This is it Let there be no doubt in anyone’s mind that XBOX HAS GONE FULLY THIRD-PARTY.
The Xbox Direct presentation felt like a ‘coming out’ party revealing all these high profile games announced as coming to PlayStation. Only indie game South of Midnight isn’t, and MS have already said that’s because smaller teams don’t have the resources to develop multiplatform. But the Ninja Gaiden games, and the phenomenal audacious reveal of Doom the Dark Ages, best console version on PS5 Pro.
The most likely reason Microsoft last year didn’t do a Sega-type reveal of going third-party is because it didn’t want to collapse its hardware market, and likely at the behest of Phil Spencer, has taken these small baby steps so even the most hardcore Xbox creators with parasocial relationships to the brand (Colt Eastwood, Destin Legare, Parris, Danny Pena, Jez Corden et al). However, this interview demonstrates the 180 Xbox has done. Last year, Phil Spencer said only four games would be coming to PlayStation, now he’s saying he doesn’t want to ‘gatekeep’ Xbox games from PlayStation https://x.com/JamiesAct/sta… That’s the clearest sign that THE CONSOLE WAR IS OVER, all the Xbox games are coming to PlayStation.
There are many loyal Xbox content creators who originally didn’t believe this would happen, then were angry because they felt betrayed then have sadly accepted this chapter is now over. What’s crazy is that there are there are some that won’t accept it like the Iron Lords, Hapreet Singh and Doodle On Point who still deny Starfield will be released on other platforms. Although some of the extremists are reframing this as a win for Microsoft by profiting from the PlayStation community, which it definitely is! But it is also a sad day that signifies the Xbox hardware market is almost done. When this news hits the mainstream media the consoles’ value will drop like a tonne of bricks.
If/when Doom the Dark Ages sells many and most copies on PlayStation and relatively little on Xbox (because the game is included in Game Pass) then it will further cement the detail that means the business game has changed, that for Microsoft the most important console and lead platform for its games is no longer its own console – it’s now PlayStation.