@TrollOfWar or Xbox gamers could just get a PS.. 🤣
That's the thing, those on Xbox or Nintendo, maybe if they wanted, they already could have gotten a PS5, but they are happy with the systems which they already have.
Now, from Sony/PlayStation's business prespective: They have this big, expensive game studio, located in Santa Monica, California, which apart from a few remasters hasn't released anything new in the past 5 years and will not release anything for the next 1.5 years. So, with nothing new to sell to the current PlayStation and PC playerbase, the easiest approach would be to make their old games available on platforms, where they weren't before, if the studio needs to be profitable and generate revenue.
Maybe they can make some quick money by releasing some of their older games like Uncharted and The Last of Us on Switch 2 and Xbox. That would help to take some pressure off from the Sony management. 😉
Hopefully Starfield arrives soon on PlayStation, so more people can play it.
Also I hope they can improve the loadings and space exploration part. I understand that their game engine has its limits, but a game set in space needs to have satisfying travel and exploration mechanics.
Kepler Interactive published Expedition 33. Other games which they published are Tchia, Sifu, Pacific Drive, Scorn, Ultros. Some of those games are considered "indie". It's similar to Annapurna Interactive which usually also publishes "indie" games, where the developers might not have the means to self-publish.
The PS5 and PC title will launch with a price tag of $39.99 / €39.99 / £34.99, which the developer assures will entitle all players to "a roadmap of free updates as the year progresses".
What do you mean by that? Pretty much all 3rd party games sell better on PlayStation due to the larger install base
The context was about "Battlefield 6 compared to Call of Duty Black Ops 7". Battlefield 6 most likely sold better on Xbox than Call of Duty Black Ops 7.
But in general terms (which is what I was talking about), I think Sony are less interested in paying 3rd parties for exclusivity these days (after the self implosion of Xbox).
Well, Sony/PlayStation still need 3rd party exclusives to promote the PS5 console, no matter what Xbox does, as the output from their internal studios has been somewhat low in recent years. There are still many people buying a new PS5 based on the games which get promoted via the exclusivity deals.
I am starting to wonder whether in cases like this there is an actual 'deal' in place with Sony, or if it is self imposed to try to generate more sales.
I don't think it makes sense for the developers to self-impose an "exclusivity". What would they gain from that? Just saying it's "exclusives to PlayStation for 12 months" doesn't generate more sales. There are many examples like Forspoken, Final Fantasy 16, Babylon's Fall, Godfall, Lost Souls Aside where the PS5 exclusivity didn't result in a bigger success. Plus Sony wouldn't be needed to disclose that the game is exclusive for 12 months. The developers could have just said that they have no plans for other platforms.
They have a deal. Even marketing the game costs a lot of money which the developers are most likely happy to get funded by Sony/PlayStation.
Also, if the game becomes a big success, it would make sense to expand to other platforms like Xbox and Nintendo. A self-imposed exclusivity would unnecessarily limit them. If the developers decide to change plans and release on other consoles sooner, would Sony be able to sue them, even if the exclusivity is self-imposed? Could Sony be sued due to false advertising, as some might prefer to buy the game on a different console and were lead to believe that the game is exclusive to 12 months?
If the devs are having difficulties scaling it down to Series S, and particularly Switch 2, coupled with potential low sales on Xbox, its perfectly plausible that they are the ones imposing console exclusivity (and will work on Series S / S2 if even possible in the meantime) - in order to try and drive higher sales / coverage on PS5.
Based on Digital Foundry's hands-on preview from Gamescom 2025, Phantom Blade Zero (unlike Black Myth: Wukong) doesn't use Unreal Engine 5's Lumen and Nanite to save on resources and offer a smooth performance. The game could definitely run on an Xbox Series S if the developers wanted it. Wuchnag: Fallen Feathers is another similar UE5 game, which released on all platforms and runs fairly well Xbox Series S.
Or, maybe this is an 'old' deal with Sony - but it doesn't seem as likely that Sony would have 'inked' a recent deal for this game for just console exclusivity (maybe if said deal kept it off PC too, I could see a point).
Apparently, according to Wikipedia, the game has been in development since 2017, so Sony/PlayStation definitely had enough time to strike a deal with the developers.
Perhaps they wanted the exclusivity to have the Sony marketing behind it. People pay attention when Sony markets games.
Battlefield 6 destroying COD this year is a good example. I know casual gamers who got BF6 through marketing alone.
Maybe because Battlefield 6 is generally a better game than Call of Duty Black Ops 7. It also sold better on Xbox than COD, it's unrelated to any Sony marketing deals.
@get2sammyb That's the funny thing, people still think that Xbox is competing with PlayStation in the console business. But as Microsoft signed the deal on the Activision-Blizzard-King acquisition, that was the point where Microsoft executives put a lot more focus on Xbox and started shifting their gaming strategy. Those "just 4 games" was only the first step. That "spending PlayStation out of business" was just a mad email by Matt Booty from 2019, I don't think it was a general strategy pursued by the Xbox leadership, otherwise they wouldn't have honored the Sony contracts with Bethesda and allowed Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo to stay PlayStation exclusive.
Since Satya Nadella became CEO in 2014, Microsoft has emphasized working with companies and technologies with which Microsoft also competes, including Apple, Salesforce, IBM, Dropbox and Sony. They also closely embrace Linux.
Xbox being now a close business partner for PlayStation reflects Microsoft's broader strategy under Nadella.
Whatever is true, Activision and Microsoft should really rethink the franchise, as Black Ops 7 wasn't that good. It is a game designed by committee with no clear focus.
