Xbox-owned game runs better on PS5 than Series X

Timed exclusive game releases are funny little things. They have the power to annoy everyone who only owns one specific new-gen console by forcing them to wait months on end to play something that everyone else is already diving into, but generally don’t give enough of an incentive to actually make people buy the console it comes to first, since they’ll be able to play it eventually without shelling out half a grand on new tech.

One of the most baffling examples of a recent timed exclusive is Ghostwire: Tokyo. Tango Gameworks’ 2022 action-adventure first released as a PS5 console exclusive, despite the fact that it was published by the Microsoft-owned Bethesda Softworks. Anyway, the exclusivity period recently ran out, which means that Xbox players have been diving into the title for the first time. Unfortunately, as ComicBook reports, the Xbox version of the game somehow hasn’t hit the mark.

Take a look at the trailer for Ghostwire: Tokyo’s latest free content update, Spider’s Thread, below.

On the latest episode of the DF Direct Weekly podcast, Digital Foundry’s Oliver Mackenzie summed up the situation: "In general, it runs worse than PlayStation 5, and Series S is a bit of a mess," he said. "It's a really weird situation and not really what you would expect from what is now a Microsoft first-party development studio."

The Series S version of Ghostwire: Tokyo doesn’t feature ray tracing at all, and doesn’t run at 60fps. However, things aren’t drastically better for those who play it on Series X - its ray tracing has been described as inferior when compared to the PS5 version’s.

No matter if you own a Series X/S or PS5, the good news is that Ghostwire: Tokyo is free to download and play via either Game Pass or PS Plus Extra right now, so if you’re yet to try it, it’s a great time to give it a go (though you should definitely play it on the PS5 if you can).

It remains to be seen if any patches will be rolled out for the Xbox versions of the game to try and bring things up to scratch.

Topics: Xbox, Microsoft, Bethesda, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PlayStation 5