We reported recently how the late port of Final Fantasy 16 – which wasn’t included in Xbox Game Pass – had flopped on the Microsoft machine, so all eyes have been on Helldivers 2 to see whether it would resonate on the green machine.
Aside from MLB The Show, which is not technically published by PlayStation on competing consoles, this represents the first Sony game to be released on a rival format. It’s launching over a year after its enormously successful PS5 and PC release, but has been buoyed by the addition of new content recently, including a Halo ODST crossover.
And according to Alinea Analytics, the game has already sold over 600k units on Xbox Series X|S, which is a surprisingly respectable number. The firm tracks the PC version at over 12 million copies and the PS5 version at over five million copies.
The game’s shot back up the charts on all platforms recently thanks to its addition of new content, which is an example of the live service model in action.
Unfortunately, we’re still not 100% certain of Alinea Analytics’ methodology. It promises “market-leading precision”, but it’s always worth mentioning that these numbers are still estimates, and therefore shouldn’t be taken as fact.
In the US, however, we can see Helldivers 2 is currently the 15th most played Xbox game, behind mostly free-to-play offerings like Fortnite and Roblox, so that’s a respectable result for the game considering it’s not included in Xbox Game Pass.
It’ll be interesting to see how this influences Sony’s strategy. It’s never really spoken about its goals behind bringing Helldivers 2 to Xbox, although clearly the platform holder believes it can make more money off live service titles by porting them to as many platforms as possible.
But where does this leave its tentpole single player offerings: could we see ports of Marvel’s Spider-Man and God of War Ragnarok as well, considering they’d surely sell? Or are those titles simply too important to PlayStation’s ecosystem?
It’d be good to hear the firm speak on these matters, but it rarely discusses corporate strategy outside of investor meetings these days.
Either way, assuming Alinea Analytics’ data is correct, Helldivers 2 looks like it’s going to be a success on Xbox – and that poses fascinating questions about the future for PlayStation and its exclusive games.
