"Why isn't Halo on PlayStation?", Phil Spencer responds to the FTC's question

Exclusivity was one of the most discussed topics between the regulator and the company

"Why isn't Halo on PlayStation?", Phil Spencer responds to the FTC's question

Exclusivity was one of the most discussed topics between the regulator and the company

Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, answered this week many questions from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a regulator that has not yet made a decision regarding the purchase of Activision Blizzard. One of the most curious is related to Halo and its absence from PlayStation.

During one of the hearings, a judge asked Spencer why 343 Industries' popular franchise was not on Sony consoles. This because exclusivity was one of the central topics of the talks. Thus, the executive briefly explained why Halo is and will remain exclusive to Xbox.

Spencer explains why Halo is not on PlayStation

Spencer didn't give the matter much thought and explained to the authorities that all current platforms have exclusive games. Thus, Halo is simply one of the franchises that Xbox keeps in its hands and does not release on competing systems.

The executive took the opportunity to acknowledge that Xbox is behind in the exclusives race. From his perspective, they have a "significant deficit in terms of the quality and number of exclusive games."

He also stated that "Halo is much smaller than Call of Duty" and "Starfield is much smaller than Minecraft." It is important to emphasize that these comparisons were made in terms of revenue and number of players.

He went on to explain that games that are already part of the market and have players on other platforms should grow even more. While if they are going to develop a new game, then they will give priority to reducing costs and will go all out for creativity.

In this sense, the fact that Halo is exclusive to Xbox means focusing squarely on development for specific systems and reducing costs. Of course, it also means giving a distinctive stamp to the brand.

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