Forza Horizon 5 is on its way to the PlayStation 5, so what’s next for Xbox?

Forza Horizon 5 will officially be released for the PlayStation 5 this Autumn. This announcement is huge news for PlayStation 5 owners, but what does it mean for Xbox and the future of its exclusives, games, and platforms? Let’s dive in and discuss.

Forza Horizon 5 on the PlayStation 5

Firstly, let’s outline what PS5 users are getting. Forza Horizon 5 will launch with over 900 cars, 40 game updates, and two expansions.

These expansions include both Hot Wheels and Rally Adventures, which will be available for purchase separately.

A free update titled Horizon Realms will also hit both PS5 and Xbox Series X/S platforms, which will culminate collections of the Forza Horizon 5 community’s favourite worlds and tracks.

You can add this to your wishlist via the PlayStation Store here.

What does this mean for Xbox?

There are a few things we can gather from this announcement. Xbox Game Studios and surrounding licenses and franchises that Xbox owns are slowly leaking to other platforms.

Take the recently released (and fantastic) Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which was announced to be released on the PS5 later this year, before it even launched on the Xbox. Phil Spencer, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, when asked back in February of 2024 about the possibility of other exclusives released on other platforms stated, “They are not Starfield or Indiana Jones“.

While that comment came as Xbox was getting ready to announce four exclusives making their way to other consoles, it is understandable that naming extra exclusives and releases might not have been on his mind. But a year later, here we are.

It’s easy to assume that Xbox will go the way of SEGA eventually, giving up on the consoles and the broader hardware race and simply existing as a major games publisher. But this isn’t the end for Xbox as a brand or even a player in the console wars; not just yet.

Xbox have been set on hyping the Game Pass service as the best way to play their newest releases, but they have also made it abundantly clear that their actual Xbox consoles aren’t the only way to play. Your smartphone? Xbox. Your TV or even streaming device? Xbox. It’s more about the games for them now, which still sounds bizarre, as it was anything but just over a decade ago when the Xbox One was released.

Rumours are also already stirring regarding the release of Halo on PlayStation platforms, presumably in the form of Halo: The Master Chief Collection. But while that alone sounds crazy, even in 2025, there are also growing rumours of a new Xbox console that will hit the ground running with integrated AI software that enhances games beyond the capabilities of native hardware.

The first of many?

Yes, this announcement seems to be the first of a few Xbox exclusives heading the way of PlayStation or possibly even Nintendo when the Switch 2 lands later this year. In a perfect world, Xbox is simply extending the life and value of certain titles that possibly no longer hold any financial gain on their platforms. To an extent, that makes sense. While Indiana Jones and the Great Circle feels like a small gap between its Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 launch, I’m sure there’s money in it for them somewhere.

But what would this mean for Xbox users and the future of the hardware? What if the first of many means that each announcement leads to a blow in hardware sales, as the rest of our technology collection turns into an Xbox of some sort? While Microsoft means to promote this shift as an ever-expanding way to make their latest hits accessible, I fear this will only hurt their mainline hardware moving forward.

While PC users tend to get the best of both worlds as far as Xbox is concerned, PlayStation and Sony have gone that way as well, releasing many of their latest hits and remakes on the PC. But not to the Xbox. PC reaches further than any specific gaming console as far as its user base is concerned, but Microsoft doesn’t seem to be giving its users and even fans, a reason to buy or stick with an Xbox console anymore.

The way forward

I would like to imagine that Xbox has released so many banger hits, that it makes sense to share them with the world and reap the rewards from a larger fanbase. I would like to think that Xbox pushes forward and remains competitive within the console landscape with new and exciting hardware to play their games on. I would also like to think that Xbox would come out with their fantastic exclusives and drive fans towards purchasing an Xbox regardless.

But while I own all platforms for review purposes, this isn’t the case for most users, who either pick one side over the other, based on preference or even financial reasons.

I get it, so let me share something with you. Even though I had owned an Xbox One along with a PlayStation 4 before the release of this current generation of consoles, I am a PlayStation fan at heart and invested in the PlayStation 5 on day one. Thanks to a decent hardware boost and some fantastic exclusives, it’s been a fun ride thus far. But as a massive Indiana Jones fan, I picked up an Xbox Series X back then, upon hearing this new game would be an Xbox exclusive. But in 2025, that purchase feels a little less important now, as I soon won’t need a Series X or even a Series S to play Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

Now I’m not ripping on Xbox even though it may seem like it, as I think they have plenty to offer. While their newer exclusives might feel a little uneven, there’s no doubt they’ve built a legacy through fantastic hardware and a laundry list of fantastic software exclusives.

But while PlayStation and Nintendo tend to hold their exclusives close to the chest, we can only hope that this new strategy pays off for both Microsoft and Xbox in ways we can’t begin to understand just yet.

Matthew Arcari

Matthew Arcari is the games and technology editor at The AU Review. You can find him on Twitter at @sirchunkee, or at the Dagobah System, chilling with Luke and Yoda.