But it's ultimately up to MS and Sony
- by Ben Kerry 5:30pm
The gaming world went a bit bananas for Helldivers 2 earlier this year - its PS5 and PC launch was massive and the game went on to be more popular than any of us ever imagined. Even way back when, there was talk about an Xbox version (with Phil Spencer even commenting on the situation), and now such a possibility is still getting headlines.
Today, outlet VideoGamer has pulled some fresh quotes from Arrowhead community manager 'Twinbeard' - which originally came from Discord. One fan asked if it was 'impossible' that the game could one day come to Xbox, and the dev dropped some interesting insight in response.
Here's how Twinbeard responded:
"Who says it [Helldivers 2] couldn’t [come to Xbox]? It’s not up to us but to Sony and Phil to duke out, but hypothetically speaking, if both partners think it would benefit them from a financial/brand standpoint, it could. If Sony believes it won’t though, it won’t."
It's an intriguing take, but one that ultimately puts the ball in Sony's court. At this stage, we've seen the PlayStation owner branch out to PC (and Switch with the upcoming Lego Horizon Adventures), but Xbox seems to be a step too far for them right now. MLB The Show is kind of an exception, but Sony doesn't actually publish that game on Xbox.
Obviously, with Microsoft, some of its games have started to move over to PS5 quite a while after their initial Xbox launch, so we could always see something similar happen with select PS5 titles. Sony is still largely using a delayed approach even on PC though, so we wouldn't expect PS games on Xbox anytime soon. Never say never, though!