In a recent interview with the Sacred Symbols podcast (transcription by VGC), former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida revealed his thoughts about Microsoft bringing Xbox games to PlayStation. He calls it a victory for PlayStation players who now have more options for games than they previously had.
“I think it’s a win for PlayStation owners, they didn’t have access [to those games] before.”
Yoshida discussed how focused PlayStation was on ensuring it didn’t lose ground to Xbox. He referred to Sony’s console becoming the “minority platform” as his nightmare. This would be because the best developers from first-party PlayStation studios would likely leave to work on games with a larger player base.
“I explained in one interview that it was always my nightmare when I was a managing first-party, I’m lucky it didn’t happen, that if PlayStation became the minority platform, it would be impossible to maintain the first-party development because the best creators would leave,” explained Yoshida. “They are not just creatives. They are business people as well. They want their games to reach the biggest audience as well.”
“It’s very natural if a platform is the minority, and if I was able to release a game on the minority platform only, it’s unsustainable,” he continued. “That was the nightmare.”
“Looking at the install base of Xbox hardware, it’s kind of natural to understand what they are doing, and it’s pretty straightforward.”
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer also spoke about the move to bring its console-exclusive titles to PlayStation being a great move, since that meant more revenue that could in turn fund even more games. While some were focused on Xbox losing out on the 30 percent of the money from games sold due to platform fees, Spencer instead focused on the 70 percent made by having its games reach a wider audience.
“And I don’t want to then look at that and say, well, there’s no way that we should be able to build a business there, find fans of our franchises there,” said Spencer. “I’m not trying to move them all over to Xbox anymore. People were all so invested in where our games are.
“Let’s allow more people to play, and yes, the 70% that we make on games on other platforms is helpful to us being able to build great portfolios like we showed at the Dev Direct, and I hope this will continue to show through the rest of the year.”
Xbox has recently been proactive in releasing its first-party titles on more platforms than just PC and its own consoles. Sea of Thieves, for instance, was released on PS5 last year, and has been quite successful for Microsoft. The next major AAA Xbox title coming to the PS5 will be Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The game was released on Xbox Series X/S and PC in December to positive critical and commercial reception.
For more details about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, check out our review.
