When the new Indiana Jones game was first announced by Bethesda, it was originally scheduled to be released on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. During the time since its initial announcement, however, Microsoft has purchased Bethesda’s parent company Zenimax, which has already caused games such as Starfield to bypass Sony’s console and be exclusive to Xbox.
During Microsoft’s legal battle with the Federal Trade Commission during its purchase of Activision Blizzard, new details regarding the upcoming Indiana Jones game were revealed and it isn’t looking good for Sony when it comes to future titles coming to its platform.
It was revealed that when the upcoming Indiana Jones game was first revealed, ZeniMax had an agreement with Disney to license the IP for a multiplatform game. But, following the purchase of ZeniMax, this deal was renegotiated with Disney to remove any agreement to release the game on Sony’s PlayStation 5 console, instead making it exclusive to PC and Xbox, as well as allowing it to launch on Xbox Game Pass on day one, the standard procedure for any of Microsoft’s first and second-party releases.
Testimony from Microsoft Gaming’s Chief Financial Officer Tim Stuart revealed that Microsoft estimated that both Starfield and Indiana Jones would reach over 10 million sales on PlayStation, which would have generated a significant amount of revenue for Microsoft, but the company still decided to make the games exclusive to Xbox. Microsoft believes that the increase in Xbox Game Pass sales would offset any of the losses by not releasing neither game on PlayStation.
It was Xbox Game Pass that helped to sway Disney’s decision to agree to have the game be Xbox exclusive, with, Disney’s head of gaming, Sean Shoptaw revealing to Axios that, “We felt like it’s still going to reach a broad set of folks, and we felt, financially and strategically for the game, that made sense at the time.”
Ever since the purchase of ZeniMax by Microsoft, we have seen all of its upcoming titles be removed from PlayStation, including Starfield and Redfall, both of which had PS5 versions in active development. Future upcoming titles such as Marvel’s Blade and The Elder Scrolls 6 should also be exclusive to Xbox, with The Elder Scrolls 6 being arguably the biggest upcoming release that will no longer be coming to PlayStation. The most recent entry in the series, Skyrim, has sold over 60 million copies across all platforms, which means that Microsoft is giving up a large amount of sales to make it exclusive to its own console.
Despite the recent purchase of Activision Blizzard, the Call of Duty franchise will remain on PlayStation for at least the next 10 years, after Microsoft and Sony signed a new agreement that helped to allow the FTC to grant the sale being able to take place.
What do you think of Indiana Jones being an Xbox exclusive? For more Insider Gaming, check out the news that Starfield fixes and updates are coming.