We're past the pandemic where people were spending more time gaming and with things getting more expensive, the players are spending less money in-game and they demand better quality for their money. So the question is, how can Activision reduce the production costs qnd improve the offering while still keeping the franchise "relevant"?
Personally I would suggest to split the multiplayer and single-player offering and release new campaigns every 2 years. Reduce the team sizes and allow them to be more autonomous. But even that suggestions has it's flaws as some people only buy the games when it's a full package (campaign, multiplayer, zombies mode, etc.). But it's not my job to solve Activision's problems. 😄
I still don't understand why they aren't including the multiplayer.... I know people will point at Infinite as the reason, but we all know this MP would pop off way more.
The problem is that just remastering Halo 1's multiplayer wouldn't hold up well to today's standards. According to reports Halo Studios is working on a new stand-alone multiplayer Halo game, which maybe isn't that far in development to have it release at the same time as the Halo 1 campaign.
I think Halo Infinite's multiplayer should have released on PlayStation long ago, but I guess that is unlikely now that the studio has winded down the development support on that game.
@GamingGod
Was Halo mp particularly decent or something?. Being on PS since the 90s I can’t say I ever tried it
Halo's multiplayer kind of modernized and established competitive multiplayer on consoles long before Call of Duty was a thing. People used to have local network parties with multiple consoles because the Halo games were so much fun. "Blood Gulch" was a standout map as it was large enough to allowed both vehicular and on-foot combat. Battlefield 1942 was another game of such a scale, but it released a year later and was PC exclusive.
Halo 2 was one of the first online competitive shooters on Xbox and it introduced an engaging multiplayer leveling progression which is still found in multiplayer games nowadays.
The Halo games were similar milestone for console FPS games like GoldenEye 007 on N64 was.
I finished (and uninstalled) Black Ops 7 a few days ago. Functionally it's not bad, but there are so many stupid and conflicting game design decisions. No wonder it sold poorly where you have better alternatives like Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders.
The campaign's plot is just a long drig trip, with many references to previous Black Ops games. The campaign gameplay is supposed to be an online coop experience, but it jumps around between linear levels, the open world map and awkward boss fights. The thing is, the number of enemies scales based on the number of players, so the game is actually easier if you're playing alone. I also hate this RPG trend where enemies and your weapons have a level and enemies are bullet sponges. I don't know, maybe something similar to Ghost Recon Wildlands would have been more fitting for the campaign.
The multiplayer is typical Call of Duty with twitch reactions and sweaty players. It's good mindless fun, works well enough. But I was surprised to already encounter a cheater in my second match giving perfect headshots from behind walls. Luckily other matches weren't so bad. But I guess I would rather play something else like Halo Infinite or Titanfall 2 instead.
I played a round of zombies. It's fine if you have friends to play it with.
All in all Black Ops 7 feels like an unfocused mess. It tries to do too many things at the same time. It also has such a confusing, messy navigation menu, as if it's stiched together from different games. It feels like the game is desperately fighting to stop you having fun.
10 years ago it would have been hard to believe that one day Halo will be part of PlayStation's official marketing. Interesting how the industry has changed in the past few years.
i can't see this "game" ever getting released. microsoft doesn't care about prestige projects in the way sony used to... and you know there will not be any marketing behind it. this is destined to fail so why even back it up if you are microsoft? it's a tough sell even on a sony platform, but on xbox it's DOA. if i was kojima, i would cancel it and put all hands on physint.
If I remember correctly, OD was teased by Kojima as a game which only works with the cloud. If the game does something special with Microsoft's Azure cloud infrastructure, it will help showcase those capabilities. Microsoft is very successful in the cloud business, so having something promote it in gaming might benefit Microsoft.
Also Hideo Kojima seems somewhat more excited talking about OD than Physint, as OD is again an attempt by him to create something totally new, while Physint will probably be more of a familiar stealth game.
Perhaps Sony pushing for it to come to PS5 was enough to twist the company's collective arm, or maybe it was just coincidence that the strategy was already forming to go multiplatform with many titles.
According to the interview it sounds like Sony went port-begging to Microsoft. 😉
/I'm joking - but the writing in this article is really questionable.
It's nice to see that the team at Microsoft takes the PlayStation release seriously and put months of effort into optimizing the port for PS5.
There is actually another interesting part in tbe interview. The Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator basically confirmed a long-term support which also bodes well with future releases of other Microsoft games:
Where we are on PlayStation right now, there is only a single device that's not a DualSense. The good news is, I get called by the hardware makers, and they ask if this is a long-term commitment. For them, it's super important that we don't make just a one-off product and then leave.
Curious to see to which extent it will be Remade. The original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is one of the most memorable RPGs on Xbox and you can see how it's an early prototype to BioWare'a Mass Effect. But I'm not sure if certain gameplay elements like the combat would be good enough for today's standards.
@naruball There are plenty of games exclusive to PlayStation which didn't sell well (Gravity Rush, Puppeteer, Dreams, The Last Guardian, Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time, God Hand, Foamstars, Forspoken). It's not something only seen on Xbox.
If a game is good and popular, it will also do well on Xbox. Though I can see why you want to invalidate any successes on Xbox.
I get that, but that's not what I mean exactly. What I wanted to say is that 1. I don't think it's going to sell many copies on xbx at all. 2. They could have focused entirely on ps5 hardware and made it an even better experience for ps5 gamers. 3. Advertising it as an exclusive could attract greater attention. etc.
