Matt Booty, the president of Xbox Game Studio, was recently interviewed by the New York Times. During the interview, he discussed the decision to allow Microsoft’s popular first-person shooter Halo series to come to Playstation consoles. The company’s motivations include low Xbox console sales, an overall lack of fan attachment to specific consoles, and the previous success of Microsoft games on the Playstation.
In the past, Halo was only available on Xbox consoles, encouraging fans of the series to buy and own the most recent Xbox in order to play the latest installment of the sci-fi series. However, Xbox consoles have recently faced sub-par sales compared to their competition. The Xbox X/S, alongside other Xbox consoles, have been plagued by a recent string of price hikes, in addition to only 32 million Xbox X/S consoles being sold compared to Sony selling roughly 74 million Playstation 5s.
Despite Sony’s Playstation serving as a direct competitor to Xbox consoles, Booty asserts that Halo being available across various consoles will be positive for the company overall. Booty argues that fans no longer have a strong, sentimental attachment to their consoles, allowing the new multi-console approach to generate more revenue by “[meeting] people where they are at.” The wild success of other Microsoft IPs which have adopted this approach help support Booty’s words. Six of the top 10 best-selling games on the Playstation belong to Micorsoft, including Forza Horizon 5, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, Call of Duty: Black OPs 6, and Doom: The Dark Ages. Furthermore, Booty asserts that Xbox’s biggest competitor is not Sony’s Playstation, but rather “everything from TikTok to movies.”
In accordance with Booty’s statements and Xbox’s corresponding multi-console direction for Halo, the next title in the series, Halo: Campaign Evolved, is coming to both the Playstation 5 and Xbox X/S in 2026.