Perhaps the biggest announcement of Gamescom Opening Night Live, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has been officially confirmed for PlayStation 5 after previously being slated to launch as an Xbox and PC exclusive. Now, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has explained the surprise release, calling it a business move for the company.
During the Microsoft Gamescom LivestreamSpencer was asked what the decision was to Indiana Jones to PS5 could mean for future Xbox releases in relation to its ongoing multiplatform push, which recently garnered the likes of Pentiments, Grounded, Hi-Fi rushAnd Sea of Thieves find their way to more platforms.
“Obviously, we launched four games last spring, two on Switch, four on PlayStation, and we said we’re going to learn,” Spencer said. “We said we’re going to look. I think at Showcase I said, based on what we’ve learned, we’re going to do more.
“What I see, when I look, is our franchises are getting stronger. Our Xbox console players are as strong as they’ve ever been this year. So I look at it and I say, okay, our player numbers are going up for the console platform. Our franchises are as strong as they’ve ever been.”
Xbox chief Phil Spencer responds to a question about how Indiana Jones on PS5 ties into how/when it happens with other Xbox titles: “We have to anticipate more change in some of the traditional ways that games are built and distributed. That’s going to… pic.twitter.com/Kd9xF9I8VMAugust 21, 2024
Spencer went on to hint that the multi-platform push is also part of attracting more money to Microsoft, now that the publisher has acquired Activision Blizzard for $69 billion.
“We run a business,” he said. “It’s certainly true that within Microsoft, the bar is set high for us in terms of the delivery that we have to give to the business, because we get a level of support from the business that is just amazing and what we can do.
“So I look at this (as), how can we make our games as strong as possible? Our platform continues to grow, on console, on PC, and in the cloud. I think it’s just a strategy that works for us.”
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be released exclusively on Xbox Series X|S and PC on December 9, before coming to PS5 in spring 2025.