Xbox is Far From Dead as Multiplatform Plans Offer Promising New Start

While its biggest exclusives launching on other platforms may spell the end of an era, the Xbox brand may see a successful new beginning.

Posted By | On 04th, Feb. 2025

Xbox is Far From Dead as Multiplatform Plans Offer Promising New Start

Believe it or not, the console war is over, which may surprise some to know that it’s still going. No, it isn’t because Microsoft has finally shut down and ceded victory to the mighty Sony or vice versa.

The house of PlayStation has swapped places with Nintendo a few times to have the highest-selling console of a particular month, sure. Xbox hardware sales continue to fall, a fact that Microsoft is not concealing. Yet none of these companies have ceased their efforts, be it in console manufacturing, first-party game development or exclusive benefits.

Forza Horizon 5

So what’s going on exactly? Well, Forza Horizon 5, Playground Games’ exceptional open-world racer, is finally coming to PS5 this Spring. Suddenly, rumors have emerged of various Microsoft titles making the jump, like the upcoming Fable, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Starfield, and even the long-rumored yet unannounced Gears of War Trilogy Collection. Several of these are also allegedly coming to the Nintendo Switch 2. Even something as simple as a job listing for The Initiative’s Perfect Dark stating “multi-platform” optimization could very well mean a release on non-Xbox consoles.

The proverbial floodgates are open. Chaos and pandemonium, etc. However, it actually appears to be the second stage of Microsoft’s plan – one that began a year ago with key releases. These were Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves. At the time, rumors circulated about all kinds of properties – Hellblade 2, Indiana Jonesand the Great Circle, etc. – but Microsoft announced that it would only be these titles. “Testing the waters” and whatnot.

Outside of Sea of Thieves, we don’t know how well the titles performed, but it was enough to confirm other titles as multi-platform releases like The Outer Worlds 2 and Indiana Jones. So why is Forza Horizon 5 so special?

Probably because it’s remained exclusive all this time, and now it’s finally launching for another platform. What was a big selling point of Game Pass – leading to the biggest first week for the service at one point – will now be on a rival platform. If there were rumors before of nothing being off the table, they’re pretty much a given now. The question isn’t how or why Microsoft’s exclusives will arrive on PS5 (and maybe the Switch 2) but when.

Halo Infinite - Firefight King of the Hill

Don’t get me wrong – it would be a big deal for the likes of Halo, Gears of War, and Forza on rival platforms. At one point, there was fierce competition between Microsoft and Sony to one-up each other – see the Halo Killers, the ad lambasting the Xbox One’s original digital games policy, etc.

The fact that we’ll likely never see the likes of Horizon, God of War, The Legend of Zelda, or even Mario on Microsoft’s consoles is also worth noting. For some, the fact that Microsoft finally caved is important. You might think it’s finally acknowledged the futility of Xbox hardware – that no matter how good its games are, no one wants to buy an Xbox Series X/S when they could get a PS5 or even a Switch.

And yet, that sentiment also goes against what the company is actually saying or doing. Hardware sales are down, but Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has already said the company will continue to make Xbox consoles in the future. It’s still pouring resources into Game Pass, a service exclusive to Xbox consoles and PC, but it’s also been branching out into other platforms for a while now.

Cloud gaming continues to perform well, and it’s even available on LG Smart TVs, which isn’t surprising since Amazon Fire TV devices and Samsung 2020 and preceding Smart TVs have been supported. Believe it or not, you can even play titles on the Meta Quest 2, 3, and Pro from December 2023.

All of this should make an Xbox even less essential than before, but that’s seemingly the point. As Spencer told Gamertag Radio, “In the position that I’m in, I look at hardware as a critical part of what we do, but we’re not trying to gate keep the games off of other places for the benefit of it. Let’s go build innovative hardware that people want to use to play, whether that’s in their hands or it’s on the television, or even other places.”

hi-fi rush

It’s seemingly working as a strategy – outside of Xbox Cloud Gaming, even PC Game Pass subscriptions have gone up by 30 percent in the second quarter of 2025. You could lay the success of the division on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, resulting in Microsoft becoming the biggest publisher of December, but Indiana Jones is no slouch, garnering over four million players. And even if you could point to Game Pass as the reason for both titles succeeding, that’s likely what the company wants.

Microsoft’s resulting position is thus very interesting. This isn’t like Sega back when it reeled from the disastrous performance of the Saturn and Dreamcast, going multi-platform simply because it had to survive. Instead, the Xbox brand is going beyond the original hardware (without the console necessarily being abandoned), while it accrues more revenue from competing platforms and sustains arguably the best game catalogue service currently available.

There’s plenty that could still go wrong, of course. Maybe Microsoft higher-ups will decide that the console business isn’t worth the losses and decide to axe it. Perhaps the all-in approach on Game Pass isn’t providing the requisite returns, but it’s too late to back out now. Even as it changes gears (literally and figuratively), there have still been layoffs across various departments.

However, the brand will likely continue perpetuating beyond into other spaces, perhaps even the handheld PC business (which Game Pass is performing well in). We’ve seen teases of the company potentially releasing its own handheld, thus catering to a market share unique from its console competitors.

xbox series x key art

For now, Xbox is still very much alive – it’s just transcending what a console should mean in today’s space. Sony continues to sell consoles without shipping as many triple-A first-party titles as last year showcased. Nintendo will still earn billions off the Switch 2 despite not competing with the PS5 or Xbox Series X in terms of graphical prowess (with reports indicating it’s closer to a PS4). Microsoft’s approach is still experimental, and things could shift on a dime like it did last year when it decided to go multi-platform.

The so-called glory days of the console wars are doubtless far behind. Whether it makes business sense in the long run or not for Microsoft, its approach is beneficial for gaming as a whole. However, there’s never been a wider amount of choice for games than now, regardless of which side you stand on.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.


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