The head of Microsoft's Xbox division, Phil Spencer, used a recent marketing interview to call out PlayStation for its slow PC game release strategy, with PlayStation-exclusive PC ports taking years to reach Steam and Epic Games Store. Spencer used the attack as an opportunity to remind PC customers that there's no delay on cross-platform titles from Xbox Game Studios, which are regularly included in Xbox Game Pass for consoles and PC at launch.
The genesis of the fight was a recent statement by PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst, who confirmed that Sony intends to continue dragging its PC ports despite the success of Horizon Zero Dawn, Death Stranding, and Days Gone on PC. Even prior to Hulst's comments, the wait for ports has frustrated PC players who can't justify purchasing a PS4 or PS5 but still want to play select PlayStation games, a critically acclaimed library that also includes Bloodborne, God of War, and The Last of Us. Exclusives have been helpful to Sony as a way of persuading gamers to spend several hundred dollars on a console.
"Others bring console games to PC years later, not only making people buy their hardware up front, but then charging them a second time to play on PC," said Spencer during an Xbox interview with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, making sure to mention, "And of course, all of our games are in our subscription service day one, full cross-platform included." Not all Xbox Game Studios titles have PC versions, but Microsoft has a vested interest in offering as many ports as possible, since the continued success of the PC gaming market means more sales of Windows and services like Xbox Game Pass and Microsoft 365, as well as hardware and accessories.
In 2021, there are relatively few technical obstacles to bringing either Xbox or PlayStation games to PCs. Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S are based on PC-style architecture, and many - if not most - titles on those consoles rely on multi-platform engines like Unreal or Unity. It can still take months to produce a port - due to factors like graphics and interface changes - but they're usually ready less than a year. Many games ship on all three platforms simultaneously. As the most recent examples of this, June alone is seeing the cross-platform launches of Chivalry 2 and Scarlet Nexus.
Both Xbox Game Studios and PlayStation Studios now have a large number of subsidiaries, creating an outsized effect if they decide to make their games exclusive. The Xbox stable includes the likes of 343 Industries, Double Fine, Mojang, Ninja Theory, Obsidian, and Rare, to name a few. In March 2021, Xbox's acquisition of Bethesda was completed, which also came with its own collection of famous subsidiaries Arkane Studios, MachineGames, and id Software. Meanwhile, the PlayStation roster offers heavyweights such as Guerrilla Games, Insomniac Games, Media Molecule, Naughty Dog, Polyphony, and Sucker Punch Productions, so PC players are only seeing half of the picture at best when it comes to major first-party game releases from two of the biggest publishers.
Source: Xbox
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Reviewed by Riyad
on
June 10, 2021
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