Microsoft’s shift to becoming a multiplatform publisher appears to be paying off, as an oddly PlayStation-specific trailer for Doom: The Dark Ages is released.
Four months after it originally launched on Xbox Series X/S and PC, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle was officially released on PlayStation 5 this month.
The game is the latest in a growing number of Xbox exclusives appearing on other platforms, as Microsoft shifts to becoming a multiplatform publisher which prioritises its Game Pass subscription service over Xbox consoles.
What that means for the future of Xbox hardware remains to be seen, but based on the sales of Indiana Jones And The Great Circle on PlayStation 5, it seems like Microsoft is finding a considerable amount of success on Sony’s platform.
According to Alinea analyst Rhys Elliott, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle has sold over 117,200 copies on PlayStation 5 within a week of its launch on April 17, 2025. It is said to be selling 28% faster than on Steam, which sold 91,200 in the same timeframe in December.
The analyst claims it is outpacing Xbox sales too, but there are some caveats. While there aren’t any exact sales figures, it’s estimated just under five million Xbox players ‘checked out’ Indiana Jones And The Great Circle on Microsoft’s console, but ‘the overwhelming majority’ played it via Game Pass. As such, they didn’t need to actually buy the game.
The same analyst predicts the PlayStation 5 version will eventually outdo the overall Steam sales, which is estimated to be around 300,000 copies.
According to Microsoft in January, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle attracted over four million players following its launch on December 9, 2024 across Xbox Series X/S and PC.
While it’s not exactly surprising that the PlayStation 5 version would outpace sales across Xbox, as it is a far more popular console, these results might inspire Microsoft to launch its games across all platforms simultaneously – even if that would be somewhat detrimental to Xbox hardware.
As such, Microsoft might be paying close attention to the upcoming launch of Doom: The Dark Ages, which is set to release across PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S on May 15, 2025.
Although the series has always been multiformat, Microsoft’s subsidiary Bethesda has released a trailer for the shooter specifically aimed at PlayStation players.
In the video entitled the Cosmic Realm First Reveal Trailer, uploaded to the PlayStation YouTube account (and notably not Xbox), id Software’s Hugo Martin doesn’t mention Xbox once, and closes out the trailer by saying the team ‘wants to give Sony fans something special’.
While this kind of marketing is to be expected considering PlayStation 5 is the biggest platform for a game like Doom, it is still an odd sign of the times – and one which leaves a big question hangingover Xbox’s role in the console space moving forward.
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