If it's a good game it will sell just as well on Xbox as on PS5. Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3, Helldivers 2, Battlefield 6 sold well on Xbox.
If this is an Unreal Engine 5 game then a port to Xbox is fairly straightforward. Any optimizations on Xbox would also benefit PS5 (just like Xbox Series S related performance optimizations on Baldur's Gate 3 also improved the performance on PS5).
The opposite can also happen. "Another PlayStation published game releasing on Xbox" nowadays draws more attention than "This game skips the Xbox again, it's PS5 exclusive". Helldivers 2 sold exceptionally well thanks to being released on multiple platforms.
@Flaming_Kaiser That's a fair point regarding the exceptional quality of flagship Sony first-party titles, but that quality has virtually nothing to do with the game being locked to a single platform. It has everything to do with time, budget, and corporate structure.
The reason PlayStation first-party games like Demon's Souls and Ghost of Tsushima achieve such high polish isn't due to the PS5 hardware magic; it’s due to the privileged position and resources those studios receive:
Massive, Guaranteed Budgets: These studios receive huge, consistent funding directly from Sony, removing the financial uncertainty that plagues many third-party studios. This means they can afford to spend years on polish.
Time to Market: They are rarely forced to meet arbitrary release windows driven by marketing departments. They are allowed to "cook" until they are genuinely finished, a luxury most third-party studios don't have.
Best-in-Class Management: Studios like Insomniac, Sucker Punch, and Bluepoint have developed stable pipelines and excellent management, consistently delivering quality regardless of the platform architecture.
Concord as a first party multi-platform release was well polished for both PS5 and PC, but people didn't like the game. On the other hand several "PS5 exclusive" games like Forspoken, Final Fantasy 16, 7 Rebirth, Until Dawn Remake, Lost Soul Aside and even Helldivers 2 have a questionable quality and performance.
The core argument remains: If you give any studio (first-party or third-party) the same unlimited time and funding, they will deliver a polished product, whether it releases on PS5, PC, Xbox, or all three.
Dude it's a literal fact if you explained this to someone who knows nothing about gaming they would say it's anti-consumer because it benefits the company not the consumer!
How does a consumer benefit from an exclusive title??
It benefits the hardcore fans, who can use exclusive games to strengthen their brand identity and win online "console war" debates. They are also consumers. 😉
I just hope it's a winning strategy for them. Releasing it on Xbox makes very little sense to me.
If PlayStation publishes the game on Xbox, they get a large share from every sold unit. If they don't publish the game, then the developers would find someone else after the exclusivity period ends and PlayStation would earn nothing.
@SMJ on even footing I disagree. Exclusives encouraged users to buy multiple platforms, created more competition, and allowed developers to fully utilise the specifics of that target system. While it sucks for consumers who don't own the console I think it ultimately helped gaming innovation and also pricing - think of the PS2/Xbox era.
I agree that in the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era, consoles were defined by their highly customized, proprietary hardware. Developers had to master unique architectures (like the Emotion Engine or Cell Processor) to extract performance, and those technical constraints sometimes resulted in genuinely unique experiences.
However, that was 20 years ago and things are now different.
Since the PS4/Xbox One generation, console manufacturers have wisely transitioned to standardized x86 PC architecture and commodity components (primarily AMD). Functionally, modern consoles are now closed-off, purpose-built gaming PCs. While this standardization has improved cross-platform development, it has fundamentally removed the hardware innovation that defined earlier generations.
The consequence is that exclusives are no longer a technical necessity; they are purely a commercial lock-in mechanism.
If we eliminate the artificial barrier of software exclusives, the console market would be forced to evolve. It would incentivize true, aggressive competition not just between Sony and Microsoft, but by opening the door to hardware giants like Nvidia, Asus, Lenovo, Google, Apple and others.
This pressure would force manufacturers to compete on what actually matters in a standardized market: price, power efficiency, cooling innovation, and genuine consumer choice. Removing exclusives is the single most effective way to foster the hardware innovation we haven't seen in over a decade.
To an extent, the criticism I often levy at Microsoft for training their audience not to buy is exactly what happens to me when I subscribe to PS Plus.
It's because the player base on PlayStation and Xbox are fairly identical in interests and behavior. If PlayStation had GamePass or day-1 first party games on PS Plus, you would hear the same argument that people have been trained not to buy games on PlayStation.
@JoeNobody That's a standard practice here. Every articles only focuses on PS5 (or PS4) ignoring other platforms. Except when it's a topic which might spark a debate, like for example how many units Final Fantasy 16 sold on Xbox, or Steam and Xbox games releasing on PS5. In this case that practice unfortunately makes it sound as if the game's failure is exclusive to PS5.
I guess the editors want to encourage readers to also visit other sites if they want to know on which platforms a game is available.
I don't see a "remake" of Metal Gear Solid 4 making any sense at this point. The remake of MGS3: Delta works, because, similar to Silent Hill 2, it has a standalone story, where you don't need to have played previous parts to know the characters and understand key plot points. But MGS4 references all previous games including Metal Gear 1 & 2. Konami would have to at least remake MGS 1 & 2 first.
So in my opinion, it would be enough if it's "remastered" on the 2nd MGS Collection.
I think it's just people on the Internet have got really negative and you hear those opinions louder than positive ones.
Gaming news media is part of the problem why people are so negative on the internet. The published articles sometimes intentionally focus on negative aspects and aim to polarize the readers and increase user engagement & advertisement revenue.
Take this article's title for example: "Talking Point: Does PS5 Have a Sequel Problem?" - So now we have a "problem" that we need to talk about. This is an intervention.
