Times are a-changing at Xbox. The brand's leaders have confirmed plans to bring more Xbox games to other platforms, most likely PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. 

On the latest edition of the Official Xbox Podcast, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer says his team is bringing four of its games to "the other consoles." He didn't name the titles, but contrary to previous rumors, Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle are not coming to PS5 or Switch for now. 

"The teams that are building those games have announced plans that are not too far away. As we know, game teams put a lot of energy into their announcements with the partners," Spencer said. "So I don't want to take anything away from those teams. So I won't be talking about the titles specifically. But I think when they come out, it'll make sense."

Reports have suggested that Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, Halo and Gears of War would be among those crossing the great divide. Spencer did confirm that the Xbox games that are coming to PlayStation and Switch have been on Xbox and PC for at least a year already. "A couple of the games are community-driven games, new games, kind of first iterations of a franchise that have reached their full potential, let's say, on Xbox and PC — there's always growth, franchises that we obviously want to continue to invest in," he said. 

"Two of the other games are smaller games that were never really meant to be built as kind of platform exclusives and all the fanfare that goes around that, but games that our teams really wanted to go build that we love supporting creative endeavors across our studios regardless of size," Spencer added. "And as they've realized their full potential on Xbox and PC, we see an opportunity to utilize the other platforms as a place to just drive more business value out of those games, allowing us to invest in maybe future iterations of those, so equals to those, or just other games like that in our portfolio."

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This week’s edition of the Official Xbox Podcast is likely to have far more eyes and ears on it than usual. That’s because three top Xbox executives are set to lay out what's ahead for the brand.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, Xbox President Sarah Bond and President of Game Content and Studios Matt Booty will “share updates on the Xbox business,” following rumors that several major games could be coming to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. Various reports have indicated that one-time exclusives such as Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle are bound for rival platforms. Even tentpole franchises like Halo and Gears of War could be on the way to Sony and Nintendo platforms.

It's likely that Spencer, Bond and Booty will either dispel such rumors or confirm the reports on the Official Xbox Podcast. Spencer pledged that the “business update” will include details “about our vision for the future of Xbox.” You can find out for yourself what that entails by checking out the episode on YouTube or podcast services such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts when it drops at 3PM ET on Thursday. We'll embed the YouTube video below once it's live.

It's clear that Microsoft's gaming division has been going through a sea change over the last few months after finally closing its mammoth takeover of Activision Blizzard in October and then laying off 1,900 people a few months later. We should get more clarity as to the overall direction of Microsoft Gaming today.

It does seem that Microsoft is about to become more of a multi-platform publisher, though. The company has already pledged to bring more of its games to Switch after making a deal with Nintendo to release Call of Duty titles on that company's systems.

That said, Microsoft is unlikely to stop making consoles of its own any time soon. Spencer told staff at a town hall earlier this month Xbox has more hardware in the pipeline, according to Inverse. Bond also reportedly laid out a vision of making Xbox available on "every screen" and showed the smash hit Game Pass title Palworld on various tablets, TV screens, monitors and handheld devices.

Sony may shrink the gap between the launches of its PlayStation exclusives and PC ports. Company president Hiroki Totoki suggested in a post-earnings call Q&A session Wednesday (via VGC) that he wants PlayStation to go “aggressive on improving our margin performance,” with “multi-platform” games playing a significant role. He clarified in the talk that, by multi-platform, he meant on PlayStation and PC — not Xbox or Switch.

When asked about Sony’s profits not keeping up with increasing gross income, he said hardware and first-party games were two areas of focus. He noted that hardware cost reduction this console cycle was “difficult to come by,” suggesting we won’t see any permanent console price drops.

“I personally think there are opportunities out there for improvement of margin, so I would like to go aggressive on improving our margin performance,” he continued. Totoki hinted one way to get there is to cash in more on its (often critically acclaimed and commercially successful) PlayStation Studios titles, like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and God of War: Ragnarok.

“In the past, we wanted to popularize consoles, and a first-party title’s main purpose was to make the console popular,” Totoki said in the Q&A. “This is true, but there’s a synergy to it, so if you have strong first-party content — not only on our console but also other platforms, like computers — a first-party [game] can be grown with multi-platform, and that can help operating profit to improve, so that’s another one we want to proactively work on.”

Naughty Dog / Sony

That’s a clear shift from PlayStation Studios head Herman Hulst’s thoughts in 2022. He said then that PC gamers would have to wait “at least a year” before seeing first-party PlayStation games (minus live service titles) on their computers. God of War (2018) and the first Marvel’s Spider-Man had about a four-year gap between their PS4 and PC launches. The latter’s Miles Morales spin-off saw about a two-year turnaround.

