The latest major Xbox exclusive, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, is now officially available for everyone as of December 9, provided you own an Xbox or a PC, or are subscribed to Game Pass Ultimate. However, PlayStation 5 users will have to wait until Spring 2025 to experience this adventure game. In a recent interview, Xbox president of game content and studios, Matt Booty, discussed Microsoft's approach to bringing Xbox games to competing platforms. "We are very much making the [exclusivity and windowing] decisions on a game-by-game basis," Booty told Variety, reiterating previous statements made by himself and other Xbox executives. Booty further explained that each of Microsoft's numerous studios is in "a little bit of a different position," though he did not elaborate on what this means for exclusivity. Additionally, the decision on the timing of a game's release on a rival platform after Xbox availability must consider production timelines, according to Booty. "We want to ensure there's a great experience for our Xbox players, and then the gap between [when it becomes available on PlayStation] is as much a production decision as it is anything else. This is a game that was in production before we acquired Bethesda, even," Booty said.
Microsoft announced its acquisition of ZeniMax, the parent company of Machine Games studio owner Bethesda, in 2020, with the deal officially closing in 2021. Following the acquisition, Microsoft acknowledged that making some of Bethesda's games exclusive to Xbox, including Starfield and The Great Circle, would result in millions of lost game sales. At the time, Microsoft stated that it aimed to compensate for this through increased Game Pass sign-ups and hardware sales. In February 2024, Microsoft revealed that Game Pass had reached 34 million members, but the company has not provided an updated figure since. It is known that the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 led to a surge in subscribers. Regarding Xbox hardware sales, US video game industry research company Circana reported an 18% drop in Xbox Series X|S sales in October 2024 compared to October 2023 (PS5 and Switch sales in the US also declined).
The Great Circle is set to arrive on PS5 in Spring 2025, but Microsoft has not yet disclosed a specific release date or any other details about the PlayStation edition of the game. For more information, check out GameSpot's review of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and visit our guides hub to get started.
In the past year, some of Microsoft's other games that have made their way to PlayStation (and Switch in some cases) include Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Pentiment, and Hi-Fi Rush. Meanwhile, Microsoft's Minecraft series has been available on PlayStation and Switch for several years.
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