Here are some friendlier alternatives:
"Does the PS5 Lean Too Much on Sequels?"
"Are PS5 Games Getting Too Familiar?"
"Does the PS5 Need More Fresh Ideas?" (I like this one, as it's solution-oriented, rather than focusing on the issue)
Or an example from 2 weeks ago "The Next Horizon Game Is an MMO for Mobile and PC, Prompting Fury from PS5 Fans". In that case the article only quoted some person from Twitter/X asking for a PS5 version. There was no "fury from the PS5 fans".
I understand that running a website isn't easy. But calling out people who are negative online, while at the same time you invite that negativity, is somewhat sanctimonious.
Like others said, the "problem" are not the sequels. There are several successful game series with sequels.
The "problem" are the long development times and large budgets these sequels require. During the PS1 - PS3 generation, we would get 2 - 3 games per series (Crash Bandicoot, Final Fantasy, Spyro the Dragon, Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted, Resistance, Motorstorm, Killzone, God of War, Tomb Raider, Dead Space, Mass Effect, Need for Speed, Tony Hawks) per generation. Now we get 1 game if we're lucky.
But this issue is not exclusive to PlayStation. All big publishers are affected by this.
I genuinely don't think think that Sony want to be making PlayStation consoles after the PS6. Therefore they will need some kind of PC presence to ensure they can transition to a hardware agnostic future.
Weirdly, I think Sony could continue with a closed ecosystem console, in a similar fashion as Apple, if they manage somehow to deliver trendy, "must-have" consoles with modern smooth experiences, like iPhones, that fans of the brand would want to have.
That doesn't necessarily mean that the games need to be exclusive (just like you can get Apple TV & Apple Music on other devices, like Windows and Android), but you would get the smoothes experience on a PlayStation. And I have the impression PlayStation is already in that "trendy brand" category in gaming now.
@Oram77 We can only speculate until further details are revealed, but what you describe sounds like an expensive project restart. Which would be ironic, as Sony bought Bungie to tell them how to make live-service games, not the other way around.
While I never got invested in the Destiny games, only played them on short occasions, I still hope it works out in the end for Bungie and Sony, as Bungie still has many talented people and Destiny has a big fanbase.
Hopefully Destiny 3 is a reset for the story of the franchise, with a better approach to story telling, which allows an easier entry for new joiners.
I have the impression, Bungie would have needed Destiny 3 much sooner (like actually right now). While Marathon ain't terrible, from what I saw it feels like a time filler, as it's much smaller in scope (similar to how Respawn released a small game called Apex Legends during the battle royale hype). I wonder what happened that Destiny 3 is an early development stage.
@Vermines To me that sounds more like a disgruntled PlayStation owner who only sees the value of a console in it's "exclusives", without seeing any other aspects, like ease of use, performance, price/value, compatibility, ecosystem and services.
@UltimateOtaku91 @Vermines @Jey887
PlayStation has been publishing many games on PC for more than 5 years now, and as PushSquare also reports on PlayStation's 3rd party publishing efforts (often earlier than other websites), this will also attract PC players. PlayStation is now much broader than just the console, their ecosystem reaches players also on PC. This is similar to the discussion "if Xbox articles should be covered on PushSquare?". Yes, as Xbox is a 3rd party publisher, PlayStation players are able to play those games.
And there is nothing wrong in PC players being excited about a game releasing on Steam which they wish to play.
@TrollOfWar They'll probably just publish it themselves like Helldivers 2 if it's in the contract with Kojima.
For publishing Death Stranding Director's Cut on Xbox, Kojima Productions partnered with 505 Games, as apparently PlayStation didn't seem interested in publishing the game. That's why I was wondering if PlayStation has changed their mind now, especially after the success of Helldivers 2 on Xbox.
I'm not sure how much of an audience there's going to be on Xbox by the time that happens though.
I understand it's kind of standard here to put anything Xbox related into a negative light, but games still sell well on Xbox, despite the brand's current image problems.
Death Stranding Director's Cut sold around 60% of what Helldivers 2 sold on Xbox, so approximately 800K, despite releasing 5 years after the PS4 launch.
So even if you doubt it, there is a big enough audience on Xbox willing to buy and play these games, including Death Stranding 2.
Personally, I've had distaste towards Xbox ever since most of my mates defected after the PS2 and got a 360 instead of PS3 (leaving me on my jack jones for the first few slow years).
Sorry for your loss, must have been a tough time for you. Your hatred towards Xbox is justified for taking away your friends, I hope you feel better now.
Comments 465
Re: Naughty Dog Forces Crunch to Get PS5 Exclusive Intergalactic 'Back on Track' for Mid 2027 Release
@GamingGod
That's the thing, those on Xbox or Nintendo, maybe if they wanted, they already could have gotten a PS5, but they are happy with the systems which they already have.
Now, from Sony/PlayStation's business prespective: They have this big, expensive game studio, located in Santa Monica, California, which apart from a few remasters hasn't released anything new in the past 5 years and will not release anything for the next 1.5 years. So, with nothing new to sell to the current PlayStation and PC playerbase, the easiest approach would be to make their old games available on platforms, where they weren't before, if the studio needs to be profitable and generate revenue.
Re: Naughty Dog Forces Crunch to Get PS5 Exclusive Intergalactic 'Back on Track' for Mid 2027 Release
Maybe they can make some quick money by releasing some of their older games like Uncharted and The Last of Us on Switch 2 and Xbox. That would help to take some pressure off from the Sony management. 😉
Re: Starfield PS5 Announcement Imminent as Bethesda Shows Big Changes Behind-the-Scenes
Hopefully Starfield arrives soon on PlayStation, so more people can play it.
