PlayStation Exclusive 'Kena: Bridge Of Spirits' Rated For Xbox Series X|S

Good game! Not mindblowing but was a solid PS2-style game with nice visuals. Worth a playthrough.

Good, it's time everyone shared games, instead of making exclusives

It really isn't the same to have a third-party title that had a period of exclusivity on the PlayStation, come to the Xbox, as having a first-party title go the other way. This is just a period of timed exclusivity coming to an end. It's not Sony porting something to the Xbox, which would be significant.

This title does interest me, as it did when I first saw it prior to release on the PlayStation. Hopefully it will include some DLC and be reasonably priced. Even better would be if it were to come to the Game Pass, though I doubt that will happen...

@Fiendish-Beaver it is/has been on PSextra, so there’s a potential of it coming to GPU.

Far better game then reviews would suggest, or at least it was to me. PS2 comparison makes sense, as it's rooted in that simpler time of gaming by design.
I don't think this was ever an exclusive, just a small studio targeting less platforms. But I might be wrong. Either way, Xbox is missing games in the genre and this one is a valuable addition.

This is no different than the medium or high on life going to playstation lol.

It's a cute indie game that I might check out if it comes on GP.

I hope they do a little difficulty re-balancing. It's a beautiful game and good overall, but some of the difficulty spikes, especially with the bosses, are pretty annoying.

@MrMagic Yes it's not like it's something like Sonys former AAA exclusive MLB The Show which went to Xbox.

Thank you, @PsBoxSwitchOwner. I had a feeling that it had, but wasn't certain. With that in mind then, hopefully there is a chance of it coming to Game Pass too...

That game was so good and everyone needs to play it. I had it on PS5, but if you didn't get a chance I really recommend it. The bosses feel like a fun challenge and that was my favorite part of it all.

Support indies! Especially this one!

@Fiendish-Beaver While I agree with you about the third-party part, Sony does have a habit of locking "timed" exclusives [seemingly] indefinitely to PlayStation to the point that any exclusive that Sony once held coming to Xbox is news-worthy.

Love it or hate it, Sony doesn't like to share.

@Ver

Like how the biggest publishers chose Spencer's money over most of their consumers.

@Sifi That's cute 😘

Getting this is good enough for Phil to release halo and gears for PlayStation

Great…..so when do we get Helldivers 2?

It's very pretty but I'm afraid very bland. Was great for an early gen game but I'm all honesty wouldn't bother taking a look at it unless it pops up on Gamepass

@Ver

I'm sure Sony didn't expect Microsoft to go scorched earth and consolidate the industry because they're bad at it. Should've known better.

We'll still keep seeing these deals from them though so oh well.

@JonBoyJ

Never.

Awesome! Bring on the games! Don't care about where they came from, just want to play fun games.

That’s pretty cool! I like it when games are playable to all. Shared games for everyone!

Fantastic game. Yes it's a dated design, which is the point. That's what makes it fun because it's a genre of games that all but vanished save for this and a few outliers. My only complaint is that it's a lot more challenging in combat than it's cute aesthetic appear, and it ends much sooner than I would have liked.

@GamingFan4Lyf Yeah, that's my problem with "timed" exclusive as Sony's been doing it. Xbox gets a lot of timed exclusives from indies, but rarely big publishers, but then when the time is up those games branch out. Sony gets "timed" exclusives, and when the time is up those games may get a PC port and that's the end of it. This is unusual.

Then again, I think most of those practices of late all came from the Jimbo school of management of throwing massive money around for questionable gain. All bets are off now with what they'll do with new real leadership. Same with FF/16/FF7R/Rebirth, they no doubt spent ridiculous money locking that series down, and what did they get? A brand association with a brand they don't own for games that are selling medicore to okay, that aren't really a major driver of platform sales at all, mostly to customers who were already loyal to the platform anyway. I doubt new management will continue that path nearly has hard as Jim pursued, it, especially with MS handing them content freely. Under Jim I think they still thought they were competing in the 32 bit wars with Nintendo and Sega trying to find mascots to rival Sonic and Mario.

@NEStalgia It's a double-edged sword.

Die-hards of PlayStation love that Sony puts PlayStation first and foremost and would argue that is what makes PlayStation great. And, it has worked for Sony as PlayStation is also just the habitual purchase for a lot of people who want to play the next FIFA/COD/etc.

But, it's also clear that Sony's way has drawbacks as the money it's bled into gaming is slowly becoming unstainable and has forced its hand to branch out to the PC-market.

