Earlier this year, Xbox announced it was bringing four exclusives to other consoles, those being Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded. But it's not stopping there, as Microsoft is reportedly discussing the idea of bringing Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 to PS5 as well.
Amidst the closure of Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin, concerns about what Xbox considers a success are bubbling. Tango developed the award-winning Hi-Fi Rush which higher-ups like Bethesda Softworks senior vice president Todd Vaughn lauded as "one of the most successful launches [...] in recent years". After the closure, Xbox Games Studios head Matt Booty even said that the company needs "smaller games that give us prestige and awards".
It's unclear why Hi-Fi Rush didn't qualify despite Phil Spencer calling it a "smaller game", so this confusion has understandably brought forward anxieties around other Microsoft-owned companies like Ninja Theory - fans are even urging people to buy Hellblade 2 instead of using Game Pass. But according to The Verge, Microsoft isn't sure that launching on PS5 would be a success.
Over the years, we've seen Xbox and Sony bring their games to PC, including flagship exclusives like The Last of Us and Halo, but never to their rival console platforms. With the likes of Hi-Fi Rush and Grounded, that's changed.
According to The Verge, there's a mix of reasons for this new strategy - poor hardware sales (down 31 percent year on year), a slowdown of Game Pass subscribers, and delays. Microsoft is even reportedly discussing Gears of War for PlayStation.
And while buying out Activision Blizzard King in the game industry's biggest acquisition to date could be seen as a strategy to bolster Game Pass, Microsoft is reportedly unsure about bringing the company's heaviest hitter to the service, Call of Duty, out of fear that it may undermine sales. But Xbox has also agreed to keep launching new Call of Duty games on PlayStation, so there won't be exclusivity to
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