Games

A new rumor alleges that Microsoft may have slowed down development on PS5 ports of **Xbox **first-party games. As part of an unexpected strategy shift, Xbox started publishing games from its first-party back-catalog on PS5 earlier this year, but it seems negative fan reactions might have compelled Microsoft to relax its porting efforts, at least temporarily.

Xbox's multiplatform push kicked off with an initial roster of four first-party games, namely Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, Pentiment, and Grounded. Out of these games, Sea of Thieves particularly enjoyed tremendous success with over one million copies reportedly sold on PS5. It didn't take long for more rumors to start rolling in about which other Xbox first-party games could make the jump to PlayStation platforms, but so far, Microsoft has only confirmed that Doom: The Dark Ages and Indiana Jones and The Great Circle will come to PS5 in 2025.

However, it seems the announcement of Indiana Jones coming to PS5 may have led to a shift behind the scenes at Xbox in terms of its multiplatform strategy. Reputable insider eXtas1s, who routinely breaks accurate Game Pass news, stated in a recent tweet that Microsoft has either "paused" or "slowed down" the PS5 ports it's currently working on. The insider emphasized that this doesn't mean those Xbox first-party ports for PS5 are canceled, just that Microsoft is possibly re-evaluating them in some capacity at the moment.