Also I hope they can improve the loadings and space exploration part. I understand that their game engine has its limits, but a game set in space needs to have satisfying travel and exploration mechanics.
Re: Talking Point: With Expedition 33 Winning Best Indie Game, What Does 'Indie' Mean to You?
@UltimateOtaku91
Expedition 33 apparently had a development budget of around $10 million, which is a fraction of what modern AAA games cost.
The core team at Sandfall was around 30 people, plus 8 Korean gameplay animators, dozens of people on localisation, QA, and voice production work, and then there are the 30-plus musicians that worked on the soundtrack. So probably around 100 people which is less than the 600 - 2000 people projects you find at PlayStation, Ubisoft, Microsoft, EA.
Kepler Interactive published Expedition 33. Other games which they published are Tchia, Sifu, Pacific Drive, Scorn, Ultros. Some of those games are considered "indie". It's similar to Annapurna Interactive which usually also publishes "indie" games, where the developers might not have the means to self-publish.
Re: Bungie's Marathon Locks In March 2026 Release Date on PS5, Priced at $40
@T-Bone09 Okay, I guess the article is inaccurate then.
Re: Bungie's Marathon Locks In March 2026 Release Date on PS5, Priced at $40
@T-Bone09 I'm wondering why Xbox is left out in the article, while PC is mentioned?
Re: Bungie's Marathon Locks In March 2026 Release Date on PS5, Priced at $40
Wait, did they cancel the Xbox release?
Re: PS5 Will Be the Only Console You Can Play Phantom Blade Zero for at Least 12 Months
@LogicStrikesAgain
It was already clear, that Phantom Blade Zero will be console exclusive to PS5, but this confirms for how long that will be the case: 12 months.
Re: PS5 Will Be the Only Console You Can Play Phantom Blade Zero for at Least 12 Months
@BarantisFiramuur
The context was about "Battlefield 6 compared to Call of Duty Black Ops 7". Battlefield 6 most likely sold better on Xbox than Call of Duty Black Ops 7.
Yes, games tend to sell better on PlayStation due to the larger install base. Curiously, based on the sales numbers from the first 5 days the PS5 and Xbox sales numbers were fairly close (PS5: 1.5 millio, Xbox: 1.2 million).
Re: PS5 Will Be the Only Console You Can Play Phantom Blade Zero for at Least 12 Months
@Rich33
Well, Sony/PlayStation still need 3rd party exclusives to promote the PS5 console, no matter what Xbox does, as the output from their internal studios has been somewhat low in recent years. There are still many people buying a new PS5 based on the games which get promoted via the exclusivity deals.
Re: PS5 Will Be the Only Console You Can Play Phantom Blade Zero for at Least 12 Months
@Rich33
I don't think it makes sense for the developers to self-impose an "exclusivity". What would they gain from that? Just saying it's "exclusives to PlayStation for 12 months" doesn't generate more sales. There are many examples like Forspoken, Final Fantasy 16, Babylon's Fall, Godfall, Lost Souls Aside where the PS5 exclusivity didn't result in a bigger success. Plus Sony wouldn't be needed to disclose that the game is exclusive for 12 months. The developers could have just said that they have no plans for other platforms.
They have a deal. Even marketing the game costs a lot of money which the developers are most likely happy to get funded by Sony/PlayStation.
Also, if the game becomes a big success, it would make sense to expand to other platforms like Xbox and Nintendo. A self-imposed exclusivity would unnecessarily limit them. If the developers decide to change plans and release on other consoles sooner, would Sony be able to sue them, even if the exclusivity is self-imposed? Could Sony be sued due to false advertising, as some might prefer to buy the game on a different console and were lead to believe that the game is exclusive to 12 months?
Based on Digital Foundry's hands-on preview from Gamescom 2025, Phantom Blade Zero (unlike Black Myth: Wukong) doesn't use Unreal Engine 5's Lumen and Nanite to save on resources and offer a smooth performance. The game could definitely run on an Xbox Series S if the developers wanted it. Wuchnag: Fallen Feathers is another similar UE5 game, which released on all platforms and runs fairly well Xbox Series S.
Apparently, according to Wikipedia, the game has been in development since 2017, so Sony/PlayStation definitely had enough time to strike a deal with the developers.
Re: PS5 Will Be the Only Console You Can Play Phantom Blade Zero for at Least 12 Months
@Netret0120
Maybe because Battlefield 6 is generally a better game than Call of Duty Black Ops 7. It also sold better on Xbox than COD, it's unrelated to any Sony marketing deals.
Re: PS5 Will Be the Only Console You Can Play Phantom Blade Zero for at Least 12 Months
No wonder Xbox is moving away from consoles towards PC. PC is getting all the big "console exclusives" (minus Nintendo games of course). 😄
Re: 'These Claims Are Not Accurate': Activision Denies Complete Call of Duty Rethink After Sluggish Black Ops 7 Sales
@get2sammyb That's the funny thing, people still think that Xbox is competing with PlayStation in the console business. But as Microsoft signed the deal on the Activision-Blizzard-King acquisition, that was the point where Microsoft executives put a lot more focus on Xbox and started shifting their gaming strategy. Those "just 4 games" was only the first step. That "spending PlayStation out of business" was just a mad email by Matt Booty from 2019, I don't think it was a general strategy pursued by the Xbox leadership, otherwise they wouldn't have honored the Sony contracts with Bethesda and allowed Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo to stay PlayStation exclusive.
