Microsoft’s multiplatform experiment seems to be bearing fruit as Sea of Thieves continues to dominate PS5 downloads. The game made a rare (no pun intended) appearance in Circana’s U.S. sales report — where Xbox games are typically nowhere to be found — thanks to its PS5 release. Now, Sony has revealed that Sea of Thieves was the most downloaded game on the PS Store in both Europe and North America during the month of May 2024.

Sea of Thieves sits atop PS5 download charts as Helldivers 2 slips

After dominating charts for several months, multiplayer game Helldivers 2 has finally started to make its way down the rankings. In the U.S., Helldivers 2 took the fourth spot and in Europe, it grabbed fifth position.

The rest of the games in the top ten are all your typical appearances, like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto V. Stellar Blade managed to stay in the top ten in both regions, settling for no. 8 in North America and no. 10 in Europe.

Microsoft’s leadership will certainly be pleased with Sea of Thieves’ performance on the PS5. The company has repeatedly said that its first four games on PlayStation will determine its future approach, and more PlayStation releases are pretty much certain at this point.

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The Communications Workers of America announced it is filing a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against an Activision contractor. The union alleges that the contractor, Lionbridge Technologies, laid off 160 workers in retaliation for an attempt to unionize.

Did an Activision contractor wrongfully lay off workers?

The company provided QA testing for the Microsoft subsidiary Activision when it laid off the Boise, Idaho team. Lionbridge justified this latest example of gaming layoffs by telling workers that the project was over. However, work was still underway at the offices in Mexico and Poland. According to the CWA, Lionbridge terminated workers “in retaliation for workers engaging in protected organizing activities and protected speech when raising issues regarding their working conditions.” Doing so violates federal law.

Workers targeted by this gaming layoff were also allegedly offered a severance package with unreasonably broad confidentiality terms. The Activision contractor also asked the laid-off employees to waive their rights under the National Labor Relations Act, something that the NLRB ruled was illegal. The CWA’s statement also notes that this is the second time Lionbridge has engaged in union-busting while working with Microsoft.

“In 2022,” the union wrote, “Microsoft adopted principles for engagement with worker organizations, which recognized workers’ legal rights to organize and expressed a belief in ‘the importance of listening to our employees’ concerns.’ This team of subcontracted workers and all U.S. workers enjoy those same rights and protections. CWA expects Microsoft to hold its contractors to the same standards the company has set for itself, as stated in its principles.”

(via GameSpot)

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Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently took aim at Sony over its PlayStation content exclusive deals, which has drawn the attention of former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden. Spencer, while talking about Call of Duty, referred to Sony’s past content deals with the franchise as “slimy platform things.”

Spencer irked by PlayStation exclusive deals but Xbox has a history of them

Layden didn’t have any words to share, but did use gifs on X to communicate his thoughts very clearly.

Layden was also seen interacting with quite a few tweets that were either critical of Spencer’s comments or seemed amused by Layden’s response.

Many have argued that Spencer was making a general reference to platform exclusive deals, but he was specifically talking in context of Call of Duty’s 10 years of content arrangements with PlayStation.

Although Spencer has been a huge advocate of dropping exclusives, Microsoft continues to enagage in exclusivity wars, so his comments are a little baffling. Even if we ignore the Xbox 360 era, Rise of the Tomb Raider was famously taken off of PS4 for a whole year while Spencer was in charge. Games like Starfield and Redfall were in development for the PS5 when Spencer-led Xbox bought ZeniMax and pulled them off of Sony’s platform, and so on.

Let’s not forget Matt Booty discussing spending Sony “out of business.”

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Former Microsoft executive Mike Ybarra has said that the sheer size of Microsoft Gaming now warrants having some Xbox games on PlayStation and Nintendo platforms. Ybarra’s comments follow confirmation by Xbox boss Phil Spencer that more of the company’s first-party games will go multiplatform in the future.