On February 8, Sony launched Helldivers 2 on PS5 and Windows simultaneously. VGC notes the game led to PlayStation Studios’ highest concurrent Steam player count — beating God of War (2018), The Last of Us Part I and Horizon Zero Dawn. Helldivers 2 was developed by Arrowhead Games with Sony Interactive Entertainment publishing.

It isn’t clear if Totoki meant we can expect future PlayStation tentpoles like the upcoming Wolverine game or the ever-popular Spider-Man, God of War or various Naughty Dog franchises to appear on PC on the same day as console. But a strategy shift is underway regardless, and Totoki will have the leverage to put the plan into action: He takes over for Jim Ryan as interim CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment in April.

Sony said Wednesday it won’t launch any new blockbuster first-party PlayStation exclusives until at least early 2025. “While major projects are currently under development, we do not plan to release any new major existing franchise titles next fiscal year like God of War Ragnarök and Marvelʼs Spider-Man,” Sony President Hiroki Totoki wrote (via Polygon) in the company’s Q3 2023 financial results. Sony’s 2024 fiscal year begins on April 1 and ends on March 31, 2025.

The PlayStation division will instead focus on third-party software sales, which Totoki expects to grow gradually. Square Enix’s upcoming Final Fantasy VII Rebirth launches as a PS5 exclusive on February 29. Konami’s Silent Hill 2 remake, a console exclusive on the PS5 that will also launch on PC, is scheduled to arrive later this year. Other upcoming third-party tentpoles include Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin.

Meanwhile, the platform’s first-party exclusive Wolverine game may not arrive until 2026 if leaked documents from a hack are any indication.

“We expect third-party software sales to continue to expand gradually due to the expansion of the PS5 installed base and the high level of user engagement,” Totoki wrote. Totoki will replace Jim Ryan as Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO in April.

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As for why PlayStation ended up with such a long gap between first-party flagship games — Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 launched in October 2023, leaving a roughly 18-month gap or more — VGC reports that Totoki said in an earnings call (through a translator) that the company’s creative teams can can improve their development turnarounds.

“When it comes to the business, I think there is room for improvement,” Totoki said of its first-party studios after complimenting their creativity and vision. “And that’s to do with how to use money, the schedule of development, and how to fulfill one’s accountability towards development — those are my frank impressions. I will continue to engage in dialogue with the people so that we can find the right way to proceed.”

PS5 console sales, which reached 8.2 million units in Q3 2023, missed their target in the quarter. The company has adjusted its fiscal year projections of PS5 sales from 25 million units sold to 21 million. Sony expects a gradual decline to continue. “Regarding the PS5 hardware, which will enter its fifth year since launch, partially due to its entering the latter half of the console cycle, we aim to optimize sales with a greater emphasis on the balance with profits, so we anticipate a gradual decline in unit sales from next fiscal year onwards,” he wrote.

Sony has lowered its PlayStation 5 sales forecast for fiscal 2023 significantly and now expects to sell 21 million units, down from a previous forecast of 25 million. That's despite posting record quarterly revenue and selling 8.2 million PS5s over the holiday season. So far this fiscal year, Sony has sold 16.4 million consoles, bringing its total to 54.8 million overall. (The company sold 19.1 million PS5s in fiscal 2022.)

Sony announced in December that it had sold 50 million PS5 units over three years, as of December 9, 2023. That's just a week longer than it took the PS4 to achieve the same number, and the latter wasn't bogged down by supply chain issues and a worldwide pandemic. 

Revenue was up 16 percent over the same quarter last year, thanks in part to improved sales of non-first-party titles. However, operating income was down significantly (26 percent), due a drop in first-party sales and losses on hardware due to promotions. In other words, PS5 sales aren't meeting the company's expectations despite discounts. 

Sony has seen higher sales in all three quarters this year compared to last. That might not continue this year though, as it's forecasting sales of just 4.6 million for Q4 2023 (February to April), down from 6.3 million in Q4 2022. 

In terms of new first-part games, Sony noted that Marvel's Spider-Man 2 has sold 10 million units (as of February 4) since its release in October 2023.

Almost all other Sony divisions saw higher revenue, including its Imaging & Sensor Solutions division (Sony makes sensors for iPhones and many other devices), along with Pictures and Music. That resulted in a record 3.75 trillion yen for Q3 ($24.9 billion) compared to 3.08 trillion yen the year before ($20.5 billion). 

