How Microsoft Decides When Xbox Games Come To PlayStation

The newest big Xbox exclusive game, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, is officially available for everyone today, December 9–that is, if you own an Xbox or a PC or subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate. The adventure game doesn’t come to PlayStation 5 until Spring 2025. In a new interview, Xbox president of game content and studios Matt Booty elaborated on Microsoft’s decision-making process when it comes to bringing Xbox games to rival platforms.

“We are very much making the [exclusivity and windowing] decisions on a game-by-game basis,” Booty told Variety, echoing comments he and other Xbox executives have made before.

Booty went on to say that each of Microsoft’s numerous studios are in “a little bit of a different position,” but he didn’t elaborate about what this means as it relates to exclusivity. Beyond that, the decision on “spacing” when a game might come to a rival platform after Xbox needs to also factor in production timelines, Booty said.

“We want to make sure there’s a great experience for our Xbox players, and then the gap between [when it becomes available on PlayStation] is as much a production decision as it is anything else. This is a game that was in production before we acquired Bethesda, even,” Booty said.

Microsoft announced it would acquire ZeniMax, the parent company of Machine Games studio owner Bethesda, in 2020–the deal officially closed in 2021.

After Microsoft acquired ZeniMax, it acknowledged that making some of Bethesda’s games exclusive to Xbox, including Starfield and The Great Circle, would lead to millions of lost game sales. Microsoft said at the time that it would aim to make that up with Game Pass sign-ups and hardware sales.

In February 2024, Microsoft disclosed that Game Pass had reached 34 million members, but the company hasn’t revealed a new figure since. We do know that the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 led to a boost in subscribers, though. As for Xbox hardware sales, US video game industry research company Circana reported that Xbox Series X|S sales dropped 18% in October 2024 compared to October 2023 (PS5 and Switch sales in the US were down, too).

The Great Circle is coming to PS5 in Spring 2025, but Microsoft has yet to reveal a specific release date or any other details pertaining to the PlayStation edition of the game. For more, be sure to read GameSpot’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review and consult our guides hub to hit the ground running.

Some of Microsoft’s other games that have landed on PlayStation (and Switch in some cases) in the past year have included Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Pentiment, and Hi-Fi Rush. Microsoft’s Minecraft series, meanwhile, has been on PlayStation and Switch for years.