Avowed is slated for an early 2025 release, following a busy holiday season and hopefully getting next year off to a good start for Xbox. Early impressions show that Avowed has some promise, but the game’s legacy might go beyond its actual design or quality, as it’s pinned to one of the most enduring, contentious discussions in gaming: the console wars.
Xbox and PlayStation are competing, and the fight for market dominance is something that is undoubtedly front-of-mind for these companies, informing how they do business. That includes their respective strategies when it comes to exclusives. Xbox’s side of this struggle has been pronounced in the media this year, as the tech giant has been gradually shifting several of its exclusive games to multi-platform status, creating tension and uncertainty within a consumer base that expected a bevy of exclusive titles to hold against PlayStation’s library. Now, with high-profile titles like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle coming to PlayStation after a brief stint of Xbox exclusivity, Xbox owners may be wondering if other flagship games, like Avowed, will be doing the same.
Avowed May Shoulder Exclusivity Expectations in the Wake of Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Is Coming to PlayStation
In a moment of characteristic frankness, Xbox head Phil Spencer explained the decision to bring Indiana Jones to PS5 six months after its launch on Xbox. In an interview at Gamescom, Spencer said that despite strong console sales and player numbers, Xbox has to “run a business,” and a big part of that is creating an environment for big-budget releases to grow as big as possible. Simply put, Xbox would be hindering a game like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle if it were to be tethered to a single console, and the desire for a greater return on investment is what is motivating this more hardware-neutral release strategy.
This logic is sound, and a multi-platform release is, in theory, good for consumers, but many Xbox fans have been frustrated by what they view as further backpedaling on early marketing promises. The frustration isn’t unreasonable, as there are certainly countless players who purchased an Xbox Series console understanding that they would be missing out on popular PlayStation exclusives in exchange for an equally formidable library of Xbox-only games, especially after the acquisitions of Bethesda and Activision Blizzard. In other words, it can be argued that as more hotly anticipated Xbox games turn out to be multi-platform, the value of Xbox consoles is dropping in comparison to its competition.
Avowed May Have to Live Up To Xbox’s Exclusivity Promises
Avowed is probably Xbox’s most highly anticipated upcoming game other than Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and some players are already writing it off as another cross-platform release. But it must be noted that, at the time of writing, Avowed is still planned to be an Xbox exclusive. Naturally, it will have less broad appeal than an Indiana Jones game, which may encourage Xbox to keep it exclusive, as its sales potential isn’t as high. At the same time, Avowed‘s more niche appeal could mean that Xbox will choose to make it available to more players, thereby boosting its sales.
Whatever direction Xbox chooses to take with Avowed will reflect on its ongoing approach to exclusivity. Whether this is reasonable or not is another discussion, but Obsidian’s upcoming fantasy RPG will definitely be watched with a close eye post-launch.