The internet has been buzzing the last couple of weeks with rumors that Microsoft will begin publishing Xbox first-party games on competing consoles. The company promised it would soon share more details about its “vision for the future of Xbox” and that looks to be coming on February 15. Phil Spencer will appear on the Official Xbox Podcast to share “updates on the Xbox business.”

The episode drops at 3PM ET and it’ll also feature Sarah Bond, President of Xbox, and Matt Booty, the head of Xbox Game Studios. Those are three big names, so this could be a real barnburner of a podcast episode.

We don’t know what the team has in store, but there have been all kinds of rumors flooding the web, from Hi-Fi Rush coming to the Nintendo Switch to Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle showing up on the PS5. It’s somewhat unusual for one of the big three to outsource first-party titles to competing platforms, but it’s not unheard of. Sony puts many of its biggest games on Steam and there are already some former Xbox exclusives on the Switch, like Ori and the Blind Forest and its sequel.

Many fans, however, have used these rumors to fuel wild speculations that Xbox is about to exit the console business entirely. This isn’t likely, even if the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles have underperformed when compared to the Switch and PS5. The company held an internal townhall last week and Spencer reportedly told employees that it has no plans to stop making consoles and that Xbox systems would continue to be a large part of its overall strategy, according to games reporter Shannon Liao.

Also, Game Pass is still a huge selling point for Xbox consoles, with a May 2023 survey indicating that 32 percent of gamers subscribe to the service. There were over 33 million subscribers back in 2022, and that number’s likely to have grown since then.

Microsoft isn’t exactly struggling, even when you factor in the games division. As a matter of fact, the company’s gaming revenue was up an impressive 49 percent for Q2 2024, due primarily to the Activision acquisition deal. A recent earnings report indicated company revenue of $62 billion (up 18 percent from last year) and profits of $21.9 billion.

Even with those numbers, however, Microsoft’s gaming division is still laying people off left and right. The company just slashed 1,900 jobs from its Xbox, Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax (aka Bethesda) teams. If it's looking for the constant growth that modern capitalism requires, dropping some of its more popular titles onto other consoles isn’t exactly the worst idea in the world. In any event, we’ll find out Thursday afternoon.

Microsoft's gaming division appears to be considering a significant shift in its strategy when it comes to major exclusives. Rumors have been swirling for a while that the company is bringing Hi-Fi Rush, a well-received game from last year, and Sea of Thieves to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5. But the company is said to be bringing some of its blockbuster Xbox exclusives to PS5 as well, which would mark a monumental change in policy.

Over the weekend, XboxEra reported that Microsoft will bring Bethesda's Starfield (its tentpole game for 2023) to PS5 later this year, sometime after the release of the Shattered Space expansion. The report suggests that Microsoft has acquired more PS5 dev kits to help port its games to Sony's console.

MachineGames' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle could be bound for PlayStation 5 as well. According to The Verge, the action-adventure game is slated to hit Sony's platform just a few months after it debuts on PC, Xbox and Game Pass later this year.

Amid the Federal Trade Commission's failed attempt to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, then-Bethesda vice president Pete Hines confirmed in court last year that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was initially going to be released on multiple consoles. However, after Microsoft purchased Bethesda parent ZeniMax Media, it changed the agreement to make the game an Xbox console exclusive. The FTC was also under the belief that fellow Bethesda titles Starfield and Redfall were at one point bound for PS5 before those versions of the games were canned.

There's really only one reason why Microsoft would even begin to consider bringing more of its exclusives to PlayStation: money. It may be the case that the Game Pass model can't really sustain multiple games with nine-figure budgets and Microsoft could feel as though it's leaving money on the table by not having certain titles on PS5, as XboxEra put it.

It's clear that Microsoft is looking to make its gaming division more profitable. It recently laid off around 1,900 workers in that unit, just a few months after closing the $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard takeover.

When Microsoft bought ZeniMax, Microsoft Gaming CEO Spencer said his team would decide platform availability on a case-by-case basis. However, he said that Starfield would only be available on Xbox, PC and Game Pass.

Some Xbox games are already available on PlayStation and Switch, such as Minecraft Dungeons. As part of its 10-year deal to release Call of Duty titles on Nintendo consoles, Microsoft suggested it would bring other Xbox games to Switch and/or its successor.

The change in strategy could call into question Xbox's place in the games industry. While console wars are by and large nonsense, some players may feel aggrieved that Starfield and the Indy game are seemingly bound for PS5, especially if they decided to make Xbox Series X/S their sole console. Certain gamers who might only be able to afford one of the flagship consoles and tend to trade in games may feel that they're missing out if they plumped for an Xbox but Microsoft's titles are hitting PS5 alongside the likes of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and God of War Ragnarok.

