On January 30, Microsoft nonchalantly announced that later this year open-world racing sim Forza Horizon 5 would make the leap to PlayStation 5. That might not mean much to some, but for Xbox’s biggest fans, it marks the beginning of the end of an era that truthfully wrapped up years ago.
While Forza Horizon 5 is not the first Xbox exclusive game to go multiplatform—Sea of Thieves and Grounded landed on other consoles last year—this announcement is different, even if Microsoft is acting otherwise. Xbox has essentially had three big console exclusive franchises for two decades: Gears of War, Halo, and Forza. Now, one of the “Big Three” is going to Sony’s home console. This is a big (though not surprising) announcement. And even the most diehard Xbox fans are…