Gaming🎮 Even this Baldur’s Gate 3 dev thinks that Xbox porting games to PS5 is a good thing, so calm down

[Royal_Lizard]

Are you sitting down? Good. Xbox is reportedly considering bringing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Starfield to PS5 down the line.

Hopefully you’ve managed to hear that without firing up Twitter or your email service of choice to type out an angry/disappointed message either aimed at Xbox’s execs or simply declaring that the sky is falling. Especially if you did something similar after seeing those reports about Hi-Fi Rush last week.

Yup, The Verge has reported that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which we got a nice first look at during the most recent Developer Direct, could be coming to PS5 sometime after it hits Xbox and PC later this year. Apparently this is just one part of a fresh strategy from Xbox that’ll see the publisher put out more of the games it'd previously used as exclusives across multiple platforms.

According to XboxEra, Starfield is also reportedly being considered for a PlayStation 5 release once its Shattered Space DLC has arrived. Naturally, these reports have spawned a very relaxed and rational response on social media from people with Xbox logo profile pictures and those who fancy discussing what this might mean for the future of the Xbox Series X/S in the same manner people on history podcasts talk about the fall of Constantinople.


Before you follow suit, however, you might want to read a good thread from Michael Dowse, the director of publishing at Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian. It might help put this big change in approach Xbox is apparently thinking about making - or as Dowse describes it: “Microsoft’s controversial strategy to get more people playing Xbox games by releasing them to a broader range of people” - into a bit more practical context.

Peoples minds have been absolutely blown by Microsoft’s controversial strategy to get more people playing Xbox games by releasing them to a broader range of people
— Very AFK (@Cromwelp) February 5, 2024

“The Xbox Series S is a really cost efficient way to play AAA games, but it is not the only way,” the developer argued, “The more copies they can sell, the less risk and the more they can invest.” “Your favourite ecosystem isn’t going anywhere, but strategies shift with the times *to make sure* the economics make sense,” he added.


Dowse finished by adding that a lot of the games Xbox has been releasing on its console, Game Pass service and PC “habitually make Steam top sellers at full price” - hello there Palworld. This is something he argues shows the potential for Xbox to make more money by releasing across more platforms, and at the same time, he doesn’t think doing that would affect the appeal of Game Pass via PC and Xbox consoles.


Sure, maybe you won’t be the only one able to play one of Xbox’s big games because you bought a certain box, but you should still be able to get that game at a cheaper price. Without even touching on the fact it sounds like these games will still enjoy a period of exclusivity following their initial release as part of these plans, isn’t that the main thing if you’re more concerned about actually playing games than getting angry about the fact people on other platforms might be able to do the same thing?


So, maybe don’t trade away or sell your Series X or Series S for peanuts yet, yeah?