Microsoft, on the other hand, knows software and services is where the most money is made. Sure, it can and will produce a piece of gaming hardware for those who choose to buy one, but it's the software and services that "bring the bling". So, it's "moved on" from solely focusing on the plastic box.

I know Xbox die-hards aren't happy about it and threaten to "jump ship" to PlayStation, but even going over there and buying Xbox games is still money in Microsoft's pocket (probably more so than buying the plastic box).

"Under Jim I think they still thought they were competing in the 32 bit wars with Nintendo and Sega trying to find mascots to rival Sonic and Mario"

I'd argue there are a lot gamers still in this mindset, though.

One of my favorite PS5 games, especially at the time it launched. Definitely recommend it to Xbox owners.

Glad to see this happen. Whilst this is not an 'all timer' it's certainly a fun little game that well worth playing, and the more people get to play it the better!
It was out on PS+, so maybe it will be targeted for GP? If it is, then you should certainly give it a try!

@GamingFan4Lyf It's not really mutually exclusive. A platform should be placing its platform front and center, but it also shouldn't be throwing unsustainable amounts of money into things that don't actually have much value. That means "fruit physics" for millions dollars in a 1st party game is maybe not a good thing, and it means throwing money at forever holding onto games that don't actually grow your platform. The CoD perks was evil, sleazy, and probably should be illegal, but that was smart money spent when they could buy that. Locking down 5-million-sellers forever and ever...not so much.

The marketing rights on Kena were useful near launch, but it makes sense it'd branch out now. Something like the FF games seem to sell to the same 5 million over and over. 3-4 million of which would probably not chose another platform anyway. That's just wasted money to lock down a few million customers tops. That could have gone into other things. Like more fruit physics.

Oh, Sony knows the money's in software and services. They invented the whole "sell the console at a loss to sell more games" model to undercut Sega and Nintendo to begin with. Just a tech version of the classic Gillette razor & blades scheme. Nintendo knew that before them - "A Nintendo is just a box to play Mario on" (H. Yamauchi). The 3rd party royalties have always been where the money is. 1st party was meant, like the consoles, to be a loss leader to bring people to the platform, but that's a little obsolete as those flagship 1st party games isn't what sells most consoles these days. Except if you're Nintendo, but economics works differently in the Mushroom kingdom and people way above my pay grade still can't figure out how they do it.
I think right now part of PS's struggle, even though we all saw it coming, is PS4 was absolutely dominant mostly because Nintendo and MS both screwed up at the same time and left the market open. So any bad plan Sony had looked successful without feedback showing it wasn't. They understood it to mean every plan was good. And they doubled down on it. Even the bad ones. Then add the scalper fueled launch where the PS5 became the trendy item to have that people bought just because they could, not because they really want to use it a lot, and their install base of consoles is inflated. It looks only slightly worse than PS4 at the same period, but in reality a lot of consoles sold to people that aren't actually going to buy games on them leading not only them, but also 3rd party publishers to overestimate their potential market size and then all the budgets are completely out of whack. Install base is 2:1 but I'd bet ACTIVE install base is a lot closer than that. But that's a bad thing if you're a publisher because that means the market is not what it was, and definitely not what you budgeted based on predictions of. The realization of that, and the Fed cutting off easy money is why so many studios are closing. The industry was too big. There's not as many customers as they thought.

It's starting to correct, but it's 10 years of built up bloat that's imploding as they scramble to figure out how to reset where the were in 2012. I thought MS was on an ABK hubris high when they had that podcast about 3rd party and letting the rumor mill run amuck. Then Sony dropped the bombshell about basically being unprofitable as-is, and I realized MS knows what it's doing after all.

LOL, yeah, a lot of fans are in the 90's console war mentality, no question. I think a LOOOT of console gamers don't have experience with being PC gamers and really just don't understand how the whole western video game market has been operating outside the console bubble for the past 25 years. In the late 90's when PS was just getting started as a "new Nintendo-like box" PC was already....basically what it's doing now. I think for a lot of console gamers this is all a "new and unfamiliar and scary way of doing things". For me as a lapsed 90's PC gamer it feels retro. Brings back the glory days of the golden age.

Woohoo! This will be one of the best games on Xbox! Glad we're finally eating good.

@Vipor007 It was only a 1 year timed exclusive though. Series s is likely why its only coming to Xbox now. Proof? Look at all the Xbox 1st part games coming since 2019/2020 STILL yet to release because of clear developement issues. And when games do come out like Redfall, Starfield and Forza 8, they are disappointing as current gen only games in the visual dept one way or another.

Only thing here is Kena came to PS4 no problem. It would have taken even LONGER had they brought this cross gen game to Xbone. Is that also Sony and the developers fault they won't be bringing it to the console that was abandoned in 2020???

