Xbox says it wants to be more consistent about bringing first-party games to PS5

Xbox Game Studios head Craig Duncan says Microsoft wants to get “more consistent” about when its first-party games show up on PlayStation 5, after a stretch where some releases are day-and-date while others arrive later.

In an interview with GamesRadar, Duncan pointed to the current uneven rollout as an example of the challenge. He said some projects can more easily adapt to a multiplatform plan than others, depending on when development started, team size, and what the original release plan looked like.

Duncan also framed it as a resourcing problem. Xbox “only has a certain amount of resources,” he said, and that affects how quickly teams can support multiple platforms at once. He added that Xbox may still make case-by-case calls, like going PC-first or console-first depending on the game. As one example, he referenced Grounded 2 launching first via Game Preview on Steam and PC.

Alongside the multiplatform comments, Duncan touched on recent cancellations and closures, including The Initiative shutting down and Perfect Dark being canceled, plus Rare’s Everwild being ended. He said those decisions came out of broader Microsoft layoffs and described them as difficult portfolio calls tied to resources and long-term planning.

Duncan also talked briefly about Fable, now being developed by Playground Games, though he didn’t share new details beyond reiterating confidence in the studio’s work on the reboot.