Spencer on Starfield, Indiana Jones Exclusivity: The Industry Shouldn’t Rule Out Games on Any Other Platform

Following today’s Official Xbox Podcast, Microsoft made its stance on first-party titles going multiplatform quite clear. While it will launch four titles on other platforms (rumored to be Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, Pentiment and Grounded), there’s no change to Xbox’s philosophy regarding exclusives. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer clarified that Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle aren’t among those titles.

However, never say never. The Verge asked Spencer if he could rule out those titles ever coming to PS5. He replied, “I don’t think we should as an industry ever rule out a game going to any other platform. We’re focused on these four games and learning from the experience.”

That doesn’t mean fans can expect all of Xbox’s first-party titles to arrive after these initial four. “I don’t want to create a false expectation on those other platforms that this is somehow the first four to get over the dam, and then the dam’s going to open and everything else is coming. That’s not the plan today. I also don’t want to mislead customers on those other platforms.

“We’re launching these four games, and we’re excited about it. We’re excited about the announcement and everything else, but we’ll see what happens for our business.” Of course, given that the four upcoming titles are over a year old, it’s also possible that Microsoft could bring Starfield and Indiana Jones to other platforms later if there’s enough demand.

One thing is definite: If you want to play any of Xbox’s first-party titles on day one with Game Pass, that’s only possible on PC and Xbox consoles for the foreseeable future. The subscription service has reached 34 million subscribers, and Diablo 4 will be the first Activision Blizzard title to arrive on it this March.