The official Sony blog released its list of best-selling PS5 digital games and last month Rare, Ltd.'s Sea of Thieves was the best selling PS5 game in the EU and the game was third on PS5 in the US and Canada. Previously, other Xbox titles have done well of PS5 as well. They have done so well that even Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took note and commented to the press that with Xbox “We are committed to meeting players where they are by bringing great games to more people on more devices” and praised their multi-platform efforts by stating “Earlier this month (April, 2024), we had seven games among the top 25 on the PlayStation Store, more than any other publisher.” Regarding that second quote, in April, Modern Warfare 3 was the second best selling PS5 game, Overwatch 2 the seventh, Sea of Thieves the 12th, Fallout 4 the 16th, Minecraft the 19th, Fallout 76 the 20th and Grounded the 23rd.

The last week has definitely been a tumultuous and confusing one with the Xbox brand and consoles to say the least. Microsoft's management has been sending incredibly mixed messages in the aftermath of its decision to shutter Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks. Xbox Games Studio leader, Matt Booty, was caught saying “We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards,” the day after it closed the studio that made Hi-Fi Rush, a game that is very much that. Likewise, Sarah Bond, President of Xbox, was interviewed by Bloomberg and while she laid out ambitious plans for cloud gaming, mobile, and affirmed that Xbox remains a console brand first and foremost, she completely dodged questions about recent studio closures and mass layoffs.

“You know, it's always extraordinarily hard when you have to make decisions like that ... I'll go back to what I was saying about the industry. And when we looked at those fundamental trends, we feel a deep responsibility to ensure that the games we make, the devices we build, the services that we offer are there through moments, even when the industry isn't growing and when you're through a time of transition. And the news we announced earlier this week is an outcome of that, and our commitment to make sure that the business is healthy for the long term.

“But that said, our commitment to having our own studios and working with partners to have games large and small, we're a platform where you can play GTA, but you can also play Palworld, where you can play Call of Duty and you can also play Pentiment, that doesn't change. And frankly, our commitment to Bethesda and the role that it plays is part of Xbox and everything we do.

Furthermore, while she attempted to affirm that many of the difficult decisions Microsoft has made regarding cuts, closures, and layoffs have been in response to console game sales and hardware sales being flat for all manufacturers and publishers, most seem to have missed that this graph was in the background as she was saying that.

So, with Sea of Thieves and virtually every other Xbox and Activision game Microsoft has released on PlayStation 4 and 5 doing well, is this the future of Xbox?

It's unclear what you mean by "this" here.

Selling a lot of games? That's definitely the future they envision.

A hybrid system where they're a platform holder but some of their games go on other systems and do well there? They've already been doing that to some degree (Minecraft and its spin offs, Activision Blizzard games, Ori) and I think they probably will continue and expand that under the current circumstances. They may keep some games console exclusive, at least for a time, but games that could benefit from it will be multiplats.

Becoming a true third party for all their games? It's probably not what they envision but it seems like there's a good chance of it happening.

ETA: Can we all just take a moment to enjoy the fact that Skull & Bones flopped and now a very old pirate game that was probably significantly cheaper to make is an enormous success immediately after?