What about FFXIV, the game that Phil Spencer said was coming to Xbone the past 7 years and they would do everything to get it running on Xbox Live.......... and then just gave up and moved to current gen with it instead? Is that also your myth "exclusive" nature to blame here?

What about the 2500 of the 5000 PS4 games that simply were never bothered to be brought over to Xbone last gen??? Is that ALSO the work of EVIL exclusivity???

Time to wake up and admit some truths. The Xbox console brand is simply in decline.

Totally understand what you say, @GamingFan4Lyf, and I wasn't suggesting that the article was not worth writing. My point was that the article seemed to be suggesting that Sony was gracing us with one of their exclusives (sort of in exchange for ours going to them), which is not the case. This is simply a matter of a period of timed exclusivity coming to an end. Three years later...!

@Fiendish-Beaver I misinterpreted - not the first time I misunderstood something and won't be the last! 😅

It is hard with Sony exclusives since it does tend to latch on and does a good job making even timed exclusives seem like it was something Sony had a strong hand in creating (despite not being the case). It's good marketing, that's for sure!

@GamingFan4Lyf Sony did have a hand in it. They funded part of Kenas development and marketing. It’s exactly like Ori and Moon studios with MS funding their development.

If you only game on Xbox GET THIS GAME. We'll worth it. Like playing Pixar brought to life. And it's a very challenging game at times.

@GeeEssEff Ori games are fantastic!

@GamingFan4Lyf it probably won’t shock you to find out I feel exactly the same way. Blind forest is one of my favourite games of all time.

It’s also an excellent example of a game franchise funded by a console manufacturer, marketed predominantly as an exclusive and taking years (if ever) to appear on a competing console…it’s not just “evil” Sony doing it.

@GeeEssEff I don't think Sony is evil...I just know it's less prone to sharing than Microsoft.

It's no secret that if something hits Sony as an exclusive (even if marketed as timed), there is a 90% probability it won't come to any console for the foreseeable future. Heck, even third-party timed exclusives with Nintendo don't last as long as Sony's!

@GamingFan4Lyf Can you provide examples? And by examples I mean literally anything other than FF7 remake which people have been moaning about non stop for the last 4 years and frankly it’s getting boring because it’s as much on Square as it is on Sony.

We are talking third party exclusivity deals here (timed or otherwise) because xbox make as many as PS: Stalker 2, planet of Lana, tunic, cuphead. rogue legacy 2, high on life, gunk, vampire survivors, party animals, warhammer Darktide, Ark 2 just to mention a few. But because Xbox didn’t get the FF7 remakes everyone loses their minds and forgets everything MS have done in the third party space.

Also worth mentioning Xbox really went to town with this practice during the 360 era with games like mass effect, bioshock, dead rising, tales of vesperia, the last remnant, blue dragon and being the FIRST to make stupid cod exclusivity deals for maps/weapons etc but because we all hate Sony we forget the history and pretend that they started and mastered the exclusivity deal. PS is the ‘premium’ market leader right now and as such it’s getting good deals. To pretend Microsoft hasn’t done the same and wouldn’t continue to do the same if it was market leader is naive and completely ignorant of modern gaming history. They are as bad as each other.

@GeeEssEff Sure, Microsoft was the first do it and will probably the first to end it, too, because the practice is just stupid. You can argue it is because its market share is so low, but regardless, it seems to be slowly ending the practice - love it or hate it.

Final Fantasy XVI will probably never see the light of day on Xbox - but it hasn't even been a year so time will tell. Only a PC version has been discussed.
This game is shockingly taking the leap, though I would have added that to the list.
Silent Hill 2 Remake will probably stay on PlayStation (time will tell)
Silent Hill Short Message (granted, it's not great and it's free) will probably never move over.
Forspoken has yet to get an Xbox date (probably never will)
JETT: The Far Shore has yet to make it to Xbox

Persona series and Like a Dragon series took FOREVER to release on Xbox.

Yes, ultimately the decisions to make these deals lies in the publishers making the deal with Sony - and the biggest culprit is Square Enix.

It is much more difficult to find timed exclusives though, because Sony generally publishes third-party exclusives and ensures the games will stay on PlayStation consoles only (and then jump to PC where applicable). Which, again, supports my argument that Sony doesn't like to share.

None of the games you listed are published by Microsoft, so most of what Microsoft gets is timed (and rarely for more than a year - barring some exceptions). Heck, I think even Stalker 2 only has a 3 month exclusivity window!

