Xbox Head Says Day 1 First-Party PS5 Titles Depend on a Team’s Size: “Sometimes We Are Inconsistent”

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With games like Fable, Forza Horizon 6, Halo: Combat Evolved, and Kiln on the way, it’s shaping up to be a great year for gamers on both Xbox and PlayStation 5. Microsoft is continuing its strategy of releasing some of its exclusive games on other platforms, and three out of these four titles will be available on PlayStation starting on day one. The exception is Playground Games’ Forza Horizon 6, which will launch on Xbox and PC this May, and then come to PS5 later in the year.

It’s understandable why people are confused, as GamesRadar+ pointed out to Craig Duncan, head of Xbox Game Studios. He admitted the feedback is valid, explaining that team size and initial development plans are the main factors influencing the situation.

Launching projects always involves practical challenges – things like team size and initial planning. As you pointed out, plans can change during development, and sometimes our existing strategies work with a game, and sometimes they don’t. We understand this inconsistency is frustrating, and we appreciate the feedback. You might notice some games are featured in one place, while others appear in multiple locations. We’re actively working to improve this and be more consistent in how we present our games.

Our team working on Fable simply wants as many fans as possible to enjoy the game and recognize the hard work everyone’s put into it. That’s really our main focus – getting Fable into the hands of as many players as we can.

Just so you know, Turn 10 Studios is developing the version for PlayStation 5. The decision to bring the game to other platforms seems to have been made recently, unlike Fable, which was likely planned for multiple platforms from the start. Microsoft isn’t ruling out releasing on other consoles, but Duncan, the head of the studio, doesn’t want to release it on anything less than top-quality hardware.

My main goal is to ensure our teams thrive. I focus on giving them options and flexibility in how we create and launch our games. As you mentioned earlier, we want our games to perform exceptionally well on every platform they’re available on, taking full advantage of each platform’s unique features and capabilities.

That situation could give us some flexibility. Basically, if we can’t launch a game on a platform and ensure it performs well, we probably won’t. We’d discuss it internally and decide that unless we can deliver a great experience for players, we should hold off. That’s when we might consider releasing it later on.

Look, we’ve got limited resources, plain and simple. We can only handle so much at once. So, we really want to focus on doing a great job with each game and on each platform it’s on. That means sometimes we’ll release on PC first, and other times we’ll start with consoles. A good example is Grounded 2 – we launched that for PC and Xbox Series X/S through early access with Game Preview and Steam, which let us test things out and make it the best it could be.

The first game came to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch, but that didn’t automatically mean the next one would too. We’ll have to wait and see if it arrives around the 1.0 update. Keep an eye out for more information! In the meantime, you can check out Avowed, launching on PS5 this February with a new Anniversary Patch.

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2026-01-25 19:41