Helldivers 2 Coming To Xbox Is A 'Sign Of Unity', Says Creative Director

Whatever the reason may be, it's great to see this "sign of unity" between Xbox and PlayStation, and here's hoping it leads to more first-party games coming across from PS5 to Xbox Series X|S in the months and years to come.

That will absolutely happen. Maybe not at the pace that Xbox opened the floodgates, but Sony will indeed follow suit. Count on that.

I think this is likely to happen, I agree. At the end of the day, these companies want to keep growing and I think the "exclusive/closed" strategy that has been followed for a long time now is close to not being able to support the business expectations the likes of MS and Sony have.

I think this won't be a bad thing when/if it happens.

I just think it make sense from a Business perspective. Its Sony's most successful Live Service and whilst it is successful, I doubt the Community is still growing. Its either plateaued or declining as those that would buy have and others move on to other games.

I'm sure it has a Core group that Play regularly, but they may not be spending 'money' so not bringing in the revenue. Everyone on PC/PS5 that would buy, have bought so the revenue dries up. To keep that game 'alive', keep developing more content for it etc, they need to increase the revenue and the ONLY way is to open up more Platforms for gamers to play.

That doesn't mean that we'll suddenly be getting Spider-man, God of War or Horizon but maybe will get other Live Service type games as it benefits their Community and builds a larger Community of fans to their IP. They already release on Steams Platform as they explore a multi-platform strategy and may decide to limit 'exclusivity' to a year or 2 for their own Console across all titles.

As games are costing more to make, you can't necessarily rely purely on your own Platform, your own userbase to buy in sufficient numbers to be Profitable so need to release on more Platforms to increase the Revenue opportunity.

It takes a special kind of person to conflate Sony deciding to publish a port of a live service game with a dwindling player count and interpret it as the floodgates are opening and we can expect ports of first party flagship franchises embodying brand recognition to hit the Xbox, especially after Sony goes out of its way to reiterate it refuses to drop its own exclusives into PS+ day and date.

@Balaam_ It's a positive dude 🤷

I've heard uncharted or the last of us is definitely next!

@Balaam_ Helldivers 2 doesn't have a dwindling player count, though? In fact, according to SteamDB, the game has more concurrent players on Steam right now (50,000+, to be exact) than it did in July 2024 (40,000+). That is not at all the sign of a dying game, and this isn't even including PlayStation players.

You claiming that Sony willingly publishing a game on Xbox for the first time in the company's history is somehow NOT a "shift in strategy" is about as believable as Phil Spencer saying "our exclusive strategy has not changed" after porting four games to PlayStation/Nintendo.

I trust you will have a very reasonable reaction if Sony ever decides to port a single-player game to Xbox. Just because they're not bringing God of War to Xbox right away doesn't mean it's not a shift in strategy, it very much is.

I think the spiderman games eventually make it to xbox. It makes too much sense to sell those to as many people as possible. And I hear Disney likes money too.

That will absolutely happen. Maybe not at the pace that Xbox opened the floodgates, but Sony will indeed follow suit. Count on that.

Bookmark this comment, please, @Kaloudz. Then let us return to it in 3 to 5 years time and we can laugh at just how ridiculously over optimistic this comment is. And, just in case I've not been clear, we won't be getting any other first=party games from Sony, unless they are live-service games...

People need to stop jumping to the conclusion that this is Sony shifting their stance on first-party exclusives. Helldivers 2 is not a sign of anything of the sort.

There are two reasons we are getting Helldivers 2 on the Xbox:

1. Helldivers 2 is a live-service game. It is generating a lot of cash for Arrowhead and Sony. Arrowhead have said they want to put the game everywhere, the reason being the more people that play the game, the more money that Arrowhead and Sony make. Simple! Sony want as much money as this game can generate, so they are open to it being elsewhere.

2. Arrowhead have already stated that Helldivers 2 made them so much money that they do not need Sony's involvement for their next game. Arrowhead will be publishing the game themselves. Sony need to keep Arrowhead sweet if they have any hope of having that next game as a console exclusive. Thus, allowing Arrowhead to put Helldiver 2 on the Xbox, keeps Sony in Arrowhead's good books, meaning that Arrowhead are more likely to be sympathetic to allowing their next game to be a PlayStation timed-exclusive.

Ultimately, Sony are only doing this for themselves in terms of what Helldivers 2 might make on the Xbox (though I doubt they have particularly high expectations due to the tendency for the typical Xbox gamer to predominantly play games that are on the Game Pass), and then also because Sony want Arrowhead's next game as an exclusive too...

I've heard uncharted or the last of us is definitely next!

I love your sense of humour, @Ricky-Spanish... 😂

@Fiendish-Beaver Haha I knew you would pick up on that 🤣😂✌️

@Fiendish-Beaver I'm happy to bookmark my comment, and I think, like much of what we banter about, you'll be eating some humble pie. Also...

Sony need to keep Arrowhead sweet if they have any hope of having that next game as a console exclusive. Thus, allowing Arrowhead to put Helldiver 2 on the Xbox, keeps Sony in Arrowhead's good books, meaning that Arrowhead are more likely to be sympathetic to allowing their next game to be a PlayStation timed-exclusive.

Arrowhead needs Sony a hell of a lot more than Sony needs Arrowhead - simply based on the fact that Sony have the much larger install base.

Sony are not going to sacrifice exclusivity for timed exclusivity just to keep Arrowhead sweet - when Arrowhead needs Sony's marketplace to make a hefty sum. That just doesn't add up...

Why do I get the feeling that in 10 years, we'll both be sat side by side in a couple of rocking chairs, revisiting comments, knee-slapping, and preaching told-ya-so's.

@Fiendish-Beaver I don't know, man. There were plenty of people who were saying similar things to what you said when Sony ported Horizon: Zero Dawn to PC. I distinctly recall that there were several ppl claiming it wasn't a sign that Sony's strategy was shifting, and many people refused to believe the rumors that God of War was coming to PC next.

Never say never, I say. Helldivers 2 coming to Xbox shows that pretty much anything is possible at this point.

Well, I'd like to think that I'll be around in 10 years to keep you on your toes, @Kaloudz, but there's every chance I won't! Only yesterday I took out finance for 10 years on solar panels to the tune of nearly £15k, but for that investment to be truly worthwhile, I need to be around for longer than 10 years, so that alone is a reason to try an be here in 10 years time, though the real reason to still be here then is to keep your misplaced optimism in place. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it... 😂😂😂