Look, I really don't care what plastic box people buy or don't buy. Sony's strategy is working for it. Kudos to Sony. I only get Sony consoles for exclusives (same with my Switch) and I use my Xbox for everything else (I find the Series X to have the better system feature set).

Yes, Microsoft did do some crappy things 19 years ago that rippled through the gaming industry (paid online really needs to go away). But things have changed and markets are changing.

Sony is chasing that live-service cash cow and PC market for a reason - because solely releasing on a single platform isn't sustainable as it was (especially when spending hundreds of millions on development).

And if Microsoft does make its next console PC-based and able to have multiple storefronts (Steam especially) AND still provide a console experience...that puts Sony in a serious bind if it continues with the mindset it has.

Sure, it could block access to its Steam games to the Xbox PC but it would get significant backlash as it would literally be dictate what brand of PC can run its games (and also looking incredibly petty in doing so).

I guess Sony could make its own marketplace on PC, but even Microsoft knows that Steam is where you want your games, so even that is a risky move to maintain market share in PC space.

Pulling out of the PC market all together is not an option for Sony.

Sony will have no choice but to let an Xbox PC play the PC versions of its games (assuming it goes where Microsoft seems to be heading, of course) at the risk of losing console market share as I bet a lot of people would probably migrate to an Xbox PC if Microsoft is able to improve upon what Valve has been doing with Steam Deck and making it a console-like experience, but still being a PC.

I know I would totally skip a PS6 if that were the case (in fact the only reason I don't have a PC is because the "living room" experience is terrible).

It would be lame to charge full price for this when it’s so old. Should be on game pass.

@Fiendish-Beaver agreed on all of the above. Not the same as a first party exclusive at all. Games with timed exclusivity (like shin Megami Tensei, coming to Xbox in June) happen all the time.

And also agreed it should be game pass at this point. These “finally coming to your system, two years later, for full price!” things are silly.

@GamingFan4Lyf See I purposely left Xbox published games out my list because I think if a company published something it probably has a right to some level of exclusivity. Things like Quantum Break and Ryse which are third party developed but never made the leap so again there’s examples for both.

I absolutely agree with you about the practice needing to change, particularly with current markets. If it’s Xbox who do it it’s not because MS are some benevolent entity who want peace and prosperity for all…it’s because their $80 billion spending spree has failed to get the result they want.

I also don’t care what plastic box people buy but I will call out something when I think someone’s talking crap on either side and two things I will absolutely call out is Xbox tax and the idea that Sony are the only ones making exclusivity deals. My view is if you are the first to do something you can’t complain when someone else does it better, no matter how much time has passed. No Xbox fans were complaining during the 360 era…because we were too busy playing Bioshock and Mass Effect. We are all at least a little biased towards one or the other. I am biased towards PS because I have experienced first hand how little MS cares about me as a customer when something goes wrong. So now anything I buy is on PS and I have a Series X for sporadic gamepass membership when there’s a few games I want to play.

I know it’s purely conjecture (a bit like your Xbox PC console) but if MS hadn’t completely fumbled the Xbox One release we would be living in a completely different world. If anyone for one second thinks that world would have involved Xbox sharing, playing nice and not throwing their money around like a Kardashian kid they are kidding themselves. They have proven both in gaming and in their wider technology business exactly what they are capable of when they are market leader and it’s very rarely philanthropic.

Anyway it’s Saturday morning for me and I imagine the middle of the night for you. I hope you have a fantastic weekend whatever you do. I imagine it’s something fun and American like a road trip or a BBQ….i will be planting potatoes because my wife has told me to 😕

@GeeEssEff

Isn't Blue Dragon in a similar situation as Blodborne is for Sony, i.e, Microsoft founded, published and owns the IP?

They are as bad as each other

Yes they are if we choose to ignore the time lengths of their respective exclusivity deals....

@Sol4ris I started writing some long reply then looked at the beautiful weather out the window and just thought “what the hell am I doing with my life arguing with randos on the internet about which soulless multi billion dollar company is slightly more evil”…..have a fantastic weekend my friend I hope it’s sunny in whatever part of the UK you are in.

@Sifi Are people still talking about this? Sony was not given a choice here. MLB forced them.

I love this game, great that its coming to Xbox so more gamers can play it

Nice. I’ll be happy to support this one. Looks like a lovely game and great it’s finally coming to Xbox.

@Fiendish-Beaver Yes, there has been a lot of false equivalency and "one-sidedness" regarding Xbox 1st party ports to competing platforms.

Fun little game, I had a good time with it. Hope those in Xbox enjoy!

Excellent news!
Hopefully it will be on GamePass soon enough.

I really enjoyed this one when I played it on PS5, highly recommend.