Now that PlayStation and Xbox have relinquished a few exclusives to rival platforms, it is clear the success isn't just a novelty factor.
The walls of console exclusivity have been chipped away at, cracked, and are all but demolished. Nintendo will forever be the last holdout, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one day it too eventually embraces releasing games on other platforms.
Based on how the Switch 2 is selling so far, though, I wouldn’t expect it anytime soon. But while Nintendo lives in its own walled garden, PlayStation and Xbox have been slowly de-escalating the console wars. Well, it has mostly been Xbox up to this point, and not out of goodwill. Xbox is typically credited with being the first to send former first party exclusives over to rival platforms, but that honor actually goes to PlayStation with MLB The Show 21 in 2021. Sure, Sony was strong-armed into this decision by MLB, but Xbox was almost certainly forced to do the same in 2024 by Microsoft. And these games are arguably more successful after going cross-platform than when they originally launched. At first, I was ready to chalk it up to the novelty factor of seeing an Xbox logo on PlayStation hardware and vice versa, but the truth is actually far more obvious. It isn’t novelty; it’s quality Because of the odd circumstances of MLB coming to Xbox, plus it instantly getting on Game Pass, that first example felt more like an exclusive was “stolen” from PlayStation rather than given. The fact that it was also on Game Pass makes it impossible to get proper numbers on how much it boosted sales or players. Recommended Videos Sea of Thieves was among the first Xbox games Microsoft shipped over to PlayStation. This initiative stirred up a lot of controversy at the time among some of the fanbase who would rather deny players on other systems access to games for arbitrary reasons, but that ship had already sailed, as it were. And it sure did find its treasure. According to Windows Central, Sea of Thieves sold over 1 million copies on PlayStation 5 alone between April and August of 2024. That’s six years after it originally came out on the Xbox One to not-so-great reviews. It would be an understatement to say that lightning struck twice when Forza Horizon 5 came to PS5 about a year later. Unlike Sea of Thieves, which eventually navigated a rocky launch into becoming a great live-service game, Forza Horizon 5 was universally loved the second it launched, earning itself a 92 on Metacritic. Despite PlayStation fans already having their own racing franchise with Gran Tourismo, Forza sold upward of 3 million copies by July. That made it the best selling game on PS5 at that point in time, beating out Monster Hunter Wilds, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and Elden Ring Nightreign. Which brings us to the unofficial “exclusive swap” between Xbox and PlayStation with Gears of War: Reloaded and Helldivers 2. Starting with the former, this and Halo were the two last notable Xbox IPs that had yet to cross the threshold, all but confirming there were no red lines for Xbox. This had a far softer launch on PlayStation, with an estimated 259 thousand copies sold in August compared to a little over 1 million Xbox players . Related: I played two more maps in Battlefield 6, and guess what? It’s still great…mostly On the other side of the coin, Helldivers 2 sold just under 1 million copies on Xbox in its first six days, eclipsing the sales it had during its first six days on PlayStation. All this data is important because I believe it paints a picture where these former exclusives are thriving after going cross-platform and will continue to do so. The only catch is that the games have to be good. If a game is good, it doesn’t matter if it came out half a decade ago or more — gamers will play it if they have the chance. Now, I do think this initial batch of games came with a few notable advantages that future games won’t benefit from when launching everywhere simultaneously. The most obvious is time. It’s a sad fact that a majority of AAA multiplayer games — especially live service games — aren’t launching in the best shape possible. Bugs, performance problems, and a dearth of content are par for the course these days and expected to be cleared up in the months or years post launch. At least we hope they are. Each of these titles was on the market for at least 18 months before making the jump . That’s a lot of time to not only clean up technical messes, but start adding some meaningful content to the game. Both Sea of Thieves and Helldivers 2 are perfect examples of this. The other major factor goes hand in hand with the first. That is, popular games get talked about a ton and make more people interested in playing them. It’s basic word of mouth, but it matters and that second launch is another marketing beat to put it back in the front of people’s minds. I expect the market to correct a bit from these astronomical numbers we’re seeing when it is more normalized to see multiplayer Xbox and PlayStation games launching on all platforms day and date, but I don’t anticipate a sharp decline. Those who did grab a competitor’s game just to “stick it to the other side” or did so just to participate in the tearing down of walls are few and far between. Most people just want to play good games. If they keep making ’em and putting them on all platforms so we can all play together, we’ll keep buying ’em.
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