Microsoft to become the world’s largest publisher with Xbox games on PlayStation and Nintendo

Ybarra, who spent two decades at Microsoft, acknowledged concerns about the future of Xbox hardware by fans once more first-party games go multiplatform. However, he’s of the view that Microsoft Gaming is beyond the point of hardware sales, and needs to focus on its ambition to be the world’s largest publisher.

“You have to put emotion aside and focus on the teams, players, and business – and make hard decisions,” Ybarra said. “Given the size of Microsoft Gaming now, it’s just not sustainable to not be embracing all platforms. They are taking their players in this journey, and that is not easy, but this is the right plan for their teams and players.”

Microsoft hasn’t said which games it plans to release on PlayStation and Nintendo going forward, but rumor has it that Halo is one of the first-party franchises going multiplatform.

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Digital Foundry tech expert John Linneman reckons that the PS5 can’t properly support 8K resolution at the current hardware level, but Xbox Series X theoretically can. As we recently reported, Sony quietly removed the 8K label that has been plastered on PS5’s box since launch in 2020, and the subject has been hotly debated since.

Sony accused of false advertisement with PS5 box’s 8K label

At PS5’s launch, Sony said that the console will be able to output in 8K with a future firmware update when supported content is available. Thus far, only one game has boasted 8K — The Touryst — but it has Minecraft-like graphics.

Linneman says that PS5’s HDMI capabilities aren’t enough to support 8K at 60 FPS without making some serious compromises. Secondly, the console’s HDR is limited to 8 bit, which isn’t enough to output in 8K. A minimum of 10 bit HDR would be required, which the Xbox Series X comes with. “Even if they [Sony] did enable 8K, you wouldn’t want to use it,” Linneman concluded.

Ultimately, however, Linneman rightfully points out that 8K just hasn’t panned out yet and it may have been a little silly on Sony’s part to advertise that. The company was accused of false advertisement following the discovery of the updated PS5 box.

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Xbox boss Phil Spencer has once again dissed PlayStation’s Call of Duty content exclusivity deals over the last decade. Spencer first brought up the exclusive content following Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard, pledging to ensure that all platforms get the same content at the same time.

Call of Duty PlayStation content deals were “slimy,” says Phil Spencer

At the Xbox Games Showcase 2024 yesterday, Spencer mentioned that Call of Duty players haven’t received the same game at the same time in over a decade. He then reiterated that starting with Black Ops 6, there will be uniform content updates across all platforms.

Later in an interview with IGN, Spencer referred to past Call of Duty exclusivity deals as “slimy platform things.” He pointed out that Microsoft hasn’t mandated any subscriptions for the game and has given players a choice to play how they want, where they want. “I want to give you the choice on how you play your games and who you play with, and not do slimy platform things,” Spencer added.

In the same interview, Spencer confirmed that more Microsoft games will go multiplatform. The Xbox Showcase featured quite a few multiplatform games. However, Doom: The Dark Ages was the only Xbox first-party game announced for the PS5.

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Xbox boss Phil Spencer has pretty much confirmed that more Microsoft first-party games are headed to PlayStation platforms. This news is neither surprising nor a revelation, but there continues to be debate over how far Microsoft plans to go with its multiplatform pivot.

Microsoft sees Xbox games on PlayStation as a ‘benefit’

During an interview with IGN yesterday, Spencer was quizzed about releasing games like Doom: The Dark Ages on PS5 after spending billions of dollars acquiring ZeniMax. Spencer said that he is often asked what the benefit of buying an Xbox console is if Microsoft will release its games on multiple platforms. He is of the view that Xbox first-party games launching day-one on Game Pass and being cross-compatible with PC is the biggest advantage of investing in Microsoft’s hardware.

“Our commitment to our Xbox customers is that you are going to get the opportunity to buy or subscribe to the game — we are going to support the game on other screens,” Spencer said. “You are going to see more of our games on more platforms, and we just see that as a benefit to the franchises that we are building.” Spencer added that players simply “love to be able to play.”

