Developer thinks that First Party games should be released on more consoles

Something that has been widely discussed since the movements of Xbox and CEO Phil Spencer is that the green side of the force should gradually lose the exclusivity of its games, precisely aiming for the profit that this can bring, and amidst so many opponents of the idea, a developer has spoken out in favor of this, and that this decision could develop the market, if it were also taken by Sony!

Thomas Mahler — the creative director of Moon Studios and director of Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps — endorsed Spencer's approach and suggested that it may be the best for the video game industry.

In a lengthy post on X, Mahler argued that it no longer makes sense for Xbox and PlayStation consoles to compete when the hardware is so similar and the user base is "stuck attracting the same 100-150 [million] players for over two decades". He argues that the key to growth is to make it easier for players to get their desired games, regardless of the console they buy... except for Nintendo, which doesn't need to play by anyone's rules. Mahler added that "hoping that a big corporation sells more boxes than another seems fantastically pointless to me... We should all just share the love for games!"

For now, Spencer's platform-agnostic stance has not been adopted by Sony, but Mahler suggested that the PlayStation manufacturer has already bowed to this reality by bringing its exclusive titles to PC, including the newly announced port of Rise of the Ronin.

"We'll see how long Sony continues to limit its software sales to one platform," Mahler wrote. "There's a reason why they're already releasing some games for PC now. It's money. They can probably ignore Xbox for now, since the Xbox Series didn't sell that well, but that could change if Xbox makes a great console again. If they end up with a better machine than whatever the next PlayStation is and if players adopt that, Sony's platform-exclusive strategy is history."

Some of the most prominent multiplatform titles confirmed to arrive on the PlayStation 5 from Xbox-affiliated studios include Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Doom: The Dark Ages. Microsoft is also the owner of Activision, which released the best-selling game of 2024 on all consoles in the US, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. The upcoming release of the Switch 2 from Nintendo may also help the industry grow this year, and Spencer has already promised that Microsoft will also support the new console.