It might not be too long until we learn more details about Microsoft's shift in multi-platform strategy. Hi-Fi Rush is reportedly coming to Switch and PlayStation this quarter, while the company is said to be preparing a public announcement about the new lay of the land for later this month.

A live-action TV series based on Final Fantasy 14 is no longer happening. The project is now dead, according to Dinesh Shamdasani, the co-founder of Hivemind, one of the production companies involved.

"We took around a fantastic pilot script by Ben Lustig and Jake Thornton along with a multi-season plan they built with our show runners but got rejected across the board," Shamdasani wrote on X, as spotted by Eurogamer. "The size and scale needed to do it right proved too much for anyone to want to risk."

Amazon, which spent a billion dollars on a Lord of the Rings TV show that drew large viewership figures but barely made a dent in the cultural zeitgeist, seemingly came closest to spinning up the project. Evidently, it decided against getting on board.

COVID-19 also played against the show's chances, according to screenwriter Thornton. "We took it out just as studios began to zip up their purse strings," Thornton wrote on X.

The series was announced back in 2019 as a collaborative effort between Hivemind (which makes the Netflix series The Witcher) and Sony Pictures Television. Although Sony doesn't own the rights to Final Fantasy — that would be Square Enix — the Final Fantasy series is closely affiliated with PlayStation.

Sony has found success in adapting other PlayStation games for the big and small screen over the last few years, such as The Last of Us and Uncharted. But it seems turning a sprawling MMO into a TV show was just too tall of an order.

It probably doesn't help that the Final Fantasy 14 base game is notoriously a bit of a slog. So much so that players can pay to skip the first 80 levels and get to the good stuff. It feels like the equivalent of having to watch a season and a half of a TV show before it really gets going. Maybe Hivemind and Sony should try adapting a Final Fantasy game that's good right out of the gate, such as FF16.

If you weren't able to get the Microsoft Xbox Series S at a discount this past holiday season, you may want to check out Dell's website. The digital media-only console is currently on sale for $230, down $70 from its retail price of $300. While it can't play disc games, your $230 will get you 512GB in SSD storage and a wireless Xbox controller. The console supports variable refresh rates of up to 120 fps, and while it runs games at a max resolution of 1440p, you can use it to stream shows and movies in 4K. You only need to download the streaming apps you have access to, including Disney+, Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. 

While we called the Xbox Series S the least powerful console in its generation in our review, we found it to be capable of incredibly smooth gameplay. Even with boosted framerates, current and previous-gen games played like butter when we tested them out. Series S also starts up quickly, and a feature called Quick Resume lets you pick up from where you left off without having to suffer through loading screens that take forever to finish.

Storage could be an issue, seeing as this doesn't come with a disc drive, but you can expand it by getting the 1TB card Microsoft developed with Seagate. You can also mainly use it with the Game Pass subscription service that gives you access to a library with hundreds of titles. Bottom line is that the Xbox Series S is a great console if you're looking to go fully digital, and this is your chance to grab a unit without having to pay full price. 

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Nintendo has revealed exactly when most remaining online services for the 3DS and Wii U will come to an end. After 7AM ET on April 8, it will no longer be possible to jump into a multiplayer match on the original Splatoon or check out other players' levels in Super Mario Maker. Online co-op play, leaderboards and data distribution are among the features that won't be available on either console (unless you find an adequate homebrew solution). The Badge Arcade feature, which allows players to customize their Nintendo 3DS home menu, is going away too.

Nintendo previously said that online services on the systems would end in early April, but hadn't shared a specific date until now. It also warned that it may "have to discontinue services earlier than planned" — some players had difficulty accessing them late last year.

Single-player games and modes will continue to work on both platforms. Nintendo said there will be some exceptions to the end of online services and suggests that players of third-party games contact publishers to check whether they'll keep servers running. The company also notes that Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter features will remain available for now, and you'll still be able to download updates and games you've previously purchased on either system for the foreseeable future. Nintendo shut down the eShop on both 3DS and Wii U last March.

One other feature that will remain is StreetPass on 3DS, since that connects to other 3DS units over local communication. SpotPass will be discontinued, however, as that requires an internet connection.

Meanwhile, the company says that 3DS and Wii U owners have until 1AM ET on March 12 to merge their Nintendo Network ID and Nintendo Account. If they do, they can spend any unused balance on either system's eShop on Nintendo Switch games, DLC and other digital content.