Xbox 'in trouble' as even more major exclusives headed to PlayStation 5

Well, here we go again. It feels like only yesterday we learned that a number of Xbox exclusives were bound for PlayStation, and now it sounds like even more major titles from Microsoft are coming to Sony's console.

Rumours swirled last month that Xbox was planning a major shift in its strategy, with reports that everything from Starfield to the new Indiana Jones game would be released on PlayStation 5.

Ultimately, Xbox boss Phil Spencer confirmed on a podcast that just four games would be released on rival platforms. We now know these four games to be Grounded, Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, and Sea Of Thieves. I recently checked out Hi-Fi Rush on PS5, by the way, and it still slaps.

"We made the decision that we're going to take four games to the other consoles, just four games, not a change to our fundamental exclusive strategy," Spencer explained at the time. "We looked at games that are over a year old, so they've been on Xbox and PC for a while."

However, Spencer hinted later in the podcast that this strategy could change, adding: "We think there's a good brand value for Xbox with these four games, but no promise beyond that,"

"So if you're on those other platforms, and you see these four games coming, please don't take it as some signal that everything's coming. It's not and we're going to learn. There's really no fundamental change to how we think about exclusivity."

However, a new report suggests Xbox intends to release the "majority" of its first-party games on PlayStation 5. This is according to GamesIndustry.biz’s Christopher Dring, who suggested on a recent podcast there’s more to come.

“From what I understand the majority of [Xbox’s first-party games] will be coming [to PS5] at some point, assuming it progresses as Xbox believes it probably will,” he explained. “I think Xbox is in real trouble as a hardware manufacturer, and that was the thing that came out of GDC for me.”

Dring also pointed to failing hardware sales in Europe, noting some publishers aren't sure whether or not to continue supporting the latest Xbox consoles.

“You can follow our monthly coverage in the games market and you can see that Xbox sales are falling, and it’s been falling all throughout last year and it’s falling even harder this year,” he said. “The phrase one major company who released a big game last year said [was], ‘I don’t know why we bothered supporting it.’”

Dring claims to have heard from multiple high-level executives who have taken issue with the extra work that goes into creating Xbox Series games so that they can run across the Xbox Series X and less powerful Series S. You may remember, for instance, Baldur's Gate 3 was delayed on Xbox for this very reason.

“You’ve got third-party publishers going, ‘We’re putting in a lot of effort trying to create a Series S version and an X version of a game when, to be honest with you, for us the market is PC and PS5,'" he finished.

This paints a pretty bleak picture for Xbox, of course. We'll have to wait and see whether the new Indiana Jones game and Starfield expansion can help turn the console's fortunes around this year.