Over the last few years, I’ve watched gamers try to predict the death of Xbox like radical Christians warning the world of the rapture. I’ve never bought into the doomsaying. Microsoft’s gaming strategy was surely shifting as it locked into a subscription service strategy with Game Pass, but Xbox felt like it was still here to stay. Even when the company began flirting with porting its first-party games to competing consoles, I still just saw it as a modern strategy built to get the most money possible out of its most expensive productions or to find greater audiences for niche games like Pentiment.
After the Sept. 25 PlayStation State of Play, I have joined the choir of fearmongerers. There is no greater sign of Xbox’s demise than Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 coming to PlayStation 5. The end is nigh. Hold your Needler close and wait for the red ring to consume the world you once knew.
Xbox games coming to PS5 isn’t new at this point. Several tentpole Xbox exclusive games, like Forza Horizon 5, have made their way to PS5 by now to great success, and even Gears of War: Reloaded just launched simultaneously on Sony’s console alongside Xbox. But something feels different about Microsoft Flight Simulator’s move to PS5. Maybe it’s just that Microsoft is actually in the name; it would be like PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale coming to Xbox. (Side note: I wouldn’t be mad about that and in fact welcome the possibility.) It’s the one thing that felt sacred as an exclusive, Microsoft’s own jet-powered Sonic the Hedgehog.
But it’s less the name and more so that Microsoft’s long-running series feels like its sole purpose was to showcase Microsoft products. It isn’t so much a game these days as it is a tech showpiece. It’s the ace in the hole that’s supposed to show us why the Xbox Series X is the most powerful console around. What else could run a Windows PC game so high end that you’ll need to get a new graphics card from the future to run it? If Microsoft is ready to concede that even this showpiece will be just fine on PS5, consider the towel thrown in.
That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise at this point. It’s just the latest in a long string of signs that suggest Microsoft is changing its approach to gaming hardware. We saw a tease of that early this year when it let Meta borrow the Xbox branding to create a special edition Meta Quest 3, a firm sign that Microsoft has no interest in making its own hardware to rival the PlayStation VR2. More recently, we got a sense of this when Microsoft’s long-rumored handheld console came to fruition in the form of the ROG Xbox Ally. Rather than making its own handheld, Microsoft instead decided to delegate the task to Asus in more of a branded collaboration. The ROG Xbox Ally X is still custom-built to look and feel like an Xbox product, but it’s your average portable PC at its core that’s capable of playing games from any PC launcher. The more we see products like this pop up, the more the idea of a brand-new Xbox generation in a few years feels like its off the table. (A 2023 leak tied to Microsoft’s battle with the FTC revealed new hardware in the works, including a mid-generation Series X refresh that has yet to come to fruition.)
Maybe I’m overreacting to what’s ultimately a non-story. Maybe it’s just smart business at this rate to let Microsoft Flight Simulator — a niche series, even if it bears the company’s name — fly free and benefit from the power of the PS5 Pro. There’s no rule that says Xbox can’t keep making consoles now, shifting its sales pitch to the fact that it’s the best way to tie into the lifestyle it has created. One can make the case that it would still be a smart investment if you want to play your Xbox games consistently across PC, smart TVs, third-party handhelds, and more. Sony ports would live in isolation by comparison, missing out on the benefits of the broader ecosystem.
But you have to admit that seeing Microsoft Flight Simulator on a State of Play stream feels like the type of end time sign that you’d see in the bible. After all, we do have a Gamer Saint these days.
