Xbox boss Phil Spencer has addressed the surprise revelation that first-party exclusive Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will release on PS5 in spring/Q2 2025 just a few months after its Xbox debut, stating Xbox is “a business”, and that “the bar is high in terms of the delivery we have to give back” to parent company Microsoft.
In an in-house interview with Xbox On, Spencer was not directly challenged about the decision to release Indiana Jones on PS5 so soon after its December Xbox debut, only insisted that, at that time, Xbox was “gonna learn” and “watch”, and “from our learning, we’re gonna do more”.
“Obviously, last spring we launched four games, two of them on the Switch, four of them on PlayStation, and we said we were gonna learn,” Spencer said.
Our Xbox console players are as high this year as they’ve ever been.
I look at it, and I say, okay: our player numbers are going up for the console platform.
“The last thing I’ll probably say is that I think there’s a lot of pressure on the industry.
But the end result has to be better games that more people can play.
So for us at Xbox – health of Xbox, health of our platform, and our growing games are the most important things.”
Few months after its Xbox debut, first-party exclusive Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was unexpectedly revealed to be coming to the PS5 in spring/Q2 2025. Xbox boss Phil Spencer responded by calling Xbox “a business” and saying that “the bar is high in terms of the delivery we have to give back” to parent company Microsoft.
Spencer said that Xbox was “going to learn” and “watch” at the time, and “from our learning, we’re gonna do more” when questioned about the decision to release Indiana Jones on PS5 so soon after its December Xbox debut in an internal interview with Xbox On.
While it is true that Indiana Jones was the fifth game mentioned and not one of the four, Spencer stated clearly at the time that neither Starfield nor Indiana Jones and the Great Circle were among the four games anticipated to arrive on the PS5. Nevertheless, some fans have taken issue with the way Spencer framed the matter.
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Spencer remarked, “Obviously, we launched four games last spring—two on the Switch and four on PlayStation—and we said we were going to learn.”. “We promised to observe. I believe I may have mentioned at Showcase that we would be doing more as a result of our learning.
“When I look, I see that our franchises are becoming more powerful. This year’s Xbox console users are at an all-time high. After taking a look at it, I decide that, yes, our player counts are increasing on the console platform. Our franchises are stronger than they have ever been. And we are business owners.
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Within Microsoft, he continued, “it’s true that we have high expectations for the delivery we provide to the company because we receive such incredible support from the organization.”.
As our platform continues to expand across console, PC, and cloud, I believe that this will be a successful approach for us. “So, I look at this and ask myself, how can we make our games as strong as possible?
“I’ll probably end by saying that I believe the industry is under a lot of strain. It has been expanding for a while, and now individuals are trying to find new ways to grow.
“I believe that as gamers and fans, we simply need to prepare for the fact that some of the conventional methods by which video games are created and shared will alter. For all of us, that will change. However, better games that are playable by more people must be the ultimate outcome. I believe we are concentrating on the wrong things if we are not concentrating on that. Therefore, the most important things to us at Xbox are the health of Xbox, the health of our platform, and the expansion of our game library. “.”.
