But since closing the Activision deal last fall, Xbox has made a series of moves that have left fans and analysts baffled about its overall strategy. It has laid off thousands of staffshuttered studios and been unable to articulate a consistent message about how it plans to release games. Xbox fans assumed those big acquisitions would lead to more exclusive games that helped justify their console purchase, but the opposite has happened.

Early this year, Microsoft began putting some of its former exclusives on PlayStation, starting with smaller, older titles such as Hi-Fi Rush. This week, the company announced that another big, new title will follow the same route. Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, coming in December to Xbox and PC, will arrive on PlayStation in the spring of 2025.

Ditching console exclusives is good news for players who can only afford to stick to one piece of hardware. And Microsoft was able to squeeze the Activision deal past regulatory scrutiny in part because it promised to continue releasing Call of Duty on PlayStation. But Xbox’s release strategy has been so confusing, it requires a massive spreadsheet and a full-time job to keep track of it all.

  • Infynis@midwest.social
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    3 months ago

    It’s baffling because usually companies have to be forced to give up monopolies by the government

    • masterspace
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      3 months ago

      Like I know that’s baffling in a satirical way, but this article does not seem aware of the corporate villainy satire and just seems to be corpo pilled and fully bought into the idea that Xbox is somehow worse when it’s games come out on PlayStation.

      I’ve long bought Xboxes because I prefer their controller and software, I do not give a flying fuck if their games come out on PlayStation. Games that are exclusive without an underlying hardware reason (like motion controls), should be illegal, but I’m not going to be a console wars dipshit and demand that PlayStation players don’t get to play Microsoft game just because Xbox players don’t get to play Sony games.