting down. Eventually, four games—Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Penteniment, and Hi-Fi Rush—were confirmed to be making the leap to PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. In February 2024, while announcing that some Xbox games would become multiplatform, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said that bigger first-party titles like Starfield and Indiana Jones weren’t going to make the same multiplatform leap. However, new reports seem to indicate that moving forward, even some of Xbox’s biggest games and franchises might be playable on a PS5 one day.
On May 15, Windows Central posted an in-depth report about the state of Microsoft. In that report, it’s claimed that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been pushing the Xbox division and its leaders to bring more Xbox-only games to other platforms. Internally, the plan is reportedly called operation “Latitude” and Nadella has made it clear that all Xbox games and franchises should be considered.
According to Windows Central, these plans have led to “unease” among Xbox staff and internal debates about what games should and shouldn’t get ported.
A separate report from Eurogamer claims that “numerous other games” are currently being considered in Xbox’s multiplatform plans, including entires in the company’s “largest franchises.”
Kotaku has contacted Mircosoft and Xbox.
None of this outright confirms that Halo or Gears of War will soon be showing up on a PS5 or Nintendo Switch. But Xbox doesn’t have that many big franchises, and if I were a CEO trying to squeeze more dollars out of the brand, I might be looking to port Halo Infinite and Gears 5 to PS5. Maybe even Forza Horizon 5, too. We are entering some strange times, folks.
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