At Gamescom, Xbox Chief Executive Officer Phil Spencer explained why Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be coming to PlayStation 5 next spring despite being a first-party Xbox game. Spencer notes that it’s part of the reality of a changing industry and a need for growth within Microsoft.
Earlier this year, Xbox shocked players when it announced that four of its exclusive games would be going to PS5 and Nintendo Switch. At the time, Spencer explained on the Xbox Official Podcast that the move was part of a shifting strategy to bring its games to more players. Spencer specifically denied that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was one of the four games going multiplatform on the podcast. That was technically true, as it wasn’t part of the initial slate of multiplatform releases.
Xbox chief Phil Spencer responds to a Q about how Indiana Jones on PS5 connects back to how / when this happens to other Xbox titles:
"We have to anticipate there’s going to be more change in some of the traditional ways that games are built and distributed. That’s going to… pic.twitter.com/Kd9xF9I8VM
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) August 21, 2024
During an Xbox live stream at Gamescom, Spencer explained why Indiana Jones is now coming to PS5. After noting that the initial wave of multiplatform games, including Pentiment and Hi-Fi Rush, was meant as a learning process, Spencer noted that the move is a business reality in terms of delivering results to Microsoft.
“We run a business,” Spencer explained. “It’s definitely true inside of Microsoft that the bar is high for us in terms of the delivery that we have to give back to the company, because we get a level of support from the company that’s amazing in terms of what we’re able to go do. I look at this as, how can we make our games as strong as possible? As platform continues to grow on console, PC, and on cloud? And I think it’s going to be a strategy that works for us.”
The comment alludes to a need for growth within the gaming industry, which has struggled with that in 2024. The year has been filled with layoffs across studios big and small. Xbox alone has laid off thousands of employees and shuttered studios, including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks. Spencer noted the challenges of growth and cited it as a reason for why sees a change coming to how games are distributed.
“There’s a lot of pressure on the industry,” Spencer said. “It’s been growing for a long time and now people are looking for ways to grow. Us as fans, as players of games, we just have to anticipate there’s going to be more change in … some of the traditional ways that games were built and distributed, that’s going to change. That’s going to change for all of us. But the end result has to be better games that more people can play. If we’re not focused on that, I think we’re focused on the wrong things.”
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will launch on PS5 next spring. It launches on Xbox Series X/S and PC on December 9.
