Next-Gen Xbox Might Be Able to Run PlayStation Games – Report

It is no secret Xbox is slowly but surely letting go of the long-running console war and beginning to bring the Microsoft gaming platform to other devices. Rather than playing Xbox games on a dedicated Xbox-branded console, the company’s first-party titles will be playable on phones, laptops, PCs, and other “competing” consoles like the PS5.

It seems Xbox now wants to open its doors to everyone, which may lead to PlayStation games being playable on Microsoft’s next-gen gaming hardware. However, there is a catch.

PlayStation PC ports might be blocked on next-gen Xbox

This all begins with what appears to be an accident. As reported by Tom Warren of The Verge, Microsoft shared an image in a blog post titled “GDC 2025: Opening a Billion Doors with Xbox.” The now-removed image for the post shows a new Xbox UI across several different devices. Like any Games Library, there are ways to categorize the games that are installed or playable on the device, which is shown in the image by the bubbles right above the games. However, what makes this image particularly interesting is there’s an option to categorize the library by Steam games, alluding to a potential future where Steam games could be played on an Xbox.

PlayStation games, including God of War Ragnarok, Ghost of Tsushima, and The Last of Us, are available through Valve’s digital video game store front. So, if Steam libraries are accessible through an Xbox app, this could mean PlayStation PC ports would be playable on an Xbox device.

Essentially, it seems the next Xbox looks to be more akin to a PC than a traditional console. This sparked concerns and debate on how PlayStation would handle its PC ports and what platforms they would be available on. Some argue that PlayStation would not and could not block its games from a theoretical next-gen Xbox. However, others argue Sony can absolutely do that, just like with GeForce Now.

Jez Corden of The Verge claims in a recent X post that PlayStation could “absolutely 100%” block its PC ports if Xbox was given access to player’s Steam libraries. However, many people, including Warren, claim it’s not that simple.

“GFN was about how games were distributed without consulting publishers,” said Warren in response to Corden’s post. “That wasn’t anything to do with Valve, and I’d doubt the Steam publishing agreement even allows you to block specific Windows devices.”

This is all very theoretical territory and we are a couple of years away from seeing any of this come to fruition. We’ll just have to wait and see how things shake out then.

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