Since Satya Nadella became CEO in 2014, Microsoft has emphasized working with companies and technologies with which Microsoft also competes, including Apple, Salesforce, IBM, Dropbox and Sony. They also closely embrace Linux.
Xbox being now a close business partner for PlayStation reflects Microsoft's broader strategy under Nadella.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 611
Prehistorik Man on Evercade and maybe NORCO.
Re: 'These Claims Are Not Accurate': Activision Denies Complete Call of Duty Rethink After Sluggish Black Ops 7 Sales
Whatever is true, Activision and Microsoft should really rethink the franchise, as Black Ops 7 wasn't that good. It is a game designed by committee with no clear focus.
We're past the pandemic where people were spending more time gaming and with things getting more expensive, the players are spending less money in-game and they demand better quality for their money. So the question is, how can Activision reduce the production costs qnd improve the offering while still keeping the franchise "relevant"?
Personally I would suggest to split the multiplayer and single-player offering and release new campaigns every 2 years. Reduce the team sizes and allow them to be more autonomous. But even that suggestions has it's flaws as some people only buy the games when it's a full package (campaign, multiplayer, zombies mode, etc.). But it's not my job to solve Activision's problems. 😄
Re: Sony Hypes Halo PS5 in Its Hot Games of 2026 Trailer
@Oram77
The problem is that just remastering Halo 1's multiplayer wouldn't hold up well to today's standards. According to reports Halo Studios is working on a new stand-alone multiplayer Halo game, which maybe isn't that far in development to have it release at the same time as the Halo 1 campaign.
I think Halo Infinite's multiplayer should have released on PlayStation long ago, but I guess that is unlikely now that the studio has winded down the development support on that game.
@GamingGod
Halo's multiplayer kind of modernized and established competitive multiplayer on consoles long before Call of Duty was a thing. People used to have local network parties with multiple consoles because the Halo games were so much fun. "Blood Gulch" was a standout map as it was large enough to allowed both vehicular and on-foot combat. Battlefield 1942 was another game of such a scale, but it released a year later and was PC exclusive.
Halo 2 was one of the first online competitive shooters on Xbox and it introduced an engaging multiplayer leveling progression which is still found in multiplayer games nowadays.
The Halo games were similar milestone for console FPS games like GoldenEye 007 on N64 was.
Re: 'The Franchise Has Not Met Your Expectations': Call of Duty Vows to Overdeliver After Black Ops 7 Misfire
I finished (and uninstalled) Black Ops 7 a few days ago. Functionally it's not bad, but there are so many stupid and conflicting game design decisions. No wonder it sold poorly where you have better alternatives like Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders.
The campaign's plot is just a long drig trip, with many references to previous Black Ops games. The campaign gameplay is supposed to be an online coop experience, but it jumps around between linear levels, the open world map and awkward boss fights. The thing is, the number of enemies scales based on the number of players, so the game is actually easier if you're playing alone. I also hate this RPG trend where enemies and your weapons have a level and enemies are bullet sponges. I don't know, maybe something similar to Ghost Recon Wildlands would have been more fitting for the campaign.
The multiplayer is typical Call of Duty with twitch reactions and sweaty players. It's good mindless fun, works well enough. But I was surprised to already encounter a cheater in my second match giving perfect headshots from behind walls. Luckily other matches weren't so bad. But I guess I would rather play something else like Halo Infinite or Titanfall 2 instead.
I played a round of zombies. It's fine if you have friends to play it with.
All in all Black Ops 7 feels like an unfocused mess. It tries to do too many things at the same time. It also has such a confusing, messy navigation menu, as if it's stiched together from different games. It feels like the game is desperately fighting to stop you having fun.
Re: PlayStation Confirmed for the Game Awards with a New Look at PS5 Exclusive Saros
Just read that Returnal sold less than 2 million units. Hopefully Saros finds a bigger playerbase.
Re: PlayStation Teases 2026 PS5 Games in New Trailer
10 years ago it would have been hard to believe that one day Halo will be part of PlayStation's official marketing. Interesting how the industry has changed in the past few years.
Re: Xbox Ruthlessly Cancelled Perfect Dark, But Take-Two Just Hired Its Directors
Xbox are so ruthless when they cancel projects. Concord at least was cancelled gracefully by having it release and then publicly humiliated. 👍
Re: Not Even Hideo Kojima Is Sure if Xbox Game OD Will Be Any Good
@Porco
If I remember correctly, OD was teased by Kojima as a game which only works with the cloud. If the game does something special with Microsoft's Azure cloud infrastructure, it will help showcase those capabilities. Microsoft is very successful in the cloud business, so having something promote it in gaming might benefit Microsoft.
Also Hideo Kojima seems somewhat more excited talking about OD than Physint, as OD is again an attempt by him to create something totally new, while Physint will probably be more of a familiar stealth game.
Re: We Could've Had Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on PS5 Much Sooner
According to the interview it sounds like Sony went port-begging to Microsoft. 😉
/I'm joking - but the writing in this article is really questionable.
Re: We Could've Had Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on PS5 Much Sooner
It's nice to see that the team at Microsoft takes the PlayStation release seriously and put months of effort into optimizing the port for PS5.
There is actually another interesting part in tbe interview. The Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator basically confirmed a long-term support which also bodes well with future releases of other Microsoft games:
Re: Not Even Hideo Kojima Is Sure if Xbox Game OD Will Be Any Good
OD will probably get an Oscar rather than a game award. 😄
Re: Rumour: Sony's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic PS5 Remake May Soon Return
Curious to see to which extent it will be Remade. The original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is one of the most memorable RPGs on Xbox and you can see how it's an early prototype to BioWare'a Mass Effect. But I'm not sure if certain gameplay elements like the combat would be good enough for today's standards.
