Reaction: Xbox Publishing More Games on PS5 Than Sony Is Not a Gotcha, It's Just a Sign of the Times 1
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In the tedious and predictable aftermath to last week’s State of Play, a lot of column inches have been written about Xbox potentially publishing more games on the PS5 this year than Sony.

It makes for a dramatic headline: one which paints PlayStation as a complacent competitor, coasting while it soaks up the rewards of its rival’s imploding console business. It’s also something this author saw coming at the start of the year.

“I think Microsoft will be PS5’s biggest publisher in 2025,” your humble host navel gazed in our January predictions post.

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Since then, the Redmond firm has announced Forza Horizon 5, Age of Empires 2, and Age of Mythology for Sony’s system; the rumour mill says Hellblade 2, Gears of War Trilogy, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and more we don’t even have time to list are coming.

Reaction: Xbox Publishing More Games on PS5 Than Sony Is Not a Gotcha, It's Just a Sign of the Times 2

With the trillion-dollar tech titan not only bringing new titles from its portfolio but also porting old ones, it’s looking like a particularly big year for Xbox Game Studios on PS5.

But the idea that the Team in Green is outperforming PS Studios on its own platform grates a little. No one makes these comparisons for other third-party firms like Take-Two or SEGA, two publishers which also look poised to have particularly prolific years on PS5.

In fact, while the very idea of Xbox Game Studios bringing more titles to PlayStation than Sony itself makes for an eye-grabbing headline, it also strips the story of context. Microsoft is plunging deep into its back catalogue and porting old favourites on top of releasing new games; Forza Horizon 5 will perform well on the PS5, but we can’t ignore the fact that it’s already almost four years old.

Reaction: Xbox Publishing More Games on PS5 Than Sony Is Not a Gotcha, It's Just a Sign of the Times 3

And it also ignores the most important context of all: Microsoft aggressively and unprecedently gobbled two historically third-party publishers. PS Studios, with its paltry 14 or so teams, cannot and will not ever be able to compete with the scale of Xbox’s operation – mismanaged live service push or not. That’s just basic maths.

So, this isn’t Sony scaling back in the face of reduced competition; in fact, it has a pretty strong lineup planned for 2025, including anticipated sequels Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Ghost of Yotei. It just dominated DICE with 10 awards from its 2024 output, and posted record-breaking financial results.

Obviously, the changes that are occurring at Microsoft warrant discussion, and it looks like Xbox Game Studios has a particularly packed lineup planned for PS5. Bring it on!

But the way this is being framed, without context to make it look like Sony is spinning its wheels, strikes us as unreasonable.

Unless the Japanese giant goes out and gobbles up a couple of publishers of its own, expect its output to be dwarfed by the multiformat Microsoft practically every year from now onwards. It’s not a gotcha, it’s simply a sign of the times.

Do you think it’s bad news for PS Studios that Microsoft is poised to have a bigger year on PS5 than Sony first-party itself? Is this all just a sign of the times? Are you surprised by how this generation is developing? Let us know in the comments section below.