The top-down action RPG No Rest for the Wicked could skip Xbox, at least at first, as suggested by Moon Studios founder and Game Director Thomas Mahler. While chatting in the game’s official Discord channel, he said:

By the way, given current market conditions, we might only release on PlayStation 5 and potentially Nintendo Switch 2 for the time being. We’ll have to discuss things with Microsoft to see what makes sense for Xbox.

Later, Mahler commented on X that it’s not official yet, but supporting PlayStation 5 first and foremost is just common business sense at this point.

There’s nothing to officially confirm yet. We want to support consoles and just looking at the numbers, PS5 makes the most sense at the moment. Ultimately, we’ll ship on all platforms, but likely not at the same time!

No Rest for the Wicked launched in the second half of April 2024 on PC as an early access title. At first, it was published by Private Division, but Moon Studios purchased the publishing rights back earlier this year.

A couple of months ago, we learned that the Austrian developer (primarily known for the Ori franchise) wasn’t exactly doing very well, with Mahler asking fans to leave a positive review on Steam for No Rest for the Wicked to counterbalance some review bombing. That may be why they are prioritizing the most lucrative platforms for the console ports.

Indeed, Xbox doesn’t have nearly as large a user base as the PlayStation 5 (or the Nintendo Switch 2 in the near future, if it continues selling at this rate). The hardware sales of Microsoft’s consoles have continued dwindling as the first-party games are now available not only on PC but even on other consoles, and third-party developers find it increasingly hard to spend resources on Xbox versions, unless there is a Game Pass deal involved – which is not the case so far with No Rest for the Wicked.

It is, however, ironic that a developer whose best-known franchise, Ori, made its fortune on Xbox, is now essentially forced to put the platform after others.