Re: PS5 Dominates UK on Black Friday, Sells More Than 60% of All Consoles
Congrats to Sony PlayStation. They are the best. 👍
Re: Sony's All-In on Exciting PS5 Action RPG The God Slayer, Despite an Xbox Version Existing
@naruball There are plenty of games exclusive to PlayStation which didn't sell well (Gravity Rush, Puppeteer, Dreams, The Last Guardian, Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time, God Hand, Foamstars, Forspoken). It's not something only seen on Xbox.
If a game is good and popular, it will also do well on Xbox. Though I can see why you want to invalidate any successes on Xbox.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 610
Claymates on Evercade
Re: Sony's All-In on Exciting PS5 Action RPG The God Slayer, Despite an Xbox Version Existing
@naruball
Re: Sony's All-In on Exciting PS5 Action RPG The God Slayer, Despite an Xbox Version Existing
@Flaming_Kaiser That's a fair point regarding the exceptional quality of flagship Sony first-party titles, but that quality has virtually nothing to do with the game being locked to a single platform. It has everything to do with time, budget, and corporate structure.
The reason PlayStation first-party games like Demon's Souls and Ghost of Tsushima achieve such high polish isn't due to the PS5 hardware magic; it’s due to the privileged position and resources those studios receive:
Concord as a first party multi-platform release was well polished for both PS5 and PC, but people didn't like the game. On the other hand several "PS5 exclusive" games like Forspoken, Final Fantasy 16, 7 Rebirth, Until Dawn Remake, Lost Soul Aside and even Helldivers 2 have a questionable quality and performance.
The core argument remains: If you give any studio (first-party or third-party) the same unlimited time and funding, they will deliver a polished product, whether it releases on PS5, PC, Xbox, or all three.
Re: Sony's All-In on Exciting PS5 Action RPG The God Slayer, Despite an Xbox Version Existing
@Chip-Douglas
It benefits the hardcore fans, who can use exclusive games to strengthen their brand identity and win online "console war" debates. They are also consumers. 😉
Re: Sony's All-In on Exciting PS5 Action RPG The God Slayer, Despite an Xbox Version Existing
@naruball
If PlayStation publishes the game on Xbox, they get a large share from every sold unit. If they don't publish the game, then the developers would find someone else after the exclusivity period ends and PlayStation would earn nothing.
Re: Sony's All-In on Exciting PS5 Action RPG The God Slayer, Despite an Xbox Version Existing
@ItsAlwaysSunnyyy
I agree that in the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era, consoles were defined by their highly customized, proprietary hardware. Developers had to master unique architectures (like the Emotion Engine or Cell Processor) to extract performance, and those technical constraints sometimes resulted in genuinely unique experiences.
However, that was 20 years ago and things are now different.
Since the PS4/Xbox One generation, console manufacturers have wisely transitioned to standardized x86 PC architecture and commodity components (primarily AMD). Functionally, modern consoles are now closed-off, purpose-built gaming PCs. While this standardization has improved cross-platform development, it has fundamentally removed the hardware innovation that defined earlier generations.
The consequence is that exclusives are no longer a technical necessity; they are purely a commercial lock-in mechanism.
If we eliminate the artificial barrier of software exclusives, the console market would be forced to evolve. It would incentivize true, aggressive competition not just between Sony and Microsoft, but by opening the door to hardware giants like Nvidia, Asus, Lenovo, Google, Apple and others.
This pressure would force manufacturers to compete on what actually matters in a standardized market: price, power efficiency, cooling innovation, and genuine consumer choice. Removing exclusives is the single most effective way to foster the hardware innovation we haven't seen in over a decade.
Re: Black Ops 7 Dominates PS5 Downloads Despite Backlash
@EfYI
It's because the player base on PlayStation and Xbox are fairly identical in interests and behavior. If PlayStation had GamePass or day-1 first party games on PS Plus, you would hear the same argument that people have been trained not to buy games on PlayStation.
Re: PS5 Mega Flop MindsEye Gets a Free Starter Pack on PS Store
@JoeNobody That's a standard practice here. Every articles only focuses on PS5 (or PS4) ignoring other platforms. Except when it's a topic which might spark a debate, like for example how many units Final Fantasy 16 sold on Xbox, or Steam and Xbox games releasing on PS5. In this case that practice unfortunately makes it sound as if the game's failure is exclusive to PS5.
I guess the editors want to encourage readers to also visit other sites if they want to know on which platforms a game is available.
Re: Metal Gear Solid Delta Producer Is Hoping to Remake MGS4, Rescuing It from PS3 Jail
I don't see a "remake" of Metal Gear Solid 4 making any sense at this point. The remake of MGS3: Delta works, because, similar to Silent Hill 2, it has a standalone story, where you don't need to have played previous parts to know the characters and understand key plot points. But MGS4 references all previous games including Metal Gear 1 & 2. Konami would have to at least remake MGS 1 & 2 first.
So in my opinion, it would be enough if it's "remastered" on the 2nd MGS Collection.
Re: GTA 6 Gameplay 'Leaks' Are AI-Generated Nonsense, Creator Owns Up After Backlash
Now I fear that other publishers marketing teams will use AI generated "leaked videos" to "bring people together and spark discussion".
Re: Talking Point: Does PS5 Have a Sequel Problem?
