You can’t make AAA games for just one platform anymore

polygon.com:

During the approaching summer of game announcements, one topic will be of particular interest to game industry watchers: exclusivity. This will certainly be true of the Xbox showcase on June 9, as Microsoft faces intense scrutiny over its decision to expand into publishing a handful of first-party Xbox games on Nintendo and PlayStation consoles. There have been reports that the company wants to take this policy further, and it has already committed to Call of Duty remaining multiplatform. Will it put older Halo, Forza, or Gears of War games on PS5? Will it commit to Xbox console exclusivity for major upcoming games, like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle?

In truth, though, this isn’t just a question for Xbox. Across the game industry, the concept of platform exclusivity is being challenged, and the stronger sales of PS5 compared to Xbox Series X aren’t going to allow Sony to dodge the issue forever. Recently, Square Enix said it would “aggressively pursue” a multiplatform strategy after a string of its PlayStation exclusives underperformed. And Sony’s higher-ups are surely debating these policies internally after Helldivers 2’s simultaneous launch on Steam was instrumental in propelling it way past expectations (it became the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever).

In fact, the pure console exclusive, as a concept, has already been dead for some time. (Except for Nintendo, but we’ll get to that.) Microsoft has been publishing its first-party games simultaneously on both Xbox and PC (first on its own Windows store, later on Steam) since the mid-2010s. Sony has been making PC versions of PlayStation exclusives since it published Horizon Zero Dawn on Steam in 2020. Publicly, Sony remains committed to releasing its games on PlayStation first, and so far, its titles have had at least one year of console exclusivity — but it has already eroded this policy by saying it will make an exception for live-service games like Helldivers 2.

The prevailing wisdom in the