Hi-Fi Rush recently arrived on PlayStation 5 and as contentious as the idea of Xbox going ‘multi-plat’ in any way may be, the strategy so far is sound. Lower profile titles that aren’t exactly triple-A juggernauts gain a new lease of life on competing console hardware. Giving titles like Hi-Fi Rush more of a chance to find a bigger audience can only be a good thing for the games themselves, and equally, could even help evangelise the Xbox platform and what it offers to a wider audience. However, Microsoft needs to tread carefully for obvious reasons – and a combination of bugs, tech polish issues and minor gaffes are concerning. In some cases, the PS5 versions receive features ahead of Xbox Series X and in the case of Hi-Fi Rush, there’s a minor graphical upgrade of sorts on the Sony machine.
By moving Xbox-exclusive games onto PlayStation 5, the opportunities are big but I’d argue that Microsoft is treading a fine line here – and it’s crucial that it gets it right. What we’ve noticed are a series of issues with these games, at least initially, where the PS5 versions offer advantages over their Xbox counterparts. The extent of these advantages varies from game to game, from the irrelevant to the curious to something more concerning – but I think the point we want to make is that when the idea of Xbox going multi-platform is so contentious, arguably they should be doing a better job.
Microsoft markets the Xbox Series X as the most powerful games console on the market, so the idea of its PS5 titles being in any way better or even slightly improved over the Series X versions isn’t the preferred state of affairs. Surely first-party exclusives should offer complete parity – or even an improved experience – on what Microsoft has marketed as the most powerful console on the market?
