The head of Microsoft's gaming division has commented on the decision to bring the previously announced Xbox exclusive game “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle” to the PS5 – six months after stating that it would not be doing so.
On Tuesday, Xbox confirmed that MachineGames' Indiana Jones title will be coming to Sony's console platform early next year after its initial release on Xbox and PC in December this year.
Indiana Jones is the latest first-party Xbox game announced for PS5, following the announcement of four initial multiplatform games in February and Doom: The Dark Ages in June.
In an Xbox podcast in February, Microsoft's gaming chief Phil Spencer explicitly ruled out Indiana Jones coming to the PS5. Today, during the company's recent marketing stream at Gamescom, he was asked to comment on this week's announcement.
“When we made the PlayStation announcement last spring, we obviously released four games – two for Switch, four for PlayStation – and we said we would learn,” he said. “I think at the showcase I might have said we'll make more based on what we learn.
“When I look at this, I notice that our franchises are getting stronger. We have more Xbox players this year than ever before. When I look at this, I say to myself: our player base for the console platform is increasing, our franchises are stronger than ever… and we're running a business.”
He added: “It's definitely the case that the bar is set very high at Microsoft in terms of the performance we have to give back to the company, because we get a level of support from the company that is just amazing in terms of what we can do.
“So I’m looking at this: How can we make our games as strong as possible, [ensure that] Our platform continues to grow on console, PC and cloud and I think that's just a strategy that's working for us.”
Finally, Spencer mentioned the “pressures” the games industry is facing, with thousands of jobs lost in the last 18 months, including many at Microsoft. He claimed that traditional game distribution channels will continue to change.
Further reading
FIRST LOOK: Xbox's Indiana Jones game is part Hitman, part Uncharted, all MachineGames
“The last thing I want to say is that I think the industry is under a lot of pressure right now. It's been growing for a long time and now people are looking for ways to grow,” he said.
“I think we as fans and game players just have to expect that there will be further changes to the more traditional way games are developed and distributed – that will change for all of us.
“But the end result has to be better games that more people can play. If we don't focus on that, we're focusing on the wrong things.”