Xbox on Releasing Games on PS5: 'We're Going to Try to be More Consistent With What We Do' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 25 January 2026 / 1,866 Views
The head of Xbox Game Studios Craig Duncan in an interview with GamesRadar was asked about the inconsistencies with Xbox releasing games on other consoles like the PlayStation 5 as some games have released day one on the platform, while others have launched later.
"There's always development realities about when these projects start – how big a team is, and what plans we have at the start of development," said Duncan.
"Like you said, when a strategy changes, maybe you've got a plan that exists with a game and maybe you can adopt that, maybe you can't. So that's why. And to be clear, this is totally fair feedback. Sometimes we are inconsistent. You see some games in one place, some games in multiple places. Just know that we're going to work on that, and we're going to try and be more consistent with what we do.
"But you know, for our game makers, if you're on the Fable team you just want as many people who love Fable to appreciate the great work that the team's doing. That's always our goal. It's rarely more complicated than that. It's like, how can we get this game to as many players as we can?"
He was asked if he would like to see all first-party Xbox games releasing on all platforms day one.
"My number one job is to help our teams be successful," replied Duncan. "If I think about my role, some of that is optionality about what we do and what we approach. You used the word 'port' before, and not to sort of pick you up on that word specifically, but wherever our games show up we want them to show up and be the best that they can be for that platform. So we want to take advantage of whatever features and nuances that the platform has.
"So that may lead to a bit of optionality. Which is to say, if we're only in a position to release a game on a platform and not have it show up really well? Then I think we wouldn't do that. I think we would have a conversation internally and go, 'Hey, unless we can do it really well and do the right thing by those players, then…' and that's when you get into conversations of, well, maybe we can ship it afterwards.
"Because teams are only a set size. We only have a certain amount of… ultimately, it all comes down to resource. Not everything is limitless. So we just want to do the best job, by each platform, by each game. So in that world, sometimes we'll maintain optionality. Some games we might go PC first, others we might go console first. Grounded 2 is a really good example of this, which we launched into Game Preview, Steam, and PC initially. So yeah, I think it won't always be the same."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
More Articles
we lost.
well said
"We gotta make money, we spent $80 bil on 2 publishers."
That was a whole lot of words where he managed to say nothing.
His last statement is all you need to know. Some teams have the resources and some do not. We do know the primary platforms are PC and Xbox, everything else is up in the air.
AI is expensive to develop, games are expensive to develop. They should try being an arms dealer or something.
Ah shit more games getting cancelled and more AI slop if they will be more consistent.
"Not everything is limitless."
You don't say? Sounds like something that the suits and shareholders ought to hear. "Line must go up forever" is and always was the rot at the heart of corporate capitalism.
It would have been more accurate for him to say "Nothing is limitless." You can't have infinite growth in a finite world. Everything stops growing eventually. Sooner or later you're going to run into obstacles to real growth, then "fake growth" sets in and businesses start to look like parasites consuming everything around them and leeching off their customers. The competition gets absorbed as industries turn into oligopolies. Product quality suffers as corners are cut and planned obsolescence becomes standard practice. Employees get reduced pay, fewer benefits, or are replaced entirely by having their jobs offshored or automated. Things that used to be actual products that were one-time purchases become subscription-based services.
But all those desperate attempts to keep the line going up simply delay the inevitable. The line has to stop going up at some point, and when it does, the results are often disastrous for employees and customers alike.
Do better to actually gain money from big losses by acquiring other studios and losing money on em lol
It's good that games get to play with more people. I always found exclusivity to be a stupid thing.. the more people play means more sales which leads to more creativity. The last couple of generations of consoles, the games have been very stagnate and samey.
Give these guys some slack. Playstation is not very familiar to them and the situation is new for them also. I'd rather they take some extra time if necessary to ensure good quality.
I can sympathize with the Xbox guy here. Nobody asks this kind of question to any other 3rd party publisher when in fact it is totally normal for some games to not launch on all platforms ¨Day 1¨. Plenty of 3rd party not being paid by Sony will not launch Day 1 on Xbox, and may not ever launch there. Obviously games may be in development for years, and if they weren´t planning on Playstation release from the beginning, they can´t just snap their fingers and have it release Day 1.
