Xbox “business update” will explain rumoured PlayStation port plans next week

Following a weekend of reports and rumours about Xbox going cross-platform with PS5 ports, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has posted to Twitter to announce a “business update” that will reveal Microsoft’s “vision for the future of Xbox.”

So there’s at least some truth to the reports that everything from Hi-Fi Rush and Starfield, through to Indiana Jones, Halo and all of the Xbox crown jewels could be coming to Microsoft’s home console rival in the coming weeks, months and years.

His statement in full:

“We’re listening and we hear you. We’ve been planning a business update event for next week, where we look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox. Stay tuned.”

With not even a hint of denial about the reports in Spencer’s statement, it simply remains to be seen the extent to which Microsoft are shifting their business strategy.

Over the weekend, XboxEra broke the news that Microsoft are planning to launch Starfield on PS5 sometime after the Shattered Space expansion is released on Xbox and PC – expected to arrive later this year – and that they had acquired additional PS5 dev kits to make this happen.

Following that, The Verge also reported that Microsoft is now considering bringing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to PlayStation 5 at some point after the initial Xbox and PC release. This despite the game having originally been cross-platform when Bethesda signed it and Microsoft having to rewrite the contract with Disney to make it exclusive.

These have both corroborated much more sweeping rumours from earlier this year, and the Hi-Fi Rush leak, that Microsoft would be bringing pretty much all of their games to PlayStation.

All of which is both completely unbelievable and entirely believable given the huge investments that Microsoft have made in the past six years. Xbox Game Pass is believed to have completely flatlined in subscriber count, Xbox Cloud Gaming has been very expensive to set up and run the Xbox Series X level hardware, and the Xbox Series is falling way, way, way behind the PlayStation 5 in console sales. Microsoft’s long term strategy has yet to bear fruits in terms of big game releases from their 2018 studio acquisitions – Hellblade 2 and Avowed are only expected this year – and Activision Blizzard’s astronomical acquisition cost means it can’t realistically go exclusive with Call of Duty, even if they hadn’t signed countless agreements to ensure it would stay cross-platform.

Whatever happens – full or partial cross-platform, specific games or all games – it feels like Microsoft needs to front up and give a definitive explanation of their plans. Simply announcing Hi-Fi Rush and Starfield without addressing the business as a whole is only going to leave the company and fanbase swirling in uncertainty.