Over the last year, Microsoft has shifted to releasing first-party games on rival consoles from Sony and Nintendo and intends to continue its multi-platform publishing strategy. The company is trying to de-emphasize its gaming hardware – the Xbox console – and instead focus on pushing its games to as many platforms as possible. Xbox CEO Phil Spencer said in November that more first-party games would be coming to PS5 and Nintendo Switch and that there were “no red lines” in the company’s portfolio. In a recent interview, the Microsoft executive further emphasized this statement and suggested that Starfield may break the exclusivity of Xbox consoles at some point.
Phil Spencer talks Starfield’s Xbox exclusivity
In a conversation with independent gaming journalist Destin Legarie published over the weekend, Spencer refused to rule out the possibility of Starfield being released on a rival platform such as the PS5.
When asked if he could confirm that Starfield would remain on Xbox consoles for the time being, Spencer responded, “No.” “I wouldn’t pick any specific game — and this goes back to my ‘red line’ answer — like I have no reason to put a fence around any game and say, ‘This game isn’t going to go to a place where it’s going to find players and bring us commercial success.'”
“We found that we were able to drive better business that allowed us to invest in the great lineup of games that you saw at Xbox Developer Direct. That’s our strategy. Our strategy is to make our games available.
“Game Pass is an important part of playing games on our platform. But keeping games away from other platforms is not the path for us. It doesn’t work for what we’re doing now,” Spencer said in a clip from the interview posted by Legarie on X Sunday.
The Microsoft gaming CEO was referring to his response to Bloomberg in November, when he said he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of any of Microsoft’s games making the jump to PlayStation or Nintendo consoles. “I don’t see a ‘you can’t do this’ red line in our portfolio,” he said at the time.
Bethesda’s space RPG Starfield, which releases on Xbox Series S/X and PC in September 2023, has been speculated to be coming to PS5 since Microsoft first announced in early 2024 that it would release some of its exclusive games on rival platforms. The game is currently playable on current-gen Xbox consoles, PC, and Game Pass, but has yet to be released on PS5.
By comparison, Indiana Jones and the Circle , published by Bethesda and developed by MachineGames, released on Xbox Series S/X and PC in December, but is confirmed to be released on PS5 in the first half of 2025. Another game from Bethesda’s stable, Doom: Dark Ages will be released simultaneously on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X on May 15, 2025.
