Starfield Reportedly Plots Course For PS5 Consoles Amid Major Xbox Strategy Shift

In a surprising shift in strategy it appears as if Microsoft will be letting its biggest exclusive from 2023, Starfield, head over to Sony’s PlayStation 5 console. This information came to light as a part of a series of leaks that has rocked the Xbox community, because it’s not just Starfield that will reportedly make its way to non-Xbox consoles. Other titles that are part of this leak include the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Hi-Fi Rush, and Sea of Thieves.

This move will come as a way for Microsoft to recoup the money it has spent on several acquisitions over the last few years. It spent $69 billion to bring Activision Blizzard into the fold, while forking out $7.5 billion to purchase Bethesda. These two major pickups came after Microsoft had already bought out several other studios such as Ninja Theory as it was trying to bolster the Xbox Game Studios division.


The Xbox community didn’t handle the news of this change of direction very well. While Xbox fans weren’t too bothered about the prospect of other consoles getting smaller titles such as Hi-Fi Rush, the thought of losing a tent pole release like Starfield felt like a bridge too far. Many on social media questioned the need to have an Xbox if its biggest titles were going to be available elsewhere.

Notable Xbox influencer xCloud TimDog shared insider information regarding the leak. He states that executives at Microsoft were spurred to action after lackluster sales of the Xbox Series X, even after the console hit discount pricing during the holidays. Microsoft just doesn’t think it can make enough money back quick enough if games stay on just Xbox and PC. The leaks are also seemingly part of an internal struggle, as members of the Xbox team are not happy with Microsoft’s decision.

It will be interesting to see how Microsoft manages to deal with the fallout of these leaks, as it’s clearly lost a lot of goodwill with its own community.