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The story
During a livestream, a game developer said of his studio’s title, “An Xbox port would be brutal — if we made one, people would die,” sparking discussion on 5ch’s hardware/industry (“Geha”) board. Speculation spread that the speaker was a former employee of Tango Gameworks (the Microsoft-owned studio behind Scalebound and Ghostwire: Tokyo), and the thread saw a string of corrections focused less on whether the remark itself was credible than on the timeline between his departure and the studio’s closure and layoffs. Whether the thread title’s “PlayStation exclusive” framing actually matches reality also became a point of debate.
Q. Any chance of an Xbox release?
A. None — because people would die if we made one.
The porting work is just too brutal.
Source: youtu.be / original video here
What people said
so now they're trying this kind of disinformation play instead, huh
That's a video from two weeks ago though
He actually quit well before the studio got cut, though…
No wonder — sounds like Ghostwire Tokyo was rough enough that he quit over it
This guy quit before that even happened
Ghostwire Tokyo shipped in 2022
He left Tango in 2019
He was already gone 3 years before it was even finished
Is it just 'please give us money, Microsoft'? 😥
Don't need it — 'Director Kojima' is coming anyway 👋 (a recurring jab referencing Hideo Kojima)
Then how about you prove it yourself by doing an easy port
Geha posters say Xbox is basically Windows, so it should be a breeze, right?
You haven't done a thing yourself, yet you say every day that a Switch port is impossible
I wonder what he thinks about the downgraded Bayonetta port
Scalebound says it all, lol
Wasn't Scalebound cancelled by Microsoft because development was too slow?
Is this seriously just sour grapes??
They hyped that Black Myth [Wukong] was impossible because the Series S would hold it back, but it came out anyway
And Stellar Blade is hinting at a timed Xbox snub
This kind of thing happens all the time
So much for 'porting is easy'
Wasn't it said that indie games don't sell on PS or Xbox?
That has nothing to do with Xbox
It's actually answered in a Game*Spark interview.
Mr. Remorion: Since it's the only console that supports mouse controls, we're bringing it to Switch 2. Plans for other platforms are undecided.
They'll be fine without releasing on Xbox
Whether they release on Xbox or not isn't going to make or break the company
If so, an Xbox version should be doable without much extra hassle, you'd think
Way easier than the Switch 2, honestly
Though the Series S's memory limits will probably give them trouble
If it's so easy to make, why are there so many games that come to Switch and PlayStation but skip Xbox?
They just don't want to release it because it won't sell on Xbox anyway
Do you need it spelled out that plainly to get it?
Even GTA doesn't sell on it — no way other third-party games would
Background and Key Points
The thread title’s claim of a “PlayStation exclusive” isn’t quite accurate. Commenters pointed out that a Steam release is planned alongside PS5 (>>81), and the cited interview also mentions a Nintendo Switch 2 release, citing mouse-control support (>>122). In other words, what’s actually happening is a decision not to make an Xbox version specifically — not an exclusivity deal covering every other platform. Whether the speaker is really a Tango Gameworks alum was also repeatedly corrected throughout the thread, over the timing of his departure relative to the studio’s closure and layoffs — a good example of how speculation can take on a life of its own. It’s also worth noting that “people would die” isn’t a literal reference to a workplace accident; it’s industry shorthand exaggerating just how brutal the porting work would be.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, “Geha”) thread “Developer: ‘Porting to Xbox is brutal, it’ll kill our engineers. That’s why we’re PlayStation exclusive’”.
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