When you put your brand's mascot on the enemy's platform

Back in February 2024, Xbox held a short podcast where they reacted directly to swirling rumors about Xbox exclusive titles that were about to go multi-platform, which was giving Xbox fans anxiety. This question from host Tina Amini was right near the start:

So when you are thinking about the future and this concept of live service games, games that can benefit from bigger audiences, new audiences, How does that apply to future titles and how you're applying that criteria there?

To which Phil Spencer replied:

Yeah, there's really no fundamental change to how we think about exclusivity.

And just before that, Amini asked:

Can we say if either of those titles are Starfield or Indiana Jones? They are not Starfield or Indiana Jones.

And Spencer assured the audience:

They are not Starfield or Indiana Jones.

Now, Spencer didn't lie here by any means; neither Starfield nor the new Indiana Jones game (Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which is spectacular, by the way) were in the 4 games that were imminently to be released on PlayStation and Nintendo consoles. However, paired with the first quote about there being "no fundamental change to how we think about exclusivity" gave the impression to many that Xbox was okay with some games, specifically smaller and multiplayer games going multi-platform on a per-game basis, but the big hitters would remain Xbox and PC exclusive.

However, since that podcast, more games have gone multi-platform, including Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which released on PlayStation 5 just five months after the Xbox version, and the DLC for the game came out on both platforms on the same day last month.

Back in May, the first iconic Xbox franchise made the full jump to PlayStation with the Gears of War remaster getting announced for a simultaneous release on Xbox, PC, and PlayStation.

Then on Friday last week, we got the big one: Halo is coming to PS5 day-and-date with the Xbox release.

For those not as clued into the gaming space, this is similar in scale to when Sega first released a Sonic game for Nintendo, or if Nintendo ever released Mario Kart for PlayStation. Xbox is Halo, Halo is Xbox, they're impossible to separate in the long history of gaming, and yet the world has changed enough that Microsoft thinks its best move is to give Halo to everyone.

Crazy times.