According to IGN, developer Obsidian Entertainment announced today that its Xbox Game Studios title, Avowed, is coming to PlayStation 5. The PS5 version will launch on February 17, which is almost exactly one year after its initial release. That launch date coincides with a major free anniversary update for all platforms, which adds a New Game Plus mode, a Photo Mode, three new playable races (Aumaua, Orlan, and Dwarves), a new weapon type, and appearance customization. Pre-orders for the PS5 edition begin today. IGN originally scored the game a 7 out of 10, praising its worldbuilding and character writing but critiquing its safe, by-the-numbers adventure design.
The Bigger Picture
So here’s the thing: this isn’t a one-off. Avowed is just the latest in a pretty stunning parade of Xbox first-party games heading to PlayStation. We’re talking about Forza Horizon 5, the upcoming Doom: The Dark Ages and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and even whispers about Halo. Microsoft’s leadership has basically called platform exclusivity “antiquated,” and the strategy seems to be working on some level. IGN notes that in one quarter last year, six of the ten best-selling games on PlayStation were actually published by Xbox. That’s a wild stat when you think about it.
What It Means For Players
For gamers, this is almost universally good news, right? More people get to play good games, no matter what plastic box they own. The free anniversary update is a great bonus, giving existing players on Xbox and PC a bunch of new reasons to jump back in. But it does make you wonder about the future of hardware. If all the big Xbox games are also on PlayStation, what’s the incentive to buy an Xbox console, especially as prices go up? Are we moving toward a future where the “platform” is just a subscription or a storefront, and the hardware is secondary? It feels like that’s the bet Microsoft is making.
A Shifting Strategy
Look, the old console war model is clearly changing. Microsoft seems less interested in selling you a specific console and more interested in getting its games and services—like Game Pass—in front of as many people as possible. This multiplatform push is a huge part of that. It’s a massive shift from just a few years ago. Will it serve them well in the long run? That’s the billion-dollar question. They’re trading some hardware sales for potentially much larger software revenue. You can see some early predictions on how this might play out in their 2026 predictions video. One thing’s for sure: the industry is watching this experiment very, very closely.
