The Evolving Landscape of Gaming Platforms
Looking for Enotria Is Just the Latest Game to Hit A Mysterious Snag With Its Xbox Launch? Despite what console warriors clinging to outdated corporate rivalries might tell you best budget friendly gaming on steam, the ability to play games on any platform is a positive change for the industry. The concept of a game library filled with exclusive titles is largely a relic of the past, except for a few holdouts. The explosion of indie development has led to an abundance of smaller games launching on just about every platform imaginable. However, recently, a surprising number of games have been bypassing one of gaming’s biggest platforms, and more frustratingly, it’s not even clear why.
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Enotria Is Just the Latest Game to Hit A Mysterious Snag With Its Xbox Launch
Most recently, Jyamma Games announced an indefinite delay for the Xbox version of its Soulslike game Enotria: The Last Song, which is due out on PlayStation 5 and PC on September 19. This delay has raised questions about the reasons behind such decisions, especially when Xbox has been a major platform for game releases.
Communication Breakdown
“We’ve connected with Jyamma Games and received valuable feedback that we will use to improve our processes,” a Microsoft representative told Inverse. “We look forward to working with them to bring Enotria: The Last Song to Xbox.”
Jyamma Games, Blingame, and Game Science did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“We understand how disappointing this is for the Xbox community,” Jyamma wrote. “Unfortunately, despite our best efforts and the hard work of our dedicated team, we’ve encountered challenges that have delayed our release on the Xbox platform. We want to emphasize that this is not a decision we’ve made lightly.”
The Role of ID@Xbox
The developer expanded on its statement via social media, taking a notably less conciliatory tone to explain that Microsoft had gone “months” without responding to its requests to certify the game for Xbox. Jyamma called on fans to demand a response from Microsoft—and it appears to have paid off. Just two days later, Xbox reached out, according to Jyamma, who said they were now working together to bring the game to Xbox “as soon as possible.”
While that’s a welcome resolution for Enotria, it’s still unclear what exactly caused the delay in the first place. Xbox hasn’t publicly provided a reason for the delay, which seems particularly odd considering its ID@Xbox initiative, designed specifically to help smooth the process of bringing indie games to the platform.
Challenges Faced by Indie Developers
The ID@Xbox program also seems to have failed Blingame, the developer of the Metroidvania HAAK. Just a few weeks before Jyamma aired its concerns, Blingame announced on social media that it was canceling the Xbox release of HAAK. According to the developer, it spent over 14 months trying to register the game for release on Xbox, when it estimated it only required about two weeks of porting work. However, bugs in Microsoft’s Partner Center and Support site prevented it from applying, and the ID@Xbox team had no power to fix what was ultimately a larger Microsoft issue. It’s noteworthy that both Jyamma and Blingame expressed gratitude for the Xbox player community, saying players have supported them throughout the process.
High-Profile Titles Also Affected
The issue isn’t limited to indie developers either. Black Myth: Wukong has yet to arrive on Xbox weeks after its launch on PlayStation and PC. Some reports claim the delay is due to a Sony exclusivity deal or Xbox hardware limitations, while others dispute both of these claims. As of this writing, there’s been no official word on the true cause of the issue, or whether an Xbox version of the game is coming, though Microsoft told Forbes that Xbox hardware is not to blame.
Technical Limitations and High-Profile Delays
While it may not be true for all recent delays, Xbox’s technical limitations were confirmed to be responsible for one high-profile delay. Last year, Baldur’s Gate 3 was a runaway success on PC and PlayStation, while remaining notably absent from Xbox. In this case, Larian Studios revealed that it was actually an Xbox hardware issue. Baldur’s Gate 3 had trouble running in split-screen mode on the lower-powered Xbox Series S, and a Microsoft policy requires games to have the same features and performance on both the X and S versions of the console. While the game did eventually release on Xbox, hardware issues caused its launch to miss the original release window by several months.
The Lack of Clear Explanations
The frustrating conclusion to this recent string of Xbox issues is that there’s no clear explanation at all. Other than Larian’s case, where hardware limitations were identified and then addressed, there’s been no official word on why so many games are being forced to delay their Xbox versions or skip them entirely. Whatever the cause, something is preventing various releases of all sizes from hitting Xbox.
The Impact on the Gaming Industry
At a time when companies across the gaming industry are struggling to stay afloat, it seems more important than ever for developers to have multiple platforms to rely on for sales. If Microsoft can’t keep up with its competitors, it could prove disastrous for both the publisher and the developers who need to make every sale they can just to survive.