Microsoft Refutes Removing Any Games From PlayStation Following Reports of Scrapped PS5 Variant of Redfall

Microsoft has shared that they “haven’t pulled any games from PlayStation”, after a Redfall designer claimed that the company had asked developers Arkane to not develop a PS5 variant.

The original claim comes from Arkane’s Harvey Smith, who shared that Microsoft had asked the developers for Redfall to be an Xbox exclusive, with any plans for a PlayStation variant to be scrapped. It’s unclear whether the developers had begun working on a PlayStation version of Redfall before the studio was acquired along with its parent company ZeniMax by the Seattle-based tech giants in 2021.

In its attempts to gain approval from regulators for the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft Xbox has showcased that the deal won’t decrease competitiveness in the video games industry. However, archrivals Sony PlayStation has claimed that the deal will see Microsoft adding Xbox exclusive tags to several games and franchises like Call of Duty.

With another game in Redfall being taken away from PlayStation users, Microsoft has now responded to reports by showing that the company has allowed ZeniMax studios to release PlayStation exclusives after acquiring them. “We’ve expanded our footprint of games that we’ve shipped on Sony’s PlayStation since our acquisition of ZeniMax, and the first two games we shipped after closing were PlayStation 5 exclusives,” said a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to Eurogamer.

“All of the games that were available on PlayStation when we acquired ZeniMax in March 2021 are still available on PlayStation, and we have continued to do content updates on PlayStation and PC.”

With regards to future titles from ZeniMax studios, Microsoft has shared that its exclusivity to Xbox consoles and Windows PC will be done on a “case-by-case basis.”