@get2sammyb
Gaming news media is part of the problem why people are so negative on the internet. The published articles sometimes intentionally focus on negative aspects and aim to polarize the readers and increase user engagement & advertisement revenue.
Take this article's title for example: "Talking Point: Does PS5 Have a Sequel Problem?" - So now we have a "problem" that we need to talk about. This is an intervention.
Here are some friendlier alternatives:
Or an example from 2 weeks ago "The Next Horizon Game Is an MMO for Mobile and PC, Prompting Fury from PS5 Fans". In that case the article only quoted some person from Twitter/X asking for a PS5 version. There was no "fury from the PS5 fans".
I understand that running a website isn't easy. But calling out people who are negative online, while at the same time you invite that negativity, is somewhat sanctimonious.
Re: Talking Point: Does PS5 Have a Sequel Problem?
Like others said, the "problem" are not the sequels. There are several successful game series with sequels.
The "problem" are the long development times and large budgets these sequels require. During the PS1 - PS3 generation, we would get 2 - 3 games per series (Crash Bandicoot, Final Fantasy, Spyro the Dragon, Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted, Resistance, Motorstorm, Killzone, God of War, Tomb Raider, Dead Space, Mass Effect, Need for Speed, Tony Hawks) per generation. Now we get 1 game if we're lucky.
But this issue is not exclusive to PlayStation. All big publishers are affected by this.
Re: Sony Estimated to Have Made $1.5 Billion from Steam, But the Novelty Is Wearing Off
@SMJ
Weirdly, I think Sony could continue with a closed ecosystem console, in a similar fashion as Apple, if they manage somehow to deliver trendy, "must-have" consoles with modern smooth experiences, like iPhones, that fans of the brand would want to have.
That doesn't necessarily mean that the games need to be exclusive (just like you can get Apple TV & Apple Music on other devices, like Windows and Android), but you would get the smoothes experience on a PlayStation. And I have the impression PlayStation is already in that "trendy brand" category in gaming now.
Re: Destiny 3 Allegedly in 'Extremely Early Development', Could Be a Tentpole Title for PS6
@Oram77 We can only speculate until further details are revealed, but what you describe sounds like an expensive project restart. Which would be ironic, as Sony bought Bungie to tell them how to make live-service games, not the other way around.
While I never got invested in the Destiny games, only played them on short occasions, I still hope it works out in the end for Bungie and Sony, as Bungie still has many talented people and Destiny has a big fanbase.
Hopefully Destiny 3 is a reset for the story of the franchise, with a better approach to story telling, which allows an easier entry for new joiners.
Re: Destiny 3 Allegedly in 'Extremely Early Development', Could Be a Tentpole Title for PS6
I have the impression, Bungie would have needed Destiny 3 much sooner (like actually right now). While Marathon ain't terrible, from what I saw it feels like a time filler, as it's much smaller in scope (similar to how Respawn released a small game called Apex Legends during the battle royale hype). I wonder what happened that Destiny 3 is an early development stage.
Re: Sony Poised to Publish PS5 Hit Death Stranding 2 on PC
@Vermines To me that sounds more like a disgruntled PlayStation owner who only sees the value of a console in it's "exclusives", without seeing any other aspects, like ease of use, performance, price/value, compatibility, ecosystem and services.
Re: Sony Poised to Publish PS5 Hit Death Stranding 2 on PC
@Vermines In that case I apologize if I misunderstood your comment.
Re: Sony Poised to Publish PS5 Hit Death Stranding 2 on PC
@UltimateOtaku91 @Vermines @Jey887
PlayStation has been publishing many games on PC for more than 5 years now, and as PushSquare also reports on PlayStation's 3rd party publishing efforts (often earlier than other websites), this will also attract PC players. PlayStation is now much broader than just the console, their ecosystem reaches players also on PC. This is similar to the discussion "if Xbox articles should be covered on PushSquare?". Yes, as Xbox is a 3rd party publisher, PlayStation players are able to play those games.
And there is nothing wrong in PC players being excited about a game releasing on Steam which they wish to play.
Re: Sony Poised to Publish PS5 Hit Death Stranding 2 on PC
@get2sammyb
For publishing Death Stranding Director's Cut on Xbox, Kojima Productions partnered with 505 Games, as apparently PlayStation didn't seem interested in publishing the game. That's why I was wondering if PlayStation has changed their mind now, especially after the success of Helldivers 2 on Xbox.
I understand it's kind of standard here to put anything Xbox related into a negative light, but games still sell well on Xbox, despite the brand's current image problems.
On Xbox Helldivers 2 sold 1.4 million units, Battlefield 6 has sold 1.2 million in it's first week (compared to 1.5 million on PS5).
Death Stranding Director's Cut sold around 60% of what Helldivers 2 sold on Xbox, so approximately 800K, despite releasing 5 years after the PS4 launch.
So even if you doubt it, there is a big enough audience on Xbox willing to buy and play these games, including Death Stranding 2.
Re: Sony Poised to Publish PS5 Hit Death Stranding 2 on PC
I wonder if PlayStation or another 3rd party publisher will also publish Death Stranding 2 on Xbox.
Re: You Can Buy a Fully-Fledged PS5 for the Same Price as a Less Powerful Xbox Series S Right Now
@omadeli Excellent game 👍
Re: You Can Buy a Fully-Fledged PS5 for the Same Price as a Less Powerful Xbox Series S Right Now
@omadeli
Sorry for your loss, must have been a tough time for you. Your hatred towards Xbox is justified for taking away your friends, I hope you feel better now.