So, there you have it… straight from the horse’s mouth!

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A number of fans have been left discontent with Microsoft’s communication strategy surrounding Xbox games heading to PS5. Yesterday, a report from The Verge revealed that the company was mulling over a remaster of Halo: Combat Evolved for the PS5, following which more reputable insiders claimed that a number of major Xbox exclusives are on their way to the rival platform.

Microsoft quiet about its strategy for Xbox games on PS5

When reports of Xbox games going multiplatform first cropped up earlier this year, they were dismissed by a large number of fans until reputable sources starting backing up those claims. Microsoft was forced to conduct a “business update” as a result, during which it confirmed that four of its titles were headed to PS5, to start with. There’s been no update from Team Xbox since, but the rumors are showing no signs of dying down.

Yesterday, known insider NateTheHate claimed that “significant, major” Xbox games are heading to PlayStation. ResetEra user Shinobi602 — who is known to have some connections within the industry — confirmed the same. This, along with The Verge’s report, prompted Xbox fans to take to sites like Reddit and X to demand clarity from Microsoft.

Many have opined that Halo going multiplatform will spell the demise of Xbox hardware. However, the console already isn’t selling much as it is.

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Microsoft is reportedly considering releasing a Halo: Combat Evolved Remaster on PS5. Information in the Halo remake is limited, though it’s part of Microsoft’s larger project of bringing Xbox games to PlayStation.

Is a Halo: Combat Evolved Remaster PS5 version in development?

The Verge Editor Tom Warren discusses the reported Halo remake in his Notepad newsletter. Warren’s sources tell him that Microsoft is considering bringing its upcoming Halo: Combat Evolved Remaster to PS5. The remaster is reportedly still early in production, and Warren doesn’t expect Microsoft to present it at the Xbox Games Showcase on June 9. However, if Microsoft does follow through on bringing Halo to PS5, it would be a strong sign of the company’s commitment to bringing Xbox games to PlayStation.

Project Latitude is Microsoft’s internal name for bringing Xbox Games to other platforms. The first wave included Seas of Thieves, High-Fi Rush, Pentiment, and Grounded. Microsoft ported all four games to PS5, with Pentiment and Grounded also launching on PS4 and Switch. While a Starfield PS5 port isn’t in development, Phil Spencer didn’t rule one out. Neither did he rule out a PS5 version of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

Warran’s sources also say that Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, Age of Mythology: Retold, and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II are candidates for Project Latitude. With so many games allegedly on the table, Halo: Combat Evolved Remaster on PS5 doesn’t seem that unlikely.

Notably, this Halo remake would be the second of its kind. Developer 343 Industries released Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary in 2011 and later included it in 2014’s Master Chief Collection. This means the remaster is now older than the original game when 343 remastered it. The remaster coming to PS5 might also help make Microsoft’s triple dipping feel slightly less gratuitous.

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A new report claims that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2‘s scope was limited because of Xbox Series S specs. Developer Warhorse Studios recently held a presentation as part of the Game Access event taking place in Czech Republic, where producer Martin Klima allegedly confirmed the news.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 isn’t the only game held back by Xbox Series S

According to Czech website Zing.cs (via Wccftech), which was in attendance when Warhorse held its presentation, Klima said that the studio’s goal was to make KCD2 25% bigger than the original as that’s what the Xbox Series S could afford.

Microsoft mandates developers to release games on both the Xbox Series X and S, putting developers in a difficult position, many of whom have previously spoken out against the inferior console.

Klima also confirmed that KCD2 will run at 4K / 30 FPS on the PS5 and Xbox Series X. On the Series S, it’ll run at 1440p / 30 FPS. Klima apparently said that the game is already stable while running above 30 FPS, and that optimization is going well.

It has been recently reported that a number of devs are questioning releasing their games on the Xbox Series X|S as the consoles aren’t shifting enough units.

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